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1975 in Philadelphia PA

20K views 118 replies 23 participants last post by  lmg1974 
#1 ·
So, I lucked out ( or its fate..) came across and bought without a moment to hesitate... the same car I had in High school... which ironically was my very FIRST car... a 1975 chevy nova! Now, like all high school kids I had huge plans and a teeny tiny wallet for my ol 75.... but alas, merely one year later and fresh off a 283 swap with a hot cam and power pack heads... I came out the front door and she was no where to be found.

20 years later, craigslist and the greasy knuckle busting gods, throw me a bone and I procure my old baby again.... with my wife's grudging approval of my "mid life crisis" car, I begin resurrecting the small block dreams of my youth.... pictures coming soon.... I'm trying to swap in some 94 camaro seats ( cause the factory bench seat was trashed.... ) and yeah I stripped the interior already...
 
#6 ·
ill take pics in the am.... i have already stripped the interior and rhino linered the floors and trunk. also fabricated my own seat mounts and welded them in, totally different car with those bucket hugging my posterior region....

my new richmond gears and install set arrived yesterday... 3.42's as did my weatherstripping kit... now to find the time to actually do the swaps and installs..

im located in the suburb of elkins park... montgomery county, just outside northeast philadelphia...

pictures hopefully getting taking tommorow in the am...

:rolleyes:
 
#7 ·
sorry i was slacking... heres the pics i took today with my phone... exterior at this point is how i recieved her.. interior is where i have started...


this is out behind the garage

another view


the interior was stripped out and floor repairs done ( not much as car was a garage queen most of her life..)

94 camaro buckets and brackets ( fabbed my own seat mounts for the inside of the car.)
 
#9 ·
once im done suring up the body and suspension.... i am going to install my new richmond gears in the rear ( 3.42's) and while im in there i may just swap over to the Summit Racing rear disc conversion kit ( still debating) also the trans will come out and be built for the business end ( its a nice solid 350 th mated to a 4.1 I6 ) and finally the business end will be something ill toss together, 350 or 327.. but I do have a 305 LU5 motor from my camaro project on a stand that needs a freshen up... ( people down 305's but I dont.... its not like its a 262 or 267 v8..:rolleyes:)

and if anyone needs to know what i can do to a 305 Ill post a youtube link shortly.. you can see the one i built and put into my 83 z28 ( which is now for sale to fund the nova)
 
#10 ·
apologize for my lack of updates folks... been busy getting the camaro ready... after the motor swap I ran into an issue during the day after testing. She suddenly died on me... just cut out.. so i limped her home and found the factory fuel pump was priming but not running after prime cycle.

Me being the king of the rig ups.. figured Id toss an old external pump on it and it would be fine...

And it was ...for about 1 day....

run then die, run... die...run ...die..

Finally had enough today.. dropped the tank...

How many people here remember how much fun it is to drop the tank on an f body camaro?

found the factory pump was burned up... rubber insulation boot disintegrated into tank along with the sock... both of which went into the pump and lines...

fixed now but cost me the entire day! Anyways.. nova updates coming soon.
 
#13 ·
hehe.. i scored major parts locally for the nova today....

a 010 block, complete carb to pan ran when pulled needed to be freshened up. Stored on a stand for 4 years.... $100.00

and set of like new 5 leaf rear springs $80.00

its like meant to be...
 
#14 ·
so the new block ( new to me anyway... for the nova...)

and another view....


hopefully tonight ill get a 4 bolt suprise when i drop the pan.... conflicting reports according to the block decoder i used... one series of numbers indicate its cast in michigan and a 1973 block... the other number says ontario canada and its a 77.... hmmmm

updates to come...
 
#18 ·
not gonna lie thats where i stole the idea from :D
and thanks for moving the thread... I didnt want to sound obnoxious and ask for it to be moved... :D

But yes more pics soon... tore down the motor tonight.. tommorow dropping the pan and rotating assembly. Looks like its a 77 truck block... came out of a 3/4 ton 4x4 originally. I have a decent shot at 4 bolt mains.... :eek:

also after pulling the intake and heads... no gunk or build up internally so far... shame the heads are 882's, gotta a line on a set of ported and rebuilt as new 441 castings with 2.02/ 1.60's in em already... either way I'm doing scat rotating assembly ( balanced) with new flat tops.

Ill post more tommorow.
 
#22 ·
Well between last night and tonight I tore that puppy down to the bare block... no pics but heres my report...

pistons one and three, compression rings were broken in multiple places and when the pistons came out the rings came out on pieces...
rest of the pistons are fine... ( std bore and rings)

on the bottom end hoever we found issues as well...
cylinders one and three the crank bearings were wiped out ( discolored and grooved)

It did however have a comp cams 274h cam and double rolling timing chain, but the lifters were worn concave and the cam lobes were almost wiped.

There is scoring on the crank journals and the cylinder walls have some light ridges. This motor was rode hard and put away wet.
Im dropping it at the machine shop to punch out the wals to 40 over and if the crank is good, ill go 10 under on it.. if its steel, if its cast, cheaper to just buy a new rotating kit since im not reusing rods anyways.

40 over 350 = 357 (magnum) baby!

Now for the WORSE news... I was so damn busy I gave my nova to a shop I am friendly with and said heres the rear ring and pinion set i want in it, and an install kit, see ya in 2 days!

1 week later I get a call from them, its at another shop and I need to call them....
The new shop is a trans and rear specialist place.. cool guys and all but, The original shop DESTROYED my rear. It now needs a new carrier, ring and pinion and crush sleeve. I was FURIOUS. Wont have my Nova home till the 26th. And, its costing me $1000!!!! ( Another ring and pinion set, Auburn posi center carrier and labor to replace...)
Guess whose not touching any of my cars again! And paying for all those parts!!!!:eek::eek::eek::mad::mad::mad:
 
#26 ·
ahh okay now i see says the blind man.... See that! You do learn something new everyday!

Ok Ill tell him to put an eaton unit in. Hopefully she'll be back by weds so I can rebuild the monojet carb and keep her running decent until swap time.

Now around here in PA the trans shops are a little crazy... they all want to charge me $1k or more for a bench build transmission. Im wondering if just having a summit or jegs 350 delivered is worth it for the savings...

I build motors and rears and all that with my eyes closed but transmissions are like a mystery to me... they make no sense so I never got into building them. Maybe its time I do... As the lesson goes "if you want it done right, do it yourself.."

Decisions decisions....
 
#27 ·
ok so the build list is done.... the motor will be ( drum roll please..)

355 chevy!
the block is bored and line honed. Cleaned ready to go.. picking her up thursday.

.030 over on block, flat top sealed power skirted hyper eutectic pistons, scat steel crank and stage I rods ( balanced ) moly rings.

relatively mild cam ( 212 duration @50 443/ 443 gross lift with 1.5 rockers 110 degree lobe seperation.) Why so mild a cam you ask?

cause im topping it with a set of vortech 906 heads ( springs are only rated to 450 ish lift before binding and issues)

the heads were decked a bit so its really about a 70cc chamber.

also will be using 1.6 ratio rockers for all intake valves and 1.5 on exhaust ( sucking in as much air and fuel as fast as possible, simulates a larger lobe on the cam..)
computer dyno puts me right at 419 hp @5000 rpm and 447 tqe @3700 rpms

the motor will breathe through jegs full length 1 5/8th to 3"collector headers and its topped with a summit 750 cfm carb and summit dual plane intake. Blueprinted dizzy with vaccuum advance...

what do you guys think? sound beefy enough?
 
#31 · (Edited)
i thought 906 casting vortechs use a 72 cc chamber... crap my dyno results and fuel options just changed if thats the case!!!


edit... did more research.... im sitting right at 9.8/1 static compression ratio. thats assuming standard deck height and head gasket thickness.
the cam should put me aright around 9.375 ish dynamic compression ratio... 89 octane here i come!!!

block is not zero decked... leaving room for error ( i.e. machine shop clean up decking and heads clean up decking... ill still sit right around 10 to 1 static and 9.5 to 1 dynamic...very streetable. All compudyno calculations were based on mild ported stock heads with 9.5 compression ratio real close to 400 at flywheel... should comfortably hit 300 at the wheels with a built 350 th turbo and eaton 3.42 posi

...I love the smell of burnt rubber in the morning...
 
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