'70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

Even though it's a few months after the fact, but I figured I would write up a build thread for a project that I got myself into a few months back earlier this year. Took a bit of mild convincing, well maybe more than a little bit, to "hack up" his original 28k mile 6 cylinder PG nova with a roll bar, frame connectors, and a new drivetrain. I decided at the end of last year, even though I had gotten the handle on hitting the tree with a low horsepower, tall front tire car, I decided I wanted to go a bit faster. After some thought, and the generosity of a fellow D1 racer in donating a 295hp 350 engine, I decided to go with the 1970 350/300 rated at 286. One thing that sticks in my head is when I suggested that's what I was building to my car owner, I got the response "Nice job choosing the worst 4bbl 350 combo in the guide." A little harsh IMHO, but I decided to do it anyway. I'll start with the chassis/fab work, and move on to the engine. The car owner is a very knowledgeable and talented fabricator, so naturally, with some "here, hold this" assistance from me, we got the bar and frame connectors done to where we are both very satisfied with the final fit and finish. I'll post some pics of this process under this post.

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

At some point, I decided I was not a fan of the "70s couch" style bench seat, and with some more convincing, made the decision to fit the car with aluminum racing seats.

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

Congratulations on "moving up " a bunch in class designation. Anxiously waiting to follow along with your project.

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

Well being that I just got off the phone with crower try and order a replacement connecting rod (more on that later), I figured I would go ahead and talk a little bit about the engine I put together for the car. I started with a complete 295hp stocker engine that had been sitting for quite some time. I pretty much ended up using the block, cylinder heads, and camshaft due to the crank being cracked, and my lack of trust in stock rods, and worn out .030 over trw pistons. I was originally going to send a stock crank to get cut and indexed, but after realizing I could by a brand new eagle crank from summit for $250, I figured it wasn't worth the effort(in the end I threw the crank in the garbage, spoiler alert.) Nonetheless, I was able to get a great deal on a set of good JE pistons, and some old, but in nice shape, crower rods. I took the cylinder heads to a fellow d1 racer in CT who did a great job with a stocker valve job, and was more than fair in pricing the work. Side note, ever wonder how many sets of sbc cylinder heads fit in the trunk of a 2010 camaro? Well I'm glad you asked because the answer is 4, with some room to spare. Anyway, I got a few replacement valves from Manley, and set up the heads myself with some leftover valve springs I had from the 6 cylinder. The machine work was done by B+B machine in LI, who did a really nice job with everything I had him do, and provided some very useful tips throughout this entire process. For rings, I sort of made up my own ring package. I can't afford the latest in Total seal rings, so I bought a basic set of Enginetech rings, and had a local friend back cut the top two rings for me. I was able to mix and match oil ring expanders to make my own low tension oil ring, and with some fish scale measurements, I was ready to go. I put it together almost all by myself, with some guidance from others in the process. Was able to dig up a set of NOS crane gold rockers, and some morosso valve covers(that leaked horribly), and I was ready for the dyno.

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

Some pictures to follow up my last post. My cylinder heads are the second pair in on the left for those with keen eyes.

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

Just curious, did said car owner Splurge for a new Headliner ?

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

No, he did not. The headliner is actually still in pretty nice shape. We did however remove what was left of the original blue rubber floor mat in exchange for black carpet.

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

Here comes another part of the "story." I had a great time at the dyno with my engine. I was very impressed with myself that everything seemed happy and stayed in one piece, even on the final pull where I decided to go past 7k rpm. I was a little disappointed with the power numbers, but for what it is, I considered it a very successful day at the dyno at RBRE. Now I needed a car to put it in. The date was June 24th. Billy and I had just finished wrapping up what we could with the car with the parts we had available. What I had was pretty much for all intents and purposes a V/SA car with a rollbar, subframe connectors, most of a new carpet, with more material on order from Lutty's in PA (highly recommend), and had 10 days until my proposed "debut" at Numidia for the t+t before the double header. Well I got the car home that night and went to work immediately. With the help of a friend, and some last minute parts runs, we were able to swap the powerglide and 6 cylinder for the small block and metric. Throughout that week I worked on the car for about 6 hours a day. Would come home from work at 3, and, sometimes with help from my Dad, my uncle, and or some other friends, worked on the car until about 9-10pm each day. We decided against cutting up the unmolested 12 bolt that was put in the car years ago, and went for a rear that needed some work anyway. I got rid of the 5/16 fuel line, and opted for a 1/2 line instead. Well long story short I made it to Numidia that wednesday for the test and tune. Out of the box I went the best of an 11.64 at 110 mph, but at the end of the day, the car, and ultimately the oil filter told me something was going very sour with my engine. Even though they can get pricey, I am very thankful for my easily readable KP oil filter....

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

Well here's where things got a little "dicey" with my project. After pulling and reading my oil filter, there was an obvious bearing issue going on. The first thing that came to mind was I thought I was done for the season. Well, that didn't happen. As a matter of fact I was back at Numidia 3 days later ready to run the division race. That Wednesday night, my uncle and I had yanked the engine, and blew it apart to inspect the damage. It turns out that all of the bearings were junk, but the big issue was I spun number 6 rod bearing, ruining the connecting rod, and bending the crank .009 in the process. I was and still am very grateful to have been able to dig through some surplus small block parts my uncle had leftover, including a good crank, and some good (relatively speaking) stock connecting rods. So after running around finding bearings, having the rods honed for bearing clearance, and a lot of cleaning, we were back in business to begin assembly Friday morning. After a few hiccups Friday morning, it wasn't until noon that I was able to begin assembly. Well everything sort of just "fell together" and by 6pm, the car was back on the trailer, and I found myself back at Numidia late that evening. The car ran fairly well at the race, and I was very happy, even though I lost first round. Since then, I've been very happy with the progress I've made in picking the car up little by little. Even though it's only gone .50 under in NHRA competition, I'm quite happy with how the car has been running for me.

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

The first picture was the not so nice sight of my oil filter after my first day of testing. The second picture was before the first of 2 heads up races I've had already in competition.

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

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

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

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.

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

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!

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

Great progress in such a shot time.

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

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.

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

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

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

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.

Re: '70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover
 

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."