Monza Navigates Lake Ontario..

Well....

Here we are back home after a successful and quite enjoyable drive,

Completely circling Lake Ontario.

Half of the drive in Canada, and the other half in NY state. The monza handled high rpm cruising for hours on end... and a hour+ long border wait heading back into the US, with stride. Ran excellent, never got too hot, and seems to be running even better than when I left. 

Video:

About 40 GB of Video was taken during the trip. 

As you may know from the other blogs, I have a GoPro Hero 3 action camera that I can mount on/in the 

car. 

As usual.... 'Hindsight is 20/20'.  Now that I know where the picturesque parts of the journey are I could have had the camera set-up and aimed properly. 

This would have created a concise and entertaining video.. + one that didn't need so much editing, with software and PC power I don't currently have. 

The video I have consists mostly of following slow moving large vehicles that I would eventually catch up with...  and all of them are tainted by a pointless and rambling commentary and my moments of  "saltyness" towards another vehicle or driver. 

I could add music but thats mostly copyrighted material.

So thats where the video content stands to date.

I might get around to editing it someday!

So until then, here's this somewhat less entertaining blog entry about the trip.

The Trip: 

Here's is the Starting Point.  A Sunoco Station in Hamlin NY.

 After a morning fill-up of 93 ultra, and some iced tea and snacks for the ride... We set off.

1st. Destination: 

A cozy diner for brunch, and a stop for gas, in Oswego, NY. About a 2+ hour drive.

For the last year or two, the Monza hasn't driven over 20 to 30 miles on any trip.

I tried find a diner on Google the night before the trip, but I couldn't..

There were some potential candidates so I left it up to chance.

The first leg went without a hitch.  I recorded it from inside. The same angle as the picture above.

But without the ability to edit it, it's really pretty boring.

Aside from one quick bathroom break / snack stop.. It was non-stop thru Oswego.

Just before Oswego, off to the side of the road was a tiny little diner, right in the middle of nowhere.. 

I jumped on the brakes and pulled on in.  I walked inside and was looking forward to ordering, but I knew to ask first..."do you take credit?"   

Should have known...nope. 

Kicked myself for not getting cash before I left town!

An ATM was back toward town a mile or 2. 

I said the heck with it and drove on. 

Once the highway turned into city limit's of Oswego... I tried to look for a convenient atm and  late breakfast stop, but it was no use..

Then I remembered..   Oswego has a Walmart..! 

Parking the Monza in a walmart parking lot !?!?!? 

The saving grace here is that Oswego is a smaller city, and the walmart would have plenty of 'safe' parking away from the store. And it wasn't a busy time either.

Another blessing was there was an Autozone nearby.  Good for a needed quart of oil, with a helpful plastic funnel loaned out.

The stop at the 'mart.. worked well on quite a few levels.   No it wasn't the delicious diner breakfast I had been dreaming about.  But I did manage to find some healthy light snacks in the grocery dept.

I also scored the chips and dip I wanted to bring to the party.

Then at check-out I realized I could even get some cash back , eliminating the need for a pricey ATM fee and another stop.

So I was surprisingly happy for a change with one of these big box places.

I left there, and set the GoPro up to grab vid for the next leg of the journey, Oswego to Watertown, NY.

For a last fuel stop in the US. 

Luckily, nothing eventful happened, since I didn't realize I'd left the lens cap on!!!!

So no vid was captured through my Crossing into Canada.

And that's a shame because there's this Huge bridge to cross at Alexandria Bay.

And it's very senic at the thousand islands.

More to come!!!!!...

If "America Runs on Dunkin" what do Monza's run on???

I'm not sure about your's... or even if you have "Name Brand" gas in your area..   But My Monza RUN'S on Sunoco.


I do personally run on Dunkin Donut's coffee.  I have a nearby location that serves a very consistent "magic cup" of coffee.  Perfect for most workdays when I need to switch into 'run' mode.

What does my Monza run on...?   My Monza was tuned using Sunoco Ultra 93.  That mean's, that when I adjusted the idle mixture, and dialed in my distributor's timing curve, I was running Sunoco's Ultra 93. The highest octane "street fuel"  around.

I can get away with 91 octane "Premium" (found at most all other retailers stations)  However I have to listen for 'detonation' or 'pinging' as you might call it, during hard acceleration.

Any less and It'll definitely ping.    My initial mindset for tuning the engine to this fuel is as follows.. Most sources say for maximum power tune the engine timing for the most timing it will accept before it ping's and looses power.. (dangerous detonation).    And Ultra 93 allowed for the most timing I could dial into the motor. And as such it sure feels strong and crisp. Run's cool too.  In fact a little too cool most of the time, so the timing I have dialed in isn't contributing to any type of run-hot condition, barring running the car at 4000 RPM for 30+ minutes in the mid-day sun, heat and humidity... but I don't find myself stunt-driving like that anymore anyways.

The 2nd reason for tuning for Ultra 93..was the need to use a fuel with greater knock resistance, as is the case with Higher Octane fuels.    Why?   My Monza still has the factory 305.
 In Stock form, the 305 used dished pistons and a pretty basic and low; 8.4:1 compression ratio.
Even still it used tiny 57cc chambered heads, and was designed to run HOT for emissions purposes.
With tiny valves and propensity to build up carbon in the chamber detonation was a concern for early lean-running, emission-tuned 305's.

 My Monza however, has been updated to heads from an '83/'84 305HO motor. Larger valves and a little better flow are the advantages of using these heads. The also have a slightly larger 60cc chamber, and are made to run with a flat top piston..   And lucky for me.. mine has been dis-assembled and bored .30 over and refitted with Flat-top's, with 4 valve relief's. Good again for compression.. @ 9.5:1 with a reg head gasket.
Good therefore, for performance, but these were still made for an emissions tuned hot running motor. So with detonation still in mind, I opted to tune to Sunoco Ultra 93.

Plus lucky for Sunoco they are the closest fuel retailer to my garage bay.  Their sticker's also made a great cover for some recent blemishes that found their way onto my daily driver - Chevy Aveo.

I have read in recent years, about power tuning a normally aspirated engine for 87 octane and making excellent street power, but that was on an 8.4:1 350 engine.

Monza meet's GoPro Hero3 Action Cam

Just me testing my Gopro hero3 'white' with a suction cup mount and an external microphone.
The microphone is just an old computer mic...(on a budget).  Just got the USB to Mic adapter cable today and wanted to test it all out.  (Drove from Rochester to Buffalo to get it).

 I used a dremel tool and ground out the waterproof housing to accept the Usb adapter cable. Worked well. 

Sounds like the mic is a little sensitive to wind noise..I'm going to have to make a small noise canceler out of a piece of foam.  
The suction cup mount is one I used from an old GPS unit I have.  It seems to hold on even outside the car as long as the surfaces are polished clean and tiny bit of water is used.

Video's shot at 1080p @30fps.
Camera controlled using GoPro app

If it appears that the steering wheel is bent your right. That's how it was made to compensate for a slightly off center steering column.  So it sits straight at the driver when it's in the straight-ahead position.  

Driving the car you never know it's like that. it's only from this camera angle that it's noticeable

Mark's Monza Spyder to circle Lake Ontario?

Well yes indeed..,

 Thats the plan..  In early August 2014 I will drive my '78 Chevy Monza , about 11 hours, clear around Lake Ontario.

Why? To stop halfway around for a Burger of course..  But not just any Burger ..  a Burger charred to perfection at the 9th annual "Monza-Que" with a dozen or so other H-body enthusiasts, in Brighton, Ontario.
  Great food, cold drink's. plenty of car chatter, with people who know what your talking about!

I plan on filming the journey using a Gopro Hero3  Video Camera I'm hoping to purchase in the upcoming week's.  I'll post the journey to YouTube when I'm back at the garage!

Will we go clockwise? Will we go counter clockwise? (That's the way I went last time, but also the way I returned)  only time will tell...  4 more weeks or so!

UPDATE 7-1-14

Mark's Monza World is now "Gopro" enabled.

We only have the cheapest model, the Hero3 white..   but it should work for what I need it to do.

For those who may not know, a Gopro camera is an action camera designed specifically for first person view action footage.  It's designed to be mounted on the roll cages of race cars, handelbars of bikes, helmets of motorcross,  Chests of hikers, and right to the bodies of cars with the suction cup mount.

Wide angle lenses,  and high quality video, make these camera's perfect for capturing the action on the fly.. Even playing it back in slow motion.    

Here are some preliminary test video's I made as an example.

More to come......

Well, the time has finally come, and the journey begin's.  Of course were a little behind schedule, but no rush.

As I turn off this PC, I step out and hit the road, see you at the 9th annual Monza-Que!!

Spyder Emblem's NOS vs. Reproduction..

Here's a video I made comparing a reproduction spyder emblem to an N.O.S one.

Sorry about the narrow video. I guess this is what my phone does.

Hope you enjoy....

The battery was low on my phone so this was just a one shot deal.

My H body Video's...

There will be more to come, now that I have a slightly better camera (on my phone).

I just had this idea today,  a compilation of video's of my monza, and then maybe a compilation of my favorite overall H body video's on youtube..






So Here's a Primer...   let me see about adding the rest..

Hmmm, here's another way to add them.. ok..