FASTCRAIG

Hello. I bought my 83 Monte Carlo SS from the 2nd owner about 2 years ago. It had 33K and the engine and trans that was changed in 89 had 13K. The original owner had dealer installed T tops just after purchase. All of the trim pieces were hand cut and bent. Surprisingly, they do not leak. The engine and trans were both built by Jeg's in Columbus Ohio in 89. An Edelbrock 425 HP kit was used and the block was bored 30 over. The trans had TCI internals with a 3600 stall. The rear is 342 posi. The car spent a lot of time in a garage under a cover with only 13K put on it from 89 till I bought it in 2016. Once I started driving the SS it developed several oil leaks. I had it for about a year when I started the car and a large cloud of white smoke billowed out of the passenger side exhaust. I decided to pull the engine and replace the gaskets and sent the aluminum heads to a local speed shop and had them tested and decked to insure a true surface. None of the internals were hurt. The head gasket was leaking into the exhaust. I decided to change the 3600 stall for a more friendly 2800 stall since I was doing more cruising than hotrodding. Going with the smaller stall was like losing 50 hp but it is so much better mannered in traffic. Now, the reason I signed up on an LS forum is next year I am going to be doing a LY6/6L80 swap on my SS. I have an 09 2500 HD as my donor vehicle. I have started researching what I will need to buy or modify to make the swap as painless as possible. I was spending a lot of time on LS1TECH because there are several very good, informative threads so I figured I would join. Hopefully I can help someone avoid (costly) mistakes while avoiding those mistakes myself using info from this site. I have already learned a lot here and by the time I actually start wrenching on my SS I won't be reinventing the wheel.