'70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover

[Doug Hoven]

Here comes another part of the "story." I had a great time at the dyno with my engine. I was very impressed with myself that everything seemed happy and stayed in one piece, even on the final pull where I decided to go past 7k rpm. I was a little disappointed with the power numbers, but for what it is, I considered it a very successful day at the dyno at RBRE. Now I needed a car to put it in. The date was June 24th. Billy and I had just finished wrapping up what we could with the car with the parts we had available. What I had was pretty much for all intents and purposes a V/SA car with a rollbar, subframe connectors, most of a new carpet, with more material on order from Lutty's in PA (highly recommend), and had 10 days until my proposed "debut" at Numidia for the t+t before the double header. Well I got the car home that night and went to work immediately. With the help of a friend, and some last minute parts runs, we were able to swap the powerglide and 6 cylinder for the small block and metric. Throughout that week I worked on the car for about 6 hours a day. Would come home from work at 3, and, sometimes with help from my Dad, my uncle, and or some other friends, worked on the car until about 9-10pm each day. We decided against cutting up the unmolested 12 bolt that was put in the car years ago, and went for a rear that needed some work anyway. I got rid of the 5/16 fuel line, and opted for a 1/2 line instead. Well long story short I made it to Numidia that wednesday for the test and tune. Out of the box I went the best of an 11.64 at 110 mph, but at the end of the day, the car, and ultimately the oil filter told me something was going very sour with my engine. Even though they can get pricey, I am very thankful for my easily readable KP oil filter....

[Doug Hoven]

Well here's where things got a little "dicey" with my project. After pulling and reading my oil filter, there was an obvious bearing issue going on. The first thing that came to mind was I thought I was done for the season. Well, that didn't happen. As a matter of fact I was back at Numidia 3 days later ready to run the division race. That Wednesday night, my uncle and I had yanked the engine, and blew it apart to inspect the damage. It turns out that all of the bearings were junk, but the big issue was I spun number 6 rod bearing, ruining the connecting rod, and bending the crank .009 in the process. I was and still am very grateful to have been able to dig through some surplus small block parts my uncle had leftover, including a good crank, and some good (relatively speaking) stock connecting rods. So after running around finding bearings, having the rods honed for bearing clearance, and a lot of cleaning, we were back in business to begin assembly Friday morning. After a few hiccups Friday morning, it wasn't until noon that I was able to begin assembly. Well everything sort of just "fell together" and by 6pm, the car was back on the trailer, and I found myself back at Numidia late that evening. The car ran fairly well at the race, and I was very happy, even though I lost first round. Since then, I've been very happy with the progress I've made in picking the car up little by little. Even though it's only gone .50 under in NHRA competition, I'm quite happy with how the car has been running for me.

[Doug Hoven]

The first picture was the not so nice sight of my oil filter after my first day of testing. The second picture was before the first of 2 heads up races I've had already in competition.

[Tim H]

Any updates or plans for the Nova during the off season ?

[Doug Hoven]

Originally Posted by Tim H

Any updates or plans for the Nova during the off season ?

I have a few things in the works for next season. Took the engine out a few weeks ago and tore it down. Was pleased with the condition of all the parts, and hopefully picking the block up soon after getting a fresh hone for next year. Mostly going back together with fresh rings, bearings, gaskets, valve job,etc. I may try a different camshaft. Taking the stock rods out and replacing them with the Crower rods that I originally installed on the first build, with the exception of a replacement rod. That's about it for the engine. Even though it worked fine, I'm going to take the initiative to give the transmission a once over, maybe try and make some small changes to improve what I have. I'm going to replace the original rear monoleaf springs with a good used set of calvert split-monos. I may change out the comp engineering "slide-a-link" bars for some caltracs, but not sure yet. (side note, at the end of the year I had a 1.43 60ft with the current setup) I might change out the original front springs as well to give the front some more energy. I will probably "spiff up" the brake system as well. Front disks are not really in the budget for this year, but a good freshen up of the drums should make the car a bit nicer to drive.

[Greg Reimer 7376]

Great start on your Nova build. I always like reading about projects and how they evolve with time and use. That 60 foot sounds about awesome. The main thing about this project is how it evolves as you continue to use it. That's the fun thing about this sport.Keep it up and see a lot of Win lights!

[Larry Hill]

Great progress in such a shot time.