Thread: New Nova Project?

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I have a chance to buy a '63 Nova from a friend who got it when she turned 16. I don't know much about the early Nova's, it's a 6 cylinder w/Power Glide,
Knowing that they didn't come with a V8 in '63 would I have to do anything to drop a 350 into it?
I know that a Turbo 350 tranny will fit because my Camaro had a Power Glide and I changed it.
Also what about the front suspension, what would I have to do to handle the extra weight?
I'm trying to decide how much extra I would have to put into the project.
I have the motor and tranny and the car will cost me $5000, is it worth that?

Thanks, Ken

Lots of others have done it, I don't see why you can't. If the cars in good shape, sounds like a good buy. After market will have anything you will need to do it...

I have a 63 Chevy II (Nova as you call it) wagon with a 327 v8 and powerglide (soon to be a TH350). They will fit just fine. Buy some kind of aftermarket engine mounts and good fitting headers. Mine are custom made but if you do your research you should be able to find some for around $400 or so. These early 60's Chevy II's are very simple and cheap to build because they make any aftermarket part you need. The V8 swap is fairly straight forward. You will need to change the oil pan as well. The site to go to for all this info is going to be www.stevesnovasite.com
Great place to get ANY info on these Chevy II's and Novas. (BTW, my name is Shawn F. on there if you decide to check it out).
CPP is a great company with a front end upgrade if you'd like like a Mini subframe upgrade with aftermarket control arms, shocks and you can get sway bars, etc. There are also aftermarket bolt on subframes such as MII's from all sorts of suppliers. The upgrades are endless on these cars. If you can find an overdrive tranny then I would bolt that up to the 6 cylinder. You can push very decent MPG out of these old cars with the 6 cylinder and overdrive.
That's just my oppinion. I think the 6 cylinder is different than the average sbc and TH350.

Thanks Shawn,
That's one thing that I can't figure out,
when is it a Chevy II and when is it a Nova?

http://www.stevesnovasite.com/forums/index.php

A good nova site. I am currently torturing them with my mad max nova.

I call it a firenova on thier site, due to the large amount of firebird parts I am putting on it. ( to include the tail lights )

I believe it's up to 1967. Everyone still calls them a Nova though, I just say Chevy II because sometimes if someone asks me the type of car I have and I say Nova, they think of a 69 body style not the old shoe box Chevy II style.

Originally Posted by FMXhellraiser

I believe it's up to 1967. Everyone still calls them a Nova though, I just say Chevy II because sometimes if someone asks me the type of car I have and I say Nova, they think of a 69 body style not the old shoe box Chevy II style.

so 1966 is a Chevy II and 1967 is a Nova? I have always wondered this myself..

I always thought the first and second gen Chevy's such as a 62-65 and then the 66-67 were the Chevy II's and 68 and up were regular Novas but by looking at this site, the 68 was the last year for the Chevy II badge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Nova

Beats the heck out of me. I thought the old shoe box style was the Chevy II and from 68 and up was the Nova. I guess I was off by a year.

The ’63 is a great little car. Chevy didn’t put a V8 in the Nova until 1964, but the two years are virtually identical and the V8 swap can be done with over-the-counter parts.

I would recommend that you consider swapping out the stock front suspension. Several companies make kits. I installed one from Fatman Fabrications (http://www.fatmanfab.com). I have found them to be pretty helpful and the kit is well engineered. I opted to use a power rack-and-pinion and needed to make some 1” spacer blocks to fit between the frame and front cross member to have all the lines clear the harmonic damper. The kit supplies new mountings, spindles, lower arms, and the cross brace and most importantly, chrome Carrera coil over springs. You need to buy the disc brake components (Camaro of Firebird), sway bar and Macpherson housings, and the rack for the steering. I also upgraded to power brakes and you’ll need a new master cylinder and some brake line plumbing.

This allows the use of stock oil pan and really opens up the engine bay. The steering geometry is a bit tricky and you’ll need to be creative in some of the mounting, but patience and good basic skills will prove sufficient. It does require the removal of most of the existing front end, but shaves a lot of weight off the car in the end. This also gives you a five bolt pattern as the ’63 came with four bolt wheels.

I put the engine and transmission (Super T-10) from a Z-28 in mine. Also swapped the rear end from a 65 SS and put new rear suspension (three leaf springs v2 mono).

Here’s a few pictures. If you're interested, I'll take some closeups of the front suspension.

Regards,
Glenn

Nice Chevy II! As he stated the main thing is to upgrade the suspension, brakes and 5 lug. You do not NEED to use Mustang II kits. They have the Mini Subframe kit from CPP that has different kits you can buy. They have a basic, middle and higher end. Basic I think has just lower control arms, springs, sway bar, mount brackets, etc and then the other higher end kit has upper and lower control arms and a few other things. They also have a complete disk brake 5 lug upgrade kit with power brakes. As for power steering, I have the stock steering wheel on my wagon with the 327 and it turns easy with manual steering.
If you have the money then you can go with the Fat Man kit and like he said it will shave a little weight off and be all newer type suspension that should handle much better. These cars with stock suspension and sway bars still handle great though. It all depends on your budget.

Do the 69 Novas have a frame or unitized body?

They are unibody.

When did Chevy stop using frames?

About the same time the CEOs lost their minds.

When have the ceo's NOT lost their minds?