Return of the Death Nova

[Bruce69Camaro]

Either that or let me drive it....I can help you with the weight issues...LOL

Man car is 3000 and the race weight was 3250.....

[Craig W.]

My car was about 2830 last year. Hopefully I didn't add too much weight with the cage additions and suspension changes. Radials are quite a bit heavier than slicks so I know that'll be an adder. I'm hoping the narrowed 9" with aluminum center section and drag discs will be lighter than the 10-bolt with drum brakes.

[Bruce69Camaro]

You guys have your chit together so I'm sure you'll be ok.

[Craig W.]

Thanks, I hope so. The plan is to be out testing really early next year. Might even go south for an early weekend of testing to get a jump start on stuff. Lots of changes to get lined out and radials to get used to.

[Bruce69Camaro]

So what's the latest word?

[Craig W.]

Latest word is that I'm not going to get it out this year. I got a call from Isky on Tuesday after they inspected the four lifters I sent. I figured only two would need attention but the other two showed signs of debris from the pushrod problems. So the other 12 need to be rebuilt too. That'll push me out too late to test so I'm pulling the plug on it and just working towards early testing next year.

I need to get going on my son's car too. We've had a 5.3L LS motor for over a year waiting to go into his '78 Nova. The tired old 305 leaks pretty bad but I'm not spending any time on putting a rear main seal in it when we've got the other motor waiting to go in. A guy I work with wants it for a derby car so we'll recover a little money from that sale. So for Christmas, he's getting an oil pan, fuel pump and some front tires.

[Bruce69Camaro]

Now you got some time to work on the wiring in the trunk or was that done?

Well better safe then sorry, next season will be here before you know it.

[Craig W.]

Pretty much everything in the trunk is done except for getting a new battery and tidying up the chute release cable with a few zip ties. I re-wrapped all the tail light and side marker light wiring and rewired the fuel pumps a few weeks ago.

The wiring I need to finish up is cleaning up the wiring under the dash for the MSD box and coil.

[Bruce69Camaro]

Nothing like the fun of climbing under the dash and trying to fit between all the bars.

Sounds like a job for your son...LOL

[Craig W.]

He's bigger than I am, or maybe I should say taller. LOL.

Luckily I can get to most of it thru the glove box door and I've already got the passenger seat out of the car.

But tomorrow will consist of putting a new injector in my Dodge truck, cleaning gutters and one last run over the yard with the mower.

[Craig W.]

I got the injector in the truck but that's it. Fought a mild cold all weekend so I didn't think I should push my luck by working outside.

The truck is starting super fast now. So looks like the injector did the trick. Only took a little over an hour.

[Bruce69Camaro]

Come on, working out in the cold helps fight the cold, didn't you know that?

After Ray and I got done making adjustments to my car, my brother in law stopped over and he blew out the spouts and hung our Christmas lights over the peaks and out front. Then the next day, after church we cleaned up the yard of all the leaves and we felt good but then, the storm showed up and my wife got her wish, all the leaves are now off the trees but guess where they are at now???

I'll tell you what, I'll come down there and pretend to work on your car and you can come up and clean up our yard of all the leaves.

[Craig W.]

My son needs to make some money to buy car parts for his Nova. You can pay him to do yard work

[seancarole]

Happy New Years
Any updates. and who's headers are you using?

[Craig W.]

Happy New Years guys.

Not many Death Nova updates or new from my son's LS swap into his '78 Nova. Been busy, sick, lazy, etc. LOL

But he did get his oil pan, pump pickup and windage tray for Christmas, so the engine swap is much closer to happening now. I think we'll end up using some shorty headers I've found on Ebay. A friend actually bought some and is real impressed with their weld quality and material thickness. The car is pretty low and the full length headers on it now drag pretty often. So I think this is the way to go.

The only thing I've gotten done on the Death Nova is the final cuts and welds on the parachute mount yesterday. Took me months to get around to that and about 10 minutes to do it. LOL

There's a new class in my area next year that I'm going to run. The rules really limit the power you can make, so it'll be all about getting every ounce of power out of it and getting all of it to the ground efficiently. No more throwing nitrous at it to make it go fast. It'll be a little different approach but its refreshing to not have to spend any big money to have a combo that can be really competitive.