IronBlocked

It's going really well man

Boostedhatch

Whats gonna be the plan for the rear?

JoeNova

For now, not much. Stick with multi-leafs. Run adjustable QA1 shocks and Caltracs. Lots of cars running 8s with this setup. Convert to disc brakes possibly, depends on what I do with the actual rear. Run the 8.5" 10-bolt til it blows. I'd like to swap in an 8.8 but I'm honestly considering getting an S60 from Strange. An 8.8 would be lighter and soak up less power. I could get an explorer 8.8, cut to length, get 33 splines with a Truetrac and ford 9" ends and be done with it.

I might drop the rear a little since the front sits INCREDIBLY low with the new front suspension (I couldn't imagine having opted for the drop spindles... my shop crane scrapes the control arms when I wheel it under them).

85Iroc

iTrader: (12)

I don't know what you have done to your 8.5 but imo they are tougher than given credit for. Ran one in my Iroc for a few years, mini-spool and gears, other than that it was completely stock. Made many 6.0 1/8th passes and it didn't break a stock axle until we dipped into the 5.90s.

JoeNova

I'll hang onto it for a while. It has 31 spline axles, a Detroit locker and c clip eliminators. It should hold up. But when the time comes I'll be making the switch to something a little more stout. I'll never break the S60, but I'm not sure I wanna give up that much weight and power.

ryanleiker

iTrader: (2)

Contemplate the S60 a little more. You're running a turbo car and gearing is more essential than an N/A car. The S60 is a little limited on how low the gears can go, which is why I went with the 9" instead because I could get more gearing options and every bit as much strength by the time it was built.

JoeNova

The lowest I could go on an S60 was 3.54 which is the only reason I don't have one yet.

extrememachine

Nice build!
I'm very curious on the total weight savings (if any) you are seeing with the new subframe/suspension.

JoeNova

Weight savings was around 120 lbs. I lost 60 or so from the actual subframe. Shocks and control arms dropped 25 lbs. 35 from rack and pinion and disc brakes. I think overall it may have been closer to 150 lbs but I wasn't overly thorough with the way that I weighed them. I used a bathroom scale and for the actual frame I picked up the old one and stepped on it, and did the same with the new one. The 30 lb offset mostly comes in the fact that the new crossmember is a bit heavier, ad were the motor mount stands, and there were no brake lines or anything on the new frame at the time... So I'm gonna go with roughly 120 lbs.

With the new radiator, aluminum LS compared to all iron big block, and a few other things... I'll be dropping 300+ lbs off of the nose of the car.

extrememachine

Wow! good job. That is a weight savings that you will notice!

JoeNova

Honestly the weight savings should be more significant.

The big block weighed 700 lbs complete. This is a running pull-out. Carb to pan, brackets, alternator, starter, distributor. Iron heads, iron water pump, headers, flywheel, damper, pump fan, etc.

My L33 weighed in at a massive 310 lbs as a long-block only with alternator and bracket. I'm guessing fully dressed with manifolds, crossover, flywheel, mounts, coils, etc.. probably in the 360-370 lbs range. We will say 330 lbs loss, minus the 40 lbs for the switch to a 4L80e, so 290 on engine/trans swap alone.

That brings me to 410 lbs with subframe swap. 425 with aluminum radiator and new overflow tank.
Swapping out the rear shocks to QA1 aluminum and the huge traction bars to Caltracs is probably another 25 lbs. So I'm at 450 lbs of weight savings!

The car will get painted probably next year. I have fiberglass bumpers and fiberglass trunk lid to install before this happens. Thats another 50 lbs. I'll be at roughly a 500 lb overall savings at the end. How much of that gets added back in is undecided. I really want to put heating/air in the car and a little bit of a stereo (nothing drastic). That plus the FatMat and slightly heavier seats is probably 150 lbs total. I'm still down 350 lbs when I'm done. I have literally no complaints about that.

RonSSNova

iTrader: (3)

Car w/o me.
L33 single BW S400

Ron

JoeNova

What's your front suspension like? Stock frame and control arms? Stock steering box? Glass or steel hood?

I'd like to think I can get close to 3000 lbs without me in it once the fiberglass bumpers and trunk are on.

RonSSNova

iTrader: (3)

Yeah, all stock. Power steering too. Glass hood and bumpers. I also have lexan side glass, except the drivers door.

JoeNova

So I've been a busy bee. Haven't really had much time, but when I do get a couple of days, I pretty much camp out in the garage.

Last time I left off with a post about a cheap set of wheels.
I stripped them down, grabbed some 275/40/18 Eagle F1 tires for $30/pair on craigslist, and used some of that cheap Peel Coat from Autozone to make them look halfway decent. I also had to open up the center bore on the front wheels and use spacers to make them fit. Now they fit perfect and I have more than enough clearance at full lock.





I also cut the rear end out of the car. I think this 10-bolt is a 8.2". It does have a locker but it appears to have stock axles an no c-lip eliminators. The 4.10 gear isn't going to help me out, either.

So I started digging around on what else I could use. Stock 12 bolts for a nova are a fortune on craigslist, $1200+. I noticed that the 94-98 Mustang GT 8.8 rears are the same width as the 12 bolt, come with 5-lug disk brakes and a posi diff. I can redrill the rotors and axles very cheap with a $30 piece I found online. You bolt it over the rotor and then drill your new holes for various bolt patterns. After a little digging, I found various 8.8 rear ends with a spool and 31 or 33 spline axles, with the disk brakes, for only $500. Looks like I'll be getting an 8.8.

The rear leaf pads were completely shot so I picked up some new ones from Energy. Luckily, the shackle bushings look new. My only major hang-up is that I had to cut out ALL of the bolts holding the leafs on since they were too rusted to turn. New OEM hardware is a fortune. A bolt kit is like $60. I'm still not sure what to do here. At least the Caltracs and rear shocks are here. Pressing the old bushings out of the front eye on the leaf springs was a PAIN.





Afterwards, I started on the floors. I got the old floors completely cut out, and the new ones test-fitted. I had a friend come over with his MIG and giant gas bottle, and after quite a few beers and a couple pints of Jagermeister, the floors and firewall were in!

Cutting into the cowl revealed either a giant bird nest or rats nest, took a while to clean up.






And then onto the floors.

You can see the enormous amounts of patch panels I had to make so I could cut out all of the rust in the floors. LOTS of patching.





Here is the modification we had to make for the transmission cooler lines. They hit the floor pretty hard, so we had to add a 3" bubble. I did manage to find where the cooler will be mounted. Just below the rear passenger seat.



And after a quick coat of chassis paint:



And then I used FatMat sound deadener. I picked up 100 sq feet for $150 on ebay. I ended up only needing 50 sq feet for the floor, firewall, cowl, and underside of the dash. Maybe I'll find a place for the rest of it?

JoeNova

Here is basically where I am right now.

I slapped the new carpet in, put the back seat and seat belts back in, and started test fitting the front seats. Unfortunately, they weren't pre-drilled for the sliders. I had to drill/tap them myself. While drilling a hole in the drivers side seat, I had a drill bit snap and a piece stuck in my eye. A trip to Urgent Care solved this, but damn it sucks having metal removed from your eye (yes, I was wearing safety glasses... from now on I'll be wearing a full face shield).

The biggest problem with the seats is they are too wide. The hit the tunnel and the rocker panel humps. I have to lift the seats about an inch and a half. I used half inch spacers in between the sliders and the seats. I cut 1" spacers to lift the sliders off of the floor, but I don't think this is going to work. I can't slide the seat forward or backward enough to reveal the sliders below, so I can't actually tighten down the seats to the floor. I'll have to make brackets out of angle iron or something to extend the sliders and lift the seats from the floor.




I grabbed a grinder and smoothed out the welds on the firewall. Now I'm filling in the small cracks and holes with body filler. I'll sand it all smooth before priming and painting the same color as the front subframe. Then the engine/transmission will go back in, and won't be coming back out.



Unfortunately I dented the transmission pan while playing around with the crossmember, so the pan fell onto the floor jack below and put a half inch or so dent in it. I'll have to drop the pan and hammer it back out.


In other news, I decided to ditch the GT45 and picked up a S474 from Apex with a billet compressor wheel and high flow housing. I also got the 87mm T4. For less than $900 shipped, this seems like a hell of a steal. My only complaint is the divided T4 housing. I don't want to build too much backpressure. I might knife-edge the housing for slightly better flow.

When it showed up, my little girl wouldn't stay away from it. For her, it was as much of a shiny new toy as it was for me. So she just had to be in the picture.






The only thing that worries me is this small crack. It looks like it was a little damaged during shipping. Is this something I should be worried about, or can I hit it with the TIG until I get a small puddle and just puddle the hole back together???

GMCtrk

iTrader: (23)

What's high flow about the compressor cover? It looks like a standard BW cover that's polished.

RonSSNova

iTrader: (3)

Can't help you with the crack.
But I wouldn't knife edge the divider. Just round it nicely.
Knife edging just confuses the exh flow and will bias it to one side or the other.

Nice work on the floor pans. As well as the fire wall.

The 8.8 is essentially a 12 bolt with the Fud name on it. Will work really well.

JoeNova

The inlet is a standard 5" inlet. The outlet and the neck right before it are larger than a normal S475 cover.

I'm still worried about the crack on the inside. The outside has a very slight dent in it. There isn't any scratching on it so it MAY have been damaged in shipping since this would normally mean it was dropped while wrapped.

I may try to squeeze my tig torch in there and puddle it back together.

JoeNova

12 bolts around here to fit a 3rd gen nova or 1st gen F body are a fortune. There is even one on craigslist that is all stock for $2000. Most are still over $1000 and they all have 4.56 or so gears swapped into them.

I stumbled across a 95 GT 8.8 with 31 spline Moser axles with an explorer 31 spline posi diff, complete with brakes and stock 3.27 gears for $350 on craigslist. Then I find another with 33 splines, a spool, complete with disk brakes (E-brake as well) for $500. It seems the 8.8 is the way to go. I'm probably looking at $800 MAX once I redrill, add new studs, weld the tubes, and add leaf spring perches. For something that was based off of the 12 bolt, thats an unbeatable price.

I'm looking for a 3.27 or 3.55 (no shorter than 3.55) gear. I'll grab an 8.8 and swap in the factory 3.27 ring gear.

The explorer rear is an option, but it has a downfall. Once you even out the axle tubes to equal length, its 3" or so more narrow that a stock nova rear and the pinion will be offset to the side by 1.5" or so. The Mustang 8.8s have 28 spline axles and smaller tubes, but the pinion is centered and they have disk brakes. I'll weld the tubes, and at the very least swap in a welded explorer diff with 31 spline axles.