Joe's 1972 Nova - Turbo LQ4 T56

[frojoe]

I guess I should finally get around to posting a build thread, I've been a lurker for years.

Car is a 1972 Chevy Nova, originally teal with bench seats, 3spd auto column shift, inline 6. Got car 9 years ago, previous owner put in a 307, bucket seats, and a quick and ****ty respray to help it sell.. I fell for it. Body is so-so, rust bubbles a bit on rear fender lips but overall a solid sheetmetal car, just lots of clearcoat runs & scratches.

I guess I should say that no one else has laid a hand, wrench, or TIG torch on this car but myself. I'm a mechanical engineer and started working on this car when I was 22, and got it on the road this past September after my 26th bday. I did all my work in a barely-one-car garage as well as milling stuff at my work.

List of stuff:

- 2006 LQ4 (6L iron-block LS1), rebuilt with Wiseco 9.0:1 pistons, Callies conrods, Eagle crank, ARP everything, Crane vavlesprings, stock(ish) intake
- custom single-turbo piping by myself, 2.5" pipes into T4 flange, 4" downpipe
- Turbonetics TC76 turbo
- relocated ignition coils
- smoothed(ish) intake
- 3" intercooler piping
- T56 from '02 Camaro
- QA1 coilover conversion in the front, single-adjustable
- Speedtech tubular upper/lower control arms w/ delrin/aluminum bushings
- Wilwood Superlite 6piston 13" front brakes
- all brakelines custom bent from scratch
- custom adjustable bumpsteer & relocated drag link setup (in the works)
- custom firewall brake MC & clutch MC setup, as well as customized pedal setup (grafted in Nissan 240sx pedal assembly for more modern feel)
- stock subframe was fully seam-welded and reinforced, and has NO body-mount bushings (!!!!)
- custom subframe connectors to rear framerails
- floor patched a bit and flattened
- trans/driveshaft tunnel chopped from front to rear firewall and bent new one, raised 3-4" overall
- modified G-link in rear to ride 2" lower
- Detroit TruTrac helical limited slip
- 31 spline axles
- 3.90:1 rear gear
- 4 piston Wilwood 12" rear discs
- customized "cockpit" interior.. pedal height/location, shifter location & height, steering column location/height/angle.. all to fit me like a glove

Biggest accomplishment is to have the framerails 4.5" off the ground and have transmission, 4" downpipe split to 2.5" duals, full exhaust with mufflers (going to fab full 3" SS setup during winter) not hang at all below the framerails, especailly with no subframe bushings!. Biggest pet peeve is to see musclecars with longtube headers hang 5" below the framerails.. totally unnecessary and unacceptable.

I will update more detailed build pics when I get home later. Also, full build thread showing every single step is here:

http://ls1tech.com/forums/conversion...1972-nova.html

Before tweaking the ride height...









After leveling and lowering a bit...







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhfTszdfek4

[Flash68]

Killer!

I wanna see a pic of the cockpit interior mods.

[frojoe]

You asked for it! I bit of a tease of some details..

Pedal assembly panel before trimming and welding into firewall. The nice thing about the Nissan 240SX clutch pedal is it has an eccentric spring so that the return spring passes over-center about 1" into the pedal travel so that the spring then assists in adding pedal pressure to the MC.



Weighted gas pedal for a bit of a better feel...





Isuzu Trooper 7/8" bore brake MC (pedal feel is perfect for the 6piston Wilwoods), mainly because it's simple, light, and is raw cast aluminum w/ plastic reservoir so has the factory look I like.









I wanted to reuse the original instument dash surrounding, mainly because the aftermarket injection-molded pieces are $$ as heck and still look cheap. Also, wanted to add a bit of flair to the treatment of just holeswaing a piece of place sheetmetal.





Wanted to also avoid the standard treatment of red/blue/green simple raised LED's. This light lens thingy is also from a 240SX, just milled a pocket for it and made a light bracket that mounts from behind, like a stock 240 dash.

[Flash68]

Wow. Really impressive work. Love the mix and match of not the typical parts to make it all work.

[Garage Dog 65]

X2

Nice thinking outside the box and fabulating some great solutions !

Beautiful ride and she must rock with all that power !



Jim

[frojoe]

Chopped 2.5" off the bottom of a stock truck pan to reduce it to the same depth as an f-body pan (mainly didn't want to pay for a used f-body pan + shipping).





Initial cut of trans tunnel, but shows relief cuts for an old version of the trans x-member. I eventually went to a better x-member design and eliminated those stock x-member floorpan humps, making the foot area flat.





Final version of the trans x-member..







Driveshaft loop AKA subframe-connector-crossbrace







Made a weld-in labyrinth sump for the fuel pump.



Made a fuel pump holder. Made it capable to hold a second pump, but only have 1 in there for now.



Also snipped the corners of the tank for 3" tailpipes and future 315 tires, at a very low ride height.