Stroker Ace’s recent post about his 250 Nova got me thinking about some advice I need. My car is a 1965 Chev Nova station wagon. It weighs 3059 pounds without the driver. I don't drive the car much around town other than to get to the two drag strips nearby—one at about 5 miles and one at about 36 miles from my house. The primary use for the car is the drag strip with an occasional weekend car show. The 230 ci inliner was a rebuilt engine when I bought the car three years ago and didn't have many miles on the rebuild. It had been bored .040 over and is a “standard” rebuild without balancing, or any special lower-end work; thus, I’ve got the rev limiter set at 6200 just to be safe.
The rear end is a 4.11 positraction. I've been running 24 inch street tires, which means I'm through the 1/4 mile traps at about 4800 rpms. I have been shifting the Powerglide at around 6000 rpms. The PG has had a rebuild, a shift kit installed, and I'm running a 3000 stall speed converter. I can foot-brake it and the rpms climb to 3000 before the rear tires break loose. I usually launch the car at around 2800 rpms. I’m pretty sure the first gear is a 1.82. I don’t have any traction bars on the car, but I also don’t have a wheel hop. The car leaves the line pretty strong with no hesitation.
The headwork has been done by Tom Lowe. It includes 1.94 intake valves, 1.60 exhaust valves, bolt-in lumps, ported head, 3/8 screw-in studs, and a performance valve job. Compression ratio is about 9:1. The cam is a Schneider 295H grind with .510 lift, intake is 224 duration at .050” and exhaust is 230, with lobe separation of 110.
I’m running an Offy intake manifold with a Holley model 8007 390 cfm 4-barrel carb. I use Langdon headers with 2¼” stubby headers down to the back of the front tire and then a single exhaust system to the rear. I use an HEI ignition, recurved to be all-in at 3000 rpms. I normally run about 32 to 36 degrees total.
I’ve been to the drag strip once this year since the head work was done, along with the new cam and the 4-barrel intake system. My best ¼-mile time is 16.3 and 79.3 mph. My best 60’ time has been 1.989. My last three runs in September were 15.612, 15.639, and 15.668, with 60’ times at 2.231, 2.255, and 2.318, respectively. Not too bad for a little 230. BTW, at our September meet , I lost in the first round of eliminations by .0033. Hard to even measure that!
My questions are related to transmission. By next season, I’m thinking about a change and would appreciate some advantages/disadvantages from you folks. I’m thinking about the following options: 1) adding a transbrake to the PG; 2) going to a Turbo 350 three speed; and 3) going to a 200 4r OD. With options 2 and 3, I’m also thinking that a converter in the 4000 to 4200 rpm range would be helpful. I’m a bit concerned that the 350 or the 200 4r will suck up too much horsepower and I’d end up still running 15.6’s after quite a bit of investment. That’s why I’m thinking that Option 1 may have advantages. With Option 1, I’d also add CalTrac traction bars and a set of their split single leaf springs.
Any thoughts?
