i got a 78 nova, and have had it even before the disco nova poked its head out.  only thing, its a 4 door... (i know, go ahead, poke fun at me now and get it out of the way)  i'm usually a ford guy, but this car interests me. i like the lines of the car and i'd like to make a decent sleeper out of it.  right now she's got the powerhouse inline topped with a one lung carb and backed by a th350 tranny with a 12 bolt rearend. plans include a reman 350 from a 69 chevelle (i work at advance auto, so knowing what to do on the computer, i can order any engine for my car) i'm wondering if anyone knows where i can get decent rear quarters for the car, and possibly a drivers door.  interior for the car would also be great, but not needed.  this is a wisconsin car, and you can't store anything in the trunk... they always end up falling out between the quarter and the wheel well.  any suggestions besides driving it off a cliff and getting a ford?

12 bolt?  I think it is probably a 10 bolt.  Still good for moderate performance though.  Build a 350 and slap Scoggin-#### Vortec heads and Edelbrock Air-gap combo on it.  Run one of the lower duration Comp Xtreme Energy cams.  

you need to check out my website dedicated to the 4th gen novas. you can join as a member and post pics with no fees ever! www.gen4novas.com  hope to see ya there!  

i'd me more prone to make fun of you for being a ford guy than for owning a 4-holer that's just more emergency exits. seriosly though i'd put a turbo and a megasquirt setup on the inliner and spank some v-8s with it.  

its great to see that there's another 4th gen nova site out there besides www.novaresource.com, i admit, i haven't really been looking for one, but i didn't think these cars would be all that popular, so expect to see me there.  even though i'm a ford guy, it doesn't mean i don't like cheby though, anything from the very early 80's and back i like, though my main focus is ford.  in my opinion, newer cars of any make or model are going down the hole at quite an alarming speed, and it makes me sad when i read the news and see how much the big 3 are in debt. i'll say my loyalty lies more in the ford bronco series (66-97 i think was there run, though i could be wrong) then anything else. i've done quite some research on the straight 6 shooter and with a change of heads, i can throw a triple 1 Bbl intake on the car (i know, i could go 4 bbl, but the triple looks so damn neat) some new better flowing exhaust, as well as a couple other things on the car, but i'm a collage student in auto body and repair, so i don't have the money for all the work to make the 6 live up to a mildly built v8. now i can assure you the engines going to sit in the garage, get rebuilt, and then powered up with some performance parts as i get the money for them. then i'll drop it back in the nova and put the 8 in something else, like a lawnmower... (that'd be fun, yes?)

P.S. as for the rear end? the question got me going, so i just had to walk outside in the rain, duck under the car, and start counting. and you were right, i was wrong, its a 10 bolt.  oh well, when it breaks, i can always dip into my inventory of 9 inch rear ends.

you keep a stash of 9 inches too huh, lol, i think i'm up to 6 3:50 4 pin trac-locs. a guy can never have too many 9 inch fords laying around.  

i'd rather dip back into this thread than start new one, saves me the time of showing everyone what i have.  now sense i started here, things have changed slightly. i still work on cheap and free, and it has moved the car along nicely. well, sorta. turns out i was chuggin along through a parking lot when someone decided the passenger side of my car needed some body work, so they proceded to back into me as i was going by, smashing the car from the back of the front tire all the way to the rear bumber.  so now the only thing on the cars exterior i don't have to replace is the rear driver side door... insurence gave me a whole 350 bucks for the car and called it totaled but let me keep the car fee free. they didn't want nothing to do with it. time to put the plans in motion. i gor a free v8 from the girlfriends pa out of a 82 truck he was trashing, and dumped that puppy in there. got some headers and true dual exhaust with some nameless straight through mufflers from work.  got the whole thing done with around 100 bucks or so out of pocket. now it may be a 305 but its a world of difference with hobbiest plates and 0 emissions on the whole engine and exhaust when compared to the 6 popper.  come to think of it, i tore the 250 inline 6 down for the *** of it and found 4 or 5 of the pistons were actually falling apart.  the bearings were spun, the whole nine yards. the rings or what was left of them were fused into the pistons and most of the ring lands were broken off and gone.

i think i might have had a detonation problem.... oh well....

now its up and running good again save for all the body panels... but heres the new thing to come. i happened across a guy at work cleaning out his garage and wanted to get rid of a chevy sb. snatched it up for 100 bucks with no questions after he told me it was a 350.  i mean its gotta be forts at least 100 right?  the block seems clean but is painted a vary ugly lime green color.  got to closer inspection and noticed it was a 78 350 block. the oil dipstick was cut off and folded over right before the exhaust manifolds.  truck style manifolds for some reason. the ones that go up and right next to the valve covers. had a home made block off plate over the fuel pump hole as well.  happy to find 4 bolt mains inside too.  took a close look the heads and noticed no palve cover holes. well whats this? there in the middle of the heads? well that means there 87+ heads. thats neat.  i must ask though, i was told there's a difference between normal 87+ heads and "fast burn" heads. how do i tell the difference? and also, how do i tell if a standerd carb intake will fit on top?

maybe i'll get this nova to go fast after all.  i also plan a future 5 speed swap from a 3rd gen camaro/firebird. any known hangups i might run into there? i've been doing a bit of research and find that only my bench seat might get in the way. but i'm not going to get rid of the seat. gotta keep that grandma look to the car and make it sneaky.

sorry bout the long post. i'm bored and its late at night.

thanks for any info

~Will  

I don't know Chevies that well but for the 5-speed I have a little insight.  Finding the clutch pedal setup and linkages is dang near impossible.  My first iteration of it was I ordered a First Gen F-body clutch petal set.  It's not a direct bolt in deal, but with like five-ten minutes of grind time on the clutch petal it'll go on.  I shimed it with washers to get a good spacing from the brake petal.  Now here's the tricky part, clutch linkage or hydraulic clutch?  The Z-bar seems to be designed just for this car so unless you find on for this generation x-body you'll probably have to go hydraulic.  I had three hydraulic clutch master cylinder's lined up (mid-80's F-body, some 90's Cavalier, and some toyota one) to try and figure out a good bolt on geometry when a miracle occured and I found on E-bay a stock petal set with all the bars and linkages for the clutch from a Nova, so I never got a chance to try any of the hydraulic clutches because I found a bolt in deal.  As for transmission selection....The Third Gen five speeds sound nice, but you'll notice they didn't put them behind their highest horsepower engines and that was when high horsepower was 200Hp.  They are pretty weak stock.  It's not really cheap either way, but you could either buy the upgraded parts to handle more power or buy an aftermarket TKO transmission (what I did).  Using a stock 3rd Gen manual you'll probably end up breaking it at some point with even the most mild upgrades.  As for the bench seat, with the TKO there are multiple places for the shifter, I have it set one notch forward from the rear most and it clears the bench (there are pictures on the link in my signature).  A 4-speed manual swap would be cheaper and a stock unit would hold up better but you don't get an overdrive which to me defeats the purpose if it's a daily driver.  A TH200r4 would probably bolt right in.  I put one behind my V-6, swapped out the 200C for the 200R4 and the only change was sliding the cross member back one hole.  The TV cable bracket's were already there, just had to adjust it.  Just food for thought.