Nice car! building it up yourself will make the car more special to you. id def go with something bet than power glide unless you plan on dragging it at the strip,or light to light. its been my exp that you have to make room on fire wall when changing from 6 to 8. don't know on 73, my old one came with a 307. that was out quick in fav of a 350 with some toys in it. im sure you'll have as much fun with yours as i did. good to see the young continuing on building old real muscle. wont bash the iroc had one myself,loved it. good luck.
Hey thanks man! And yeah a 283 is already in it and I have a super t10 right now just not in it, I'm sure it'll be fun I'm just trying to scrape up money and spend wisely hopefully it'll come out as badass as I imagine
well over-due update but better late than broke.
I recently got the garage clean enough to pull the car in and I am working on pulling the powerglide out. Everything needed for the swap is in my house and ready to go in the car, i'll try to put up part numbers as well
32 spline 1310 yoke part # AXE-T400-HD
Hurst street super shifter part # 391 7535
installation kit competition plus part # 373 8616
Ground up Manual transmission conversion kit part # FMCK-69S
Clutch fork and bellhousing hardware part # in picture
Ram lightwieght flywheel part # 1510-10
Ram clutch/pressure plate kit part # RAM-88761HDX
its been way too long for an update and unfortunately I don't have any pictures at the moment. First things first, the blow proof bell needed "dialed in" a shop had agreed to do it for an over estimate of $700 that's leaving room for custom fab work, they never called me about a towing quote so i bought a GM bell housing for $40 and put it together. Anyone doing this conversion I suggest a brass bushing not a roller bearing, I ran into trouble installing the transmission with the bearing. After you install the bushing please check the input shaft will slide in with ease I've disassembled the clutch to re-align it countless times for that reason. If you run into the problem I did, take a bolt a little bit smaller than the bushing, wrap some sand paper around it and work it until the input shaft can slide in with ease. More cutting of the transmission tunnel was necessary than I had anticipated using the Hurst Competition shifter which has a nice short throw but it does sit close to the seat, no interference though. I will post more pictures in the morning.
Thanks for all the pictures, they are really helpful. I'm about to do a similar conversion on a '74 nova. Only I'm going from a th350 to a M20. I'm trying to decide what shifter to buy and if i need the manual transmission hump or not.
This weekend I managed to get the old ugly door panels off, my original plan was to get 68-72 doors or glass ones but getting these door panels changed my mind. They're not perfect but I'm going for a beater look for now while I update the 4-drum brakes and leaf spring suspension. Got the mirrors on also but no need to have them re-chromed if its not a show car :tongue:
These gauges were laying on the floor before, not exactly sure what normally goes here manybe a/c and heat vents? Well its gauges now
A lot has happened since the last update, z bar was hitting my headers. Research showed I needed new headers some double y header, personally $600 and silly looking headers wasn't an option so I took the bar the connects the clutch pedal goes through the firewall and connects to the z bar and had a welding shop add 3" to it rotating the bar enough to not touch the header but still allow the process to work properly pictures of the welded bar
here you can see where they welded it
well since I put headers on I may as-well
out with the old
in with the new
got the loudest they had to offer
still needs 2.5" to 3" tips on it
while I was at Carlisle swap meet this year I did a thing
they're from a c6 corvette
a little bit of measuring, drilling, and bolting old rails on new seats and here we go!
scheduled an inspection, and I needed 1 outer tie rod, upper control arm bushings on one side and a pitman arm, so I did both sides inner/outer tie rods, adjustment sleeves, both sides upper control arm bushings and new ball joints along with the pitman arm. Scheduled another inspection and I'm glad to say this happened for the first time in years for this car
As of right now I need to get it aligned and put the carpet in. After that hopefully a tach, and put the dash in it.
Thanks man, I've definitely got to a point of no motivation over the fall/winter with pilot bushing issues but once I got it to roll ad go in and out of gear I'm glad to take my extra money and put it into this car.
What type of headers did you have? I'm doing the same conversion on my 74. It has long tube headers. Just wondering if I'll run into the same problem. Thanks.
What type of headers did you have? I'm doing the same conversion on my 74. It has long tube headers. Just wondering if I'll run into the same problem. Thanks.
Well my guess would be yes, but I could have bad motor mounts, I lifted the engine while the trans was out to do the oil pan gasket and rear main seal without knowing how bad my mounts were and that could be the problem I'm holding off on doing those when I get a new engine so unfortunately you'll have to find out. Expect to run into the problem but I wouldn't modify the bar without knowing. Goodluck! P.S mine are long tube headers aswell
Yeah i will have to wait in see. I'm also switching to Moroso solid motor mounts, and it looks like they may raise the engine a little higher than the stock mounts. But I'll have to wait and see i guess. Thanks.
I'm not entirely sure how many people are still following this, but there's a few changes I'd like to share and a pretty good reason I haven't made many updates lately.
A little bit of a bumper tuck, just tried to make it look even and fit closer to the body.
Got a tachometer in there along with a dash
Got the carpet in for the most part, a few bubbles and stuff and the edges aren't trimmed up yet but we're getting there
Bad picture but the tachometer I choose to use.
I got new gauges to match the tach so I can get rid of the ugly sunpro ones
The mount I made so I didn't ruin a brand new dash pad.
2.5"-3" tips from gibson, bumper is off until I can figure out how to make it closer to the body as well, if anyone has a link to a write up on the best way to go about it feel free to share it.
Updates have slowed down due to me saving money for a 12 bolt posi rear, I'll be at the Carlisle swap meet this year looking for one preferably 3.73 must be posi would consider 3.55. I also went full time at work so now I'm making the money I need to finish the project but now I'm having less time to work on it. Funny how that works isn't it?
Sometimes i wonder on here if anybody actually works they seem to have all the time in the world to restore their cars! For the rest of us we find the hour here and there in between our jobs and daily life.
To answer your question about the rear Bumper I did the mod on my 74 and if im not mistaken i took the 5mph crash shocks off drilled a hole in it to make sure there was no pressure or oil in them. Then i cut them down and welded them back together. I think that was about 8 years ago so i might be mistaken i will try to snap a pic for you.
I will also be attending spring Carlisle swap meet as I do every year. I live close to Montreal qc. Canada we drive up
The 7hr drive to get the deals we dont see here.
So yet another update, since I have to work to buy stuff it took a little while but here we go! Next is brakes then suspension we're getting there!
12 Bolt direct bolt in from Moser, got 3.73's and 33 spline bolt in axles with a trutrac posi unit bolt in axles I did order it with a 1310 yoke but after reading how much trouble they can be with a lot of power I bought the 1350 and swapped them out. Took the transmission to get re-bearinged since it was making a good bit of noise I don't have pictures of that but I'm still chipping away
2.5"-3" tips from gibson, bumper is off until I can figure out how to make it closer to the body as well, if anyone has a link to a write up on the best way to go about it feel free to share it.
:
Thanks for the link! That turned out really nice, I would've gotten my 10 bolt rebuilt but between the posi unit and the axles plus labor since I don't have confidence to do it myself it would've been close to 2K if not over and I was scared I'd never finish it so I just ordered a built one. I really like the black housing both of ours is painted with the aluminum cover so much cleaner than the chrome ones IMO!
Thanks for the link! That turned out really nice, I would've gotten my 10 bolt rebuilt but between the posi unit and the axles plus labor since I don't have confidence to do it myself it would've been close to 2K if not over and I was scared I'd never finish it so I just ordered a built one. I really like the black housing both of ours is painted with the aluminum cover so much cleaner than the chrome ones IMO!
A forum community dedicated to all Chevy Nova, Chevy II, Acadian owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more!