"Plain Jane" 1970 Nova Build

[Chuck_Burg]

Awesome build Wayne! Do remember how long you made the advance slot in your distributor? I recently restored a Delco distributor for my 496 and shortened the advance slot with a dab of weld followed by some filing. The stock 327/210hp distributor gave it 28* of advance! Now I have half that.

[Arrowsmith]

Hi Chuck. I just used an oversize limiter bushing and didn’t touch the slot. I might go back in and limit the mechanical a bit more (not as much as your setup though)…and then add more initial. The original plan was to run a stick, and because of that I have more mechanical advance in it (and less initial). On the other hand, my 565 does really run nicely the way it is, so I just might leave it alone.😉

[RALLY]

Originally Posted by EZ Nova

Baldwin filter is a little secret in the hobby. Been using them for almost 10 years when others wanted to use Wix, K&N etc. One of the oil specialist on yellowbullet recommended them and been using ever since.

The BEST oil filters out there are Motorcraft, Purolator, Bosch. This according to an engineer who has a blog 540ratblog. This guy knows his oil and tests them and oil filters. As far as the best oil on the market today according to him Rat, Quaker State 5W30 Full Synthetic. Hard to find a Motorcraft filter for Chevy engines though.

[Arrowsmith]

Originally Posted by RALLY

The BEST oil filters out there are Motorcraft, Purolator, Bosch. This according to an engineer who has a blog 540ratblog. This guy knows his oil and tests them and oil filters. , As far as the best oil on the market today according to him Rat, Quaker State 5W30 Full Synthetic. Hard to find a Motorcraft filter for Chevy engines though.

Can we please not get into a filter or oil argument on my thread? If it boils down to that, I’ll just pack up my tent and leave (again).
Thank you.

[BJCHEV396]

Originally Posted by Arrowsmith

Can we please not get into a filter or oil argument on my thread? If it boils down to that, I’ll just pack up my tent and leave (again).
Thank you.

Well said Wayne.

[Arrowsmith]

Getting closer to done.....

Here are the headers I used: They're custom headers from Lemons' in California. The headers are a slip fit design (each pipe slips into the collector and the flange is split). This allows getting them into the car with a wee bit more ease. The primary tubes are 2.25-inches in diameter while the collectors are 4.0-inches.



Dan Lemons does fabulous work. Here's the TIG welding on the primaries:



Inside the tube, you can see the same attention to detail:



The collectors incorporate an exhaust gas transition spear:



I really struggled with what to coat them with. I've found that some of the coatings out there don't live. Also, after a lot of hand-wringing, I decided to mute the coating colour so as to match the understated theme of the car. After a bit of research I decided to use a Cerakote process. It's used on custom guns and rifles, and certain mixes have the heat capacity for headers. To get there, the local shop asked me to clean the header parts:



I never saved any "after" shots of the finished headers but you can see the almost flat black I selected in some of the other images of the car. Moving back in the exhaust I incorporated V-band clamps to hook the 4-inch to 3-inch reducers to the exhaust.



Out back, I used these hangers from Stainless Works. They attach to the longer-than-stock rear seat belt bolts I installed. Not shown here is the clamp I used. Instead of the clamp shown, I went with a beefier stainless steel u-bolt setup.



I made a set of turnouts from 3-inch stainless and they were TIG welded directly to the Hooker mufflers:



This is a look at the exhaust before I modified the head pipes to fit. The system has 3-inch pipes and of course a cross-over. Hooker Headers makes it for LS swaps. I have three different sets of mufflers on hand and I picked what I thought would be the quietest. And it really is subdued, even without tail pipes (which I cannot run with the rear suspension and the mount location required for the large electric fuel pump I have on the car).



The final big piece under the car is the driveshaft. I had Mark Williams build me a custom 3-1/2-inch diameter job from 7075 aluminum. FYI, many years ago, I tested a conventional steel shaft against an aluminum shaft in a NHRA Stock Eliminator car. With back to back to back A-B-A testing, I discovered the aluminum shaft was definitely quicker (bad alas, not NHRA legal for the application....L-O-L). Too bad no one can see this M-W shaft hidden up inside the car. It's a work of art:



M-W built the billet steel slip yoke for the TH400. I use solid (no zerk) Spicer 1350 universal joints front and rear. The driveshaft yoke isn't welded. The reason is, you can't easily weld 7075. Williams invented a bonding system to install the pair of "weld" yokes on the shaft. The strength actually exceeds that of a conventional welded (non-7075 alloy) shaft.



The rear of the shaft is the same -- Spicer 1350 u-joints and an "Accubonded" yoke. Williams high speed balances the shafts, and for my application, the critical speed is just about perfect for the RPM range of the car.



That's all for now. Down the road, I'll show you some other details...

[BJCHEV396]

Outstanding!!

[dykstra]

Those headers and driveshaft are pieces of art! Bravo!!

[big gear head]

Did they tell you what the filler material was for the welds on those headers? The color of the weld on that flange looks like silicon bronze. I've run into problems at work with 7075 aluminum. The guys that I work with keep making parts from 7075 and then bring it to me to weld it. They aren't very happy when I tell them they have to make it over again out of 6061. I didn't see any signs of balancing the shaft. How did they do that?

[Arrowsmith]

Originally Posted by big gear head

Did they tell you what the filler material was for the welds on those headers? The color of the weld on that flange looks like silicon bronze. I've run into problems at work with 7075 aluminum. The guys that I work with keep making parts from 7075 and then bring it to me to weld it. They aren't very happy when I tell them they have to make it over again out of 6061. I didn't see any signs of balancing the shaft. How did they do that?

Good questions!

Not sure what the filler material was on the headers. I'm sure Lemons would tell you.

L-O-L on welding 7075. I think a lot people look up the specs of 7075 and have visions of welding it but reality can change that pretty quick! I found something on the Internet about welding it, but it seemed way out there.

Mark physically screws the weights to either end of the shaft, on the yokes, and it passes SFI testing too. The goop is to keep folks from tampering with it (or at least, scare them). Here's one image: