LQ4 into a 3rd Gen/1972 Nova by frojoe

3 minute(s) of a 891 minute read

Thanks for the compliments! This car has been a long, educational process.. it's just been so fun mentally designing and then learning to fabricate everything for the car.

I was never really tempted to start a parallel thread on Steve's Nova Site, mainly because I was using the LS1tech picture uploader and it would have been way too much effort at the time to additionally upload all the pics to a 3rd party site. I'm glad I started that route on this site and continued with it, after all the Photobucket fuckery that happened. I did start a trimmed down summary thread on Lateral-G, but it never really caught on as I guess my build didn't have enough $4000+ wheelset with 15" Baer 6pistons, and Anvil and Marquez Designs parts with a paintjob from a forum-known painter.

For the 275 tires.. I didn't notch the subframe. Turns out that the mechanical steering lock for the box I have (to be honest, I don't even know the specs for it other than ~12.7:1) happens to occur right as the inside sidewalls are kissing the subframe rails, which is also at the exact time that the outside tire corners are touching the trimmed fender inner lips. So technically there isn't really a need to notch the subframe now as the system is reaching several mechanical limits all at the same time. Hell if I crank the steeringwheel at full lock, then turn the engine off and the steering column locks the steering wheel, the wedging effect of the inside sidewalls on the subframe is enough to act as a parking brake.

That being said, I have thought about notching the subframe this winter when I take everything apart, for two reasons: 1) to future-proof front tireroom while access to the subframe is easiest for cutting, welding, and painting. And 2) at the very least to create inboard room between the full-lock tire and the subframe rail for the future-fabricated sway bar arms.

A thought I had while trying to fall asleep last night.. could there be room to move the alternator from high driver side, to low passenger side? I'm still going to be running the truck accessories, which place the belt alignment 1.5" forward of the car setup.. I'm going to test fit to see if the truckalternator fits down low and left. Even if there's some notching required, I think I'll do it to get it out of the way visually as well as away from driver side turbo piping heat.

Existing belt routing...

 

Possible new routing, to be confirmed...