1972 Chevy Nova Nitrous Kit - Super Chevy Magazine

In the last installment of Southern Heat, we chronicled the buildup of a 496 BBC, apportioned with a slew of Edelbrock parts-namely the company's big-block Top End Kit. The rat made just over 600 hp on an engine dyno, a decent number for an engine with out-of-the-box components. The install was also our first chance to peep the other parts that made this build possible-namely a TCI TH400 trans, a set of Hedman Hedders, a Flex-a-lite performance radiator, and an MSD Digital 6 box coupled with a Blaster 2 coil and a HEI distributor.

We also decided to mix things up on the fuel side-we called upon Holley to supply us with a carb, and it suggested a 4150 HP 950-cfm four-barrel. This installment also features the Edelbrock nitrous kit that was mentioned in part 1-a 150 shot that should really help the Nova get down the track.

The next step, logically, was slamming the rat into the car, and taking it out to the track to see if it would do what we originally wanted it to do-run very fast quarter-mile times, while being entirely streetable. The perfect opportunity presented itself in the form of NMCA's True Street competition. We had originally planned for Nova owner Stephen Loflin to take the car out to his home track in Commerce, Ge orgia, but a problem with the starter scuttled that plan.

He hauled it out to the NMCA World Finals at Memphis Motorsports Park in October, a massive event that saw over 50 True Street entrants. The competition was, in a word, stiff. However, the Nova performed well. Also, while we didn't take home any hardware, the car is still running fine, having suffered no malfunctions at the track.

You'll have to flip a few pages to see just how well the Sea Foam Green machine did, but the owner is delighted with the result and so are we.

Rusty Allison, of East Hiram 4x4, along with some help from the author, put the 496 big-block into the car over two days. The engine bay was prepped with some cans of Rust-oleum before we arrived in the dirty South.
Rusty Allison, of East Hiram 4x4, along with some help from the author, put the 496 big-bl
The Hedman Hedders went in with some ease-even though Southern Heat doesn't run power steering, the pump and housing were retained, which caused Rusty to have to "modify" headers slightly for a good fit.
The Hedman Hedders went in with some ease-even though Southern Heat doesn't run power stee
The engine was carefully lowered into the engine bay, and, as you can see, it was a very tight fit-so much so that later in the install, the "cutting tool" (aka blowtorch) would be necessary to notch part of the subframe to fit the alternator.
The engine was carefully lowered into the engine bay, and, as you can see, it was a very t

The TCI TH400 was a welcome addition to Project Southern Heat-here, the trans was mounted up onto a stand, and slowly moved under the car to check the fitment. The only modification necessary was a slight alteration to the crossmember, which comes later.
The TCI TH400 was a welcome addition to Project Southern Heat-here, the trans was mounted
TCI also supplied us with a 3500-rpm-stall, 10-inch Super Street Fighter torque converter. Here, Rusty adds some of the TCI-specific fluid that comes with every TCI transmission.
TCI also supplied us with a 3500-rpm-stall, 10-inch Super Street Fighter torque converter.
Rusty then moved the transmission, with the torque converter in place, up into the Nova. The crossmember was left out at this point, as we needed to measure for a custom driveshaft.
Rusty then moved the transmission, with the torque converter in place, up into the Nova. T

Here's the awesome piece of cooling equipment from Flex-a-lite. The attached fan is also a nice piece. The radiator was installed easily with the "slide-in" type rails that are on every corner of the radiator. As you can see, the fit on everything with this project was rather tight-the electric water pump is just inches from the fan housing. True Street competition, whether it's at an NMCA or Super Chevy event, heavily taxes a car's cooling system. This setup ensured that Stephen had no problems in this department, and his performance in Memphis proved it.
Here's the awesome piece of cooling equipment from Flex-a-lite. The attached fan is also a
We decided to up the ante a little in terms of a carburetor. Holley, one of the leaders in the aftermarket, suggested this 4150 HP racing carb. With a 950-cfm rating, it's sure to get the fuel to the massive engine.
We decided to up the ante a little in terms of a carburetor. Holley, one of the leaders in
MSD also helped out in a big way with the project. The Digital 6 Plus box is one of the best on the market-especially with the two-step retard that allows the Nova to get up on the bottle at the starting line. (An important side note: When we originally fired up the big-block, it sounded as if only four cylinders were firing. Well, that's because there were only four firing-the Digital 6 box, in order to service as many customers as possible, has an adjustment dial to select the amount of cylinders, and in our rush to get the car done, we had the dial on the four-cylinder setting.)
MSD also helped out in a big way with the project. The Digital 6 Plus box is one of the be

Once the driveshaft showed up, Rusty worked on slightly modifying the crossmember to accept the TH400 trans. Rusty also had to modify the driveshaft loop, seen just to the rear of the transmission in this picture.
Once the driveshaft showed up, Rusty worked on slightly modifying the crossmember to accep
The Nova made it out to Memphis for some Friday test 'n' tune runs, and it ran in the high 11s on the engine alone. For Saturday's True Street competition, we decided to let the big mill eat, and ran it "on the jug." Out of three timed runs, the Sea Foam monster got down to a best time of 10.39 at 125 mph-not bad for the car's first real taste of competition. The other two runs were in the low 11s after the car roasted the tires up to the 60-ft marker both times. Loflin finished in the top 10 of the competition, with a 10.89-second average. Stephen went with the 150-horse jetting for this outing, his first-ever attempt to use nitrous. Guess what? He's hooked.
The Nova made it out to Memphis for some Friday test 'n' tune runs, and it ran in the high
The engine fits inside the bay, with little room to spare. After about 20 solid hours of wrenching, the car was fired up (on all eight cylinders after some tweaking to the Digital 6 box), and readied for the upcoming Memphis NMCA race.
The engine fits inside the bay, with little room to spare. After about 20 solid hours of w

SOURCES
Edelbrock Dept. 5.0 2700 California St. Torrance CA 90503 310-781-2222 www.edelbrock.com	Holley Performance Bowling Green KY 2-70/-781-9741 www.holley.com
TCI Transmissions 6-62/-224-8972 tciauto.com	MSD Ignition El Paso TX 9-15/-857-5200 msdignition.com
Flex-A-Lite 8-00/-851-1610 www.flex-a-lite.com