Chevy Nova, 1968-'79

[cfz2882]

handy size coupes and sedans upsized a little for '68 and semi-unit chassis based on '67 Camaro underneath. Most GM engines avalible including special big block from certain dealers,12bolt rear axle etc. An uncle had a '69 and I had a '74. These cars were all over the place in the '80s and a common teenager car back then. very similar 4th gen came out for '75 based off 1970 Camaro underneath which was very similar to '67-69 Camaro. Nova got replaced in chevy lineup by the new FWD Citation midway through '79 model year.

 

[wayupnorth]

I bought to re-sell a '69 Nova Custom 2-dr with a 327 V8, bucket seats and a Very desirable vinyl roof. Poor girl was rode hard and put away wet, but I made $300 on it.

 

[phillymatt53]

I posted this once before, but here's my 1972 Nova that I had when I was in my early 20's.
Powerglide, 307 engine, Holly big-bore carb, wirewheel hubcaps.
And custom dual exhaust pipes with chrome tips peeking out under the rear bumper - she sounded like a Thunderbird with that deep 8 cylinder throbbing.
Midnight Bronze Metallic, with a fawn gray vinyl roof.
Souped up stereo system w/Jensen speakers in the rear deck.
I added wide white racing stripes on the hood and trunk and white pinstripe down the sides later on.
Was my pride and joy back then.

 

[ea56]

In August of ‘74 I bought a ‘74 Nova that was the dealership demo for $2995. It was a 2 dr coupe with a 250 six and a three speed manual with the shift lever mounted on the floor. I traded my ‘55 Cadillac 2 dr HT for this car because I was planning a road trip from here to Vancouver, Wash. and I knew the Cadillac would have never made the trip.

The Nova was painted Lemon Yellow, which was apropos and the interior was black vinyl with front bucket seats. That Nova had lots of get up and go for a 6 cyl and the shift knob smelled like English Leather mens cologne which the salesman that drove it must have worn daily.

Well I got as far as Eugene, Oregon when I stopped for gas and the attendant was checking under the hood when he asked me to come and take a look. There was coolant seeping out around the head gasket and he told me I’d better get it to the Chevrolet dealer ASAP, which I did. I took them 2 days to repair the head gasket under warranty. During that time I found that I’d lost $40.00 of Travelers Checks which at that time was a lot of money to me. I went to the Bank of America in Eugene to get them replaced and when they checked the numbers on the receipt the told me that these checks had already been counter signed and cashed, so they wouldn’t replace them. So I turned around and drove back home. The speed limit was 55 mph then and just outside of Roseburg. Or. I got stopped by an Oregon Hwy Patrol officer who had clocked me at 62 in a 55 mph zone and gave me a ticket and Notice to Appear for I believe $75 and told me that I could just write a letter to the court clerk stating that I lived in Calif. and enclose a check for the fine, which I did, when I got home.

That was the longest GD drive I ever took! I drove 55 mph all the way home, taking 11 hrs. The next morning when I was cleaning out the car I found those “lost” and “cashed” Travelers Checks between the back and seat of the drivers seat where they must have come outta my back pocket. I went right to the B of A and withdrew all my money and closed my acct. and I’ve never done business with them again.

The Lemon Yellow was just the right color for that POS which was nothing but problems from then on. I finally traded it in April of ‘76 for a ‘67 Buick Skylark 2 dr HT which was my favorite car outta the 23 different cars I’ve owned since ‘69. So all’s well that ends well.

Eddie

 

[vacerator]

Novas were hard in tires until 1975 when it got the Camaro front suspension.

 

[TAG]

The NOVA was the basis of the Cadillac Seville -- used the Chevy 350 w/ fuel injection.

 

[vacerator]

TAG, you're half correct. The 1975 Seville did have throttle body fuel injection, but the engine was an Olds 350, not a Chevrolet. Quite different. Positive valve lifter rotation, different heads, manifolds, block. Distributor rotated in the opposite direction.

 

[TAG]

I did not remember that it used the Olds 350 -- but it did have port injection. Cadillac did use throttle body on the 425 when introduced on the deville in 77. My memory was the 425 still had a choke ...

I wonder if they did that and then had to use the Chevy in the 88's ?

 

[vacerator]

Right! My friends dad worked at Cadillac and I remember him saying they were having problems with the port injection. The last 425, and the 368, did have a Rochester Quadrajet carb. When the E body cars were redesigned and the Riviera got front drive, the Olds 350, then the 307 was used. So the Sevillle bustleback too until the Cadillac h.t. 4100 aluminum V8. The ill fated 8-6-4 was also a 368.

 

[goatfarmer]

Only Nova I ever owned was a 1971, I bought it in the early 80's. 307, 3 speed on the column. 35,000 original miles.It had been hit in the left rear, and then pushed into another car, damaging the left front. My friends girlfriend owned it, they thought it was worth $1000.00 Insurance gave them $850.00, and I made up the difference.

Drove that car everywhere! Never bothered to fix it, just replaced the broken headlight. Ended up trading it for a 67 Chevy 3/4 ton pickup.

 

[circlew]

Sometime in the early to mid 1980s I had a Nova 4-door, in Medium Green Metallic. I don't remember if it was a 1977 or 78, nor why I got rid of it.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Our Nova was a family car, 2-door silver with red interior and sticky vinyl seats automatic and power steering but no power brakes or air conditioning and the AM radio didn’t even have a rear speaker either…

 

[qsd-dan]

My mother had a 1972 lemon yellow 2 door Nova with a 350/350, dual exhaust, power disc brakes, and A/C. Only factory AM radio with the antenna in the windshield. It was a good, reliable car. It was sold in Dec, 1989 for a Plymouth Voyager to my dads coworker who really loved it.

Grandma had a 1977 red Nova she bought new with an inline 6, auto trans, and an 8-track player my grandfather installed in the early 80's. She sold it in 2002 for a new Honda Civic.

 

[DADoES]

Granny had an early 1970s Nova, bought new as a gift from her then-boyfriend. I don't recall that she had much trouble with it other than the air conditioning.

 

[cadman]

Right! My friends dad worked at Cadillac and I remember him saying they were having problems with the port injection. The last 425, and the 368, did have a Rochester Quadrajet carb. When the E body cars were redesigned and the Riviera got front drive, the Olds 350, then the 307 was used. So the Sevillle bustleback too until the Cadillac h.t. 4100 aluminum V8. The ill fated 8-6-4 was also a 368.

I'm a big fan of that Bendix system, it was batch-fire port injection, used on the Olds 350, and optional on the 425 and 500, and it was ANALOG. The biggest problem with them is that environmentally sealed connectors weren't yet a thing, and guys would pull their hair out trying to chase down intermittents. This lead to a lot of carb conversions. When the 368 came out, the E/K cars got the new DEFI variety and the rear-drivers kept the Q-jet. A buddy had an '80 Fleetwood 75 and with the tall gearing, it was a lot of fun around town.

Fun fact, the early Sevilles had a cast iron intake with quite large throttle bores which lead to rather "unbecoming" traction issues on throttle tip-in. When the GM lineup was undergoing weight reduction in '77, the intake was changed to aluminum and the bores were reduced. After a little time on the mill, these make for a popular swap.

 

[vacerator]

In 1984, the Nova was a joint venture with Toyota. It was a front drive 4 door sedan Corolla with Chevy badging. Built at Freemont California, then New United Motor Manufacturing, is today Tesla. It was enough of a success along with the Isuzu sourced spectrum, and Storm, that GM decided to spin off the GEO brand. The Nova became the Prizm, and the Spectrum only ran a few more years. The Suzuki Swift and Tracker entered the lineup. The Toyota Matrix and clone Pontiac Vibe shared the Corolla chassis and powertrain.

 

[pstehle]

Remember the Lincoln Versailles? Granada with leather seats and a fake spare tire carrier on the trunk lid. But nobody could tell a Granada from a Mercedes, or so the ads told us, so it must've been a great car! At that age, I had never even ridden in a Benz, but I knew for sure there was a hell of a difference! I always liked the original Nova based Caddy, until they went with that hideous bustle trunk. Eeeew, almost as ugly as the no-butt-end Cutlass! And the Cavalier-based Cimmaron... $14k for a $7k turd gussied up with leather seats, a chrome plated plastic grille, and Caddy wreaths on the radio knobs. Not even the turbo engine out of the Sunbird 'vertible or the V6 from the Z24... I wonder why they didn't sell like hotcakes?

 

[phillymatt53]

In 1984, the Nova was a joint venture with Toyota. It was a front drive 4 door sedan Corolla with Chevy badging. Built at Freemont California, then New United Motor Manufacturing, is today Tesla. It was enough of a success along with the Isuzu sourced spectrum, and Storm, that GM decided to spin off the GEO brand. The Nova became the Prizm, and the Spectrum only ran a few more years. The Suzuki Swift and Tracker entered the lineup. The Toyota Matrix and clone Pontiac Vibe shared the Corolla chassis and powertrain.

I remember when the Nova turned into a Toyota, and wasn't pleased about it.
I felt that GM was getting anti_American, a traitor to its founding roots.
The beginnings of corporate "watering down".
Besides, 1984 was not a pleasent year for me, I was short-fused, stressed out, finding out in February that Mom had terminal gall bladder cancer.
On July 29, she left us.

 

[vacerator]

Granada's, Monarchs and the Versailles were nice for the price. Based on the Falcon and Maverick platform which was dated, but they got rack and pinion steering at least. The Cimarron did get the V6.

 

[phillymatt53]

Remember the Lincoln Versailles? Granada with leather seats and a fake spare tire carrier on the trunk lid. But nobody could tell a Granada from a Mercedes, or so the ads told us, so it must've been a great car! At that age, I had never even ridden in a Benz, but I knew for sure there was a hell of a difference! I always liked the original Nova based Caddy, until they went with that hideous bustle trunk. Eeeew, almost as ugly as the no-butt-end Cutlass! And the Cavalier-based Cimmaron... $14k for a $7k turd gussied up with leather seats, a chrome plated plastic grille, and Caddy wreaths on the radio knobs. Not even the turbo engine out of the Sunbird 'vertible or the V6 from the Z24... I wonder why they didn't sell like hotcakes?

How do you feel about the Mark series?
I always thought they were pretty decent through the years.

My '96 Mk VIII, loaded with features.

 

[turbokinetic]

My first car was a 1972 Chevy Nova. I still have it and drive it now and then!

This had been my moms car for years but had developed some mechanical problems. When I was old enough to drive, mom and dad offered to either get me a "working used car" (envision 80's Nissan Sentra or other equally valueless piece of scrap metal OR pay for repairs to the Nova so it was usable again. I chose to get the Nova running, thankfully. Learned a lot about car repairs which helped me greatly to get where I am now; from a technical standpoint.

Fast forward to the late 90's / early 2000's. The original 307 V8 engine was very tired by 200,000 miles. I bought a complete junkyard 305 engine, with throttle-body injection setup. Came from a base 1991 Camaro. I stripped everything from the Camaro, insofar as the engine wiring, ECM, and all the sensors etc.

This was the early days of EFI engine swaps and it was very hard to find information on doing such a thing. Had to fight my way through GM's "PassKey" anti-theft system and ended up building a circuit to defeat that, before anything was available to buy for that purpose.

Before installing it; I took the 305 apart and freshened it up with new gaskets and bearings etc. The 305 is still in the car and has had zero issues. More than doubled the fuel milage, and has more power than the old 307.

Sincerely,
David

Scan of an old photo from when I was in school.


the engine bay as it sits now; with the now decades-old engine swap still in place.