NOVA UPDATE

About a year ago, I posted on the blog about my Nova and since then much has be done in it’s restoration.  I’ve posted updates on facebook, but nothing on the blog.  So if you’re not on facebook you’ve been missing all the work that has been done.  Not going to rehash everything here, but here is the current update.

It’s been awhile since I posted a “More Progress” update on the Nova.  Because of the silence, people keep asking me, “What’s up?”  So here’s what happened.  Motor complete, in the car, rebuild the carburetor, and troubleshoot some minor wiring issues.  The car starts right up, but runs a little rough.  Not an issue, right?  More troubleshooting. We, mostly my car garu Bill, take the temperature of the exhaust manifold and one side runs hot and the other runs cool.  This was the same issue we had when we ran the motor in an engine stand.  We figured we had solved the problem with the carb re-build.  Well, that wasn’t the case.

So we ran a compression check, and the hot side was normal, but the cool side had NO COMPRESSION.  Valves not closing, holes in the pistons, broken piston rings, what was it?  We had completely gone through the engine, new pistons, rings, valve job, new cam, polished the crank, all new bearings, what the hell was wrong?

Bill feeling responsible, said if it was something he did wrong, he would fix it.  So one again the car is transported on a tow truck, this time to Bill’s shop.  Now with me having moved to Arizona, it was problematic for me to get to San Diego every time Bill wanted to work on the motor.  Not to worry, said Bill, he would handle it.

So off come the head on the cool side, the one with no compression.  Happy to report that there were no holes in the pistons, which was a great relief.  With the head off, Bill was able to determine that some of the intake valves weren’t closing properly.  So, it seems that the machine shop who did the valve job screwed up.  This was good news as we are pretty sure this was the only problem and Bill is relieved that it wasn’t his fault.

So true to form, Bill will follow up with the machine shop, get the valve issue taken care of and put the car back together.  Boy I’m I glad I know Bill.  He’s been a lifesaver with his knowledge and willingness to hold my hand, as I am in over my head when it comes to engine re-building.

Once the car becomes drivable again, a decision will be made as to where the upholstery gets done, Arizona or California.  The seat covers are completed in the original fabric and need to be put on.  The door panels are at a shop in Oregon waiting to be completed.  Hopefully in a few months we’ll be cruzin the the streets of Prescott in my Nova.