LQ4 into a 3rd Gen/1972 Nova by frojoe

8 minute(s) of a 891 minute read

Had another productive weekend, didn't get anything 100% accomplished but I got most of the way thru a handful of things. Tacked together and fit the P/S pump bracket.. it fits well enough that it'll stay on the car...

All the pullies appeared in-plane, that's a good start...

The lip on the smooth plastic idler pulley just to the right of the water neck was just touching, so I'll skim down the offending lip and make it fit...

Drilled some holes and welded on 1/8" NPT bungs for pre-turbo exhaust gas temp and pressure...

For the exhaust pressure sensor, just to try and prolong its life, I thought I'd add a copper coil to dissipate some heat before the sensor...

The exhaust temperature sensor next to it is a K-type thermocouple, good to I think 2000*F, so that won't be an issue.

Because the pressure sensor will now be on the end of this big pigtail spring, I think I'll hard mount the sensor body to the head to help with vibrations.. just need to source a P clip that will work, or maybe machine something....

Jigged some high-precision strapping to align each side's wastegate recirculation pipe to its respective downpipe, to final tack the two parts together...

This just show some of the shrinkage/warpage that occurs when you weld everything together. That being said, since there's probably half a dozen welded joints, 3 flanges, and a gasket added to the whole setup since I last fit-checked it in a tack-welded state, I'm pretty happy how close things lined up, it was no problem to fill the small gap...

Done welding the downpipes! Other than O2 bung and V-band flanges, of course.

Also got the Comp Cam 0.080" 7.375" pushrods in and installed everything.. valvetrain is officially buttoned up!

And here it is as of some point Sunday afternoon!

Another update that has been ongoing on the side for a little while, is an update to the trans shifter. The T56 Magnum I got came with a McLeod short shifter, which has tighter operation than the stock T56 shifter, but also shorter shift throws.

I measured the shifter **** throw of my 8" Hurst stick on both transmissions, and the throw dropped from ~3.5" from neutral to gear to ~2.25" on the new McLeod lever. I've wanted to update the look of the shifter to something a bit more purposeful, and came across the Billet Specialities shift lever for $49 so I thought why not. I like the no-frills look of a rally/sequential shift ****, but don't like how they're usually white. Then I remembered, the shift **** in my Dodge Ram has a similar shape, doesn't get hot in the summer, and most importantly.. is black!

The square-shape of the lever end was a bit too big to fit under the bottom of the shift ****, so I ground down the corners of the lever. Also made a height spacer so that visually the **** sits "right" on the lever...

**** is threaded, so I can do a jam nut operation to really tighten it on there...

Didn't have 3/8"-UNC all thread around, so made myself a stud to hold it all together...

Here's the assembly...

Showing the clearance or lack thereof when trying to tuck a round hole on a square peg...

Assembled!....

Here is a rough comparison of the old lever and stock T56 shifter compared to the new lever setup and McLeod shifter...

The McLeod shifter came with a gigantic rear-offset arm on it. Instead of machining an entire new arm, I just cut up the McLeod one and welded it back together in the orientation I wanted...

Tight! A little camber to the mounting face just to get the shift **** a bit closer to the steering wheel...

Here is neutral...

Here is 1st gear...

Here is 2nd gear...