Barn find Nova (sort of)

[motornut]

lol
i'd been told as a kid my Grandfather said GMC ment Generally Made Chevy ,
duno if thats true lol he worked for dodge

[gibbons]

i love the car man.. looks awesome. I read in the beg. that you converted your brakes to disc. what kit did you use for the front? I have a Nova clip on my truck that needs to be re-worked with some disc brakes!! Thanks

[CAL 58 GMC]

Man your Nova cleaned up nice!

[lakeroadster]

Wow, reminds me my '72 Nova.....

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by lakeroadster

Wow, reminds me my '72 Nova.....

Yes, I can see the resemblance. Very nice. I especially like the second pic.

I have been getting a few things done here and there on this but I have been swamped with another task in the mean time (cleaning my shop--right now I am not sure if it is a light at the end of the tunnel or if it is still a train).

I hope to have a tag on this soon so I can take it for a legal spin around the block.

[chevy_man5]

I had a '72 Nova as my first hot rod. I was hooked the second I drove it. Had a guy come up to me in a parking lot one day and laughed, saying Nova meant "no go" in Spanish. The body of my car was pretty rough, but the rest was built for pure speed. Ran low 13's at the track. So I proceeded to start it up, and set of several car alarms around me. He about fell over backwards.

I was young and dumb, and on the way to the track, so I had taken off the exhaust pipes (before I had cutouts), and was running wide open headers.

I asked him "do you think it will go?" When I left the parking lot, I left him with a large cloud of smoke, and a pile of rubber. Bet he didn't say that to anyone again.

Now I look back, and think about how dumb I truly was. It is amazing to me that we all lived through our childhoods.

Your Nova rocks!! I'm glad to see it coming out of retirement!!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by gibbons

i love the car man.. looks awesome. I read in the beg. that you converted your brakes to disc. what kit did you use for the front? I have a Nova clip on my truck that needs to be re-worked with some disc brakes!! Thanks

Sorry, I missed this. I bought the spindles and caliper brackets from one dude. I bought the calipers and rotors from another guy. I bought new parts to replace what wasn't there. So, not really a kit per se.

Originally Posted by CAL 58 GMC

Man your Nova cleaned up nice!

Thanks, I'm still plugging away at it.

Originally Posted by chevy_man5

Now I look back, and think about how dumb I truly was. It is amazing to me that we all lived through our childhoods.

No kidding. I think back on some of the things I did with this car back in the day and it scares the hell out of me NOW. Back then--no problem--Let's go again!! My maintenance methods were much more stringent back then, but still. Wow.

Originally Posted by chevy_man5

Your Nova rocks!! I'm glad to see it coming out of retirement!!

Thanks!! I really haven't had much time to do much to it lately as I have decided my shop/shed/side yard/etc, must get organized. I have been in accumulation mode for about eight years with the Suburban. Ah, I may need this or I may go this way with this part, but I may go that way so I'll keep this part too. This method of thinking keeps parts available when needed, but also contributes to a shop that requires "snow-walking" to get through. For those that don't know the term, snow walking is when you are walking through snow so deep that you have to get your foot up to your hip-height just to clear the snow with your foot (or obstacle in my case) and take another step with it. It is a very tiresome way to walk.

So, I have had it. I'm sick of it. It has been this way too long. I started looking at my accumulations and it wa garbage, recycle, scrap, or other. So far it has worked well. I have more to go, but I am enjoying it tremendously so far.

Anyways, Being that my time is spent on organization etc, my vehicle time has been lacking a bit, but some progress has been made.

I received my new bumper brackets and swapped them on to the new bumper. What a difference. For the first time in my ownership of the car the bumper actually adjusted up nicely. While I had the bumper off, I re-shot the filler panel in my traditional black. I like it much better now.



I detailed the interior a few weeks ago. It turned out fantastic. You will have to take my word on that because I did not take any pics of it--yet.

I got with my insurance agent and got a super-limited use insurance on it that allowed me to be emission exempt. So with my special insurance card, I went and got my special tags and lo-and-behold, I had a vehicle that was legal to drive. Hmmm. Where should I go first. Why, of course, the gas station. Yup, I, er, we (my boy and I) took it on its re-maiden voyage over to fill it up with fuel. It still drives nice. It seems to get alot more looks now that I remember it getting back in the day. So I filled it up and we tooled it around a bit. We came home and awhile later I was going to put it away and thought I'd take it for a quick spin, so I went to get my co-pilot and he was ready to go. I asked my wife who was nearby if she wanted to go for a ride for old-times sake. She suggested going to get some ice cream. I can NOT argue with that--won't even try. So, we loaded up and headed to get some ice cream. We get all four wheels in the parking lot and have two different people nearly take it out because they were not paying attention--I'm real glad I was.

So, we have a nice drive and get it back home safely. The only issue I noticed is it seems really down on power. I will have to do some checking on that as it needs more than it has. It sounds really cool, but seems like it is running lean. My next opporitunity I will run a fuel pressure test and see what is up.

Before I put it away I snapped a pic of it in the driveway:

[mcbassin]

Nice project Moses! I thought you really "found" it in a barn when I saw the first post. Yep, you found it in your own barn. Nice! I love the TBI too. Cool car! subscribed

[nuke1]

That is one super sweet Nova you have there, glad you "found" it again!!!! enjoy it, trust me, my truck sat for 10 years, and i regret every moment of it!!!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by mcbassin

Nice project Moses! I thought you really "found" it in a barn when I saw the first post. Yep, you found it in your own barn. Nice! I love the TBI too. Cool car! subscribed

Thanks!!

Originally Posted by nuke1

That is one super sweet Nova you have there, glad you "found" it again!!!! enjoy it, trust me, my truck sat for 10 years, and i regret every moment of it!!!

Thanks!! Yeah, I am a repeat offender when it comes to long term vehicle storage. I had to walk around my Suburban every time i came home for about seven years. Now that the Nova is back to being drivable, I am going to be motoring it whenever I can.

[mosesburb]

Years ago, when I first converted this to fuel injection, I had adapted a fuel pump hanger to the stock sending unit. It worked real good. Real good, until a left hand corner is taken with a half tank of fuel (or less). The pump was in the left side of the tank and all of the fuel rushes to the right side leaving the pump high and dry. A pump not pumping fuel in a fuel injected application results in instant lean-out and sometimes stalled motor. Not a good situation to have either way. I started investigating ways to solve my problem. I could cut the tank apart and weld some baffles in the bottom. I liked the idea, but the possibility of failure was too great in location of the baffles, height, spacing overall area covered. I wanted something with a greater probability of success.

My next idea was the winning contestant. I came up with a relatively simple surge tank. I cut a square hole in the top of a tank from a '72 Nova. It is about 10 x 10. I then made a box (with no top) to fit inside the hole. I used the pump on the sending unit to pump fuel into this box where it dumped its fuel on the strainer of a second fuel pump that would then pump it out to the motor. I made an aluminum plate to seal the top of the box. The idea worked fantastic. Some time after making it, I took a hard left and proceeded to run out of gas less than a mile later. I have modified the idea a few times and there are scars on the goods to show for it. One of the improvements was getting rid of the pump on the original sending unit. I mounted the pump to the front of the surge tank so when the surge tank is removed, both pumps come out as an assembly. This resulted in some fittings no longer being used and needing caps on them, but the ease of servicing is so much improved that it was worth it.

This brings us to last Saturday night at about 2100. The wind was blowing and I figured it would be a perfect time to change out the fuel pumps. Once I take the aluminum plate off, the fuel tank is wide open and the fumes get to be a bit much, but with the wind blowing the fumes magically disappear. The setup works so well that I changed both pumps in about half an hour. I wore some elbow length industrial gloves when I was working with the fuel and those coupled with the wind left me smelling no fuel at all.

I decided to make a change in which fuel pumps I used this time. I always used the standard GM TBI fuel pump. It started life as an EP126, then it got superceded to an EP382 which in turn got superceded to an EP386. The flow ratings in GPH went down as the pumps got superceded. The motor always seemed to run the same, so I did not think much of it. Well a few years ago, I decided to try a different pump in another TBI vehicle I have. In 1994 and 1995 GM finally gave the TBI motors in high GVW trucks more fuel pressure. Instead of the 9-13 range, these operated in the 32-35 range. Now everything changed with this setup; i.e. injectors, fuel pressure regulators etc. Now, I thought this would be a good pump to try on a low pressure system to see what happened. Power happened. I put the first one in my 93 S10 with a 4.3L motor. Woke it right up. The stock regulator knocks the pressure back down to whatever the regualtor is set at, so it is not overfueling the motor. What it does is have pressure to spare. So when the hammer is down and fuel is being used as fast as it can be pumped, this pump has the stones to keep up with the motor instead of dropping pressure and or flow. No drop, just go man go!!

So I decided to try this pump in the Nova. I actually used a stock TBI pump as the supply pump for the surge tank, but I installed the higher pressure/flow pump in the surge tank to feed the motor. This might seem a bit counter-intuitive, but the feed line from the main tank pump and the return line from the motor both dump on the strainer for the pump in the surge tank, so I feel it is a gamble worth taking at this point--especially since I have gotten older and don't drive this like I used to...........

Anyways, here are a few pics to try and illustrate what I was trying to describe.

This pic shows the view of the surge tank lid as seen through the floor of the trunk. The hole in the floor has been adapted from the first hole over the sending unit to when it was enlarged for the surge tank. I have a plate that bolts down over this to cover/seal it. The two fittings on the left are the remnants of when I had the pump on the sending unit feeding the surge tank. The pump in the main tank is now mounted to the front of the surge tank negating the need for those fittings, but the holes are there with fittings, so I figured the best and easiest thing to do is cap them. The fitting with the schrader valve is just there for testing purposes.



This pic shows the side of the surge tank. The pump on the front is the one that pumps fuel from the main tank into the surge tank.



This is a bad pic of inside the surge tank. This is the pump that actually feeds the motor.



So, all of that is good and fine but what happened?? Well, I took a pressure reading before I did anything and it was running 12psi. Well withing th e9-13 range, but that is why it was so weak. On a 13psi max system, one psi makes a HUGE difference. So I put these pumps in and did another pressure test (you can see the pressure fitting in the first pic) and htis time I got the `13.5psi that his thing always ran in the past. I wanted to take it for a spin, but the rain had come and I did not really want to drive this in the rain mainly because when I built it we had been running the snot out of it up north in the twistie turnies and when I rebuilt the posi unit, I shimmed the clutch packs so tight it acts like a spool under any amount of throttle input. Can be fun in the rain (real interesting in snow and rightfully scary on ice). So I decided to try it another day.

Sunday I had to do some work at my Mom's house so when I got home I asked my boy if he wanted to go for a ride. He did. So he gets his booster seat and I bolt him in it--pretty tight. I had it running warming up a bit and we head out on a nice cruise through the neighborhood. Well, we get out to a major road and there is a break in traffic and I get it pointed in about the right direction and hit it. Heeee wee go!!!! Boy howdy, did we go. This thing has never run like this before. The front end comes up, the tires are making noise, and this thing is just gettin' it. I had always attributed the lack of power in the upper RPM ranges to the crappy TBI cylinder heads. I now know exactly when the heads run out of breath and it is much later than it used to be. Power upon kickdown is significantly improved also. Holy cow what a difference!! Worth every bit of time invested!! Wheeeee!!!

[brn agn]

Thanks for taking the time to write this up. I know from personal research that one of the challenges of putting a FI engine in an older car is finding a fuel tank. Some people purchase custom units ($$$$), some people adapt OEM fuel tanks, others just keep the stock tank close full all the time. Your solution seems to be a good alternative. Nice work!

[mosesburb]

Thanks!!

Yeah, I came up with the first incarnation of this setup in the early 90's and at that time the other possibility was a fuel cell. At that time some racers I knew were having issues with the new oxygenated fuels dissolving the foam in the cells negating their benefit. The other issue I had with a fuel cell was I did not want to fill the tank through the trunk. I couldn't find a cell that filled through the side, but with the foam issues, I really did not want to use one anyways. This setup has served me very well for many years now. If I had it to do again, I think I would do the same thing, but make a few adjustments to a few parts.

Just a little side-note to this setup. If anyone ever tries something similar to this, when you cut your first gaskets out and get them trimmed so they fit correctly, take them and make a photocopy of them. That way if a replacement is ever needed, you just have to lay the photocopy over the new gasket material and cut along the lines. Of all the things I did that was one of the best as I have changed the gaskets twice (I think--at least once anyways), and doing it the second time is a snap with the copies of the gaskets to guide the new ones.

[Heavy Evy]

awsome nova amigo! you have the same taste in chevy's as i do.

[6772owner]

Awesome looking car and great use of parts before they were "popular" I love the surge tank/dual pump setup, great solution!

[mosesburb]

Originally Posted by Heavy Evy

awsome nova amigo! you have the same taste in chevy's as i do.

Thanks!! Yeah, looks like we share similar driveway decorations.

Originally Posted by 6772owner

Awesome looking car and great use of parts before they were "popular" I love the surge tank/dual pump setup, great solution!

Thanks!! I am continually amazed at what can be bought out of a catalog for these things now. It makes problem solving much easier when an item that is engineered to solve the problem is just a click away. I kind of enjoy looking back on this thing and seeing how I solved the problems that I encountered. Having learned a bunch since then there are a few things I would have done differently (not counting using some parts that did not exist at the time), but I think I would have done most of it the same or very similar.

I was reminiscing about some of the great times this car provided or at least participated in. It went everywhere as it was my only mode of transportation for many years. I have pics of this thing all across I-40 from Winslow to Meteor Crater, Flagstaff (used to make that run a couple times a week), Williams, Kingman, down to Lake Havasu (several times) and the Grand Canyon. Prescott to Jerome around Mingus Mountain--I can still smell the brakes from those runs. I have pics of this cruising the strip in Vegas, crossing Hoover Dam, and running through towns past and in between. I caved in the leading edge of the transmission pan on a rock going down a trail that specified four wheel drive only. It never let me down. I carried all kinds of spare parts with me because I could afford the fuel to get there and back, but not a tow bill. I never needed them.

I remember we rolled into Seligman late one night. I filled it up and we headed out on Route 66 headed toward Kingman (I think our final destination was Havasu). We get out of town on 66 and it is an absolutely gorgeous road--good surface, nice banked curves. I start out tunning 75, then 80 then 85 then 90, then 95, then 100, then 105, then well, you get the idea. We got into Kingman which was 80 miles away in well under an hour. I think we averaged about 93mph for that jaunt. Anyways we get into Kingman and I look at the gas gauge and it is showing that I used a quarter of a 16 gallon tank. Wut?? Four gallons?? Eighty miles?? Many(!!) of those over a hundred?? Four people in the car?? Three of them women that pack like typical women (seriously, the trunk was packed SOLID)?? The aerodynamic properties of a Mack truck?? 20mpg?? Huh?? No way. Not possible. Well, I pulled into a gas station and put exactly four gallons of gas in it. 80mi, 100+, four gallons, 20mpg. Holy crap. Many of the things I did in this car back then scare the hell out of me now, but back then it was "That was cool, lets do it again!!" Anymore, it is a rare occasion that I even exceed the speed limit (borrrrring). This occured on a day like any other day. It was not a special occasion per se to be out in the middle of nowhere AZ, blazing a trail like my hair was on fire and having a blast doing it. Good times in the Nova.