Nova going in under the knife
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 4,188
Likes: 292
From: woodbine, md
A little victory today, and a little defeat, lol-worked on wiring for the starter, so decided I would combine testing the starter and seeing if I could build oil pressure off the starter. I pack the oil pumps with a small amount of trans assemb. grease, seems to help with suction. Just before spinning it over, I pulled the plug on the side of the engine, squirted some oil in there (goes to the pump). After a little cranking, filling the filter, I saw 5-7 lbs, good enough. Also finished up the hood latch. Tried programming the trans controller (Msd Atomic) but giving me fits with the TPS. Had 4 errors, got it down to 2, the diag. tells me what to look for, but everything is good. First time I used this controller, seems it could butt heads with the Holley HP if trying to adjust the IAC. Hopefully I can find someone to help, but not much out there on these things. Anyway, kind of stoked about having oil pressure, if you have ever fought that on an LS engine, you know what I mean, lol.
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 4,188
Likes: 292
From: woodbine, md
Its alive-needs some tuning for sure, pretty rich on startup, I suspect I need to open up the throttle blade some. If I hold the throttle down I can keep it running, all systems seem OK-I raised the CL status, hopefully that will let it respond quicker. Have a pesky fuel leak where I use a male/female swivel with a port for the fuel pressure sensor, could just temp. eliminate it for now since the pressure is set. Still haven't figured out the trans controller, but not to worried about that yet, plenty of other stuff to do, lol.
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 4,188
Likes: 292
From: woodbine, md
Played with the tune this morn., thought I might have a bad IAC sensor, so I swapped in another I had, cured the problems-idles now, starts up without being rich, etc. Got me a little pumped, so I broke out the sand blaster, blasted the front inner fender, fender wells, now I can roll on that stuff.
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 4,188
Likes: 292
From: woodbine, md
Friday turned out to be a bigger day than expected, besides finding the problem (IAC) for the engine, and getting the fenders sand blasted (nasty job) I dove into the trans controller trying to get the TPS cal., found 2 transposed wires-now it syncs up, diag. show all good.
Today it gets a new windshield, not one of my fav. jobs, but not bad.
Getting the front end back on is now the pri.
Today it gets a new windshield, not one of my fav. jobs, but not bad.
Getting the front end back on is now the pri.
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 4,188
Likes: 292
From: woodbine, md
Took the exhaust off, wrapped the down pipe up to the trans x mem., and the crossover pipe, reinstalled with those band clamps. The mufflers are some old Summit ones I had laying around, considering Dynomax super turbos, or the ultras that are straight thru. Its actually pretty quite now, and I still have to add tailpipes. Unfort a little disaster, I guess some mice setup housekeeping in one of the mufflers, blew it right out, lol. Fired it up today, first restart since tweaking tune with the new IAC, kind of shocked me, fired right up, idled like a champ. I'll work on the tune later when its closer to driving. Still need to bleed the brakes, and a pesky fuel leak, unfor. the line from the tank to the cutoff, but only a foot of #12-prob switch to push loc.
I had a vid of it running, but wont let me upload it, to big I guess, lol.
I had a vid of it running, but wont let me upload it, to big I guess, lol.
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Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 4,188
Likes: 292
From: woodbine, md
Making more progress, the interior is in (carrying a bench seat is rough on the old back, lol) painted the inner fender wells, decide to shoot some paint on the front fenders (I sand blasted them). It was kind of leave them primer for a while, or shoot them in color even though wont match the old paint, Mulsanne blue. I just gave them a quick couple coats of Eastwood single stage, when I shoot the whole car i'll redo them. Getting the front end back on will be huge to finishing a lot of stuff under the hood. Drove it for the first time, not really, just 2 feet, had to move it back to get the seat in, didn't feel like pushing it back in place on the lift, lol.
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 4,188
Likes: 292
From: woodbine, md
Today is moving day, threw enough parts on the car to attempt a drive around the block. some of the wiring is just temp, waiting on #4 wire to wire the alt to the bat in the trunk, and need to dress up the front harness. Going to throw the laptop on, tweak the tune a little, then go for a ride around the block, see what falls off, lol. I need my lift so I can find a rattle underneath my daily driver anyway. I switched out the Summit mufflers for some Dynamax surper turbos, want to see how they sound. Sunday I will finish the tail pipes.
Rethinking the exterior color, in my haste to get paint on the front fenders, I did a **** poor job of blocking, so some waves, it wasn't going to be permanent anyway, but not happy with what I did.
Rethinking the exterior color, in my haste to get paint on the front fenders, I did a **** poor job of blocking, so some waves, it wasn't going to be permanent anyway, but not happy with what I did.
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 4,188
Likes: 292
From: woodbine, md
Well, it never made it beyond sticking the *** out of the garage. Fans failed to kick on, then for some reason the alt. died. I figured out the fan problem, their staged from the Holley HP. Found the ground wasn't very good to the relays, so fixed that, then I had the wires from the relays reversed, and was only powering one relay and it was the sec fan.
Then the alt died, was charging. It was the 105 amp that came orig with the engine. The plug only had one wire, so I hooked +12 to it, seemed to be ok-orig hooked the idiot light up to it, but it wouldn't charge, so I tried the +12. Always been some confusion on wiring these alts. Would like to step up to a higher amp. one, gotta do some research. I think with having the bat in the trunk, and not having it wired from the alt to the bat. yet isn't giving the bat a good recharge. Should have the #4 wire Tuesday, then figure out the alt problem.
Then the alt died, was charging. It was the 105 amp that came orig with the engine. The plug only had one wire, so I hooked +12 to it, seemed to be ok-orig hooked the idiot light up to it, but it wouldn't charge, so I tried the +12. Always been some confusion on wiring these alts. Would like to step up to a higher amp. one, gotta do some research. I think with having the bat in the trunk, and not having it wired from the alt to the bat. yet isn't giving the bat a good recharge. Should have the #4 wire Tuesday, then figure out the alt problem.
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 4,188
Likes: 292
From: woodbine, md
Took the nova for its maiden voyage today, everything worked ok-was just a few blocks, didn't want to go to far where I couldn't walk home, lol.
The converter is tighter than I want, one day i'll pull it and have it restalled. It tends to die when I put it in gear, was hoping I could tune some of that out (Holley HP) but I haven't hit on the right adjustments yet. Over all satisfied how it ran, gotta install the hood, front bumper (doing a tuck) and tie down the bat in the trunk.
The converter is tighter than I want, one day i'll pull it and have it restalled. It tends to die when I put it in gear, was hoping I could tune some of that out (Holley HP) but I haven't hit on the right adjustments yet. Over all satisfied how it ran, gotta install the hood, front bumper (doing a tuck) and tie down the bat in the trunk.
Just looked at the entire thread
.Excellent work ! This aint your first rodeo, is it , lol
Quick thought. On the exhaust system, wont a pair of 2 1/2" pipes be a restriction for the 4" DP ? I did the math when i built my turbo exhaust and saw that dual 3" pipes are a slight restriction for a 4" DP
Anyway, great job on the build !
.Excellent work ! This aint your first rodeo, is it , lol
Quick thought. On the exhaust system, wont a pair of 2 1/2" pipes be a restriction for the 4" DP ? I did the math when i built my turbo exhaust and saw that dual 3" pipes are a slight restriction for a 4" DP
Anyway, great job on the build !
Just looked at the entire thread
.Excellent work ! This aint your first rodeo, is it , lol
Quick thought. On the exhaust system, wont a pair of 2 1/2" pipes be a restriction for the 4" DP ? I did the math when i built my turbo exhaust and saw that dual 3" pipes are a slight restriction for a 4" DP
Anyway, great job on the build !
.Excellent work ! This aint your first rodeo, is it , lol
Quick thought. On the exhaust system, wont a pair of 2 1/2" pipes be a restriction for the 4" DP ? I did the math when i built my turbo exhaust and saw that dual 3" pipes are a slight restriction for a 4" DP
Anyway, great job on the build !
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 4,188
Likes: 292
From: woodbine, md
I wasn't to worried about rest., I wanted quite, lol. It is pretty nice inside, not a lot of exhaust noise, we will see.
Took it for an extended drive today, made sure the turn sigs, horn, and rear view mirror were good to go, a lot of nut cases on the road. Car ran good, acted up when I got home, tends to go pig rich-carbs were so much nicer in that respect, bolt on and go. I may have had a fouled plug, but fighting with the computer gets old. The added weight from the bumper and other stuff is making the tires rub, hitting the IC'er pipe, so will address that.
Anyway, knocked out the front bumper tuck, made a simple bracket, painted all the IC'er pipes, and installed all new tie rods, idler, pitman arm. I noticed the front bearings were loose, so went to tighten them up, found the spindle wasn't threaded enough, so I added a washer which allowed me to adjust the bearings. (prob made in China disc kit)
Took it for an extended drive today, made sure the turn sigs, horn, and rear view mirror were good to go, a lot of nut cases on the road. Car ran good, acted up when I got home, tends to go pig rich-carbs were so much nicer in that respect, bolt on and go. I may have had a fouled plug, but fighting with the computer gets old. The added weight from the bumper and other stuff is making the tires rub, hitting the IC'er pipe, so will address that.
Anyway, knocked out the front bumper tuck, made a simple bracket, painted all the IC'er pipes, and installed all new tie rods, idler, pitman arm. I noticed the front bearings were loose, so went to tighten them up, found the spindle wasn't threaded enough, so I added a washer which allowed me to adjust the bearings. (prob made in China disc kit)