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Greta, the green 1973 Nova

2K views 16 replies 5 participants last post by  8100gasguzzler 
#1 ·
Hello all,
I am starting a build thread for Greta, the Green 1973 Nova. We've been working on it for the better part of 5 years and am finally seeing the light at the end of the build tunnel.
All of the work including the painting has been performed in a garage or lately our hobby shop and is not a 100 pt show car, but what we are looking for, a 5 ft daily driver. Bring on Power tour and drag and drives.
Here is a link to my google photos Nova folder. Take a look at it.
Here are a few pictures of its current state.

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#6 ·
I was asked about the fuel injection.
Everything is Holley. 4500 flange Oval port multiport manifold that came with fuel rails. 4500 elbow. Sniper EFI 102 Throttle body with LS1 TPS and IAC. Holley fuel tank with 250LPH pump. Holley regulator. -8 an aluminum line under the car to -8 lines for the engine and -8 aluminum return lines to help reduce backpressure and increase fuel cooling. Pontiac G8 injectors (gonna be close to the edge at max RPM). To tie it all together is a LS 24x/1x Terminator X ECU and wiring harness. The engine is already designed for port fuel injection so the factory distributor is a 1x crank signal.
EFI connection sells the distributor plug to rewire the LS wiring harness to the 454 distributor. Since the engine will effectively be an LS engine, you can run the ls coil near plug and not have to worry about a distributor cap and long plug wires. EFI connection sells a blanking cap for the top of the distributor.
EFI Connection produces a LS 24x reluctor wheel for either the vortec 350 or 454. This signal is the same as the early LS, so you could find a take out wire harness and LS computer instead. The crank position sensor is in the front of the motor in the front cover and EFI connection sells the plug and pigtail to match the vortec 454 crank position sensor. The crank wiring had to be lengthened anyway so changing the plug was pretty straight forward.
The 454 uses a 1 wire knock sensor on each bank. The LS has 1 wire knock sensors located in the valley. Ebay purchase the plugs and lengthen the LS wiring to each knock sensor and you now have knock control also.
Lastly, all of the other sensors have to be LS1 sensors to work with the ecu. There are standard NPT to metric pipe thread adaptors that can be purchased to adapt. The big ones are the oil pressure and coolant temp. To make it easier, I am also running a separate set of sensors for the digital dash.

I have had this system running and am starting to tune with it and so glad to not have a carb!! I understand that this is not a system for everyone as it is a little daunting getting it wired and up and running but having the 454 wiring diagrams laying beside the Holley diagrams made it tolerable.
 
#8 ·
I was asked about the fuel injection.
Everything is Holley. 4500 flange Oval port multiport manifold that came with fuel rails. 4500 elbow. Sniper EFI 102 Throttle body with LS1 TPS and IAC. Holley fuel tank with 250LPH pump. Holley regulator. -8 an aluminum line under the car to -8 lines for the engine and -8 aluminum return lines to help reduce backpressure and increase fuel cooling. Pontiac G8 injectors (gonna be close to the edge at max RPM). To tie it all together is a LS 24x/1x Terminator X ECU and wiring harness. The engine is already designed for port fuel injection so the factory distributor is a 1x crank signal.
EFI connection sells the distributor plug to rewire the LS wiring harness to the 454 distributor. Since the engine will effectively be an LS engine, you can run the ls coil near plug and not have to worry about a distributor cap and long plug wires. EFI connection sells a blanking cap for the top of the distributor.
EFI Connection produces a LS 24x reluctor wheel for either the vortec 350 or 454. This signal is the same as the early LS, so you could find a take out wire harness and LS computer instead. The crank position sensor is in the front of the motor in the front cover and EFI connection sells the plug and pigtail to match the vortec 454 crank position sensor. The crank wiring had to be lengthened anyway so changing the plug was pretty straight forward.
The 454 uses a 1 wire knock sensor on each bank. The LS has 1 wire knock sensors located in the valley. Ebay purchase the plugs and lengthen the LS wiring to each knock sensor and you now have knock control also.
Lastly, all of the other sensors have to be LS1 sensors to work with the ecu. There are standard NPT to metric pipe thread adaptors that can be purchased to adapt. The big ones are the oil pressure and coolant temp. To make it easier, I am also running a separate set of sensors for the digital dash.

I have had this system running and am starting to tune with it and so glad to not have a carb!! I understand that this is not a system for everyone as it is a little daunting getting it wired and up and running but having the 454 wiring diagrams laying beside the Holley diagrams made it tolerable.
Awesome thank you very much!
 
#11 ·
I just realized it has been a year since updating. Greta has been quite a character. Finally getting some time to put 500 miles on her and generating a final punch list to finish her up by spring. Here is an evening stroll we had and I'm finally getting around to polishing off some of the interior touches such as lit cup holders and getting the dash dimming figured out. with the 6 speed in there she purrs at 1900 rpm on our 80 mph speedways....er interstates. Gonna be an awesome driver none the less.
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#13 ·
Lots of work here good job, Your belt system looks to be flexing a bunch does it throw a belt ?

I have a friend trying to sell me his roller Ventura with all the GTO front end parts including the shaker it a AZ-PHX car dry no rust Minus the drive train any thoughts on a value ?
 
#14 ·
Thanks. She has come a long way! The belt system was a home made design that had a few issues was so we changed it out to a March Performace belt system. Much improved and no nervous moments. it's seen a few 'spirited' moments and held up well.

I don't know values of cars really so it is up to you As to what you feel it is worth.
 
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