Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Chevy straight-six 250 reliabilty/longevity?

Hi all,
I'm interested in getting a Chevy Nova, most likely the 1975-1979 series, for a daily driver for my wife, but was wondering what can be generally expected of the inline-six 250 as far as reliability and longevity before it needs a rebuild. I live in Puerto Rico where there are tons of Novas for sale all the time, and am tired of throwing money into repairs for newer cars due to mysterious sensor failures, etc. I want simple; before we moved here from NY, I owned a 1980 1-ton 4X4 Chevy K-30 with a straight-six 292 and wow, I loved that truck! It was an ugly rusty beast, but had a lot of torque, especially good for plowing snow, so ever since then I've been wanting the 250 version in a car that's easy to fix myself, being a "shade-tree" mechanic. Eventually will sell my little Mazda pickup and get a straight-six Chevy pickup for myself also. Love the inlines! Thanks for any advice.

Hi Jeff and welcome to Inliners. The 250 or 292 should give you many years of dependable service if you prepare the engine thoroughly and not cut corners in doing so. A 250 dyno test was just done on here recently, and shows how easy it is to obtain and make good street HP with using simple bolt on components, and yet retaining good streetability. You can even consider mild turbocharging as well.

It's hard to find an engine that's more reliable than the Chevy inline six cylinder. About 1976 or 77, I picked up a '64 Nova with a 194 in it, and the motor had a knock in it. I figured that I'd drive it until something blew or broke, then rebuild the engine or get one from a junk yard. I drove the car from when I bought it until 1981 with that knock in the engine, and it kept on running. I finally put an oil pressure gauge in it, and the oil pressure was always fine. I never did figure out what the knock was, but it never seemed to bother anything, and the engine was still running fine when I junked the car after a lady friend borrowed it and got rear ended in it.

As long as normal maintenance is and has been done, it should be extremely reliable. The only thing to look out for, besides maintenance records if available, is the 75 and up have the integral head which can crack at the manifold. If you hear leaks move on to another car (assuming you want a driver that requires no major work). As an advantage of the 75 and up cars is they do come with the HEI ignition. Good luck with your search.

Thanks for the replies, guys. Yeah, I figured they were reliable, I wanted to get some feedback from others since I've only owned one in the past. I used to be a "V-8 350+ C.I.D. or nothing" guy till I got the 1980 pickup, and after that I'm a "inline or nothing" guy especially after seeing how easy they were to work on. The 292 had a burned exahaust valve, so it ran on five cylinders for quite q while, plowing deep heavy snow with no problem, just couldn't kill the engine. On one night I took the head off using a flashlight at night, in the winter, to get the valves done. Try doing that with a modern car today... just changing spark plugs is a major ordeal on some cars. The easiest motor I've ever had the pleasure to work on was a 1950 Buick Special with a straight-8 motor; everything right out there in the open and easy to get to, even the oil filter which was on top.

I have a 250 and I love it. I can't say much for the reliability though because my 69 Special Deluxe only has 18,200 original miles on it as of now. But from what I've heard, they are known for reliability. I got a message from a guy I didn't know on youtube and he said he had a 60's Nova with a 250 and 289,000 miles on it! He said it still ran great.

EDIT: Haha nice to see another Buick Special mentioned

My mothers 1970 Nova (bought new) had a 250 and turbo automatic. We sold it with 160,000 on the clock and it went to a friends daughter for a college car. As far I as I know it never failed her. It was never rebuilt, eng/trans, by either of the 1st 2 owners...I wish I had it back...BD