H-I-J '76 Nova re-fit.

Paul Merolla · 05-13-2019, 04:36 PM

I feel your pain, as I've been through this with 2 different engines. Not saying these are your problems, but just wanted to share what caused the issues in my case. First was 2 different shortblocks that kept losing oil pressure at rpm. Blew the first one up at the stripe, then borrowed a short block and put my heads on it. First trip to the track it lost pressure coming out of the water box. After swapping the oil pump, it did the same thing. The only thing I could think of that I had changed from the prior year was the oil filter....I had switched from Wix to K&N. Well, I put a Wix back on and had no more problems. The K&N just was too much of a restriction at high flow rates.
Second fiasco was a brand-new build with a Dart block. Had good pressure through 6 dyno pulls, but each pull made less power than the last. Changed parts, inspected everything, and it just kept eating bearings. Eventually, we had another crank ground and that did the trick.
The original one had the end counterweights turned down in a lathe.....the second one did not and now has around 70 passes on it with no issues.
Like I said, I'm not trying to tell you what your problem is, just to keep an open mind and think about what's going on inside the engine at rpm.

05-13-2019, 04:36 PM	#11
Paul Merolla Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Papillion, NE Posts: 596 Likes: 194 Liked 232 Times in 57 Posts	Re: H-I-J '76 Nova re-fit. I feel your pain, as I've been through this with 2 different engines. Not saying these are your problems, but just wanted to share what caused the issues in my case. First was 2 different shortblocks that kept losing oil pressure at rpm. Blew the first one up at the stripe, then borrowed a short block and put my heads on it. First trip to the track it lost pressure coming out of the water box. After swapping the oil pump, it did the same thing. The only thing I could think of that I had changed from the prior year was the oil filter....I had switched from Wix to K&N. Well, I put a Wix back on and had no more problems. The K&N just was too much of a restriction at high flow rates. Second fiasco was a brand-new build with a Dart block. Had good pressure through 6 dyno pulls, but each pull made less power than the last. Changed parts, inspected everything, and it just kept eating bearings. Eventually, we had another crank ground and that did the trick. The original one had the end counterweights turned down in a lathe.....the second one did not and now has around 70 passes on it with no issues. Like I said, I'm not trying to tell you what your problem is, just to keep an open mind and think about what's going on inside the engine at rpm.