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Just want to toss my experience into the fray here, hopefully it will help someone. I have an 87 Monte SS, originally a 305/200r4 car with A/C. I bought the complete Hooker system to drop in an lq4/4l80e. The engine was previously in my OBS pickup and worked very well. It is a gen 3, fitted with gen 4 coils and a tbss style truck intake manifold with a dbw 87mm throttle body, and truck accessories. It's cammed and headed, already tuned and I wanted to just drop it in and go, so I bought the complete kit, 1 7/8" long tubes and the full 3" exhaust.....
Here are a few of my "observations" during install....
#1 The passenger side coil bracket went through my heater box. There is no way on my car that you can avoid this. I ended up cutting down the valve cover where the rear most bolt for the coil bracket goes. I also cut the coil bracket. You can leave the rear coil in place, it will fit just fine, you just have to remove the part of the bracket that bolts to the valve cover.
#2 The tbss style truck manifold will fit under a stock hood. You need to remove the studs for the cover, but everything clears. I had the driver's side inner fender out and the intake manifold and throttle body just touch the hood insulation.
#3 Truck accessories will work. I'm using a 105 amp alternator, clears the hood easily. The pulley on the truck p/s pump clears the f41 steering box by around 1/8". It's a pain in the *** to get a belt around the pulley, but it will work.
#4 I upgraded to a 3.5" drive shaft. Clears the exhaust by 1/8" or so when the suspension is fully extended on the hoist. Tight, but fits nicely. Don't go any bigger than that or you'll be cursing.
Outside of these, if I had any criticisms, here they are....
The pictures in the instructions flat out suck. The black/white is hard to interpret properly.
Read the instructions and make a list of all the "extra" parts you need to order before you start. Trans mount and Engine Oil dipstick and tube come to mind here.
My exhaust fit so well I was almost beside myself, until I got to the rear hangers. Both of the hangers in front of the axle had bolt holes and bolts a size bigger than what was drilled in the brace they bolt to. Had me wondering if I was putting them in the right spot. There are pictures, but they like looking into a glass of coke. I used a smaller bolt and everything lines up beautifully. The driver's side rear hanger bolted in exactly like it should, no issues there. The passenger side though sits on a weird angle that doesn't quite line up right. I bolted them through the only 2 holes I could make line up, but something's not right there. I checked the pictures, but again, no help, to hard to see any detail. Luckily I bought the Monte SS tailpipe kit and it has it's own hangers, so I'm not to concerned with the funny angle on the other one. I also had to trim the passenger side hanger on the tailpipe as it was a touch to long and hit the bumper bracket.
Overall it's an awesome system, fit and finish is second to none, just thought I'd share in case it helps answer someone else's questions or helps them avoid punching a hole in their heater box....
Just want to toss my experience into the fray here, hopefully it will help someone. I have an 87 Monte SS, originally a 305/200r4 car with A/C. I bought the complete Hooker system to drop in an lq4/4l80e. The engine was previously in my OBS pickup and worked very well. It is a gen 3, fitted with gen 4 coils and a tbss style truck intake manifold with a dbw 87mm throttle body, and truck accessories. It's cammed and headed, already tuned and I wanted to just drop it in and go, so I bought the complete kit, 1 7/8" long tubes and the full 3" exhaust.....
Here are a few of my "observations" during install....
#1 The passenger side coil bracket went through my heater box. There is no way on my car that you can avoid this. I ended up cutting down the valve cover where the rear most bolt for the coil bracket goes. I also cut the coil bracket. You can leave the rear coil in place, it will fit just fine, you just have to remove the part of the bracket that bolts to the valve cover.
#2 The tbss style truck manifold will fit under a stock hood. You need to remove the studs for the cover, but everything clears. I had the driver's side inner fender out and the intake manifold and throttle body just touch the hood insulation.
#3 Truck accessories will work. I'm using a 105 amp alternator, clears the hood easily. The pulley on the truck p/s pump clears the f41 steering box by around 1/8". It's a pain in the *** to get a belt around the pulley, but it will work.
#4 I upgraded to a 3.5" drive shaft. Clears the exhaust by 1/8" or so when the suspension is fully extended on the hoist. Tight, but fits nicely. Don't go any bigger than that or you'll be cursing.
Outside of these, if I had any criticisms, here they are....
The pictures in the instructions flat out suck. The black/white is hard to interpret properly.
Read the instructions and make a list of all the "extra" parts you need to order before you start. Trans mount and Engine Oil dipstick and tube come to mind here.
My exhaust fit so well I was almost beside myself, until I got to the rear hangers. Both of the hangers in front of the axle had bolt holes and bolts a size bigger than what was drilled in the brace they bolt to. Had me wondering if I was putting them in the right spot. There are pictures, but they like looking into a glass of coke. I used a smaller bolt and everything lines up beautifully. The driver's side rear hanger bolted in exactly like it should, no issues there. The passenger side though sits on a weird angle that doesn't quite line up right. I bolted them through the only 2 holes I could make line up, but something's not right there. I checked the pictures, but again, no help, to hard to see any detail. Luckily I bought the Monte SS tailpipe kit and it has it's own hangers, so I'm not to concerned with the funny angle on the other one. I also had to trim the passenger side hanger on the tailpipe as it was a touch to long and hit the bumper bracket.
Overall it's an awesome system, fit and finish is second to none, just thought I'd share in case it helps answer someone else's questions or helps them avoid punching a hole in their heater box....
Thanks for sharing your experience Courtntan. If you want some help figuring out the intended orientation/location of that hanger bracket, send me a PM and I can send you some color photos of the brackets as they are installed on our Monte Carlo SS.
Thanks for your write up. I will be going down this path over the winter. Your heater box issue is interesting. Other than making sure to install the engine and transmission separately, Todd does not mention a fitment issue in his posts. The Holley car is also an 87' MCSS. Perhaps your body mounts are shot? I would prefer not to hack up my valve cover.
Thanks for your write up. I will be going down this path over the winter. Your heater box issue is interesting. Other than making sure to install the engine and transmission separately, Todd does not mention a fitment issue in his posts. The Holley car is also an 87' MCSS. Perhaps your body mounts are shot? I would prefer not to hack up my valve cover.
There is no similar clearance issue between the heater box and coil on our Monte, but there is a lot of production tolerance on the build of these cars that explains the variance between different cars in that area.
My suggestion would be to remove the coil packs and valve cover during installation of the engine and then re-install them after the engine is in so that you can easily remedy a tight clearance condition if it exists on your car.
It's the gen 4 coils. I had same problem since my motor is a 2010. I think if you have gen 3 coils your fine but gen 4 coils require a little trim to bracket on pass side. Best bet is to take off pass side valve cover when putting motor in . One thing though, I did not change body bushings so this could also be a factor.i will say that my motor and trans was in in 45 min. I have nothing but good things to say about this kit.
Thanks for your write up. I will be going down this path over the winter. Your heater box issue is interesting. Other than making sure to install the engine and transmission separately, Todd does not mention a fitment issue in his posts. The Holley car is also an 87' MCSS. Perhaps your body mounts are shot? I would prefer not to hack up my valve cover.
It's not a body mount issue, my car only has 65,000 miles. I trimmed my valve cover because it was going my to be very close and I trimmed the coil bracket, so the mount wasn't needed. Once the coils are in place, you can't tell you trimmed it. The gen 4 coils look way cleaner than any of the gen 3 coils.
Toddoky, the only picture that I would like to see is that of the passenger side hanger, where it bolts the shock tower. Everything else fits like a glove.
I agree with jimmyg, I had my engine and transmission set in place in about 45 mins. With the exception of the one exhaust hanger and an avoidable coil bracket mishap, the fit and finish is second to none.
It's not a body mount issue, my car only has 65,000 miles. I trimmed my valve cover because it was going my to be very close and I trimmed the coil bracket, so the mount wasn't needed. Once the coils are in place, you can't tell you trimmed it. The gen 4 coils look way cleaner than any of the gen 3 coils.
Toddoky, the only picture that I would like to see is that of the passenger side hanger, where it bolts the shock tower. Everything else fits like a glove.
I agree with jimmyg, I had my engine and transmission set in place in about 45 mins. With the exception of the one exhaust hanger and an avoidable coil bracket mishap, the fit and finish is second to none.
I will dig up the photos I have in the morning and post them up for you.
Courtntan, this is the best shot I have of the right side hanger attachment...I remember it being a very difficult area to get a clear straight on shot of how it is attached due to the shock and the exhaust tubing blocking the view. There should be two holes very close to one another on your shock bracket and the Hooker exhaust hanger bracket is attached to those by using the two closely spaced holes on the base plate; the hole at the other end of the bracket is not used.
Ya, mine is mounted the same, but the hanger seems to be bent slightly different. Mine seems to be bent a bit tighter and it sit on a bit of a downward angle. I'll probably just heat it up and bend it up a bit. I'll snap a picture when I can get the car back up in the air, might be a few days.
Ya, mine is mounted the same, but the hanger seems to be bent slightly different. Mine seems to be bent a bit tighter and it sit on a bit of a downward angle. I'll probably just heat it up and bend it up a bit. I'll snap a picture when I can get the car back up in the air, might be a few days.
Yes, please post a photo of the hanger you have...it could have been ill-executed by the assembly welder and we can send you another one out if there is an issue with it.
Here are a few of my "observations" during install....
#1 The passenger side coil bracket went through my heater box. There is no way on my car that you can avoid this. I ended up cutting down the valve cover where the rear most bolt for the coil bracket goes. I also cut the coil bracket. You can leave the rear coil in place, it will fit just fine, you just have to remove the part of the bracket that bolts to the valve cover.
Outside of these, if I had any criticisms, here they are....
The pictures in the instructions flat out suck. The black/white is hard to interpret properly.
Thought I'd add some of my experiences along with Courtntan's.
My coilpack/AC box interference was similar. '79 Pontiac G-body with new urethane body mounts. I also had to cut the RH rear coil bracket mount tab off the steel bracket and grind the valve cover post it sat on down smooth. Also needed to slice the bracket between the #6 and #8 coil then weld the cutoff section back, offset about an inch higher than it was. So instead of the coils all being inline, #8 sits up closer to the intake manifold than the others.
I'm using the Corvette alt/PS bracket along with the 800 (four bolt cover) steering gear. The Corvette pulley was too close to the steering gear to suit me, so I got the smaller CTSV pulley like on Holley's MCSS. Found out the hard way that you can't push the CTSV pulley on until it bottoms like the Corvette pulley. Looking close at Toddoky's pictures, I could see their CTSV pulley wasn't pushed onto the pump shaft all the way. After measuring from the engine block verses the Corvette pulley, I determined the CTSV pulley needed to be 7mm away from seated on the pump shaft. I found a 6903 bearing and removed its inner race to use as a spacer since it was 7mm thick with a 17mm ID (same as the pump shaft OD). That way I could put the spacer on the pump shaft, then press the pulley on until it seated against the spacer. I also needed to trim about .060" off the rear lip of the pulley to clear the pump's pressure hose fitting.
All in all, part quality is very good. Packaging is another story. The trans crossmember, headers, and exhaust system are woefully underpacked. These pieces arrived with multiple holes punched in the boxes (from the inside) due to the heavy items and sharp corners. The exhaust system was
worst. One huge box that had been destroyed from within and taped back up by UPS while in transit. Fortunately only the crossmember box arrived missing hardware. These three items were ordered separately at different times, so it wasn't one UPS guy having a bad day.
And yes, the included instruction's pictures mostly suck.
Overall, I'm happy with the parts in general. Far better than a lot of stuff being sold today.
Thought I'd add some of my experiences along with Courtntan's.
My coilpack/AC box interference was similar. '79 Pontiac G-body with new urethane body mounts. I also had to cut the RH rear coil bracket mount tab off the steel bracket and grind the valve cover post it sat on down smooth. Also needed to slice the bracket between the #6 and #8 coil then weld the cutoff section back, offset about an inch higher than it was. So instead of the coils all being inline, #8 sits up closer to the intake manifold than the others.
I'm using the Corvette alt/PS bracket along with the 800 (four bolt cover) steering gear. The Corvette pulley was too close to the steering gear to suit me, so I got the smaller CTSV pulley like on Holley's MCSS. Found out the hard way that you can't push the CTSV pulley on until it bottoms like the Corvette pulley. Looking close at Toddoky's pictures, I could see their CTSV pulley wasn't pushed onto the pump shaft all the way. After measuring from the engine block verses the Corvette pulley, I determined the CTSV pulley needed to be 7mm away from seated on the pump shaft. I found a 6903 bearing and removed its inner race to use as a spacer since it was 7mm thick with a 17mm ID (same as the pump shaft OD). That way I could put the spacer on the pump shaft, then press the pulley on until it seated against the spacer. I also needed to trim about .060" off the rear lip of the pulley to clear the pump's pressure hose fitting.
All in all, part quality is very good. Packaging is another story. The trans crossmember, headers, and exhaust system are woefully underpacked. These pieces arrived with multiple holes punched in the boxes (from the inside) due to the heavy items and sharp corners. The exhaust system was
worst. One huge box that had been destroyed from within and taped back up by UPS while in transit. Fortunately only the crossmember box arrived missing hardware. These three items were ordered separately at different times, so it wasn't one UPS guy having a bad day.
And yes, the included instruction's pictures mostly suck.
Overall, I'm happy with the parts in general. Far better than a lot of stuff being sold today.
Thanks for providing your constructive feedback Dave-62, our continuous improvement efforts are much more focused because of critiques like yours and others that have been shared here. I'm going to make some bullet points from your feedback and forward them to various individuals within Holley to initiate some corrective actions on the packaging of the parts. I am responsible for the instructions and will be making some revisions to them to expound on the coil pack clearance issue that some users may experience. I've been giving some thought to requesting that the install photos be loaded on our website so that they can be viewed in a large color format that can be zoomed to see more detail...do you think that would have been helpful to you during your install?
After comparing pictures, I'm not sure what's going on with mine, maybe I have them flipped from side to side, but the left side seemed to fit great. Maybe if the instructions had better pictures..... Lol
After comparing pictures, I'm not sure what's going on with mine, maybe I have them flipped from side to side, but the left side seemed to fit great. Maybe if the instructions had better pictures..... Lol
The bracket appears to be attached to your car in the proper manner from the perspective of your photos. Does the end of the hanger rod that is attached to the car point straight across the car, or does it angle off towards the front of the car as it appears in the photo? If so, that would tell be the hanger rod pulled out of shape during the welding process. Here's some new photos I just took this morning of the hangers on our Monte...I had to take 24 shots to get these 3 as an unobstructed view is near impossible to get due to all the components in the way.
If you can send me a PM with your phone number I'll have someone in Tech Service contact you if you want to swap it out. If you don't want to bother going through that process then you can just bend the rod towards the rear of the car and see if you can achieve alignment without replacing the hanger.
07-13-2015, 10:43 PM
