I got a new exhaust system installed on the Nova a couple of days ago. I went with Langdon's cast iron manifolds.


Everything was kind of tight near the clutch linkage. Glad I didn't have the shift linkage in the way anymore.


I bought Smithy's but they were a bit too long so I used the 20" glasspacks the shop had.


Some barely visible slash cut tips.


It sounds really good. Kinda louder than I expected but I guess we'll see what the neighbors say.

looks really nice. it will have a nice sound when you rev it up. tom

Yes; a great job.

Just drive it sensably and they won't hear it.

Ya see what got "pipes" a bad name was, 'us kids' way back then didn't always do that.

Have fun.

Looks really great! Nice job on the install.
You'll learn to live with the sound, trust me. That's what an Inline six in heat suppose to sound like!
Hey, let's see the rest of the car!

Rap-on!

RapRap
1940 ChoppedChevyCoupe

Yours look nice too, Chopped. How big is your system?
I read awhile back you lived in SJ for a while. What area?

Looking good,bet it sounds sweet.

Every once in a while its good to give the neighbors "some", it keeps them on their toes.lol

Thanks.
I'm starting to get used to it. I bumped up the idle a bit this morning and I'll make some adjustments this weekend. I also need to get some coolant running under the intake. I can feel a little bog that wasn't there before.

Chopped 40 and all, here's a link to pics of my car.
http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l32/strummin67/

Looks nice!!!!

What size pipes did you end up installing?

MBHD

Thanks Hank.
I went with a 2" pipes all the way back.

Sweet 64 wagon!. Where are the engine pictures?

Martin, that thing is clean, do you have a 5 speed in there?

P.S. Bruce the engine pictures are at the top of this page.

Thanks guys.
G10. Yes, it's an S-10/Camaro hybrid T5.

Strummin'67

Very nice grocery getter! Very clean and un-assumming look to it.
I lived in the Blossomhill Rd & Camden Ave area up against the foothills for 16 years. I really miss that area.

My system is;
Langdon's new cast headers, 2 1/2" mandrel bent exhaust pipe with 18"x3" Chambered Mufflers.(1967 covette side pipe mufflers)with custom made 6"x 18" exhaust tips. It's basically a huge megaphone. It's basically a "straight-thru" system that sounds like a big block v-8 when ideling, and at throttle, it can set off car alarms for a block.
Fortunately, from inside my coupe, you can actually talk to the passenger while on the freeway. I have a lot of insulation and the tips are way back and low. I've heard from my friends, if you follow my car to a show, you need to be at least 3rd or 4th behind to hear your radio! Oops!


RapRap
1940 ChoppedChevyCoupe



Exhaust tips before the got the woodstove black paint

Thanks Chopped 40.
I know that area well. A few friends live/d there. And you know you wouldn't find property like you have now for anything reasonable here.
Wow. Nice system.
I've seen your videos elsewhere on this site. It kills me when the kid says "it hurts my ears".
I'm getting used to the sound and it's not bad on the freeway. With the stock system it seemed "louder" than it is now. Are you heating your intake?

Yes, I am using Langdon's heated plate. If you do that, move your thermostat to the water outlet neck instead of between the headers. It gave me a false reading between the headers. 195 degrees instead of 165 degress on the water outlet. I doubled checked all temp readings with an infared digital thermometer. I thought my temp gauge was broken.

RapRap
1940 ChoppedChevyCoupe

That thing must run sweet with all those gears.

How is it with no heat to the intake on these cold mornings?

Fortunately mine is already on the outlet neck. I was thinking of moving the sender to the spark plug side port where the upper heater hose connects and run the heater hose on the other port closer to the intake.

The T5 works well. The only gear I can't use is the overdrive.
Low end power is not what it was. It struggles to get going but gets better when it warms up. Gas mileage has gone down. I'm hoping the water heat will correct these problems.

Strummin'67

I know you have a 250 but with the T-5, you should be getting over 20 mpg on the highway.
What type of rear are you running? My guess (from the photos-10 bolt ) it's a stock 2:73 ratio.
That is why your not getting any power in OD. If you swapped the gears to a 3:55 ratio, you would get a dramatic off the line power and great top end too.
I know my 292 adds a lot of low end torque, but at 65 mph, 31" tall rear tires, and a T-5 with a 0.72 OD gear, I'm getting 18-20 on the road @ 1850 rpms! In town, only about 14-16 mpg.

RapRap
1940 ChoppedChevyCoupe

Actually I have the 194 still. It might be the original engine. Rear gears are 3:36. I was getting about 14 in town and 19-20 on the highway. Haven't done much highway driving yet but the around town mileage is down quite a bit from there. At 65 it hovers around 3000 rpms, which was annoyoing with the stock exhaust but seems to be ok now. In overdrive (.72) at 65 it was around 2000 rpms. Significantly quieter but too much for my engine.

Dear Martin;

Don't worry about any of that.

The 270" will love what you have right now. Or you could go to 3:90 in the back.

So you lost a little low end power? Not sure heat to the intake will help that,but it should gain some MPG once you get it hooked up.

Original motor, thats pretty cool.

You need to do a rear gear change to take advantage of that overdrive you got.

What size tires are you running?

My in town mileage always seems to go down when I install new exhaust. At least until I wear the new off it.lol

The tires are 25.3" diameter 14/70s. Slightly taller than the 13/80s that I replaced. The engine seems to be happy running 1:1 at 3000 rpms. Originally I was hoping to improve gas mileage. I could go with a lower ratio but that affects 1st gear, which is low already. I could change the overdrive gear. Most of the people I've talked to on this board have recommended going with a 250. I may do that some day. For now I've decided to drive it the way it is.

Whats the first gear ratio?

I know what you mean about changing the rear gear and making first gear all but useless.

They make different O.D. ratios for your tranny?

First gear is 3:76. At first I couldn't stand it but it's low enough to let me creep along in traffic without using the clutch too much. I could swap in a .86 OD gear. That would bring the RPMs to about 2500. That might still be too much for the 194. In addition, I could also go with a 14/60 tires and bring the RPMs to 2663. Will any of these changes give me mileage? No one seems to know. When and if I put a 250 in I should be able to use the overdrive with the set up I have now.

strummin67,,,,,,
Is your engine stock?
Does it have an aftermarket camshaft?
If not,,,,2500 RPM is too high a RPM to get good gas milage.
Need to bring it closer to 2000-2200 RPM range or less.
Maybe time to step up to a 250 soon?

Hi Hank. The engine is pretty much stock. A bigger carburetor is next. It's going to be a while before I can get a 250 so I'd better work with what I have for now.

Ok, sounds good.
Do you want to build up that 194 a bit?
Or just basically bolt on stuff?

From what I have found out working on stock 250 engines,is that if you set the timing were the manual says to, it will run pretty slow.

This is years back when I raced my Moms 1973 Nova 4 dr w/a powerglide, 308 gears.
Had the timing stock, (where it is supposed to be) ,raced it & it ran 22 seconds in the 1/4 mile.

I advanced the timing like 8-15 degrees? & ran it again & ran high 19,,-20 seconds flat.
I think the speed was 65 -73 MPH???

MBHD

I'm open to whatever can be done on the cheap. When I started the timing was at TDC. I advanced it as far as I could before it started pinging. I think it's at 8 now. I also played with the mixture screw a little. Simple stuff but I got it to run better, more power and a little better gas mileage out of it.

Those headers are just beautiful. I just googled Langdons ( http://www.stoveboltengineco.com/acartpro/product.asp?productid=89 ) I just have to have a set of those.

Brian

That is a pretty low first gear in there.

Might be better off running it the way it is until you decide to step up to the 250 other wise it wont be right when you do swap motors.

Yeah, the tranny will be addressed at a later date. I just want to get the most out of what I have now. Keep those ideas coming.

You can throw in an HEI distributer.
An intake & larger carb will help.

Take about 10 lbs out of your flywheel.
Your stock one is about 30-35 LBS?

Camshaft, lots of stuff, just depends on how much you want to spend???

MBHD

Also,,,,
maybe take out that fixed four bladed fan & run a clutch fan or a stainless flex fan.

The four bladed fan robs a lot of power,, but they also cool good.

I've got an Offy intake and a Holley 390. About how big of a camshaft? I was looking at Comp Cam's 252H.

strummin67,,,
What are the specs of that camshaft?
Duration @ .050, lift, lobe center line, ect?
Thanks

MBHD

Comp Cams 252H
Gross Valve Lift 0.474
Duration At 0.006 Tappet Lift 252
Valve Timing At 0.006
Open/Close
Intake 24/48
Exhaust 56/16
These Specs Are For The Cam Installed At 106 Intake CL
Intake/Exhaust
Duration At 0.05
206
Lobe Lift
0.2706
Lobe Separation
110

The HEI is a good idea.

Is the crank shaft drilled for a balancer bolt?

If your going to step up to a 250, I would stay with bolt on mods that can be use on the new motor.

Installing a new cam, lifters and gaskets is about $300.00 that can't be used in the new motor or should I say shouldn't be used.

...$300 plus $800 or so to install it. HEI is on the list too. I have no idea if the crank is drilled or not. I agree, bolt on stuff is better should a 250 happen.
I did talk to Zeke (64NovaWagon) a while back about his 194. He said basic mods like these helped a lot.

strummin67,,,,
You can install that cam,that is a good choice for your 194.
If you just have some extra money to burn???

Personally, I would just leave it alone as far as a camshaft.
Sure, go ahead & bolt on an intake & carb,, you can always use that on a 250 later.

Thing is,,,, w/a 194,it has such a small bore & short stroke, you can't really make it a good street engine for making some good power.

I would seriously wait for a 250 or 292 to put in your wagon before you do any internal changes to your 194.

Your better choice would be to supercharge it & run about 5-6 lbs of boost for your 194 over doing a cam & lifter change ,cylinder head work ,etc....

Basically what I am saying, is,, that 194 engine is too small to make some serious HP.

But that 194 should be great on gas, compared to a 292.

SO, IT'S KINDA HARD TO POINT YOU IN THE CORRECT DIRECTION, UNLESS YOU HAVE AN IDEA ON HOW MUCH POWER YOU WANT TO MAKE & WILL IT BE A DAILY DRIVER FOR THE STREET? (Caps lock was on ,,,ooops)
Do you want to beat some V-8's?

MBHD

Yeah I get what your saying. I'll just stick with some bolt on stuff for now. Thanks for yours and everyone else's input on this.

Nice exhaust Strummer, I'm considering an Offy 4 brrl intake on my 250 70 Nova.My Nova has power steering and I'm wondering if those Langdon cast headers will clear the bracket that holds the power steering pump (front header has to run under/behind PS pump bracket at front of engine). Has anyone had experience with this and if so,what headers would work for a 250 with power steering?.BTW, this car will be automatic for now but its already set up with clutch pedal, cross shaft,etc so my requirement will be for a standard shift header application , with the hope that running it with the automatic won't be an issue for clearance . Langdon set up has a ???heat plate???<