You have a nice nova.... Sweet turbo build too..

 

Awesome build!

 

I'm jealous of your turbossss

 

Haven't had a whole lot worthy of posting over the past 3 months. After I broke the pinion gear in the 10-bolt I bought a friend's cast off 12-bolt from his '71 Nova "Urban Legend Project". Pretty nice cast off parts if I say so myself. 12-bolt housing with 33 spline Moser axles with c-clip eliminators, 4.56 gears and a spool. I put it in my car with the 4.56 gears just to try out the spool on the street. I got a lot of advice pro & con for a spool. In the end it was a compromise based on money - lack of to be more accurate. However, the 4.56 gears simply wouldn't do. This past Saturday a friend helped me swap the gears and spool (went from a 4-series to a 3-series) to a more street and boost friendly 3.08 ratio. That was the first time I have ever set up a differential. Fairly tedious, but we eventually nailed the 2.855" pinion depth and .008" backlash with a resulting nice mesh pattern. I just finished up the re-install tonight and ran it briefly the jack stands.



On another note, I also recently added a programmable boost controller to help manage the power to the wheels. The one I finally settled on is from leash electronics - a time based, 5-stage, programmable controller that can use either manifold pressure or CO2. As much fun as I have had with 8 psi on the street, I can't wait to try more.


March is almost here. It's getting time to put all this collection of parts to the test at Huntsville Dragway.

Oh, and confession time - see if you can tell what I did wrong in this picture at 11:30 pm on Saturday night:

 

Now that is funny....

 

how did you do that.

 

two words......BAD ***

props to you man, building a hell of a car

 

good idea trying to bring some mass a little further inboard.

 

You know your hooking some serious power to start worrying about the weak links! I am a little surprised you didn't step up the u-bolts to 1/2".

I cannot wait to see this thing blast down the strip and embarrass whoever is in the other lane! Great job on the swap, you went above and beyond.

 

Finally made my first trip to the 1/8th mile dragstrip. I went out to make a couple passes before the rain hit but didn't get enough time to lean on it.

1st pass was a 6.43 @ 111 off the foot brake with a 1.55 second 60'
2nd pass was a 6.38 @ 112 with the transbrake and 1.44 second 60' (little rev-limit bump at the 1-2 shift)
With that baseline leaving at 6 psi and ramping up to 10 psi at half track I dialed it up a few psi for the third pass. Unfortunately either the stall converter or the transmission isn't up to the task of 14 psi - RPM shot up quickly when I shifted into 2nd and had to abort the pass. Then the rain came.

Looking back at the datalogs, both the first and second passes also showed flat RPM (5,400) in third gear plus some slip in second. Definitely need to tighten up something in the transmission and/or stall.

After swapping to street tires I drove back home in the rain. So I have some work before next attempt. To be continued...

 

So here you are, all this time. You probably told me about this thread....

Nice runs. With the mph gain one would expect with a turbo setup, you are solidly in the nines. My best ever NA passes in my Nova were around 110 mph and 6.3 seconds.

Got that certified cage in the car?

Ron

 

Congratulations Mr. C glad to hear that you were able to make a few passes. Sounds like everything is coming together nicely. Which mine was

 

So, since adding turbos my parts casualty list is:

1. Broke pinion gear in 10-bolt and upgraded to 12-bolt.
2. Blew through 10" PTC converter. Upgraded to 9.5" PTC converter
3. Broke sprag and wore out clutches in TH-400. Rebuilt with new 34-element sprag

Maybe my drivetrain is up to the task now? I should have the re-freshed transmission and torque converter back later this week and installed. I'm ready to start leaning on it a little more.

 

Even if it is, it isn't! That's been my experience anyway.

 

Turn it up! Cant wait to see how far you can take her. 25lbs on the first pass?

 

Mr. C it sounds as if you have found, and upgraded your ( current ) weak links. Good luck keep me informed.

Oh and I want to commend you for what you did on Andy's car Saturday. It's nice to know that there are people in this world that respects what others do for our freedom.

 

first shift of the first pass - momentarily dropped RPM then shot back up to 7000+. Looks like the sprag popped. I suppose I'll get back under it tonight and pull the transmission out, again. It doesn't really take all that long. This time I'll tear it down at home to see what's up. But I'm temporarily out of car fund money, so it may take some time to get a suitable transmission built. After 3+ years building the engine, harness, turbos I'm sidelined with parts breakage. I suppose that is a familiar story in hot rodding.

 

Crap. TH400 shouldn't have such issues.
Let us know what you find.

 

Man tough break. Good luck getting the demons out of it.

 

Mr. C sounds like your luck is like mine, if it wasn't bad you woudny have any. I would like to donate to your repair fund. Give ma a call if you are interested in porting polishing and setting up my new oil pump.