Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
Originally Posted By: andyd
The neatest thing about the Chevy I-6 was you could stand inside the engine bay in most of its applications.
True dat, dad gave me a '76 Nova with a 250 when I finished college and that engine looked pretty lonely in that bay.
Never really worked on it as I didn't have an interest at that time and I drove it for less than two years before it was totaled through being clobbered from behind while I was sitting in traffic...I kept driving it for a couple of weeks after that, but it would give the odd shake every so often that made me feel less than safe. It was also hard to get the doors closed...the little Honda that hit me was basically destroyed. Ended up with back trouble that varied from annoying to debilitating for over 10 years after that, but I didn't make the connection to the accident for a few years (took a few months to appear and the pain was generally in my hip, sciatica).
The only engine issue I had with the Nova was trouble starting in even the modestly cold winter weather in Dallas, think dad kept a can of spray around to start it in Chicago winters or would just drive one of his Fords instead. The "heavy duty" suspension on that thing was a nightmare, though.
It seems to me that the Rochester Monojet (1-bbl) was not the greatest cold-weather carburetor. In the late 70s, Chrysler offered the 'Super Six' - a 225 w/ a 2-bbl carb. I think the carburetor was staged - that is, that the 2nd barrel opened up as a secondary. The special manifold w/ the 2-bbl carb was a popular retrofit back in the day.