1966 Nova Turbo Build

[Lewie415]

Hi guys. I just recently found this site, so i figured i would join and share my project. Lots of cool builds on here that interest me. Ill start off and say that i am about 2 years into this project. I bought the car in July of 2017 and started to do work in December of 2017. A lot of the work got done in the first 6 months of working on it, then to a break from it with kids/summer/side work/life. Picked away at it over the last year but now i have the car back at my shop and I'm really getting to it. This is a father/son project. Some pictures that you see will be at my place and at my dad's place. I have a ton of pictures but ill skip most of the detailed pictures and just get to the good stuff. if anyone would like some other detailed pictures that interest you, just let me know and i can post some. A little history on the car is its a 1966 Chevy 2 Nova hardtop. I bought the car with no motor no transmission. Its a true California car and i have paper trails of it leading into Wisconsin. The car hasn't been on the road for 15 or so years. the car is in really really good shape with only a few(3) spots of rust that would need to be cut out and replaced. I do auto body/ restorations for a living and finding a car in good shape is getting hard to come by. The plan with the car is a fun street car with drag/auto cross weekend fun. The engine is a 4.8 LS (truck motor) with a 4l80e behind it. It will be getting a 78/75 turbo. I put in a cam, springs, trunion kit, harden push rods to make the top end nice. I took the pistons out and gapped the rings for boost. i installed a transgo shift kit and put a yank 3600 converter in. The front subframe is a Total cost involved (TCI) pro touring clip. The rear is a TCI torque arm. I had a ford 9inch housing made for the car. 35 spline axles, and a strange pro "n" 3rd member with 3.25 gears. I mini tubbed the rear with using the existing metal so i could put a 275/40/17 nitto nt05 out back. i could fit a 315 no problem, but a 275 will do right now. The front has a 255/40/17 nitto nt05. I sure i missed some other stuff, but ill let some pictures do the talking for now. thanks for reading/looking.







I had to widen the transmission tunnel so the 4l80e could fit




Seats are out of a 2000' mini cooper.






i made a oil pan baffle out of aluminum sheet metal and door hinges

the one i made on left and stock on right







Everything painted and installed
Dad excited with the new wheels installed and back into a roller to get it to my shop. This is where we kept the car stored and worked on it for a bit while i had my shop tied up with other projects.

Silver base coat and clear on the front sub frame. All the silver is a Chrysler paint code "PSC"




This is where i am at pretty much with the car. A lot of work has been done in the last 4 months. Right now we are working on the brakes and routing of the lines. more pics for that to come. Here is my YouTube page, W.O.T. 5th, (stands for wide open throttle 5th gear) for some other quick updates or how i did some things in my shop. I just started videos for the nova so not too many videos on it but lots more to come.

[Motown 454]

Great project,That's my favorite Nova body style.

[kmc3420]

Very cool project. Do you have plans for painting it, it looks really straight and well taken care of.

[Lewie415]

Great project,That's my favorite Nova body style.

Thanks

Very cool project. Do you have plans for painting it, it looks really straight and well taken care of.

I do have plans on painting one day. Maybe a year or two from now. I want to get it on the road and enjoy it. The car would go black most likely so thats why the suspension is silver and black. The car is in really good shape and i was lucky enough to find one this soild.

[kmc3420]

Thanks


I do have plans on painting one day. Maybe a year or two from now. I want to get it on the road and enjoy it. The car would go black most likely so thats why the suspension is silver and black. The car is in really good shape and i was lucky enough to find one this soild.

I say run it as is, get it dialed in. I do like the patina cars that are very nice such as yours. I wouldn't be afraid to run it as is, looks good.

[HotWheelz]

My Hat's off to you sir on a fantastic Nova build there! You ride looks fantastic in patina and those wheels! The only painting I would think about is the hood. Maybe a light color with the carbon fibre pattern.

The car looks beautiful and the wheels...

Get that car on the road and track and dialed before worrying about paint!

I include this link to demonstrate what painting the carbon fibre look is. Mike my friend who is building my 1966 Nova SS built the car in the link and painted the carbon fibre detail:

https://youtu.be/7J45ETRS_rk

[Lewie415]

My Hat's off to you sir on a fantastic Nova build there! You ride looks fantastic in patina and those wheels! The only painting I would think about is the hood. Maybe a light color with the carbon fibre pattern.

The car looks beautiful and the wheels...

Get that car on the road and track and dialed before worrying about paint!

I include this link to demonstrate what painting the carbon fibre look is. Mike my friend who is building my 1966 Nova SS built the car in the link and painted the carbon fibre detail:

https://youtu.be/7J45ETRS_rk

Thanks! Watched the video on the skylark. Looks like a very nice car. Looks like your car is in good hands. I actually have a 2 inch cowl hood for the car. Its painted black and I'm thinking about running that one. I may have to go with hood pins to delete the hood latch to make a bunch of stuff fit under the hood . I dont really want to cut up/paint the orginal hood if I don't have to. I get mixed reviews on running orginal green hood or going with cowl black hood. I like the look of the contrast black cowl hood, but I have some time before I have to make my mind up.

[HotWheelz]

Oh Yes for sure don't cut up or paint the original hood.

The black hood would look radical in a carbon fiber paint job.

[nmcqueen469]

Great looking project! I'm doing a similar build on my 67.

[Lewie415]

Great looking project! I'm doing a similar build on my 67.

Yea I seen your build. We follow each other on Instagram.

[Lewie415]

So last night I did a lot of mocking up of where radiator and fans and intercooler are going to sit. This is what I came up with so everything can sit nicely. This is just mock up but the height is pretty correct. The yellow paper is mimicking the bumper. I cant hang the bumper because I need to cut the radiator support to make the intercooler sit flush behind the bumper. What are your guys thoughts with it hanging down. It is not the lowest part of the car. The transmission is still the lowest part of the car. This intercooler is about same height as crossmember. I know ride height will be a big part of the equation but it's not going to be sitting incredibly low. I think it's a 2" drop from factory that it sits. Does it look dumb to have the intercooler and piping peaking through? If I cut the radiator support to fit the intercooler flush, it would move back about 3 inches. I could put a front splitter/ diffuser on to hide it but then air flow for cooling could come into play.

[HotWheelz]

How about up to the top of the radiator support under the flange, in front of the radiator? Then box the support and install a thin wide radiator.

[Lewie415]

How about up to the top of the radiator support under the flange, in front of the radiator? Then box the support and install a thin wide radiator.

I had it kinda up in there. I would like to put it up there but then it effects the hood latch. Which isnt the worst, if I went with hood pins. Theres only about 5 inches to work with in between radiator support and water pump. Intercooler is a healthy 3 inches, a decent radiator is 2 inches and fans another 1inch or 2.. adds up pretty quick. I dont want to spend on getting all new accessories if I really dont have to either just to save a inch or so. The grille and filler panel on these chevy II dont have much room

[Lewie415]

Had off this past week and i really got a lot of hours into the car. i ordered a sonnax 1350 slip yoke. installed it and took some measurements and had a local driveshaft company make it. Its made out of 3 inch chromoly tubing. Everything is 1350 series yoke, u joints and pinion. They assembled the driveshaft and painted it. they did a good job. got it back and installed it. I have plenty of clearance in the floor tunnel, but i am glad I added 1 inch to my driveshaft loop(pictures in previous posts) , otherwise that wouldn't have cleared. I can finish bolting everything up with the torque arm and check pinion angles. I painted some small parts that needed to get done. The fuel system is 99% done. i just have to hook up the gas gauge/ fuel pump, but I'm doing that when i wire the whole car. Tranny lines and cooler are hooked up. Went with a Derale remote mount cooler. Power steering lines and cooler are hooked up. I bought some -6an fittings for coming out of the power steering rack. I went to the local tractor supply store and used hydraulic hose with JIC fittings to hook up the the power steering rack for the high side. The cooler im using is junk picked out of a nissan altima. i made it work, i dont know if ill keep it that way, but it was free and will work for now. The way i routed the power steering lines, i kinda looped them left to right so it should provide a cooling effect too if nissan power steering cooler is too small. Welded up the core support where i cut it all apart for intercooler to fit. Got my turbo hotside wastegate welded on and blow off valve and IAT(intake air temperature) bung welded on cold side pipe. Wrapped the headers and hotside piping in DEI titanium wrap. Took 2 rolls of 50ft to get that job done. The car is starting to take shape. Parts and being installed getting ready for that first startup soon. still have to get the holley terminator , but hopefully soon.

[andrewb70]

You guys are doing a great job. Keep up the good work!

Andrew

[mean buzzen half dozen]

Really like your guys project!

Are you planning to use a bigger LS for later?

Anymore pics of your trans cooler?

Thanks

[Alwhite00]

Great project. My favorite year Nova.

[Lewie415]

You guys are doing a great job. Keep up the good work!

Andrew

Thanks!

Great project. My favorite year Nova.

Thanks!

Really like your guys project!

Are you planning to use a bigger LS for later?

Anymore pics of your trans cooler?

Thanks

I am always looking and searching for a cheap backup LS. Weather it would be a 4.8 5.3 or 6.0. I got this 4.8 on the cheap($200) with 120k on it. I wouldn't mind finding a aluminum 5.3 on the cheap side to put some built internals in it. These 4.8's do very well with a turbo attached to it, and it will be more than enough power for the goal i have in mind.

I've attached some more trans cooler pictures. The size of the actual cooler is 10x8 inches and the mount adds about 1.5 inches to each side. Right now i have it only about 1/2 inch away from the floor. I can move it away a little more but i'm going to have to angle it as the feed and return fittings will hit the braces under the car. I'm not sure if i need more clearance for air movement for the fan to pull better air, maybe someone can chime in with there results. I could have went with a bigger trans cooler and placed it under the passenger seat as there is a big opening in the floor board from factory that would really tuck it away. My worry was it would be too much tucked up away from natural rolling air movement, but maybe it doesn't make a difference. If your looking to add a remote cooler and dont know what size to pick, derale shows a very detailed drawing of sizes. i made a exact card board box and played around with options i had of placing it under the car.

Also if anyone would like me to show more detailed pictures, i don't mind at all. I didn't find this site until 2 years into my build, so i didn't post all my progress of 350 pictures, LOL. I just showed brief summary .

[Motown 454]

Really nice work, it's looking good!

[Lewie415]

Installed the battery box. Its a Taylor aluminum battery box. Part number 48100. Its pretty big actually. It fits perfectly in the trunk area probably where most people put them. Im running 0 gauge welding(pure copper) wire on the outside of the car. I mounted a 250 amp fuse right on the battery box to keep it tucked away. Right now i have a PC680 odyssey battery laying around that im going to give a try. Its a small battery that i bought for a previous 4 cylinder car, so i dont know if it will be big enough for this v8. I grounded the engine to the firewall and to the core support. i found my favorite new tool. The harbor freight hydraulic crimper tool. this thing works really nice and makes a nice crimp everytime. It has a bunch of different die's that come in the set for different gauge wires. I installed a knock off lokar oil dipstick and tranny dip stick. At 1/3 of the cost , they fit right in, no problems what so ever. I switched from drive by cable to drive by wire. There are a lot of advantages to running drive by wire, and i was having 2nd thoughts of running the cable for the throttle body. I didnt like the routing around the drivers manifold, and i cant use the factory pedal. So i thought about getting a lokar gas pedal, but for that cost and the unknown about the placement of the throttle cable, i just decided to get a gm performance drive by wire pedal and ls3 throttle body. I also got the gauges all installed and just have to wire in tach and speedo, otherwise all the sensors and wires are hooked up. I ran a 10 gauge wire and fuse from the battery to a relay then back to the fuel pump. this way it has the least amount of voltage drop. The relay will be triggered by the holley system. The car had a half installed painless wiring kit, so i routed that to the tail lights and front lights and went through the wires i will and wont be using. I hooked up a 12 volt souce, and all my lights turned on! It was a really cool feeling seeing how i never had power in the car since i owned it. I felt like i turned a corner. I just picked the car up from the exhaust shop, as i didnt want to tackle that myself. He did half of the exhaust so i could get it running, and i will bring it back so i can choose which muffler i want when its running. I just went with mild steel and i will exhaust wrap it in the engine bay. I am very close to starting this once the holley system comes in the mail. Sorry for the lengthy post, but i been cruising along with some late nights in the shop