'71 Nova. Project "Urban Legend"

[bighead]

Can anyone tell me what Dan charges an hour for his beautiful work?

[makoshark]

I must admit, I have been a Camaro bigot for some time and have overlooked many of the great builds on here. This is a great build and am loving the direction you are going with this car. You have a very similar build to my Camaro. I look forward to seeing more progress!

Are you going to utilize the Truturn and the Chicane brackets? I vote you do

[BBC71Nova]

Big head, just give Dan a call and talk to him. He'll want to have an idea about the project anyway. With that he can provide some type of ballpark estimate. BTW, Dan's paint booth was just installed last month so Holohans can do it all in house now.

Thanks for bouncing this to the top. Subtle reminder for me to get off the iPad, away from football on the tube and out to the garage to fit up the Autorad...

[BBC71Nova]

Here we are on 1.1.2013 for the year's first installment of Expensive Mistakes and How not to Build a Car .

So back in early December my Autorad showed up. I must say they are very nice pieces and well worth the wait for a quality fabricated component. Around the same time my V/A Frontrunner came in that I picked up from Matts during the Black Friday sale. Anyway, now that the holidays are over I made some time to try and fit it up. Radiator/fan and accessory drive fit is something I've been worrying about since summer. There just isn't much clearance on the Novas between the big block and core support. I needed all the space I could get for this setup and hoped that the Autorad would yield what I needed. This was basically my only bolt-on type option available.

Long story short, it isn't going to work. I have 6.5" from block face to the back of the fan motors and I need closer to 7" for the Frontrunner. As luck would have it the passenger's side fan motor is basically right in line with where the A/C compressor is positioned. That also happens to be the longest dimension with the Frontrunner. It looks like I only netted about .5" extra clearance with the Autorad setup.

I guess now I have to think this over and decide where to go from here. I think I have basically 2 options. Well 3 if you count pushing the whole project off in the river .

-Option 1 is to scrap the big block plan and go LSx. I'd have to sell off some parts and likely take a bath on those. I haven't opened the Frontrunner so maybe I could exchange it. This radiator is single pass which also presents a little problem for the LSx option.

-Option 2 is to build custom frame stands that move the engine back .5". There is plenty of header and firewall clearance to do that. It actually would help gain clearance for the headers around the steering box. This would require not only custom frame stands but also a custom trans crossmember. Another potential benefit with this is it just might get the header tube far back enough to also clear a Ridetech Tru-turn setup.

This big block is fighting me all the way it seems...

Here is a shot showing how much an Autorad gains you in radiator surface area. HUGE difference in opening size versus the OE style "heavy duty" core support.


Here it is with the radiator installed. The condenser mounts directly to the radiator.


Here you can see better what I mentioned earlier in the thread about the Autorad radiator mounting surface not being so far back. The tape line is pulled between the center line of the rear most fender mounting locations on both the OE and Autorad support. You can see the Autorad radiator mounts .5" forward of the OE setup.

[WSSix]

Move the engine back. Or would it be possible to move the radiator forward and possibly down so it goes under the top frame work on the core support?

Another possibility, did GM make a serpentine system that would fit your BB and fit the subframe? If so, you could detail it like Nathan did with his LS3. I thought he did a fantastic job making factory brackets look great. That may not extend out as much as the front runner system

If you say screw it and go LSx, you don't need anything more than a single pass radiator. I'd stay with the BB though just because you already have it and they are cool to look at when you open the hood

[makoshark]

By moving the engine back, would that introduce transmission interference to the tunnel?

[BBC71Nova]

My trans tunnel has been replaced so that will mostly clear. Probably have to move the shifter hole back but that's about it for tunnel mods related to this.

I'm thinking now about trying the small block frame mounts. It seems they'll move the engine back by 1/2" or so. Lots of conflicting info online about that. I have some mounts I can try though. Guess I'll tack on a few more hours working on engine/trans positioning this weekend. Just glad I'm doing this now with everything not painted.

[makoshark]

Will the SBC mounts not cause interference with the steering box due to the extra width of the BB?

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Have him make a custom set of frame stands and move that bad boy back. Very easy if you are only going back .5". SBC stands will make it sit too high.

I'd modify the firewall to go back farther.
Don't give up on tha BBC.

[Ron in SoCal]

What fan set up did Autorad ship to you? See if there's maybe a more narrow fan set up available. I remember someone here had that issue w a BB (Ron Davis) and that was his solution.