'70 Nova V/SA to F/SA Makeover

[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.

[Doug Hoven]

I've come to learn that sometimes ignorance is bliss. When I "threw" my engine back together in July, it was found that my brand new Eagle crank was off .009 in the middle journal due to the spun rod bearing and all that extra heat and friction. Luckily for me there was a steel GM crank that was recently in an engine that ended up expiring due to other issues. Got some .020 under rod and main bearings, which was difficult in a hurry, and slapped it back together after cleaning the "trash" out of the block the best we could. Well, I decided that I would have the crank balanced before putting it back together this year. Set up the bob weights, and found that the way I was running the crank was 80 grams underbalanced. Funny enough the engine didn't vibrate one bit the way it was. At that point I decided that I wasn't going to put that kind of effort and money in a 50 year old crankshaft, and "sprung" for another cast Eagle crank like I had initially.