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Car weighs 2990lb with roughly 1/2 tank gas just as i bought it. All steal all glass full interior. Surgery begins out with the old sbc I didnt put any of these stickers in the engine bay.....probably done 20 plus yrs ago. These are the hooker headers that someone "modified " for starter clearance. Id say a good 60-70% closed on that one primary tube.
Pulled the front end off the car while waiting for the new front subframe to be built. Anyone that knows these cars will tell you about the front suspension being dangerous and a weak design. Anything out there aftermarket wise is a HUGE improvement. Removed those nostalgia hotrod stickers then on to repainting firewall Car was originally red. Figured since i have to wait on front end to get made i might as well touch up some spots before they become a problem. Im not a painter but this has to be better than what it was. Plus you cant see it under the front fender. Applied 4 coats of Krylon black along with 3 coats of clear.
I did a couple of Nova's. Great projects. First one was a 67 with a SBC/700R combo. Redid the front suspension with a Heidt clip that reused the stock frame rails. Cut down a Camaro 8.5 for the rear.
The other was a 67 Nova. LS1/TKO 600 combo. Then wanted a bit more power so I went with a LS2 sleeved and stroked to 427 cubes. I'm not a great stick guy so I went with a built 4L60E. Very fun car. Aftermarket front suspension. Aftermarket 4 link rear.
If you keep the stock front suspension I believe Church Brothers offers a for a LS swap.
Good luck with your project.
Couple of pics of my Nova projects.
FLT level 5 4l60e. Gotta have overdrive for a street car. If this was a heavy car or i had a power adder a 4l80 would have been used. BUT ...id also have to modify the floor pans to get one to fit so 60e it is. Yank ss4000 to help with some full throttle fun.
Smithracecraft strut front end. Its there street version mild steel and rack and pinion steering. It uses 3rd gen camaro struts and spindles. This thing is a work of art.
Picked up a 6.2L out of wrecked 2011 escalade with 60xxx miles. Pulled it apart and i could have reused all the bearings. But none the less...time for the hone and replace bearings a d rings.
Nothing but some mothers polish and elbow grease. All the journals ended up looking like a mirror. Before polishing i used some engine cleaning brushes and brake clean to clean out all the oil passage holes in the crankshaft journals These are some the main bearing clearances i came up with after moving some of the bearings around to get tighter clearances. Used some good old plastigauge just to confirm.
Just tip on the front sub frame. On my front clip swaps I had to shim the sub frame upper mounts to make the door to fender gap correct. Easier to do if the engine and trans are out. At your build stage it would be easy to bolt on the radiator support and front fenders and check the gaps.
Dingle ball hone to the rescue. Didnt really need to do it, as the cylinder walls looked almost perfect. But since im installing new piston rings what the hell. Deep cleaning with the engine brushes and a few cases of brake clean. Shortblock assembled. Just a recap....stock rods, stock pistons, stock crank, new rings and bearings.
Got a great deal on a slightly used set of Trickflow 235 heads. Came with trunion upgraded factory rockers. Gave a slight polishing to the combination chambers to help ward off detonation on them hot summer days. Milled the heads to get the chambers down to 60cc. Shooting for 11.8-1 compression. Also on a side not i CCed the intake runner and it measured 229cc. I had found 1 other post on here stating the TFS 235 measure less runner volume than advertised.
Lindy tool. Since i milled the heads and im running a mild to larger cam it a good idea to add some clearance. Only cut .060 on average. Getting closer, link bar morel lifters and TSP torquer v2 cam installed.
Going to have to run a TBSS intake for awhile. Alot of ther stuff to purchase before i need a different intake. Yes i know the intake is a 88mm opening with a 102mm TB. Its what i had...lol Huge lip/restriction....lol.
Test fitting engine and trans Finding the correct motor mounts is not my idea of a good time These didnt work either Bingo!!! Finally on the 3rd set i bought these fell right into place Ordered a churchboys racing trans x member. Works pretty good for what im doing. Core support and fender braces intalled. Next will be fenders, grill, bumper, headlights etc...
Griffen radiator for LS swap...think maybe for a 1st gen camaro. Going to cut off factory brackets and weld on different ones. Brackets welded along with 2 speed taurus fan mounted. Not the prettiest thing ive done. But then again this isnt a high dollar sema build either. Pretty happy with the results. Shouldnt have any problems with it cooling
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