Texas Hotrodder

busterrm

busterrm

solid fixture here in the forum
I am Bob Morin, live in Wichita Falls, Texas, I own a 76 Chevy Nova. I am a constant student of engines, have been building them for years it seems. I just restarted about 3 1/2 year ago. Its actually funny, I had a friend that needed some cash so I bought a 350 block from him and built it from the ground up. It was obvious from the start that performance engines have changed since my last build in the early 90s. So, I had to accept I was under the curve on steep learning curve again.

Since then, I have built 6 engines including the beginning 350 (which I sold for a good price), 283, 355, BB396, 357(in my nova), 385(David's 67 nova), and looks like I will be building a BB 496 in the near future. I have some knowledge, but do a lot of reading here and another site, learning the whole time. My 76 nova is my project car, I have built the SB 357, TH 350, 8.5 10 bolt rear end converting it to positract and gearing it 373, the entire brake system, and front end suspension & steering. All done by my hands and my hands only.
Currently, I am about to start on the body work and getting it ready to put a up to date paint finish on it. Also considering buying a fiberglass hood with a cowl for looks.
 
Here are some pics of my project! Okay, take into consideration it doesn't have the beauty rings or centers in the wheels currently.
nova1.jpg

Front view
nova2.jpg

After rebuilding TH 350 ready to bolt up to engine with 2500 -2800 stall converter
TH3501.jpg

Engine after new aluminum heads and new air gap intake
engine3.jpg

engine2.jpg

engine1.jpg

Engine specs are as follows:
350 4 bolt, 40 over
Speed pro flat top pistons, 4 valve relieve 5cc
Scat I beam 5.7 rods with 3/8 capscrews.
Ohio cast steel crank 3.48 stroke
Lunati Voodoo cam 60103 489/504 lift, 227/233 dur @ 050 lsa 110, icl 106 1800-6200 rpm range
Lunati valve springs 73943, offset valve locks to up the spring pressure at seat and give some extra lift.
open is adv at 108 with shimming and offset locks approx 116, open is approx 275.
Lunati Retainers 75704
Lunati locks 77003 - 030 offset
Lunati lifters 71817PR
Lunati standard length pushrods(measured each valve for accuracy0
Comp cams magnum roller rockers 1.5 ratio
Patriot Freedom Series 185 cc [(after porting machinist estimates 190cc) Seals and valves are patriot remainder is listed above]
Block is standard deck with .018 steel shim gasket to equal .043 quench.
Static is 10.34 and Dynamic 8.31 comp ratios.
Eddy performer air gap gasket and port matched to heads.
750 cfm carb.
Shorty headers with future 2.5 in exhaust with flowmaster mufflers.
TH 350 shift kitted
2500 -2800 stall converter
8.5 GM rearend converted to Positract Eaton Carrier with 3.73 ring and pinion.
Rear tires are going to be 255/60/15 approx 26.9 inches tall.
Car weights approx 3350 with me in it.
 
Hey Grumpy could you give me a Desktop Dyno please? All I have is the software from Comp Cams. I don't trust it one bit.
Bob
 
I ran my nova's engine combo and was surprise at the results. I bought Virtual Engine Dyno 2000 and it says I pretty much hit the mark I was looking for with peak hp at 5250 of 416 and peak tq at 3500 of 474 ft/lbs. It estimates my et/mph at 12.28 @ 109.64 mph. I am only wondering about rear gear, I didn't see a place to put that in, so I am only guessing that the software is using my 3.73:1 ratio.
 
Here is the desktop dyno I did for my nova engine.
NovaDyno.jpg


So do it make the shift points just short of the max hp to optimize power? Redline is set on rev limiter at 5800!
 
first thing! , GREAT PICTURES! thanks for posting its a pleasure to see something clearly, I see so many pictures that appear to have been taken a 40 feet from a moving car from a cheap cell phone, rather than a decent digital camera in the hands of some person that knew hot to use one!
yes I admit that IM one of those few that can,t seem to get pictures posted correct but that hardly makes me appreciate the skill and results less.

I don,t have the the head flow file for those exact heads, I ran a dyno substituting edelbrock performer heads, while it may not give you exact info matching your engine, and yes its probable your heads flow a bit more, I bet its closer that the previous dyno posted, and yeah! it is significantly lower numbers but ID bet closer to reality

350dy1.jpg
 
The heads are Patriot Freedom Series, 64 cc chambers. Rear gear is 373:1, car weight is 3360. The block is 40 over.

Head flow is:
I E
100 61 58
200 127 112
300 188 154
400 225 178
500 245 188
550 247 192
600 249 195

That should bring your numbers more accurate. Performer RPM heads don't really flow that well in my opinion compared to their list price. Heck, procomp aluminums flow better than the performer rpm heads.
 
350dynoer.jpg

lunati60103.jpg


your correct, re-running the software with the new flow numbers, you supplied, did improve the numbers slightly
 

Glad you mentioned your post in my thread, when I click on "View Active Topics", your thread does not show up. So I've missed it completely until now. I'm big fan of RED, so your engine looks perfect!!!

My high school car was a 64 Nova, that was a fun car to drive it had a nice 327 SBC in it.

Will you be building the BB 496 for yourself???
 
Indycars said:

Glad you mentioned your post in my thread, when I click on "View Active Topics", your thread does not show up. So I've missed it completely until now. I'm big fan of RED, so your engine looks perfect!!!

My high school car was a 64 Nova, that was a fun car to drive it had a nice 327 SBC in it.

Will you be building the BB 496 for yourself???
Click to expand...
Nah, the 496 is for a friend, My buddy David and I built the 385 in his 67 Nova. Its on my list because David is tranny, chassis, interior, and paint/body guru. David was like a little kid wanting to hurry, hurry, hurry all the time. That was a feat to build and keep him calm, haha, he got all ancy once and dropped a piston and broke off a skirt. We had to replace it of course. Got lucky on that one, the new piston was about 20 grams heavier. so blueprinting and balancing it to the rest of the engine wasn't hard, just costly for David.
Anyway, we finished his 385 and got it installed, broke in, tuned it up real good. Before tuning it to the nut, rear wheel dyno showed 385 hp/5600 and 388 tq/ 4200. Which is approx 475hp/480tq. I would say it probably increased by 5-6 hp/tq after we fine tuned the carb. So we took it to the track to make some runs and got a challenge race. Jim(newbie friend has a 73 camaro) has a BBC 427 bored and stroked to 467, wants to line up against us. He also lays 200 bux on the table, David's eyes get big knowing how well his nova is running, we accepted the race(r David did, I was under the hood on his nova). David tells me he wants me to run a match race and offered to split the winnings if I won the race. Jim's BB was very poorly tuned, and I whooped his tail easy. He hurries back to the pits and asks David who built his motor, he replied with a smile and grabbing the 200 bux, "Wait till the car is here, the guy driving built it!" I pull up, shut it down, get out and Tim asks me bluntly, "Will you build me a big block?" I am like in shock, and I replied, " Yeah, by the hour!", just being a smartelic.
Next thing I know Tim is inviting me to his race shop in his back yard, 3 stalls, one lift, and a endless amount of power tools, welder, and big took chest full of hand tools. Apparently he is a fanatic big time, owns his own business, financially set, and is like David, knows all things but engines. His Camaro is really set up great already, but he is not that great at engine building or tuning. So we talk about it for a few weeks, and I decided to look at his existing motor to see(big ? for me, how did SBC 385 outrun 82 more cubic inches of big block) what went wrong for him. This is what I found:
1. Valves had way too much preload, full turn past zero lash. reset them at 3/8 preload and got good vac back to 10 from like 5-6 at idle.
2. Timing curves were way off and retarded. @ 3000 he only had 29 degrees total timing instead of 37-8 for a big block, initial was 10 instead of like 15 -6, Mech adv was only 19 instead 22. I bumped the initial up to 16, did some work on his springs and weights getting back to 37-8 total timing.
3. His carb tuning was way off, 725 cfm, pri jet 70 sec jet 74, power valve was a 7, and afr was one step down from out of box. Reset idle mixture a dozen times, his plugs were like white, so bumped the jets up to 72/76 did some runs in the country at WOT and Cruise. Cruise was still lean but improving, WOT was still lean also, so I bumped up to 74/78. Idle, Cruise normalized with a good tan color but WOT was still lean. Dropped the power valve to 6 and Wot was improving but still to lean for my taste. We talked about A/F restrictor and he said he went one increment lean on AFR, and still had it. So I changed it back to out of box AF restrictor and WOT normalized. Again nice tan color like it should be. OMG, What a change it made. I am still hesitant to build a 496 when he has a 467 that is cranking out the Ponies now. I know for sure that it would wipe up the dragstrip with David's nova now.
 
grumpyvette said:
350dynoer.jpg

lunati60103.jpg


your correct, re-running the software with the new flow numbers, you supplied, did improve the numbers slightly
Click to expand...
What is your opinion of the build? I wanted to install a crane roller but the budget wouldn't allow it due to having to run retrofit lifters and probably special pushrods.
It should be a lot of fun with the rebuilt rearend I installed last winter. I went from 2.73 conventional to 3.73 positract. I think it will prove to be fun at the nova club I am a member of in the N/central Texas area.
 
personally ID select this solid lifter flat tappet cam,
obviously having a long discussion with CROWER would not hurt.
crower00321.jpg

I can,t imagine not using a solid lifter cam on a 350 that could easily spin up to 6500-6800rpm plus knowing that a hydraulic lifter flat tappet cam that would tend to enter valve float before 6300rpm, plus the solid lifter cam will be far less likely to get into detonation as the effective dynamic compression ratio will be a bit lower

350gh.jpg
 

Great story!!! I'm abit surprised that Tim was so friendly after losing $200, sounds like a really nice guy.

Just goes to show you, that throwing money at the car does not make it fast. You have to follow thru with the right adjustments.
 
Its also my first time seeing this topic, didn display on the active topic before.

I think you can find Dyno2000 on google. thats where i found it a few month ago...
Anyway here is the files for you.

Nice car you got there :)
 

Attachments

  • Dyno2000.zip
    1 MB · Views: 28
I can,t seem to access the link?
any way you can fix that to be easy to access?
Or tell me how to easily access the link?
 
I just changed the archive file format from rar to zip.
You need winrar to open .rar files and windows can open the .zip files. just extract to the folder of your choiche and hit Dyno2000.exe
 
Indycars said:

Great story!!! I'm abit surprised that Tim was so friendly after losing $200, sounds like a really nice guy.

Just goes to show you, that throwing money at the car does not make it fast. You have to follow thru with the right adjustments.
Click to expand...
Well, David said he was hot at first, but he is kinda ancy anyway, maybe a short fuse, but David said he cooled off fast. He is a very educated fella, think a masters in something. He was surprised that a country boy like myself knew enough to straighten out his 467. I was kinda shocked when he mentioned that, was funny, " Hey Tim, just because I talk like a hic doesn't mean I am not educated! As a matter of fact I have a Bachelor's in Applied Science with a minor in Psychology." He looks at me and just laughs, I went on later, "You can take the boy out of the country, but not the country out of the boy!"
Anyway, it looks like we're going to freshen the 467 with some new parts and move some components around.
 
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