68 BB Nova SS facts needed

[Belair62]

Saw a 68 SS 396 Nova 4spd,buckets,console for sale locally. No paperwork available.It was a 350 horse car originally according to owner. 68's are kind of an off year so I was wondering if there is anything peculiar to this year that could help establish if it was a BB originally.The heater box,fuel lines seem correct as well as the 4 piston discs.Dash tach redline would help me too.

[micky69396]

Dont buy it, restore the FC. Its just a Nova, LOL

[bbdon]

A good look at the radiator support can give some clues. It should have the opening cut larger than the one for a small block car. And the big radiator will not sit low enough if a small block type radiator support is used. Look for the big tanks on the radiator and the side mounting brackets. Look to see if there are square nuts welded to the frontside of the radiator support for mounting the radiator. The radiator mounting bolt nearest the pressure cap should go through a nut like that. Check for the holes on top of the radiator support that take the fasteners for the rubber flap. As far as I know, the top fan shroud bracket for the 68 cars is not being reproduced, so that might be a clue if it is still present. It it longer than the one for 69-70 that is in the catalogs. Most of the fakes I have been seeing are not even close to correct and are so easy to spot that it aint funny. I saw a big block Camaro at Pleasanton last weekend the had the drivers exhaust manifold almost touching the steering box. He was not even trying hard on his fake, but he was asking 27K. For some reason, most of the fake BB Novas I see seem to have the six cylinder style top radiator bracket on them.

[Allen]

You asked about tach redlines.....

Novas with the factory tach in the dash were typically set-up with one of the three combinations. There were actually three different (yellow line/red line location) tachs used.

A small block has the redline at 5,000 rpm.
A 396/350hp car has the redline at 5,500 rpm.
A 396/375hp car has the redline at 6,000 rpm.

I currently own a '70 Nova SS 396/350hp with a factory tach. Its redline is at 5,500 rpm.

I hope this helps.