New To Forum. Heres the Nova

i just purchased this 68 Nova yesterday. i have always liked the nova's. i liked the 62-67 models the best but like the year model i have also.
the forum i found it on read like this: 68 nova and 396.
take in mind this was on a racing forum. i was kind of sceptical and let it go. it was on the forum for about 2 months, so i called about it, he still had it. i figured it was gutted and had a roll cage in it, but no. he said the trunk was rusted out and above the fenders had rust holes in it(typical i think). went to look at it, looked good, he had a tarp over it, had some flat tires but not sitting on the ground. i didn't open the hood when i went to look at it for some reason, guess because it had a 6 cylinder. this was on a wednesday, i told him i would call him back by end of week. my wife loves this kind of stuff. guess i am lucky! she loves to go to swap meets and car shows, any how. she told me not to let this one slip through my fingers like some good priced things had before. so i called him that night and told him i would take it.
i now this is getting long but heres the good part.
when i got it home engines first(had to make two trips), i got to looking at the complete 350 small block, ends up having a set of double hump heads on it(yeeha). the 396 big block was out of a 68 chevelle(wasn't the 375horse, but the 325horse with oval port heads). now the car. i opened the hood and boom, wasn't told this but has factory air. front fenders are in very good shape, hood is in good shape, and trunk is in good shape. no dents in roof. inner fender are good. one spot on the radiator support is rusted but can be fixed. i will have to replace part of the front floors on both sides and now i now why, was leaking in the ac part in the cab.
i haven't decided to either put in the big block or the small block. what do you guys think?
my wife and me started taking it apart today. don't have a pic but it did have interior in it. and you can see what we accomplished by the end of the day.
here are some pics.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j151/quad-works/68nova/100_0960.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j151/quad-works/68nova/100_0959.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j151/quad-works/68nova/100_0957.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j151/quad-works/68nova/100_0962.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j151/quad-works/68nova/100_0966.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j151/quad-works/68nova/100_0965.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j151/quad-works/68nova/100_0975.jpg
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j151/quad-works/68nova/100_0958.jpg

Welcome its nice to see another 68 saved from the crusher:)

thanks
eds68 what do you think? sbc or bbc?

Welcome to the site and congrats on your purchase of your new 68 Nova!! 68 Novas are a Special breed!! Are you gona put the BB in it with the A/C? The car probably came with the optional tinted glass because of the A/C option...Dan

plan on putting A/C back in. just not sure on what engine to go back with.
sb or bb.

There is no replacement for displacement. bb without a doubt.

BB all the way. Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to the site, its great! Nice looking 68 not sure if a bb will fit with the ac setup. It will be tight you may want to do some detective work to see if you will run into any problems. Just a heads up.

Jason

Glad to see you saved it. BB all the way!

thanks for the welcome. i don't know much about a BB. always had SB. the 396 that i got has dome pistons. are these stock or aftermarket? and when you look up the numbers on the heads they are oval port, closed, 97.2 chambers. what does the closed mean?
thanks

Welcome to the site,
You will either have to cut the AC box or get one for a BB. Go for the big inches. The pistons are probably stock. The differance between a closed and open chamber is the configuration of the combustion chamber. A closed chamber has a smaller combustion area, where the valves are, an open chamber has a larger combustion area. Short of a great physiological discription closed chamber will have higher cylinder pressure than an open chamber head... But Paul can better describe it.:D

Denis

i was afraid of that. how hard would it be to take the A/C out and put in just the heater part? any help would be appreciated.

i was afraid of that. how hard would it be to take the A/C out and put in just the heater part? any help would be appreciated.
It has not been proven that any BB came with a/c as of yet.
If you want to put a/c in, it is best to use a suitcase box out of a Camaro as they come straight out from the firewall and will give you more room. The Nova suitcase box sits at an angle towards the drivers side.
They do make an A/C box heater delete plate that will cover the opening in the firewall and I reckon just place the heater core in it.

nice project man!!

The 68 a/c box is probably different but I put a BBC in a 69 Nova that was a factory 307 3-spd a/c car. Everything fit fine and I just had to buy a few NOS compressor brackets.

sh1fter. could you post a pic of the engine compartment. and a couple good pics of the a/c box and how close to engine it is.
thanks tim

You could always go with a Vintage air Super Gen II. You can take the box out of the engine compartment.

Nice project, enjoy

I sold the car 6 yrs ago. the pics I have are not very informative (or clear after scanning). I remember it was very tight on the box but worked. I was forced to run short valve covers because of the brackets.

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n260/NitroRat/ac3.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n260/NitroRat/ac2.jpg

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n260/NitroRat/ac1.jpg

thanks sh1fter. hey could you tell me what kind of cam you ran? or just the engine spec in general? was it a 396 or 454. if you can remember. also where could i find a a/c compressor?

RallyNova. is there a website for the Vintage air Super Gen II. if not where could i find this?

thanks guys

It was a 396 +.030 with 11.25:1 pistons in oval port heads with Manley 2.25 I valves. It had a solid mechanical cam but I don't remember the specs. We are over 6000' altitude so I usually have bizarre grinds to get some air. It was mated to a World Class T5 5 speed and 4 pinion, 4.11 9". This was my only vehicle for many years and I thought the combination was perfect. (ran pretty good in the Colorado Blizzards too). I bought all of my NOS AC brackets from Larry Christensen who is a local Camaro Guru (http://www.coloradocamaroclub.org/Members_Bios/Larry_Christensen/bio.html)

i have a stock 396 that is already 11.1:1. the engine came out of a 68 chevelle and on the block in the timing chain area it says HI PERFORMANCE. do you remember if yours said that. i also have the oval port heads.
thanks for the info.

I'm sure all of the guys on this site can clarify but I have never seen one that did NOT say Hi Perf. I don't think that means what it says...maybe just to differentiate them from truck and generator motors :)

Back to the conversion, I changed my frame motor mounts when I went to the big block. I believe I got those from Christensen, too. I alsways had hood clearance issues until I got a cowl hood.

I sold the car 6 yrs ago. the pics I have are not very informative (or clear after scanning). I remember it was very tight on the box but worked. I was forced to run short valve covers because of the brackets.

very nice, clean installation .

hope mine looks that good.

I note in your other post that you DID swap to the BB motor mounts, which bring the motor forward - that must help clear the A/C box ?

We had a 396 in our 69 on the origninal 6 cyl mounts, which cleared fine with no A/C ( and helped set the motor back slightly ).

if it were me buiilding the car, run a nice big-inch small block witht he A/C - like a 396 smallblock and use the 396 fender emblems to make ppl ask questions. :)

` AL

Thanks,
I was never quite sure those frame motor mounts were correct for the BBC. My distributor was so close that I powershifted once and the cap hit the firewall, breaking the rotor. I switched to solid motor mounts and the motor was in the same position but it could no longer twist and hit the firewall. I wish I had done a lot different on that car but was young and poor. Now I am older and poor.

WWW.vintageair.com

Or www.nnnova.com.

thanks guys. this is real helpful , with what i am planning to do.