'70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover

[Tim H]

Any updates or plans for the Nova during the off season ?

[Doug Hoven]

Originally Posted by Tim H

Any updates or plans for the Nova during the off season ?

I have a few things in the works for next season. Took the engine out a few weeks ago and tore it down. Was pleased with the condition of all the parts, and hopefully picking the block up soon after getting a fresh hone for next year. Mostly going back together with fresh rings, bearings, gaskets, valve job,etc. I may try a different camshaft. Taking the stock rods out and replacing them with the Crower rods that I originally installed on the first build, with the exception of a replacement rod. That's about it for the engine. Even though it worked fine, I'm going to take the initiative to give the transmission a once over, maybe try and make some small changes to improve what I have. I'm going to replace the original rear monoleaf springs with a good used set of calvert split-monos. I may change out the comp engineering "slide-a-link" bars for some caltracs, but not sure yet. (side note, at the end of the year I had a 1.43 60ft with the current setup) I might change out the original front springs as well to give the front some more energy. I will probably "spiff up" the brake system as well. Front disks are not really in the budget for this year, but a good freshen up of the drums should make the car a bit nicer to drive.

[Greg Reimer 7376]

Great start on your Nova build. I always like reading about projects and how they evolve with time and use. That 60 foot sounds about awesome. The main thing about this project is how it evolves as you continue to use it. That's the fun thing about this sport.Keep it up and see a lot of Win lights!

[Larry Hill]

Great progress in such a shot time.

[Doug Hoven]

I've come to learn that sometimes ignorance is bliss. When I "threw" my engine back together in July, it was found that my brand new Eagle crank was off .009 in the middle journal due to the spun rod bearing and all that extra heat and friction. Luckily for me there was a steel GM crank that was recently in an engine that ended up expiring due to other issues. Got some .020 under rod and main bearings, which was difficult in a hurry, and slapped it back together after cleaning the "trash" out of the block the best we could. Well, I decided that I would have the crank balanced before putting it back together this year. Set up the bob weights, and found that the way I was running the crank was 80 grams underbalanced. Funny enough the engine didn't vibrate one bit the way it was. At that point I decided that I wasn't going to put that kind of effort and money in a 50 year old crankshaft, and "sprung" for another cast Eagle crank like I had initially.

[doglover44]

What made you wanna change from V/SA to F/SA ?

[Doug Hoven]

Originally Posted by doglover44

What made you wanna change from V/SA to F/SA ?

I sort of got bored of it after a while. After driving a few 10 second cars I got the "bug" to go fast. I sort of ran out of patience for the 6 cylinder. I threw everything that I could, almost the kitchen sink, well in this case, the toolbox, and nothing I did really made the car any faster than it was when it was last ran 10+ years prior. Solid lifters, more modern camshaft grind, roller rockers, radial tires, 7in. converter(yea that definitely didn't work). The only thing I achieved that made the car faster was getting some "welfare" from the good people at NHRA. With my "improvements" I managed to run the best mph the car owner had ever seen by a decent margin, but my cam killed the 60ft, so it ended up being no better for ET. One thing I would've liked to try was a 3 speed over the power glide that was in the car. The 2.74 low may have helped gain back the 60ft I lost with my "big" cam. It may find it's way back into the car some day for laughs, but not right now. Would only take a rear tire change and changing around a few wires.

[Doug Hoven]

Well I've made some headway over the past few weeks. Decided to spend my spring break from school working on my engine. Had some pretty late nights and early mornings, but it got done. In the end, I got it together, it sounded good on the "ear dyno," and ran decent on the engine dyno. I spent the entirety of my Saturday this past weekend "spiffing up" the drum brakes on the car. I was luckily able to find a poor soul about 5 minutes from me, up the road from ETown, that was able to cut my drums for me on short notice. Also taught myself the long lost art of rebuilding a wheel cylinder when one was a little weepy, and couldn't get a new one that day. However, the local Autozone did have a rebuild kit, as well as a reasonably priced wheel cylinder/master cylinder hone. I then spent my Easter morning wiring in a new fuse block to replace the "old school" glass fuses as well as creating a combination water pump/fan switch with a double pole switch and a diode. Hopefully by the end of next weekend I will have a running and driving car and can test all of my new(well some only new to me) parts on the "E.T. dyno."

[Doug Hoven]

Well it's been a while since I've added anything to this thread. I've more or less just been racing the car the way it was all season. In the middle of changing my transmission pan for a more purpose built piece, I ended up finding a piece of metal in the bottom of the pan. After getting much more up close and personal with a th200 than I ever had before, we found that it was a piece of the rod that actuates the parking pawl. The rest of the trans showed to be pretty worn, so I also discovered the not so easy task of sourcing th200 clutches and steels. With some luck, I sourced the parts, and the transmission went back together about a week later. The torque converter I've been running that has worked fairly well is a Dynamic that was built in the early 2000s for a 305 stocker. I had the stator changed midway through the season which has improved my 60ft times a bit. My most recent upgrade that I actually documented was changing over the front drums on the car to a good used set of wilwood front discs. An upgrade in another part of my racing "crew" meant that I ended up with these brakes. Was a very straight forward job, and with the addition of a residual pressure valve for the rear drums, I'm in business. Hoping to get out this weekend for the Mid-Atlantic S/SS series to test out my new brakes.

[Billy Nees]

Don't "lose" those original 6 cyl. drums!