LQ4 into a 3rd Gen/1972 Nova by frojoe

5 minute(s) of a 891 minute read

I haven't, no. But I do still plan on bracing the top, partially for stiffness, partially for looks. I went thru the effort of boxing in the cut out sections, laying decent appearing TIG welds, and painting it all..... so that in the future all I'd have to do is fabricate a removable brace and drill some holes for thru-bolting it to the rad support. Only problem is.. "future" hasn't quite happened yet haha.

I drove the car both days this weekend! Man I missed driving this thing, I feel bad for neglecting it so much during summer 2020 (insane work schedule, house move along with mild renovation, garage sorting, etc obligations).

Also, I friend came by on Sunday to enjoy the yard and sun. Some of you may vaguely remember his Camaro...jeez it's so nice, I still want it badly...... haha.

6-14-2021

I ordered a new steering box for the car too... a performance/good box has been on the list for damn near a decade, and specifically one from Lee's, so I finally decided I had to pull the trigger. It's a 12:1 muscle car box with 35lb valving, and I'm going to add a P/S fluid cooler to the driver's side front bumper cutout just to reduce the heatsoak under the hood and help this box live as happily as it can.

The cooler I have on order is a Setrab 250mm 14-row unit, which is slim and side horizontal ports, and about 12.75"x5.5" in overall size.

6-21-2021

I think I may have posted about it a while back when researching engine oil coolers, but I can't see any discernible differences between the Earl's and Setrab coolers. I know Setrab is "Made in Sweden", but from all the pics I've Google'd.. they look pretty damn similar to me, even in pricing as well (both are higher than other alternatives). If you assume they're similar design but actually are made by different vendors... from all the pics I've seen, keeping in mind the possibility of material difference, I bet they'll work similarly enough given the same overall cooler size. It's not like there's a massive difference in technology, like if the Setrab had turbulators and the Earl's didn't.

I did go for a long highway drive yesterday thru some windy mountain passes, and the radiator fan didn't even turn on unless stopped at a light for longer than a few minutes. I was consistently getting coolant temps in the 170-180*F range (have a 160*F thermostat) while moving, however my engine oil temp was always between 220-240*F, sometimes spiking 250*F after a sustained uphill boosty pull.... so I need to add that oil cooler I originally bought but never ended up installing (appropriately, it was an Earl's cooler haha). More on that drive to follow in an upcoming post.

As for a comparison between Setrab and Earl's, this is why I think they'd at the very least perform similarly.....

Earl's cooler......

Setrab cooler......