Original subtitles

On this episode of Hot Rod Garage,

we might not have a shop

but we got lease money.

Lease money. Right here.

Now we got dents.

[upbeat music playing]

Welcome back to Hot Rod Garage.

I am Alex Taylor and this is Lucky Costa.

Hello. Is this Hot Rod Garage?

Well, look, okay?

If you guys remember last season,

we may have lost the shop.

We are technically garage-challenged.

We are very garage-challenged.

However, according to that wall,

we are currently at MotorTrend Studio,

so I think we're kind of home for now.

Technically.

But, tech tip, somebody invites you

to go to the race track for the day and hang out,

lock your doors before you go.

They're trying to kick you out.

Yeah. We came back. There was nothing.

Anyways, we may not have a shop currently

but we got a new season.

Yes, we do. Season 12.

You guys have us

for at least 13 more episodes.

-Thirteen? -Yeah.

-Lucky number 13. -Lucky number 13.

And with that said, all that budget

had to go somewhere.

They didn't have to pay the rent.

Nope. And something we're not skipping on

is starting the season off with a brand-new project

that's going to be a really awesome car

to work on, a '72 Nova.

[Lucky] Ooh, you know what Nova means in Spanish?

[Alex] It might mean no go.

[Lucky] Technically, that's an excellent description

of this vehicle.

[Alex] I think that's perfect for now.

There's a lot of stuff

that's not certain around here,

but one thing is for certain

and that's that we want a car

that is very capable on the street

and very capable to the venue

that we're gonna take it to,

which is most likely gonna be a drag strip.

We want a street-able race car.

We have bone marrow

that we have said for a long time

is a street-able race car.

Yeah. It was at one point.

And we actually kind of used that as an excuse

to an extent sometimes when we're at the track,

and it may not perform to how it should and we say,

"Well, it's a street-able race car."

But we want something that's very capable

at being a nice comfortable cruiser on the street

that we can go grab a boba in

-just for fun. -Well--

And we also want something

that when we take it to the track,

it might just surprise

some people along the way.

-So cup holders, for sure. -Absolutely.

I think... I think we have everything we need.

[Alex] It has some good parts on it.

But it is missing a few pieces.

Maybe a transmission.

It is missing a transmission.

[Lucky] So small stuff like a transmission?

[Alex] Yeah. Fuel delivery and ignition.

Yeah, there's no exhaust either.

-Okay. -[Lucky] Okay.

So that gives us something to do this week.

We are missing some parts.

But that's fine.

Other than that, it's got good interior.

It's got good body.

There's some good suspension parts

under the rear.

So in the spirit of Drag Week...

we have no 220, no air,

no compressor, a bunch of hand tools.

-Yeah. -We're building it here?

-All right. -Yeah, so we have

our track tool kit,

not a whole lot more.

-But all we need-- -Yeah, most... Everything

-is in storage somewhere. -[Alex] Yeah. And, I mean,

this isn't something that's gonna be done

by Friday.

We just want it to run and drive.

We want it to not be a "Nova"

-by the end of the week. -What do you want it to be

by the end of the week?

You are thinking it but I'll say it for you.

-Gova. -There you go.

-[both laughing] -That's not a word.

All right. Let's get going.

[Alex] So we have a little bit

of a mystery engine here.

However, we've been told

that it has some really nice stuff.

[Lucky] Right. It does have

good stuff on the outside.

Allegedly, it's a 350 small block Chevy

-that was built by SCAT. -Ooh.

I've never heard of this,

but the guy that we got it from

said that they were really good friends

with the people over at SCAT,

and they actually built it for them.

So maybe if that's true, that's actually good.

It could be one of those

maybe like an R&D motor

that they built over there,

or I know a guy who works at SCAT,

so technically it's SCAT-built.

Yeah. So we don't really know

if that part is true, but we were told

that it has SCAT rotating assembly,

forged bottom end,

350, AFR heads.

So there's some good stuff here.

Yeah. I don't question it at all.

I see high pressure power steering hoses.

It has a vacuum diaphragm.

So if the cam is too big,

it prevents it from making vacuum,

so a vacuum diaphragm allows

power brakes to work,

in some cases.

Other cases, you need an air pump.

Lots of good stuff.

And really it's very...

It's clean under here.

What size is that carburetor?

-[Alex] Oh, wait. -[Lucky] Oh, okay.

All right. All right. It is a double donut.

[Alex] Double donut.

[Lucky] It is a dual-plane.

We don't actually intend on this

being our forever engine.

However, hopefully, it really is a nice enough engine

that maybe it can go in another project

at a later date.

-Ooh. -[Lucky] Okay. 1.5.

[Alex] So steel stud mount rockers.

I don't know. I've not seen anything questionable here.

It all looks very cool. I'm liking it.

And those are new lines. Awesome.

They do look like they've been swapped out

or, potentially, I would say

fuel injection but it's got... It's got a clamp on it.

So, yeah, it was probably... For sure, carbureted.

It does have good lines on it.

[Alex] Yeah.

[Lucky] I feel good about this.

[Alex] You know what? I have to say,

I am very impressed by the interior.

It's almost complete.

[Lucky] This is actually one of the fanciest cars we have.

[Alex] I have to say, I thought, at first,

that something was wrong

because I don't smell anything.

There's no mold. There's no mice.

There's nothing dirty. There's every panel.

It's very not normal.

Well, you know, every part that's not on here,

minus the transmission,

-looks like it's back here. -[Lucky] Right.

So headers.

[Lucky] Those are actually nice headers too.

[Alex] We got a distributor here.

-[Lucky] Yeah. -[Alex] Uh-huh.

[Lucky] We need to get this thing on the lift

and find out more stuff.

Okay. So like you said,

put it up in the air,

check it out.

I'm surprised we didn't get any kind

of nasty surprise back here.

It actually doesn't smell--

Something's weird.

No part of this car has smelled

like any of the other cars we've owned.

Hey, maybe not having a shop

is working out for our best interest.

-Correct. -No shop, nice car.

-Exactly. -Deal.

So it looks like somebody bought a whole bunch

of really high-end parts, good stuff.

-Yeah. -CalTracs, we love those.

And just started throwing it at their car,

and at some point just decided, "I'm done."

I mean, these subframe connectors

look like they were installed

but don't show any signs of wear.

It doesn't look like a rust bucket though.

-Like it's got nice floor. -No. It looks super clean.

There is a... We can see it's got

a new gas tank in it.

It looks like new lines have all been ran.

So it looks like we have a 10-bolt rear end,

but we don't know what's inside it.

There is an extra rear brake caliper in the trunk,

which means that maybe there's a problem

with one of the calipers.

It does look freshly rebuilt

on the rear brakes.

[Lucky] Trans cooler lines.

I thought it was something else.

Trans cooler lines are zip-tied

to the steering link.

We have a slight oil leak going on somewhere.

That's more seepage than anything.

You think it's just seepage?

I think it's been there for a while

and they just put the starting motor back

on the clean motor.

But there's a whole lot right here, right here,

and right there. I think worth checking.

[Lucky] You know what? I like it.

I like the fact that the important parts

have been coated in oil ahead of time.

We can scrape that off

-and clean it up a little bit. -Yeah.

[Lucky] t has all the good stuff.

This is the definition of good bones.

[Alex] It really is. I think we have a project

on our hands that's gonna be a lot of fun.

Yes. I can't wait. Let's get this thing down.

-Then we'll prop up the motor. -Yeah.

Put in... Should we try to put

the transmission in right now?

-[Alex] Might as well. -[Lucky] I think we should.

Let's just bolt the transmission up for right now,

confirm that the bolt pattern is correct,

and put in a crossmember.

I think we have all this stuff, right?

-We should. -Okay. Let's do it.

-We have a plan. -We're working.

-We got a plan. Let's get to work. -We're working, people.

Okay. So we have some used parts floating around.

Somebody came up with a torque converter.

It says 2,500 stall on it.

I can't really determine

what the flashpoint is gonna be.

Yabbie-dabbie.

-Uh-huh. -[chuckles] Down, down.

-Uh-huh. Uh-huh. -Unless you have

-a can spec, but-- -Ah, aha.

So here's the deal.

We're test fitting the mystery torque converter

-onto the flex plate. -Uh-huh.

Do any of the holes line up?

-Yes, they do. -Nice.

Keep your hand on that plug.

Otherwise, you get a new hairdo.

That's fun.

So before putting the torque converter

on the transmission,

we made sure it fits the flex plate.

At which point, now we will put it

on the transmission, put the whole thing in.

It's no fun doing it the other way.

Actually, it's still fun.

Half the mystery solved. It fits.

We're halfway... It fits this half.

-Does it work? -Let's see if it fits

-on the other one. -Next question.

Yeah. Can I get that?

-You can have it. -Carry this over here.

That could be your little guy.

-I'll see you over there. -Bye-bye.

-One, two, three. -Two, three.

All right.

Ready to put this in?

[hums]

Hitting a bunch of wires.

That's gonna go.

There you go.

All right.

There you go, buddy.

Holy smelly.

[machine whirring]

Okay. So let the transmission jack down.

It looks like everything is staying in place.

I'm very happy with it.

I think we're done with you,

Jackie stand.

On to the next.

Okay, Alex. So the list of stuff

to do to the car was the transmission,

-seems pretty important... -Correct.

...carburetor seems pretty important

but that's pretty straightforward...

Absolutely.

...and the exhaust was a surprise.

Well, the exhaust is always a surprise on cars.

Yeah, and we're limited

to the type of work we can do.

We can't really weld or anything.

It's a storage facility.

It's in the lease.

Store cars only.

-I think we're kind of already in violation as it is. -Yeah.

So if we catch anything on fire,

that's probably bad news.

-Right. -[Lucky] So for that reason,

you guys reached out to Holley, right?

[Alex] Yeah, who makes headers

that go with a Summit exhaust bolt-on kit.

-[Lucky] Cool. -[Alex] We know

how bolt-on usually goes,

and that it usually means

a little bit of pain later

and it'll probably fit, kinda.

[Lucky] Boom shaka a-laka.

One bolt in the--

Rear.

And then we'll do a little notching

on the gasket

and drop it right in

when we get to that point.

But, for now, look at that.

Clearance around the header.

It looks-- oh, yeah. Look at that.

Just a little air gap right there. It's perfect.

[Alex] Would you look at that?

Just a bit outside, Bob Uecker.

Okay. I'm feeling confident about this.

It looks like a lot of room.

I just took out one motor mount bolt

and I could technically put that in

without scratching the headers one iota.

I wanna go ahead and scratch the headers,

but I could have done it without scratching.

And they're in. And they're in.

[Alex] Aha.

There we go.

And then it turns it back out.

There we go.

[Lucky] Uh, I think it fits.

Okay. So we've made a couple

of field trip projects.

It's gonna be cut the prefab flanges

if this had standard collector's end off

of the "somewhat universal but almost perfectly fitting"

exhaust system from Summit.

Correct.

And use the adapters from Hooker,

and weld them to the Summit thing.

To adapt to the Hooker headers.

-The Hooker headers. -But the only thing

is we are currently missing some clamps.

And some 220 and a welder.

Yeah. So--

I probably have some clamps at my shop.

-Okay. -I got some hangers too.

-We're leaving, what that said. -[Lucky] Okay. Right.

-Bye-bye. -We're gonna get

in the streets.

We're at the Lucky's on Loan.

Luck... Lucky's on Loan?

-I like that. -Yeah. So we're gonna be here

on this show all week,

so I told some friends

that they could... If they had a little side job,

they could do over in this unit.

Yeah.

So let's see how much trouble

-we could get into right now. -We're gonna see if we can re-invade?

Maybe.

Ka-kaw.

[Alex] Hooley-hoo.

[Lucky] I'd like to cut a couple of pipes

and weld something on.

Okay. I just didn't wanna--

Is it cool?

[Alex] So we had to leave our parking lot garage mall,

whatever we're calling our workspace

because we don't have tools

and we can't weld, cut, and do things.

So we came over to Lucky's Unit on Loan,

which is currently loaned out

to the Roadkill guys,

and we asked to re-borrow the tools

that Lucky just loaned out.

So we got our stuff welded up.

We're gonna go back to our "garage"

and put our parts on.

And we'll be one step closer

to actually getting the Nova running.

[machine whirring]

So I believe we have

most of the heavy lifting done.

-[Alex] Yeah. -Am I wrong?

-No, we got most of it done. -Yeah.

What we're gonna do is go through,

check things, these CalTracs,

even though they look like they're installed properly,

the nuts were actually never tightened on for the bars

and a preload was never set.

So we're gonna go through check stuff like that,

make sure it's all set and good to go.

And while we're under here,

we wanna go ahead and pull

the rear differential cover

and see what we have inside.

And... I mean,

I'm mentally adding stuff

to the to-do list of upcoming project on this.

-Keep that to yourself. -[Alex] Yeah, it's a secret.

I'm mentally subtracting stuff.

-Keep that to yourself. -Okay.

All right. With that said, I'm done for now.

-We're waiting on parts. -You're done?

-[Alex] I'm done. -All right. I'm out.

-Bye. -See you.

[upbeat music playing]

So it seems like we're doing extra work for no reason.

Why would we take this cover off

and check what's in it? Well, a couple reasons.

One, we don't actually know

that it's got fluid in it.

So bare minimum, I need to check

and make sure it has fluid.

It's not something brand new

that the project never got fluid.

Two, I wanna see what's inside of it.

As we get ready to progress with this car,

we probably won't keep this rear end

'cause we're going to be wanting to add power,

but, in the meantime, we will.

And as we started that project and that progress,

we wanna make sure that this part

isn't gonna be our weak link.

So we're gonna do a little bit of investigating,

just making sure what we got

and kind of figuring the car out.

The car is still new to us

and we wanna make sure it,

one, survives and, two, is right,

'cause that's what we're trying to do with this car

right from the start.

[Lucky] And, look, that oil is brand new.

I think it was rebuilt

-because it's fresh oil. -[Lucky] Right.

[machine whirring]

-That looks new. -[Alex] Oh.

Well, it's ran a little.

You can see a little bit of metal in there.

[Lucky] It looks a little cafe latte.

Okay.

Spin it around, see what's in there.

But you can see on the gear

that they just set it up recently.

You can see the grease on it.

[Lucky] Oh, yeah. I see that.

The pitch and pattern right there.

So it's a new ring gear.

Now is a great time to figure out

-what gear ratio it is. -[Alex] Yeah.

So--

[Alex] You're gonna put a mark on it?

-Well, no. Just read the gear. -I don't know if I can see it.

It's usually written on the outside part of the ring.

[Alex] Right there. No, that's not...

That's just the serial number.

Keep going.

-Is there a part number? -[Alex] No.

[Lucky] This could be the budget stuff.

Okay. So we searched the ring gear

and all we found was more clues

-but no answers. -Clues but no answers.

So we decided we would go ahead

and spin the tire,

count the rotation of the drive shaft

to count our... Or to figure out

our gear ratio.

We're gonna spin that thing.

So, anyways, long story short,

we have a 350 rear gear,

which is great for the street,

not so much for what we wanna do at the track.

But it is good enough to get us to the track.

And, thankfully, the rear end

actually looks fresh and new.

It's been recently set up.

You can still see the dye on the ring gear.

And it will get us by.

Speaking of track,

have you tried the chili dog there?

-No. -They're amazing.

-Noted. -Mmm-hmm.

Anyways, this is something

that we're going to add to our upgrade list

at a later point in time.

Will it probably end up

getting swapped out completely?

I'm voting for that.

Maybe to a nine-inch

'cause we're gonna be making more power, hint, hint,

but this is good for what we're doing.

Okay. So walked around,

did a little peeking in there.

Saw a bunch of loose nuts, bolts,

and hardware on the CalTrac.

We tightened all that stuff up.

Alex has given the differential

some attention that was desperately needed.

We now know what the gear is.

Get these wheels back on

and move forward.

All right. So we had taken the spark plugs off

the other day when we were doing the headers

and that is beneficial to us

working on it right now.

Now, when I drop a distributor in,

I generally just point the rotor

towards the number one cylinder.

That is generally where the number one

spark plug wire goes.

I think that's it. Here we go.

Boom.

So the cam and the motor,

it still remains a mystery motor.

But we went with a carb

that's pretty universally sought after.

It's a lucky 9,000.

Sometimes they work well.

Sometimes they hurt your feelings.

I also do not see a fuel bar...

-We have that. -...a lug.

-Do we have a lug? -We have that.

All right. And a throttle linkage bracket.

Don't know if we have that.

[Lucky] Okay.

-Moving forward. -[Alex] I'll get parts.

[Lucky] Carb's on.

Okay. So Alex had a good point.

A lot of things pointed to this vehicle

having fuel injection at some point.

The pump is inside the tank,

which generally means it's gonna be, you know,

60 pounds or something or more.

You can regulate that down

but it's not looking like they did.

We have a return line,

AN fitting out the back,

which is all telltale of potentially

being fuel-injected at some point.

So we're gonna hook all this up.

We're gonna turn the key on

or power up that pump.

If it zips straight up to 40 or 50,

we'll be swapping out this regulator

or figuring out a way to turn it down to...

This is a mechanical regulator.

I don't think there's a spring in there.

We could probably turn it all the way down to zero.

So we'll just be cautious of the fuel pressure

as to not damage the carburetor.

So I'm putting a bolt in this hose

and I'm going to tap the fuel pump.

And, hopefully, it doesn't spray gas all over my face.

But I wanna try and look at the gauge here

and see if it maybe stays really low for a carburetor.

But if it goes up too high...

Anything above 10 is too high for a carburetor.

No. Straight to 60.

So it is fuel-injected on the regulator.

So--

So we know we can put a case closed

that it was probably...

Most likely a terminator on here.

[Lucky] Yeah, it was... Right.

And then we want it to be lower.

Much mo' low.

All right. So that is down pretty far.

I don't necessarily know that it's down far enough,

'cause we only want 6 pounds or so into a carburetor.

Right.

[Lucky] So...

-[Alex] Hmm. -Oh, wait.

That went straight to a... Straight to 100.

[Alex] Wait. Cranking it down would add pressure.

-Good point. -[Alex] I was wondering,

but then I thought that I didn't...

Now, that one may not go low enough.

We may have to get another regulator.

[Lucky] Maybe.

Yeah, so that's up all the way.

That's doing nothing.

So this should actually...

If that is correct, it should bypass directly

back into the tank as soon as I apply voltage.

Oh.

It's circulating right back into the tank,

but it says it's like 20 pounds.

It's not leaking any... Well, it's not leaking a lot.

[Alex] So I think we need a new regulator.

Yeah. We need a... Another regulator.

-Do we have anything here? -[Alex] We have nothing.

Welcome back to waiting on parts.

[upbeat music playing]

So you think 100 PSI is too much?

Uh, you know, maybe just a little.

What's that carburetor rated at?

[Alex] Not that.

[laughter]

But we do have a little bit of an interesting situation

'cause we have an... Like fuel injection pump,

so it's making a lot of pressure...

Right. Right.

...and then we need a regulator that also returns

but we need it to regulate down to low pressure.

-Like nothing. -[Alex] Yeah.

So there's one thing that we can actually do today,

'cause we actually have a couple tools.

We're gonna go ahead and get the regulator mounted up.

-Regulator's mounted up, yeah. -Mount up.

Uh-huh.

So we have a wide selection of select a hole

on the firewall right here

where this is supposed to mount.

None of them work except for these two.

And I'm getting ready to mount this crooked

and it's gonna drive me nuts, but this is not gonna stay.

It's very temporary.

So rather than add another set of holes,

we're just gonna live with it.

That's me twitching from my anxiety this is giving me.

[machine whirring]

Okay. So Alex has the regulator all installed

on the hose clamps.

Not something you often get to say

when you're installing a fuel system.

With a crooked regulator.

Yeah. And the hose clamps are actually heater hose clamps.

Totally the wrong size.

Yeah.

So, now, we're gonna stab some voltage

into that wire, and it will either spray gas,

catch on fire, or work perfectly.

-Any leaking? -[Alex] No.

-[Lucky] Is it on fire? -No.

Working perfectly then.

-Sweet. -Let's check.

Man, should we give it a kick?

-[Alex] Give it a kick. -All right.

[car engine revving]

Okay. So we have amazing oil pressure.

We have 15 volts, at least, fuel pump's running, and...

What happened?

-I don't know. What'd you do? -What'd you do, Alex?

-I didn't do it. -[Lucky] All right.

[car engine revving]

Super.

All right. So start-up went pretty good.

As far as we know, the motor is running and have...

Yeah, we finally have heat in the shop.

-[Lucky] Heat, man. -First time.

Supposed to bring our own heater.

[Alex] We had to bring our own heater.

-Yeah. -But it started up.

Ran well.

The only thing is we need to keep it running.

But there's stuff that was just kind of done

for a start-up.

So we gotta do a little bit of wiring,

including fuel pump and get the coil wire

actually hooked up.

And then we need to go hunt some wheels and tires.

We also need to set timing.

But we need to find some wheels and tires.

We're going hunting.

-He not listening. -We hunting?

He's not listening.

Basically, the wheels and tires

in the back are rubbing.

We wanna get to the sunshine,

Lucky's tired of me talking,

so we're gonna finish up here.

Then we're going to the shop and going to find wheels.

He won't remember it happened in like 15 seconds from now.

[mimics talking] Okay.

-I'm sorry. What? -He already forgot. See?

[Lucky] All right. Good.

So, clearly, there's more than enough room in there

for some other tire but not that one.

Stuck.

-Not enough room. -All right.

The rim back spacing offset and everything looks fine.

-Yup. -[Lucky] The tire,

there's just too much tire on that rim.

[Alex] We just need a new set of wheels and tires

that we can borrow for a minute.

What a nice stroll through the cold, dark...

It is rather brisk.

-[Alex] Yeah. Okay. -[Lucky] These are...

No, it's a little low profile-y.

[Alex] That's not the one that...

-Not gonna fly. -Nope.

A little blooper car. This is your car.

[Alex] I missed this car.

It was my rental when I was out here.

-Um, unfortunately... -Not gonna work.

Wait. Wing boy was here?

Yeah.

-That explains that. -And Batman. Okay.

Aww, look.

[Lucky] This car is really fast.

I'm gonna say right now, the Typhoon...

-[Alex] The Typhoon. -[Lucky]...is amazing.

'Phoon you later.

Um, ah, this is five-on-five.

This is truck bolt pattern.

[Alex] Yeah, we're not gonna be...

-[Lucky] It won't fly. -...appropriating that.

Um, Ford, NASCarlo.

NASCarlo's a wide five. Do you see those hubs?

-[Alex] Yeah. -[Lucky] That's crazy.

Pretty sure, though,

if we touch anything on this side,

we'll probably get in trouble.

[Lucky] Yeah, we'll hear about that.

That will be in email, all caps.

I see a candidate.

[Lucky] These... This, for sure, won't fit.

[Alex] Yeah, it's okay.

[Lucky] It won't be on the same boat.

[Alex] Yeah, but look at those fronts.

We just made this thing nice.

Do we wanna start taking it apart?

Okay, listen, hear me out.

We are going to keep this, it's gonna stay together.

However, we're gonna borrow those wheels and tires,

then get new wheels and tires for that one.

Mmm-hmm.

As we go faster, we're gonna mini tub it,

and then we can put a radio under.

So let's just take it--

I was fully hoping we could steal stuff...

Uh, borrow stuff from some... Somebody else.

Well, I think we'll get an email about that.

So we're borrowing from ourselves.

[impact wrench whirring]

[upbeat music playing]

All right. That's torqued to spec,

as in three ugga duggas.

Uh, drop the car, check the front lug nuts,

make sure they're all tight.

And it's finally, finally time to hit the road.

Uh, it's also the first time this week

that it's been sunny in California.

So, impeccable timing.

[blues music playing]

[car engine roaring]

Okay. So far we've made it hundreds of feet.

We have made hundreds of feet.

We have gone hundreds of feet with no problems whatsoever.

Hey, it could be worse. We have done worse with...

-Well, maybe not better. -With less.

-[Alex] Yeah. Yeah. -Yeah.

Yeah. But, uh, yeah, there's a peculiar smell

-and a little bit of smoke. -Yeah.

And we just spent a couple minutes

trying to figure out what it was

and we've agreed

it's something we don't smell often.

It's a brand-new clean exhaust system.

Yeah.

That's not cobbled together with a bunch of scrap

from all over the place.

It almost smells a little bit like jalapeno peppers.

-It does. It does. -[laughs]

Um, the... Oh, you know what, I did notice on the transmission

there's a vacuum shift modulator.

Oh, okay.

And it is not hooked to anything.

-That could be part of... -[Lucky] So...

-...our problem. -[Lucky] Yeah, that's...

I mean, it will force itself to shift eventually,

but it just make us drive around all aggressive.

Okay.

Uh, so yeah, note to self.

-I'll put that on the list. -[Lucky] Okay.

Put that on the list.

So part of what we're doing right now

is trying to figure out what the car needs,

'cause we're going to be taking it to the track

to give it a shakedown pass

and get an "ET" on what our brand-new car will do.

Hold on. I'm doing it.

[car engine roaring]

[blues music playing]

A lot of oil.

Uh, it's spraying everywhere.

[Lucky] Where is that?

I don't... I can't...

It's up front.

I'm gonna move my head

'cause you will boink my head off the window really hard.

I would never do that.

-He has done that. -As far as you know.

As far as you guys know.

[Lucky] All right.

From drive, lift up to safety and go directly into park.

All the way to park. Very nice.

It is spraying oil.

[Lucky] Is it oil?

[Alex] We have a massive leak.

On small-block Chevrolets, we do a lot of LS stuff,

but on a conventional small-block Chevrolet,

it has a mechanical fuel pump

mounted on the side of the block.

At which point, there is a fuel pump drive shaft

that rides off the camshaft,

and then you have a little bolt in the front

that you can push that shaft up

and you tighten the bolt,

holds it in place,

install the pump, remove the bolt,

and put it in a shorter bolt that does not interfere with the shaft...

Right.

...but allows it to not leak oil.

That bolt, however,

is missing and it is not right here.

This is totally something you should actually

expect when you buy a car

that a bunch of other people have been working on.

This car was sitting around.

Somebody needed that bolt.

I hope it worked out for you.

I mean, we steal stuff all the time.

-We did it all week. -Yeah.

So, lucky for us, we actually came to the hardware store

to get a bolt for our, um, air cleaner up top...

-Correct. -...so we can put that on.

And, uh, we're going to pick up one more,

which is gonna go right there.

And we are solving problems already.

Have we got the budget for this?

I don't know. It's kind of expensive.

[blues music playing]

Okay. Which way you wanna go, west or east?

What are my options with east?

West, I'm familiar with. East, I am not.

That's fun.

Okay, we'll figure it out.

[car engine revving]

We're not getting anywhere near full throttle.

So primaries only.

-I'll put that down. -Okay.

Test throttle linkage.

[Alex] And then the back of the T...

We need to put...

We need to put a T on the back of the manifold,

-so we can do... -Correct.

-...reference there. -Add a...

Add a manifold vacuum T,

-or-- -Should we stop

in a parts store?

We could.

It really depends on whether or not

it does a burnout right now.

-That's the dictating factor? -[Lucky] That's the...

[tires squealing]

[car engine revving]

-Yeah, yeah. We need vacuum. -We need vacuum.

Yeah, we need vacuum.

I mean, overall, it's a pretty comfy cruiser.

You know what, this is a nice little driver.

-It is. -The ride is firm.

-[Alex] Yes. -Not rough, not overbearing.

[Alex] No, it's a good cruiser.

And like if it was shifting properly,

it'd be like a really...

-Pretty smooth ride. -[chuckles]

[Lucky] So technically,

the test drive was an absolute success.

[Alex] The car overall handled really well.

[Lucky] We made a little party list.

[Alex] Correct. We made a party list,

which includes checking the throttle linkage.

[Lucky] We need full throttle.

We have about one quarter throttle.

[Alex] We need to hook up

the vacuum modulator on the shift...

On the transmission.

[Lucky] It would be nice if it shifted

just under red line.

[Alex] Yeah. We had to just...

[mimics engine revving] And then we get a shift.

And then we actually have a hood to put on this.

-We're gonna... -[Lucky] What?

[Alex] ...slap it--

[Lucky] I'm not covering this up.

[Alex] We are. We have a hood we're gonna put on.

Hood's going on and then we will be ready

to hit the road and drive to Irwindale, okay?

[Lucky] Well, I guess for aerodynamic purposes,

-it will be allowed. -[Alex] Okay. Deal.

Okay. So, that's a wrap on the day...

-On the week, actually. -On the week.

On the first version of this car, actually.

Right. Step one.

Yeah. So, as we go through this, we have two goals.

Remember the goals?

Um, to not get caught, but for sure have fun.

Oh no, those are my personal goals.

Yeah. No, definitely not the goals.

The goals are to drive on the street really well

and to be a really good race car.

Right. And every upgrade that we do

will actually be an upgrade. Everything that we fix...

Change from now on will be a step up.

Yup. So for now, we're going to put

our small-block Chevy

with our loaner Turbo 400 to the test,

take it to the streets,

drive it to the track, and get a baseline

on what our eighth-mile time looks like.

I'm down with that.

-You ready to hit the road? -Yeah.

-Road trip? -Are you ready?

-Yeah. -Let's go.

All right. Road trip.

All right. It is finally time to take

our new '72 Nova project out on its very first excursion.

We actually made it.

-To where? -Today.

[Alex] Today. [chuckles]

We made it all the way to today.

We did a transmission, we did ignition system,

full exhaust system, front to back.

-Yeah. -[Lucky] Uh, cooling system.

I think we just fix it up a little bit.

We didn't... Yeah, we didn't do too much there.

It had fuel injection. We never saw that.

-[Alex] No. -We put a carburetor on it.

It runs pretty decent.

Yeah. So we got to take it out

for a little bit of a test cruise.

-It did good. -Yes.

Uh, we did some minor repairs and fixes along the way,

stopped at a bunch of shops

as we hunted down a couple parts.

-[Lucky] Mmm-hmm. -But if you guys remember,

we were working in our temporary shop location

as we wait to move into our new home.

And it was so warm and comfortable in there,

and super cozy.

None of that's true.

However, we were also hindered by the fact

that we didn't have a welder, we couldn't cut,

so we had a lot of bolt-on stuff,

but luckily we had a good set of bones here,

-which made that possible. -Absolutely.

And the stuff that we weren't able to weld,

you may be seeing it in just a little while.

This project has a long life ahead of it.

We wanna make it a really awesome street-able race car.

And today, we're going to put

both of those pieces to the test

'cause we're going to drive our car

to the drag strip.

Is it super-fast yet?

No. Is it super street-able?

We're gonna see. Seems semi street-able.

Tell you in 15 minutes.

All right. So ready?

-[Lucky] I'm ready. -Set?

-Are you ready? -[Alex] Set?

-Two times. -Okay.

We gone.

[car engine revving]

Okay. So we are on our way to Irwindale Raceway.

You know where it is?

In Irwindale?

Beautiful Irwindale, California.

[Alex] Yeah.

And what is it, Thursday Thunder

or Thunder Thursday, or something?

-Something like that. Yeah. -Yeah.

We're going to an actual test and tune

or Thursday Night Drag, whatever you wanna call it.

And this one should pass tech.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

Maybe. I've actually never had a car pass tech there.

-Really? -Yeah.

-Huh. -Just saying.

Okay.

We barely had Bonemaro pass tech there.

Yeah.

My first time down that track was at Power Tour West.

-Oh, nice. Okay. -You were there.

Yeah. It did not go down it.

So we're just gonna get

a baseline on it this time, right?

Yeah. All we're doing is getting a baseline

-because, honestly... -[clattering]

Pull over.

Pull over, pull over.

Sounds like a spark plug.

Something's wrong.

-Spark plug came out. -[engine sputtering]

Okay, guys. I said we were getting a baseline.

We're getting more than that right now.

So it sounds like something knocking

or like literally an exhaust fell off.

-That's not good. -[Alex] No, it's bad.

It's almost like we're not seeing anything on the top,

so it's almost like the knock we're hearing

is deep inside and internal.

The... I'm gonna start it up right now.

-And I'll listen. -[Lucky] All right.

[engine sputtering]

-That's not good. -[Lucky laughs]

That is not good.

Is it through the carburetor?

Well, I was scared to get too close

'cause yes, it's like... Do you wanna listen?

-I'll start it. -Yeah. Start it up.

Okay.

[engine starts]

So what is happening there

is the compression is occurring

while it's in the intake stroke.

So timing chain shifted, broke, came apart,

or we broke a valve, a seat, something like that

'cause compression is coming back through the carburetor.

You wanna pull the valve cover

just to see if we see anything?

Uh...

Let's just do it. It's for...

-That's... Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Okay.

[Lucky] So we're gonna pull up the valve covers

and see if maybe a rocker arm popped off

or a push rod bent.

-Oh, back rocker. -Found it.

[Lucky] Found it.

-Stud broke? -[Alex] Oh, yeah, it broke.

[Lucky] Yeah.

[Alex] Okay.

If we could get a stud,

I think we could get the rocker back on.

Um, yeah.

It's... The push rod's not hurt.

-[Lucky] Yeah. -[Alex] All right.

So the thought right now, so you can see,

the stud literally just like sheared off.

Is there an underlying cause or culprit?

Possibly.

Maybe that stud was bad.

You know, you get bad parts.

Everything else appears to be okay.

So we're gonna get out from in front of the car

where traffic is coming behind the car

and start making some calls and see if we can get a stud,

and see if we can get back on the road.

This thing's super-hot.

You want a tattoo?

I already tried, I did.

[Lucky] So, busted side of the road.

Metro Freeway Service Patrol rolls up.

He can hook up a car pretty quick.

Now let's go see if we can find some snacks.

Backing it into the shade for us.

[Alex] Nice guys.

[Lucky] Very considerate tow truck driver.

So Mark King, the parts guy, is out hunting down parts

from a local auto repair shop, right?

[Alex] And in the spirit of doing Drag Week things,

we're gonna fix it on the side of the road,

get back on the road, and hit the track.

[Lucky] Fix it on the next exit too.

[Alex] I had him get a couple extra studs.

[Lucky] And some more snacks.

-[Alex] And that too. -[Lucky] All right.

Okay. Rocker replaced.

-Yes, it has been. -Stud's been replaced.

-[Alex] Yes. -But I'm... But I'm still here.

-[Alex] I was gonna say you're... But... -I'm still here.

[Alex] I knew that's where you were going.

-I was trying to catch it. -Um, valve cover's back on...

-Uh-huh. -...coil plug back in.

I think a couple zip ties in the fan strut

and we are Irwindale Dragstrip ready.

Yeah. I mean, as fun as this has been,

the dragstrip will be a lot more fun.

And clearly we're out of donuts.

We might as well just...

We might as well just move on.

What'd you want, man?

Dude, we got to go.

Alex, tell this guy to get out of here.

We got to go. We got to get in the wind.

-Shoo, fly. -We're out of here.

Bye.

[car engine revving]

[upbeat music playing]

[Lucky] We made it all the way to Irwindale,

in beautiful Irwindale, California.

[Alex] Yes, we did.

With our brand-new '72...

Brand new to us, '72 Nova

that we took on its first cruise

and now it's at its first track day with us,

but it wasn't without a little bit of trouble

along the way.

Absolutely. The first cruise left us with a...

-Our first bruise. -Yes, it did.

-[laughs] -Yes, it did, actually.

So, we are finally at the track

ready to put a baseline on this car.

[Lucky] Absolutely.

And we are here specifically for chili dogs...

-No, we are not-- -...and six-second passes.

No.

-Uh... -[laughs]

-A little ambitious. -All right.

None of that's gonna happen.

Little ambitious. However, we are planning

to build this car out over its life here at HRG.

[Lucky] Right.

And we want it to be a fast car at some point.

Sure. And we want this motor to survive.

[Alex] Yes. However, this motor won't stay forever,

-but it's a baseline for now. -[Lucky] Yeah. We want...

It's gonna be a good plantation for something else.

Yes. On the way here,

we did hear quite a bit of pinging.

-[Lucky] Sure. -So I messed with timing a little.

There was some drum roll going on,

but I think we're running some mystery fuel.

We're not very certain about what's in that motor.

It could be a high compression.

-Yup. -[Lucky] Could be.

So, we're going to get a little bit of higher octane

race fuel from the track, put it in there,

check timing, go to tech, and then make a pass.

Uh-huh.

We'll get you a snack somewhere in between.

[laughs] Make a pass.

This is gonna be good.

Don't go anywhere.

[upbeat music playing]

[Lucky] Alex pulling the Nova up right now.

She's not gonna do a burnout.

Uh, she might put a little heat into it just for fun.

And remember, we're not trying to set any land speed records.

You're gonna see the car go down the track

under throttle, full throttle I might add.

And just sort of a shakedown.

Seeing what stays together, and what doesn't.

[car engines revving]

[upbeat music playing]

[Lucky] So one of the deals about doing burnout

with shredded tires is you throw a lot of water

up into the wheel well.

She's staged right now, so she's getting ready to go.

[car engines revving]

[Lucky] All the parts still on it?

Barely.

I think it was pinging all the way down the road.

Was it detonating a lot?

It felt like it. It's either exhaust...

it's either exhaust or... I don't know.

It sounded like a misfire all the way down the track.

-Not so much detonation. -That may be what it was.

That was incredibly... disappointing.

-[laughs] -Are all the parts on?

-Does it still run? -It does.

-That's a success... -I mean--

-...is what that is. -So to be up on...

On the positive side, it made it down the track...

[Lucky] Uh-huh.

...and it made it down the return road.

Success.

[Alex] It didn't feel like it had bottom-end snappiness

-or top end. -[Lucky] Oh.

[Alex] So we're missing all three.

[Lucky] Right.

[Alex] So we're gonna do a little investigating,

see what we can do to maybe drop that baseline.

And this is going to leave us with lots in the think tank

to decide where we wanna go forward with this.

I just took a ton of timing out of it,

so let's make another pass.

[Alex] Okay.

[upbeat music playing]

[announcer] Third Generation's Nova getting ready to go.

[car engine revving]

[tires squealing]

[Lucky] I do feel better about it.

We changed the ignition wire

and took some timing out of it.

[car engine revving]

[Lucky] Still falling apart.

So that was just as bad as the last pass.

We did some changes, but nothing critical.

Pretty sure we're gonna take that distributor out

and throw it in the trash.

Then actually put a little more love into that motor.

Bring that thing to life.

Sounds like it has a good base,

good bottom end, but, uh...

you know, just not hanging out.

[upbeat music playing]

Is that a wrap?

That's a wrap for this episode,

but it is not a wrap for this car

because it has a long life ahead of it.

It does. And it is lease money.

-It is. -[Lucky] So...

We don't have the shop, but we got the car.

I mean, that's a pretty fair trade.

Yeah. They spent the same amount of money.

[Alex] Yeah, true.

So we want it to be a really good street car,

a really good race car.

We have it kind of there on the street.

-Do we though? -No. Probably not.

Okay. All right.

It did... You said... You said it.

Tows well?

Tows amazing behind a tow truck.

[Alex] Yeah. So it needs a little bit of work.

I feel like we've been on a roller coaster

of ups and downs, but overall...

-You break dancing just now? -Overall...

-Okay. Yeah. -I feel really good about it.

-I'm glad we got this car. -[Lucky] Yeah.

I think it's great. It's a good start.

And it's one of the nicest cars

we've started with, honestly.

It is actually a super nice, comfortable, fun-driving car.

I had a blast driving it here.

We were cruising, meet people...

-Yeah. -...on the freeway...

We just need a little more horsepower.

But are you ready to go to bed?

It is late.

Don't we have a few people we need to thank?

Yes, we do.

-For example? -[laughs]

We need to thank Holley because of course,

they're always a big help.

-They sent us a carburetor... -[Lucky] Right.

-...for the car. -[Lucky] Right, right.

We need to thank Dennis over at...

-Vehicle Effects. -Vehicle Effects

'cause he just happened to have

a transmission lying around.

Gave us a loaner Turbo 400... Yeah.

Again, 'cause he's done that before.

-Yeah. -Has a loaner Turbo 400

-that we were able to borrow. -[Lucky] Right.

And with that said, we need to go ahead

and thank Gearstar 'cause they're currently

building our really rad

and awesome transmission that's going to be

in the final product once it's done.

That is a preemptive thank you to Gearstar.

Oh, it... It's necessary.

[Lucky] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

How long have we been working together now?

We're going on three years together.

-Do you have social media? -Oh, my goodness,

I didn't know you'd ask, 'cause I do.

It's Alex Taylor Racing. What about you?

Oh, yeah. That's crazy.

I am Mobile Tech Lucky on everything.

Oh, and we are Hot Rod Garage Show

if you wanna see more.