1975 in Philadelphia PA

[lmg1974]

its a tinted plastic face with a circuit board mounted with spacers and screws. The panel itself measures 3 1/8th " x 11" and 2 1/2" deep. Should be able to fit it in there with a filler panel. Thats what I did. Now I have to get back to the motor swap.

[lmg1974]

**** UPDATES****

as promised I started the engine swap over the weekend. Called up Jay, a local friend of mine for that ever needed second pair of hands. So Saturday we had to start. We pulled off the hood and started undoing the motor mounts and accessories.


then after that it was drop the grill bumper and hood release mechanisms for room cause the boom on my picker isnt super long.


then came pulling the straight 6 out along with that factory 350 transmission.


cleaned up the engine bay and busted out the rattle cans of rustoleum paint. Note that I am indeed lucky enough to do this as I live in the rust belt of the USA and most cars here are rot beasts. Mine was a garage queen so I got super lucky...



Now the route I decided to try ( against mine and Jay's better judgement...) was to put the engine and trans in together in one shot.


Took some lining up and we eventually got it in... next time however, will be installed seperately, easier than this was.


and after getting her nestled in there my little experiment for motor mounts worked PERFECTLY. No one makes the motor side mount plates anymore. Not even the dealer. So, after doing a ton of research I went on summit and ordered 2 passenger side 2nd gen camaro mounts...( thats 70-81 folks) and VIOLA!!!


both sides perfect....



aside form putting the fan back on and the carb and distributer cap etc. Thats where I am at for the moment. Should be running this coming weekend. More updates and photos to come folks.

[lmg1974]

so the motor is in and was running sweet. suddenly backfires thru carb and cranks but wouldnt start. Ether in the carb.. starts but popping through the carb. Also a loud ping to go along with the backfire. shut it down start investigating. Pull off the valve covers and VIOLA! Goddamn proform roller rocker fell apart. Wouldnt start right cause it was only running on 7 cylinders!!!

called up summit racing. No reciept, no problem checked my order and shipped out a new one... they didnt want the old one... chalked it up to a defect and told me to contact them if there are any issues from it breaking and they will take care of it.

Boo on proform... YAY for summit! thier customer service is fantastic.

the NOVA will be prowling the streets this weekend ( weather permitting)

[Philip]

Motor mount brackets look good, make V8 swaps a lot less expensive to do.
On the rocker arms, if it were mine they would all be gone. why risk having any more fail and maybe damage the engine.
I had a set of Scorpion rockers start flaking off the anodized coating. The issue was discovered due to excessive tapping of one of the rockers. I returned them to Scorpion and ask what the cause was of both the flaking and the tapping. They stated they were not going to investigate the cause and sent me a new set. The flaking appeared to be along stress areas in radial patterns. I could not find any cracks with a visual inspection. The new set was sold, never installed. They lost my trust when the reason for the problem was not determined.
For now I am running Crane long slot stamped steel rockers. not much can go wrong with them

[lmg1974]

Phillip I agree 100% now that I had time to mull it over.. what if I had a bad batch of castings... I will never know..

went on jegs price matched a mix set of 1.5 and 1.6 long slot self aligners. Worth the money for the piece of mind. Cranes.

oh I forgot to post images of my accessories set up on the front of my motor. All custom billet aluminum brackets by PRP. Great local guys, nice having a private owned racing company/manufacturer/machine shop nearby!!!

[Philip]

Here is what my rockers looked like when removed.







I am not an engineer but these patterns made me very uncomfortable with the rockers. Had they assured me it was something i would not experience again I may have remained a customer, but to tell me I had the only 16 bad rocker arms ever made was not good enough.

[lmg1974]

i ordered a full set of comp cams magnum roller rockers. They should be in tommorow or friday. Once they arrive I can fire her up and take her for a joy ride...err I mean dry run to shake the bugs out...

[Philip]

Originally Posted by lmg1974

i ordered a full set of comp cams magnum roller rockers. They should be in tommorow or friday. Once they arrive I can fire her up and take her for a joy ride...err I mean dry run to shake the bugs out...

Post a photo and what you think after seeing them. I have been thinking of using them too.

[lmg1974]

ok all in and running nicely now onto issues that need to be addressed... I ask you guys opinions as they will help me to decide. Im having an issue keeping this beast cool. She runs a bit hot and Im SURE its because I have no fan shroud on it. So my options are... 1) slap a universal shroud on her just to get it cooled off and driveable or ... 2) Order a champion cooling set up that includes a rad, shroud and dual electric fans.

Ima all about reliability and really dont want to rely on relays and sensors to keep my nova running well. On that same note the twin electric fans Idea does fall into line with the old meets new theme with this car.

By the ways pics and vids being uploaded soon. I am also scheduling a dyno session soon cause this thing has to have 350 horse to the wheels. If I open it up on my street (slight downhill mind you) from a roll I break the tires loose and hive to fight her to stay straight through 2nd gear...

Im geeting a bit hungry ... I may go order some RICE to go with thanksgiving leftovers....

[kimrobertson]

Originally Posted by lmg1974

ok all in and running nicely now onto issues that need to be addressed... I ask you guys opinions as they will help me to decide. Im having an issue keeping this beast cool. She runs a bit hot and Im SURE its because I have no fan shroud on it. So my options are... 1) slap a universal shroud on her just to get it cooled off and driveable or ... 2) Order a champion cooling set up that includes a rad, shroud and dual electric fans.

Ima all about reliability and really dont want to rely on relays and sensors to keep my nova running well. On that same note the twin electric fans Idea does fall into line with the old meets new theme with this car.

By the ways pics and vids being uploaded soon. I am also scheduling a dyno session soon cause this thing has to have 350 horse to the wheels. If I open it up on my street (slight downhill mind you) from a roll I break the tires loose and hive to fight her to stay straight through 2nd gear...

Im geeting a bit hungry ... I may go order some RICE to go with thanksgiving leftovers....

Knuckledragger recommended this radiator (link). I bought one ($218 to my door). Bolted right in stock mounts. Great radiator --plenty of cooling with two 1" rows...quality built in their own shop in Chicago. I run a stock 7 blade fan & shroud. My fan clutch was also bad so I got this Imperial (link) at Advance auto...made by Hayden in USA. No more cooling problems at all.

http://www.speedcooling.com/Radiator...-/prod_31.html

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/web...l+regular+duty

[lmg1974]

ok im actually using a new bbc radiator so the rad isnt the issue... though that is a sweet looking rad. My issue is a shroud of some kind. I have a spacer and a nylon fan so im good there.. I need to be able to suck a small child through my grill to cool this beast... all about the shroud at the moment.

[lmg1974]

ok I used a shroud from a junkyard and made a few small cuts to make it fit better.. worked decent.. however I can only get my temps into the 220 range... not cool enough for me... so... I gave champion radiators a call. 3 row rad with twin 12"fans is on its way to my door.

untill that arrives... heres a few sweet pics of my mouse motor in my granny nova..




and a view from the ffront to let you know I mean business....

yes thats my tranny cooler....

[lmg1974]

updates*****

Sorry been busy folks. Taking some pics tommorow when Im done. Yes the new exhaust from summit racing has arrived. Everything is on and she purrs like a kitten. No I did not put flowmasters on it... went with a 2.5" true duals kit from summit with turbo mufflers. Nice sedated rumble but you can hear the cam in it. Sounds nice and clean when you get on it too. Perfect for the old man cruiser.

Another update...
Issues with the 600 cfm summit racing carb caused me to go ahead and buy a new edelbrock 1406 600 cfm. Bolted on and worked PERFECTLY. This was a a far less aggravating resolution to 3 days of adjusting a knock off holley carb and no matter what I did it still wasnt right. I may adjust the jets and rods a slight bit... but for my rpm range its awesome, just like the one i used to have in my 79 z28.

Ok folks... pics to come soon... its been a rough week and Im so busy I snuck time in for the update. See you guys in spring...

chat at you again soon...

[lmg1974]

hey guys... well time for an update. The nova lives!!!

last update I put on an edelbrock 1406 carb and she idled awesome, but, dead spot to almost a stall upon rolling WOT. Jumping on it at a dead stop caused some very embarassing stall outs.

After days of banging my head to the wall, adjusting and rejetting the edelbrock and even triple checking my timing ( which was perfect by the way...) The problem reared its ugly head...

edelbrock 600 was too small and lean of a carb for this build. On to my research. Summit racing carb ( holley knock off) wouldnt hold idle and kept dumping raw gas ( defective, shipped back) and edelbrock was too lean, even after swapping everything.

Follow the links to see my resolution and hear/ see my baby run like she was meant too!!!

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

You Tube

let me know how im doing guys! Im busy making some coin at the moment. I am building up a nasty 283 sbc as a commision job for a guy with a vette

more updates coming soon!!!
ps I have started a you tube channel just look up Mr. Hubris74 !!!

see you guys soon!

[lmg1974]

Took the nova out tonight to try and tune the digital speedo. Long story short it needs calibration. So we decided to try out a digital GPS track tool. From a standing start.dry conditions and some serious wheel hop at launch,thanks to tired stock springs etc., actually pulled a 4.3 0-60 time. I didn't believe it but the other guy with me verified it. If I could actually get traction it would be faster!

Guess I designed and built a good one guys.