How does this apply to early musclecars? As you have stated, to you it didn't really matter. It was what you wanted, and the car was built to very nice standards. As for the next guy or gal in line for your car, the title may be everything. You will need to find the right buyer who shares your attitude about the title. Will a clean-title car bring more money? Absolutely.
If you hold on to it, you have a few different directions you can take. You could remove your killer 406 and sell it to finance a 350 crate engine. You should be able to sell a roller 406 for enough to pick up a 350-400hp 350 crate. Or, to calm down your 406, we would head straight to the camshaft. Without any engine specs it's very tough for us to recommend the proper shaft. However, you should be able to install a mild camshaft (210-220 at 0.050 inch lift) and make the car very streetable. As long as you don't have too much compression to run this short a cam, you should be fine. Also, you may need to look at the gearing and converter your 406 is mated to. By shortening up the camshaft specs, you will be lowering the powerband of the engine.
If you can't get the money you're looking for, transform the car into the one that is usable for you and your wife. Enjoy your very nice Nova and keep bringing home those trophies.
High-Altitude FlyerQ I have a couple of questions and I hope I don't sound stupid to you. First, I recently acquired a '72 Chevy K20, but rather than the original 350, it has a 396 from a '69 Chevelle SS. It's running rich, probably due to altitude and the carb on it. It looks like my Edelbrock 1407, but the sticker on it says Carter AFB. Are these carbs related, and will my jets and metering rods for my Edelbrock fit in it?
I'm also building a 350 for my '73 Nova Custom. I have Edelbrock 60899 RPM heads, an Edelbrock 7501 Air Gap manifold, and an Edlebrock 7102 RPM cam. I live in Denver, so altitude is a problem. What compression pistons should I buy to run with 91-octane fuel? Should I use a geardrive or chain? And what size carb should I buy? I've been told that because of altitude I should stick with a 600-cfm, but then I heard I should buy a 750 and jet it down? Please help.Clinton HoyDenver, CO
A There are no stupid questions! And high-altitude runners are a slightly different build.
Let's start with your big-block truck. Yes, the Edelbrock Performer line of carbs came from the Carter AFB and AVS design. Edelbrock has updated a very reliable and strong-performing line of carburetors. The tuning kit you have for the Edelbrock Performer-series carb will work on the Carter carb. You may need to get the kit that is appropriate to the size of your Carter. Carter offered a full line of AFB carbs that are growing quite rare. If you want Carter-specific tuning supplies, contact carburetion.com, which offers a full line of metering rods, jets, and Carter carb kits.
Building specific engines to run up on that big hill takes some different components. Is this engine going to live all its life on the hill? If so, we would raise the compression ratio to the 11:1 range. The Edelbrock RPM camshaft is an aggressive street grind that will have a very low idle vacuum and a choppy idle. Breathing the thin air at 5,000 feet will make the engine quite lazy. We always recommend going with a chaindrive for street use. Geardrives are great for endurance engines, but are unnecessary for street. Whoever told you to run a 600-cfm carb on your engine has lived in the thin air for a while. The smaller carb will give the carburetor a better signal to the boosters, which will give you much better drivability. With the very low barometric pressure, there isn't much air to get into your engine. The volumetric efficiency of your engine will probably be in the 75-percent range with the thin air. This will put much less demand on the carb. Since you're familiar with the Edelbrock Performer line and their ease of tuning, pick up a 1405 Performer carb. It should be very close right out of the box.