66 Nova SS Project

[Payton King]

I am still upset that I did not try and buy the 914 from you.

Lookiong forward to more progress on this car.

[byndbad914]

thanks! I am sure the guy that picked it up will have a blast taking it over and hopefully taking it further. That car is more about the driver than anything - I know I never found the limit of its potential. One day I got mad as hell - which then turns into an attitude of either it wrecks or it sticks - and I picked up 2 full seconds in one section of the track and was my fastest lap ever. I had never had the huevos after to hang it out that hard again. I am sure a pro driver would have killed the Porsche cup record, I was only 1 second off of it that one lap.

As for the Nova, I have had to be patient to say the least the past couple of weeks.

1. The ZR1 hubs showed up but were "early" hubs and not the "late" hubs I asked for. While their is no difference in the bearing and fitment, the pre-09 cars are 30 spline like all Vettes and late cars are 33 splines. The sales rep didn't realize this so he got them swapped out no cost and I got the 33-spline items last Monday. Basically just trying to make things right works for me, so they are back on my "good list". Next time I will be specific to just order a specific year, as in, order 2011 ZR1 hubs.

2. I ordered a mid-mount for the engine from Summit that is listed as 3/8" thick which is basically perfect for spacing the LS bellhousing back when using an old-school SBC (technically the spacer should be .400" and is what I used in the Porsche before). It showed up last friday - 1/4". So I grabbed some .150" thick alum scrap I had laying around and quick fabbed up a shim to space the bellhousing correctly at exactly .400". PITA nonetheless and apparently my rant continues

3. I did manage to do some measuring and cut the firewall out a bit in preparation to start placing the engine, then found out my buddy with the "communal" cherry picker was on vacation and I didn't know he was to be gone. Not his fault, but caught me off guard.

So, I have been doing a fair amount of waiting

[GregWeld]

Originally Posted by byndbad914

then found out my buddy with the "communal" cherry picker was on vacation and I didn't know he was to be gone.

Brett at FAB 53 has a pink one you can have......

[byndbad914]

unfortunately that would be a bit of a drive for me to pick that up

[byndbad914]

Ended up cutting a lot more of the firewall than I originally anticipated but overall it will be much cleaner to build it all back in v. plug up holes and so forth to keep the old stuff. The engine face essentially lines up with the center of the front wheels. The pedals are going to be a fun item to place and I am thinking I will either have to mod the mid-mount I just bought or dump it and make something custom. If I moved the engine forward just one more inch it would make a few things a bit easier but I am hell bent to not do that so I am going to keep at it. I can envision a few different header designs so I have some room to mess with engine location if I must. Figuring out what I want to do about the steering rack looks to be the next serious hurdle - hopefully Unisteer and others have a bunch on display at SEMA next week I can pore over.

I also cut the torque tube down for the front bearing assembly to support the input shaft and test fit that with with the new mid-mount and custom shim plate I had to make to get the LS bellhousing placed correctly and that all fit perfect with almost 100% support on the pilot - can't get better than that.

[byndbad914]

it's the little things that bite and take time to get right... Got the alternator spaced correctly and ready to mount. Took 3 trips to multiple FLAPS to get the right belt length; I would get 4-5 at a time as I narrowed down to the length required to fit. Inevitably, the lengths I needed to try wasn't available at one so I would head off to the next. Always a busy day for me when belt day comes along

As for the oil pump, those belts come in very discreet lengths, so I have to make a size work; there are no small increments to dink with, they are in increments of 1.5" in the range I am working with. My 22.5" from the Porsche was not going to work but fortunately I had a 25.5" that was left over from a previous iteration of the Porsche and it works perfectly. Had to make a new mounting bracket which is easy enough. The fuel pump on the opposite side is nearly dead center between my suspension mount as I had planned so I simply moved the pump spacing until the pressure out and scavenge out are exactly between my suspension mount as well.

Just that took a 3-day weekend. Amazing how much time is spent to fit all this stuff.

Where my plans sort of failed, tho' technically a non-issue, is in my 2x3 crossover placements. I was a bit concerned they would be in the way as I kept the area under the engine clear of cross tubes on the 914 and sho' nuf I am in my own way. I will get the engine mounted and then I will cut both of those crosses out and weld new ones in a bit more forward and rearward. Forward will go near the rack placement once I get a rack frenched into the frame rails (you can see I was mocking up Ackermann in a pic), the other will move rearward to pick up my new midmount flange off of the bellhousing. This will also make necessary room for exhaust routing near the bellhousing. There is a pick of the driveshaft side of the bellhousing assy with the plate I will use, and that goes in between it and the bellhousing.

I ordered a Stoptech BBK from 3ZERO3 Motorsports (local Audi/Porsche shop) today which is who I got the Forgelines through as well - Blake there gets the concept of customer service. It took going to SEMA and walking into the Stoptech booth to get my tech questions finally answered (turns out Blake had done the same thing!), but in the end the race tech confirmed my thoughts that a C6 Vette kit would be a correct fitment for my Nova given my weight distribution expectations and that I have a fully adjustable pedal assy. I only need to change one master cylinder to make it work. Probably not a common occurrence to see a 15" rotor on a 66 Nova but IMO if you can't lock all four on race slicks and slide, you don't have enough brake. Of course, it cuts down on fade big time which is my primary concern.

Rear axles assemblies from Drive Shaft Specialists (DSS) are in and fit great - Tad there was another guy that made things right as necessary and gave me good customer service. Ride height in the rear as shown. Their stub axles to convert the Corvette 33-spline ZR1 hubs to Porsche 108mm 930 CVs worked perfectly and I get juuuuuuust enough droop out of the axles to get the back tires off under the lower fenderwell opening.

Got a new trans cooler as well so I will be mounting that down under the trunk to the frame right behind the transaxle, and some thick aluminum engine mounts I can use to mount the engine over to the suspension uprights.

My batteries are going in the camera apparently - the images get a bit jittery when that happens, but some updates are attached nonetheless.

[no go nova]

Are you running a dry sump.

[Code510]

Loving this build!

[byndbad914]

Originally Posted by no go nova

Are you running a dry sump.

yessir I ran it in the Porsche before and will use the same setup including the massive twin oil coolers.

Originally Posted by Code510

Loving this build!

Thanks, I take that as a compliment! I was checking out your car at SEMA, nicely built, we'll see if I can get close to your finish work. That is normally where I get impatient and fall short...

[Anchor]

Ah man! This is so much awesome!!!!