🔧 BUILD 1971 Nova - Work in Progress

[HILROD]

If you are going turbo the compression is good as is. The only thing you'd need to change is the rods. Early rods are weak, the later rods will take over 1000 hp. If no boost heads from a 5.3 0r 4.8 up the c.r. I have a shortened truck pan. I took measurements off a holley pan and welded a truck pan to match. If you get a chance to check the truck pan in your suframe it should fit , just hang low. If that is true it can just be shortened up.

 

[cap42]

If you are going turbo the compression is good as is. The only thing you'd need to change is the rods. Early rods are weak, the later rods will take over 1000 hp. If no boost heads from a 5.3 0r 4.8 up the c.r. I have a shortened truck pan. I took measurements off a holley pan and welded a truck pan to match. If you get a chance to check the truck pan in your suframe it should fit , just hang low. If that is true it can just be shortened up.

I need to double check this but I think the front valley needs to be cut back as well as the depth to fit. From what I remember the steering linkage hits the front of the pan at full lock.

I’m also a little worried about cutting the pan and oil pickup tube. I am not the best welder especially with TIG, I’d be afraid it wouldn’t seal or I would have a oil pressure problem doing it myself.

I do know a few welders but haven’t asked to see what they would charge. I am usually the first person to do things on the cheap but for the piece of mind the cost of a new pan with the right tray and tube makes the cost seem worth it.

 

[HILROD]

I can do the tig if you need. Like I said I do have a cut down on here. I have used the truck pan in a couple of swaps and have never hit up front. With a set of adapter plates like dirty dingo it only takes a few minutes to set in the subframe to check.

 

[cap42]

I can do the tig if you need. Like I said I do have a cut down on here. I have used the truck pan in a couple of swaps and have never hit up front. With a set of adapter plates like dirty dingo it only takes a few minutes to set in the subframe to check.

Once I get it fitted I may shoot you a pm!

 

[cap42]

Doing my update now as I am sitting in front of the motor. I want to document as I go so I don’t forget or miss anything. I have no clue about LS style motors other than what I have read up on. So I am labeling what I can and will have to figure out what I couldn’t label. I will have to edit this post after I upload the pictures so I can add a description.


Tag on the ecu, the sticker is falling off and I will need to clean it as it’s just as nasty as the motor.

Wires that were cut, they were on the passenger side facing the front of the motor. Vehicle specific wiring?

Coolant hoses, I am guessing these went to the heater core.

EGR, I will be ditching the manifolds and deleting the EGR, need to look up the block off plate for the manifold.

Another view

A/C lines were cut, I will be keeping the compressor for the vintage air unit. Depending on how this fits in the subframe I may need to relocate it up top.

Going to have to figure out how to disconnect these lines, looks like it is hard lined onto the cylinders that are bolted to the compressor.

Took the Beauty cover off to remove wiring and the throttle cables. The cables were cut so they look useless. May need to get a replacement from another truck or lokar.

?

Wiring for the alt, think there is a sensor I can’t identify yet.

A sensor on the rear of the intake

Close up of said sensor

Unknown sensors on the block behind the intake

Another view

Crap I have pulled off the motor, cut coolant hoses, cut fuel rail lines. I will need to figure out how to best get my fuel lines connected to the rails.

Motor with the harness removed, the motor is sitting on a wheel dolly and the harness is caught under the front oil pan so I can’t pull the harness away till I get a hoist and a stand to put the motor on.

PCV plastic line is broke, there wasn’t any oil showing on the dipstick but the residue looks very dirty.

Need to identify these unknown sensors so I can label them. Get the motor on a stand so I can pull the pan and inspect the bottom end. Wondering if I should pull the heads and intake to at least re-gasket those and get a look at the cylinders and walls. Thoughts?

Going to be fun cleaning this and the trans...

 

[Intel]

the square sensor on the intake is the map sensor

 

[cap42]

Ditched the EGR already

I think these are steam lines which look pretty corroded

Another sensor, it’s to the driver side next to the MAP sensor Intel pointed out. This runs under the intake from behind. This for the knock sensor?

 

[cap42]

O2 sensor were cut off, found the driver side, not sure if it is the front or rear.

Thinking this is the connector to the inside of the vehicle

No clue what this box is

Other misc connectors that are upstream from the driver O2 sensor. These were disconnected from the guy who pulled the motor. They are part of the same wiring leg as the sensors on the back of the block behind the intake.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Okay, I'll help you out with some of this since it's an area I know the hell something about unlike body work.

Sensor on the intake is a MAP sensor. Eventually you'll want to go 2 or 3 BAR probably, that's going to be a 1BAR.

Sensor on the block behind the intake is probably a combination oil pressure sender (gauge) and oil pressure safety switch. This controls the FP relay if its a switch.

I am guessing there is only one connection to the rails? If so they're returnless. There's a Corvette regulator/fuel filter you can use, or you can get an external FPR and put it right beside it. You can also get a return set of rails if you're into the $$$ for them. ED:It may be a return system, I noticed you have a drive by cable throttle body. That means you're talking a slightly earlier engine.

Knock sensors are under the intake typically.

You may have to trace the O2 sensors to the pins in the ECU. That said, if there's one in the manifold then that's going to be the rear one.

The green "inside the vehicle" connector is to the 4L80E.

The mystery square box is a switch that goes on the side of a 4L80E to show what gear its in. Earlier ones do not have it.

The rest is going to probably be tracking based on color coding and getting a continuity tester and checking at the ECU plug. GM is pretty decent about commonality in a lot of cases. Find a schematic for an OEM application of your engine and you should get 90%+ of the pin out determined.

 

[cap42]

Slow and steady... I spent all day battling this wiper motor relocation.

First up, dug out the wiper motor. Then make sure my marked location wouldn’t interfere.

Then cutting out the hole.

I trimmed this very slowly with a carbide bit so I could get a tight interference fit. It stays in place and doesn’t move even with nothing holding it to the firewall.

I then threw the fender on to make sure the hood mounting hole and the motor itself wouldn’t be in the way.

Under the fender

Then on to extending the wiper arm to meet the new location. First I had to take the assembly out of the cowl. In doing so I snapped 3 of the 4 bolts.


The little silver spot is the thread stuck in the mount.

After drilling and tapping those I then cut the wiper arm and used a 5/16 solid rod and beveled each end so it fit properly between the two cut ends. I used two vice grips to temporarily hold them in place.


This is looking down into the cowl after I remounted the wiper linkage. The other vice grip is further inside the cowl not seen.

With all that done I needed to see if it would bind up, after spinning the motor arm several times I still wasn’t sure. I found a 12v power source and tested out the terminals till I found the right ones. Added power and I was extremely surprised it not only worked but didn’t bind up even with a pair of vice grips stuffed in the cowl.

I had to stop for the day there, I will weld the beveled rod to the linkage later. I will also need to devise how I want to bolt in the motor. I’m thinking of getting some nutserts and trying that.

 

[FESTER665]

Love this build.... So much good stuff being done to the car!

 

[greasy]

Damn a boatload of work still going on this car, very impressive still. :cheers:

 

[cap42]

Greasy appeared in my thread! :headbang:

[MENTION=5]Mook[/MENTION] can you hook me up with a clever title change?

 

[cap42]

I tried to get the motor on the stand and ran into a few problems. The guy who delivered the motor used a strap and wrapped it around the manifolds, so the motor is quite unbalanced and front heavy.

So I pulled some of the front accessories off, got the alt, power steering and A/C compressor off before I realized I should have taken the fan off while the belt was still on. I will use a ratchet strap later, just sucks because it would have been 10x easier if I had thought of it before.

I also noticed that there are a few of the exhaust manifold bolts snapped off in the head.

Now I know where the exhaust leak is that the seller was telling me about. This does not look fun. Some of these bolts are snapped flush with the deck of the head.

I called it a day at this point, I caught a chest cold and was feeling like dog shit.

I ordered up a leveler for the hoist, I also need to grab another bag of washers. Hopefully next weekend it’s mounted on the stand and I can pull the pan.

 

[RICH17]

Next time use that ratchet strap to pull the front of the motor up

 

[cap42]

Next time use that ratchet strap to pull the front of the motor up

I used a 4x4 and a jack under the front of the oil pan, but I need more washers before I can bolt it to the stand so I just called it a day then.

 

[JBruno88]

Exhaust manifold bolts being snapped off into the heads are a common problem on these motors. Steel bolt being put into an aluminum head. The constant heat cycles will cause it to snap off over time.

You should be able to get them out even if they are flush with an extraction tool.

Great build, been following it from the beginning on the sidelines!

 

[Mr_Roboto]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bZyw3OSIgk

Makes it look easy, but should be okay.

 

[cap42]

Exhaust manifold bolts being snapped off into the heads are a common problem on these motors. Steel bolt being put into an aluminum head. The constant heat cycles will cause it to snap off over time.

You should be able to get them out even if they are flush with an extraction tool.

Great build, been following it from the beginning on the sidelines!

Of course I have steel heads not aluminum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bZyw3OSIgk

Makes it look easy, but should be okay.

I've done this in the past, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, I will be giving it a whirl though.

 

[JBruno88]

Of course I have steel heads not aluminum :tear

Oh i forgot you said the motor came from a 99 truck. Yeah those are cast iron heads. Might be worth while to spend the 200 bucks to get you a set of aluminum heads.

 

[cap42]

Oh i forgot you said the motor came from a 99 truck. Yeah those are cast iron heads. Might be worth while to spend the 200 bucks to get you a set of aluminum heads.

It's a evil thought that has crossed my mind. If I do end up swapping out heads I will look into another casting vs the aluminum version of the 317's. I just haven't done enough research to figure out which one will give me the best bang for the buck.

 

[Nate]

Cap if you need help, parts ect pm me

 

[HILROD]

Steel heads only came on a 99 so looks like the trans you have matches the motor. Also 5.3 ,4.8 or 5.7 heads would bump the compression a little bit and help a lot with n.a. power. I might have an extra set of 5.3 heads left after I finish a motor I'm messing with.

 

[strtcar]

great build

 

[cap42]

Finally got the motor on the stand, it is one heavy dirty bitch.

I tried to turn the motor 90 degrees to get more coolant out and the stand didn’t want to allow the motor to rotate. I got it a few degrees and then it just seized. Had to hook the hoist up again to get some weight off it to turn it the other few degrees back. I left the hoist connected but with no weight off the stand. Going to leave it like this for a static test.

I then drained the oil, man this motor was used like a $2 whore.

Didn’t smell of gas and no visible coolant but pitch black and very viscous like the oil wasn’t changed regularly.

The drain plug has a magnetic tip, there was a small amount of metal on it.

I then pulled all the plugs, took pics of all of them but they all looked the same. None were wet but lots of carbon.

I pulled the driver side valve cover just to take a peek.

I then pulled the exhaust manifolds, this was more to get additional weight off the stand. You can see in these pics the manifold bolts have been broken for some time. Amazingly none of them broke on me.

Cylinder 3 exhaust valve had a touch of oil on it.

Random valve showing the carbon buildup.

I was able to use a little PB blaster and a pair of blue handle channel lock pliers to extract the 3 bolts that broke off exposed. There are still 2 bolts that either broke off flush or inside the head.

When I get time next week I will try rotating the motor again and pulling the pan. Hopefully I have enough off the motor to allow it to rotate freely. I want to inspect the bottom end before I do any mock-up.