i have a 1975 nova LN with a 262 in it. its good for everyday driving but lacks on power. i cant find anything on if it is worth building or not. if i can id like to keep it in cause it is an all original car. so i need to know if it is worth trying to hot rod or not . and if it is how to go about it.  

it is such a tiny displacement... if you want to go faster   go bigger... leave the 262 stickers on the new ZZ4...   how does it do on fuel economy????

if you swap heads the compression ratio will fall... the ports and combustion chambers on those head are tiny...to match up with the tiny pistons...




if you prep the motor for storage as you take it out you can leave it for years sitting inside out of the rain.. so you could use it in another project...or sell it with the car a long time from now... having a spare running small block motor around is handy... blow one up swap in a spare..  want to mod the runner.. drop in the spare...  bought a car motorless... got one...

i have not studied the 262.. but a cam swap after some research might help a lot.. as a '75 might be too much of a smog cam...

i seem to recall that used a 3.10 stroke large journal crank.. so that could be used for a hi revving motor..

the nice thing about chevys... motor swaps are easy... lift it out.. drop it in... close the hood and go

i swapped a rat motor into my 66 gto back in the mid 80's... someone was curious about what was under the hood.. and opened it and did not latch it down...  i had not reinstalled the hood hinges or safety latch... as i took off a was just about to go to thrid gear when every thing went black for a split second... and then i could see the motor... and the fan spinning.. ... it took a few seconds to figure out why i could see the motor.. oh.. the hood came off.... i looked in the mirror and the cars behind me all locked up and skidding... then the hood came down and was run over by a camaro convertable who was also skidding sideways....  

right now its getting around 25 mpg. which i really like. i was going to change it to a edelbrock intake and holley 650. i also have a bigger cam for it but i would hate to mess up a good motor. its a 490 lift cam. which is considerably larger than stock. i think your right on the crank . that sounds about right. i am going to build a .30 over 4 bolt 350. i have the block but havent started the build. i just hate to take the stock motor out. and sacrifice the fuel economy  

I already posted a blog on this very subject in the blog section, but I cut and pasted it in here to make it easier. I think this is an exact same situation to yours, so it should help a lot. Here goes:


We frequently get emails and letters asking us to do stories on how to build up small V8s, and they very often sound like this one from Anthony Benson, of Luminary, TN: “I recently traded my ‘92 Ford Ranger for a 1975 Chevy Nova LN. I'm the second owner, and it’s all original, with 122,000 on the factory 262. Everyone says to pull the 262 and go with a 350, but I want to stay with the 262 block. What would be the best way to get more power from the 262 without going broke, and what kind of results could I expect to see out of it? By the way, why haven't ya'll done an article on the 262?”

For a lot of reasons, Tony’s friends are right. It’s a lot better to pull the old 262, and drop a 350 in its place. The 262 had a 3.1-inch stroke with a 3.67-inch bore. That small bore really kills the party, making the valves so small that it’s pointless to do anything else with the motor. You’ve got to move cfm if you want to make power, and a small bore, small valves, and poor-flowing heads are useless in that fight.

We have to assume that Tony’s willing to do a standard rebuild, like honing and boring if necessary, putting in new rings and bearings, installing fresh gaskets, getting a new valve job, etc. Why? Because the stock 262 only made 110 hp from the factory, and making respectable power on a 32-year-old, 110,000-mile engine will dictate this.

Beyond this, Tony would need to do one of two things if he wants more power: port his cylinder heads, or install nitrous, or both. Because the bores are so small on a 262 and cash is at a premium, Tony would need to keep his old heads and port them. The nitrous option would take away the porting requirement, but new valve guides and a valve job would still be needed. The whole thing would then need a bigger cam, carb and intake at a bare minimum. More power is the product of more airflow, and there’s just no shortcut to moving cfm. Working in his favor: these items aren’t that expensive, and can be purchased one at a time over a period of months.

So what would Tony have after slaving over his 262 for months? Probably not much. If he doubled his horsepower to 220, we’d consider it a success. By contrast, a brand new GM Goodwrench 350 crate motor runs about $1,500 through Jeg’s or Summit, and makes 260 hp. A junkyard Vortec 350 from a late-‘90s truck would be about the same price after yanking the EFI and putting on a carb and intake, and it would make between 300 and 350 hp.

The same scenario applies to many other GM, Ford, and Mopar small-blocks. There is a feeling among owners of these small engines that if they just put enough love rubbing on them, they’ll respond. Another false assumption is that “small cubes” equals “cheap,” and that isn’t correct either. At the end of the day, horsepower comes from cfm, and that’s because an engine is just an air pump. The ranks of NHRA Comp Eliminator are full of small-cube naturally-aspirated V8s, but they aren’t cheap. In fact, on the basis of dollar per horsepower, a small engine is more expensive, and that’s why you haven’t seen a story on one yet.

Having said all that, in the next 12 months, we are planning on doing a story on a 305 Chevy, so keep your eyes peeled to the pages of Popular Hot Rodding.  

don't junk it!  

Dont listen to any of these none believers.
Your 262in motor is a good motor. Yes Displacement does give you power however, the sound of a high revving V8 is like heaven and thats exactly what yours can do. You will like they said have to keep your stock heads to match your bore. You will need to deck your block down to get higher compression ratio adding a thinner head gasket. Valve size is not as important as porting inside the heads for better flow. Now comes the fun part grind and balance your crankshaft to reduce wieght which is minimal on the 262 as well as your connecting rods this will increase 30 HP not including the decking and porting. Your going to need high revs out of this puppy to make power so i suggest a high flow intake and Light weight pistons 10:1 now your compression is going to be high because of the deck so realibility is going down however the tiny blocks dont break very easy. Carbs is whole other story but make sure it has 1.4 venturies so you can keep your low end torque, 360cfm to 750cfm vacuum secondaries. you can pull another few horsepower by grinding oulet  channel in your oil pump your oil pressure will be fine read a book on how to do this if your doing it yourself it has to be done right. A high lift not long duration cam will aide rpms and power note not duration that hinders sometimes.Lastly buy match port headers for exhaust. All of this will make at least 150 or more hp with out spending much cash and if you decide not using the motor hand it to me buddy ill do it. oh ya i forgot Retard your cam 2 degrees if you plan on high revs  

I think 150 extra H.P. seems a little like far fetched without a whole lot of money.  

1975 Nova, neat. I like the 1975-79 X bodies, be it, a chevy or a Pontiac, Buick or Olds.

I own a 1976 Omega, you can check it out here.
http://www.oldsmobileracersonline.com/omegadude.html

I would keep the 262ci in there and build a SB 400 to put in there at a later time if you looking to build your car to run decent numbers at the track.

Last issue of PHR had an article on the engine masters challenge's winner. It pretty much shows you can make over 650 horsepower with a 400 chevy small block with a pump gas frindly 10.5 to compression ratio. I was floored how cheaply you chevy guys can get parts for compaired to us Oldsmobile enthusiast.

Bruce  

thanks for the input guys. i have decided to keep the 262 in it. mainly cause of the gas milage. i am going to put thinner head gaskets on it. i have found a good set of headers from a friend that will work nicely. also going to yank the 2 barrel carb and intake and switch to a edelbrock performer intake and a 650 carb. i also got a mild cam from a friend. he says it will work. but i will post stats and the out come when i get it done. thanks very much for the info guys it was really helpfull.  

I am a big fan of the 262 v8 75-76. I have a 33 willys coupe and am building a 262 to put in it just to be different and because of rising gas prices. All my parts were suggested by TrickFlow, Edelebrock, Comp Cams, and Holley technicians for both increased power and increased mpg. Here are my parts- 262 v8 short block, .030 bore, flat top pistons 4 valve reliefs, balanced rotating parts, trick flow TFS-30300001 aluminum heads, edelbrock manifold EDL-27011, comp cam CCA-12-206-2, holley 390cfm carb HLY-0-8007, felpro head gasket FPP-1094, hooker tighttubes, pertronics flamethrower II ingnition, NOS 150hp shot, 2004R trans, 2000 stall converter, 3.25 gear 9 in ford rear end. I also have 400hp 350 built but intend to use the 262 with great gas milage on 87 octane.  

Oops, had to remove the nos, too much for this little motor. 50-75 hp might be good. Also requires 93 octane for nos and i'm sticking to 87 for economy.