I gotta admit I did not see this thread. Neat car! As one may assume, I am drawn to a build like this:hmmm:

How bid in terms of C.I. was you engine builder going? What was that block? I may be living under a rock, but I sure do not hear of guys getting into the water jackets doing a 383 all that often.

I have seen and heard Joe's Nova and it sounds so good with the headers going through the single original style crossover muffler. He does really nice work because he loves that car and will never sell it. There is something about this car that will never be duplicated and that makes both the owner and the car real special.

It's gonna be killer Joe!!!

Guess…I believe that’s the notch he was attempting to grind for reciprocating component clearance with a long stroke crank…looks got a little bit carried away :)

Yep, I knew most of you would know the answer!!

He was building me a 383, like you said. I'm not sure what block he was using? He has built a lot of different engines over the years and I have no clue why he ruined that one??

Thanks for the kind words Mark!! I like the sound a lot and some even said it sounds like a big block!!!

It's a completely different "animal" now for sure!!!

Absolutely Wayne!!!

Kick butt car and a stellar job Joe! Congrats!!!

That block could be repaired, but it would have been easier if he had noticed the hole long before it got that big. If it isn't your original, then no big deal to you.

Thanks so much Wayne!!

Yeah, I'm no engine builder, but I thought the same thing?? I'm kind of glad we went with another block though, because the first one had a "spot" on one of the bores that, to my untrained eye, didn't look too good?? It wasn't the original block so there's that!!

Another thought that just came to me was, couldn't it have been used for a race only motor and then filled up with "concrete" (or whatever they use for quarter-mile stuff)??

Well, I know this might be a little boring, compared with engine stuff, but I’ve been without a heater for many years now. You wouldn’t know it to look at the hoses because I blocked them off but left them connected. I mean why would I need a heater in California, anyway??!! But, like my son said, you’ll really appreciate it when you’re headed to the Donut Shop at 5:05 in the morning. And, in case you don’t know what Donut Shop I’m referring to, just do a quick google search for Donut Derelicts and you’ll find out. It’s one of my most favorite places to go to see a bunch of old guys, with old cars!! They start showing up around 5:30 and most everyone is gone by 9:30. We’ve been known to get there around 5:30ish and leave around 7:30 to head down the coast (PCH) to join the other Saturday morning “cruise in”, Cars and Coffee in San Clemente.

So, I asked around to see if anyone would want to tackle replacing the heater core. I mean, who in their right mind would want to do that??!! So, after a “bath” in Naval Jelly (or something like that?), I painted up the box, added some new interior baffles, found an aluminum heater core that needed a lot of “fabrication” to make it work and it was looking pretty good. It was really a hassle to get it to fit through the firewall though, but with the help of my son (who volunteered to watch from the engine compartment), I was able to finally get it pushed through!! No more cold mornings for me!!!

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Looks good ! Pulling the heater box out of these cars without A/C is a piece of cake. Especially compared to anything built in the last 20 years with climate controlled A/C ...may as well sell the vehicle and let someone else deal with/pay for the repair.