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1968 Chevrolet Nova - Introducing Project NovaWe Picked Up A '68 Nova And Made It Swallow Our 523hp Dart SHP 400 Small-Block. Now The Fun Begins! From the June, 2010 issue of Popular Hot Rodding By Johnny Hunkins Photography by Johnny Hunkins
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For years, we've been espousing that any project car should have a plan up front. Do a rendering, research all the parts, make a list for everything, and know exactly what you plan to do with it when you're done. That's the sane way to do things, but is it necessarily the most fun? Sometimes improvisation trumps all. Take for instance those times as a teenager when your folks were out, it was a Friday night, your friends were coming over, and you had money to burn? Or a last-minute weekend trip to the beach or the racetrack? Some of the best times in life aren't scripted, and that's exactly the case with Project Nova. Heck, we don't even have a name for it, but it's shaping up to be wicked fun. Just like a spontaneous weekend getaway, you might not have a specific plan in mind, but you've already combined-mostly by happenstance-the proper ingredients for fun. In our case, we bought a lightweight '68 Nova, which just so happened to share garage space with our 523hp Dart SHP 400 small-block crate motor that we built back in the January issue (see "Power In A Package"). The Dart SHP 400 makes stupid power on pump gas with a hydraulic roller cam. And so easy, a trained monkey could build one. Hmm, light car, powerful small-block. What to do? Like star-crossed lovers, the Nova and the Dart crate naturally gravitated to each other. Over the course of a weekend, and with the help of friends-namely Andy Mitchell of Outlaw Racing Engines-we tackled the job. Beforehand, we did our best to order the basic parts we thought we'd need for the swap. We burned up the Summit Racing order hotline for a fuel pump, fuel lines, fittings, oil dipstick, air filter assembly, water pump, pulleys, fasteners, and flexplate. We found that some of the stuff worked like a charm. Some of the parts didn't work out, but it was entirely due to circumstance-and us making wild guesses. At any rate, it was a fun learning experience, and we're here to tell you all about both the good stuff, and the inconvenient stuff. The most rewarding part was hearing it fire up on cue that very first time. After a few cursory checks and an easy drive around the block, we put the little Nova through a few one-legged test burnouts in the parking lot. The incongruity of a refrigerator-white little-old-lady Nova with 14-inch tires on poverty rims, highway gears, and an open rearend fed by a maniacal small-block is too much to bear. On the street when we roll into the throttle, the Flowmaster exhaust bellows off the buildings, the left front lifts a bit, the right rear tire breaks loose, and you just steer it at the rev limit to keep it straight. The whole thing is so much fun to drive, we laughed ourselves silly. We're not totally crazy though. With 42-year-old drum brakes, bald tires, monoleaf rear springs, no sway bar, and a stock drivetrain, this thing is living on borrowed time in too many areas to count. We'd love to get it to the track for some numbers, but we need to make it safe first.  We started out with a Dart...  We started out with a Dart SHP 400 short-block crate motor ($4,184.66). Available in configurations ranging from 372 ci to 400 ci-and with options like forged pistons, forged crank, and H-beam rods-a small-block Chevy SHP short-block ranges from $2,975 up to $4,695. We checked the order blanks for upgraded forged Mahle pistons, Scat H-beam rods, and a forged crank. The Dart SHP block is a veritable fortress of strength, with siamesed cylinder walls, a minimum of .230-inch wall thickness, played four-bolt mains, priority main oiling, and a safe bore size up to 4.165 inches.  The top end of our 400ci Dart...  The top end of our 400ci Dart SHP crate motor is dressed out with Dart's top end kit consisting of Pro-1 Platinum heads, a Dart dual-plane intake, gaskets, spark plugs, valve covers, head bolts, and upgraded 7/16-inch rocker studs.  The top end of our 400ci Dart...  The top end of our 400ci Dart SHP crate motor is dressed out with Dart's top end kit consisting of Pro-1 Platinum heads, a Dart dual-plane intake, gaskets, spark plugs, valve covers, head bolts, and upgraded 7/16-inch rocker studs.  Equipped with A COMP Cams...  Equipped with A COMP Cams Big Mutha Thumpr hydraulic roller cam (299/319 degrees gross duration, 243/247 degrees at .050, and .533/.519-inch lift on a 107-degree LSA), COMP's new short-travel hydraulic lifters, and a Holley 850-cfm Street HP carb, our SHP 400 cranked out 523 hp at 6,200 rpm and 523 lb-ft of torque at 4,400 rpm on pump gas with a 10.66:1 compression ratio. The cost total cracked $9,400 with the premium parts we chose, but it'll be bulletproof for many years to come, and can handle a nice shot of nitrous should we desire.  We began our engine swap by...  We began our engine swap by pulling out the tired 350 that came in our '68 Nova. We have no idea what's in it, but we plan on finding out, and resurrecting it for a future issue. Having a V-8 from the get-go, the Nova came with many items we plan on reusing for the time being-or at least until it breaks. Stuff like headers, transmission, and cooling system.  We've got our eye on a nice...  We've got our eye on a nice set of ceramic-coated Hooker headers, but for now, the no-name headers from our Nova will be reused. We mediablasted them to clean off all the rust and old paint.
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