You know him as the host of House of Muscle on the Motor Trend channel. This is Mike’s daily driver: a 1972 Monte Carlo he found buried in the back of a radiator and A/C repair shop in San Raphael, California. It’s in great shape except for the fact that it burns oil like a diesel locomotive. We will be fixing that problem then addressing a few other items to make this a modern-running daily driver. This is the first video in a series produced by The House of Muscle. Follow The House of Muscle on YouTube so you never miss a step of this build or any of their killer ride-along car reviews.
To establish a baseline, Mike ran the car down the dragstrip at Sonoma Raceway, where the worn-out 350 propelled the 3,600-pound car to a breathtaking 17.896 at 74.85 mph. On the chassis dyno the next day, it churned out 162 hp and 228 lb-ft of torque at the wheels. It’s all uphill from here, folks!Chevrolet Performance answered the call for help with this SP383 crate engine. We ran the engine at Westech recently, and it impressed us with a stout 446 hp and 448 lb-ft of torque, more than double what Mike’s tired 350 is making right now. We will back the small block with a Gearstar TH200 4R transmission, and outfit it with Holley’s Sniper EFI and Patriot headers. Between the overdrive transmission and fuel injection, Mike will have a modern-running drivetrain that lives for road trips and return gas mileage substantially better than the 10 mpg he’s currently averaging.
Mike will do the drivetrain swap with some friends Ben McCloy and Colin Sebern at Ben’s shop, Jack Dick Customs in Martinez, California- home of the flying terriers.
