Death of theNova

[RyanSBCA]

Well, I know this isn't an off road rig... but thought I would share!

Awhile back my 73 Nova started overheating. Couldn't find any water in the oil... no white smoke coming out of the tail pipes... no coolant leaks, but I was loosing water like crazy... so I parked it, got lazy and have barely been working on it. Plus the Jeep has been occupying my time...

[img]http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d26/rkpalmer/001-2.jpg[/img]

Finally pulled the heads and manifold... found that my gasket blew between the 4th and 6th combustion chambers... No big deal, easy fix... few beers and I'd be on the road

WRONG!

THEN I noticed that my roller lifter had spun.... and been shoved out of the hole!!!!
So, again, I sat on it... gaining the courage to pull the cam and see the damage...

Here is the result! Two destroyed lobes... the gnarly one is from the spun lifter... the other one I'm still investigating, thinking it might be a lifter that got jammed.

[img]http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d26/rkpalmer/005.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d26/rkpalmer/006-1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d26/rkpalmer/007-1.jpg[/img]
Guess the Nova is in ICU for now... but it wont Die!

Crazy thing is... the Nova still ran like a beast with this jacked up cam... when I took it to Famoso quite a few years ago, it had a stock tranny with a 2400 stall and crappy rear suspension... no traction bars, etc... still ran 12.5sec in the 1/4 mile. Thinking it would have run low 12s if I took it after the suspension and tranny upgrades. Maybe when I finally rebuild this, I'll take it back out there!

[REDxj5150]

Did this have vortec heads on it?

[RyanSBCA]

[quote="REDxj5150"]Did this have vortec heads on it?[/quote]

Nope... 195cc AFR Heads

[REDxj5150]

Did it have valve dampener springs?

[RyanSBCA]

I believe they do... I gotta double check (totally spacing out on this). I bought these when I was a freshman in college ~12yrs ago... so it's been sometime. I'm guessing since I was on a budget (and these heads were pretty expensive for me back then) that I didn't upgrade to their 'Hydra-rev kit'

Here are the heads I have on it:
http://www.airflowresearch.com/index.php?cPath=24_29

I believe their the 65cc straight plugs at the top. Price seems about right.

[REDxj5150]

I don't know why it would be a different case, but when my brother put his engine together with vortec heads and roller lifters/rockers the dampener springs held up the valve just enough to knock one of the push rods out just enough to bend it into a nice "S". in total he bent 3. Paul williams put the heads together, and said he made a mistake to put the dampener springs in. Luckily it was the first time he fired it and we noticed a top end tick immediately. Ask someone with a little more knowledge than me with just my one experience, but I think those springs have got to go.

BTW it's in a 69' nova.

[RyanSBCA]

When I originally built it, I got the short block from a local guy... put the top end together myself... bent like two push rods over the course of two years... got tired of the problems I was having, pulled the engine and took it to a local engine builder with a great name. He put a new crank in it (mine was already starting to wear... don't really like the original guy who built it... but hey I was in HS and looking for deals).

Anyways, after he rebuilt it, I had no problems... till about 1 1/2yrs ago when it started over heating (due to the blown head gasket)... never showed any signs of valvetrain problems... couldn't hear it... couldn't feel any power loss...

I'm surprised how strong it was with that cam lobe missing! hahaha

Oh well, live and learn... I drive it hard, so I expect things to go wrong from time to time. I'm guessing I got some valve float at the top end (6500rpm or so) and tagged the piston... and that caused the lifter to pop up and out of the holder and spin...

Was thinking of getting a different cam, but so far, the one I have/had seems to be the best for my setup. When I get it back together and broken in I want to come up to Famoso and test it out at the track to find out its new 1/4mile time.