'71 Nova. Project "Urban Legend"

[Jay Hilliard]

Originally Posted by 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.

Ron, that was me. The standard Spal fans sent with the Ron Davis rad were to thick.

John, I can send you the Spal model number if you want.

[BBC71Nova]

Originally Posted by makoshark

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

Good point. The headers are *supposed* to work with either. However, I did have much better fitment luck with the current frame stands than those I tried prior.

Originally Posted by Vince@MSperfab

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.

Yeah making custom frame stands is probably the answer. I'll have to think about how to approach it design wise but shouldn't be too bad. I want to go ahead and mount an intake and distributor since that will likely be first place to touch the firewall.

Originally Posted by 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.

Originally Posted by Jay Hilliard

Ron, that was me. The standard Spal fans sent with the Ron Davis rad were to thick.

John, I can send you the Spal model number if you want.

The Autorad setup uses Maradyne fans. I looked last night for thinner fans but didn't see any that weren't different in other dimensions as well. I know when I was dealing with Ron Davis they did say they had thinner fans available. This Autorad radiator/shroud assembly is narrower than the Ron Davis even with the thinner fans. That was one of the reasons for going this route. At least that's what I convinced myself .

[Vince@Meanstreets]

Originally Posted by BBC71Nova

Good point. The headers are *supposed* to work with either. However, I did have much better fitment luck with the current frame stands than those I tried prior.



Yeah making custom frame stands is probably the answer. I'll have to think about how to approach it design wise but shouldn't be too bad. I want to go ahead and mount an intake and distributor since that will likely be first place to touch the firewall.

MSD distributor and mini cap does fit much better.

I have a few pictures on my face book page of the frame perches I made for a project. They are in the shop projects page.

[BBC71Nova]

A little update. After having moved the engine back 3/4" I mocked up the Frontrunner setup today to check clearances. At first I was mega PO'd and couldn't figure out what had happened. The A/C compressor still hit the radiator fan motors even though previous measurements indicated it *should* fit. Anyway, I pulled a block-face to end of A/C compressor measurement to check against the V/A quoted dimension. It was off and then I noticed the pulleys weren't lined up. Turns out the V/A Frontrunner diagram in the instructions clearly has the spacer in FRONT when it actually goes in the rear. The text of the instructions states the rear too. I moved the spacer and the compressor clears. Still extremely tight though. The spacer fills the gap you see there at the rear of the compressor. There is a spacer on both sides. I just have one side in because it was too tight with the tape on this side .

You can see from the pics that I don't have the compressor front cover or tensioner cover installed. Primarily because I didn't feel like taking the radiator back out again to put it on. The tensioner is the closest point at ~1/8" of clearance. The fan motor to compressor clearance is closer to 1/4".

I'd like another 1/4" but I've got to figure out where to get that from. One of the header tubes is close enough to the steering box that I think another 1/4" setback might cause it to contact. We'll see when I get the mounts build.

So I did run into another unexpected clearance issue. The PS pump reservoir tank is too close to the UCA. This is a Jones Racing aluminum pump with an extra capacity fab'd aluminum tank. Really cool piece. Too bad it won't clear . I'm gonna see about getting a tank made without the bung on the side. I think that will work. Otherwise maybe a less blinged out OE style PS pump is in order. This pump measures 5 1/2" from pump shaft centerline to the outside edge of the tank. I think the OE style plastic tanks are a little narrower.




Here are some shots of the firewall after the setback. Seems a little tight. That Unilite distributor is pretty small so I'm almost sure the firewall will need to be modified for clearance.



Updated shot of tie-rod to header clearance after pushing engine back. I think a Ridetech TruTurn might clear now.

[BBC71Nova]

Here is a before shot of the tie-rod clearance.

[Moabdude]

So whats the status of this Nova.
Is it finished already?

[jarhead]

Originally Posted by Moabdude

So whats the status of this Nova.
Is it finished already?

Was wondering the same thing ?

[Jay Hilliard]

I spoke with John a couple of months ago and its still in progress.

[Novacaine]

And it will be pretty nice when finished. That's some nice sheet metal work that's been done there.

[BBC71Nova]

Hey Guys. I still have it and it is still in progress as Jay mentioned. Been a REALLY slow last couple years so I haven't been too motivated to post any updates. I've had two kids come along which was a game changer as I'm sure many of you can attest to. I have committed to keeping things in perspective as much as possible. They are big enough now that I've been able to carve out a bit more time to work on the car though so that's good. Bad thing now is my son (almost 3) has started asking when we can drive daddy's car. Doh!

I also was struggling with motivation. At every turn there were pretty big issues I'd run into. By big I primarily mean things that I can't easily do and really should be farmed out. Lots of frustration to go around. Spend $1000+ in labor cleaning up a firewall just to later find out it needs to be redone. Spend however much getting a trans tunnel redone just to have to have more work done (driveshaft raised to deal with drive angle).

While I haven't had much time to do fab work, I've worked in time here and there on the engine build. Last year I sent my heads off to be gone through and setup for the build. Told couple weeks or so. Well I sent the shop received them in July and I got them back in almost March (IIRC) of this year. Not a huge issue given my timeline but frustrating because I went with alum shaft rocker setup instead of stainless steel strictly because I didn't want the shop to be held up waiting the 8 weeks for me to get SS option built.

Anyway. I'll get some pics up here soon.