1966 Chevy Nova 230 inline 6 engine, Good engine?

Pick up a head from a 194. Same size ports but much smaller combustion chamber. Makes a 230 or 250 get up and run.

 

hoggyrubber
The 230 & 250's have the same bore ,Only the crank has a different stroke. You can NOT use the 230 pistons with the 250 crank. The 292 cams can be used in the low deck motors ONLY If your running a Elec. fuel pump. Due to the different location of the fuel pump lobe.
29nash
The 250 pistons are dished,So are the 292 pistons. The only flat tops are the 194 & 230.(stock) Other then that 283 pistons for the 230s and The 307s for the 250s

 

Good engines, and will not have a problem fitting 700r4 or 2004r transmissions. Not a hot rot engine, but strong. Hot rod 6 cylinder engine would be Pontiac OHC 6.

 

Distributor wear was a warranty problem at times.Pulling HEI distributors out of later 6's you can see a U-joint on the distributor shaft.A GM engineer told me this was a self aligning feature to eliminate the wear.He claimed GM was sloppy about boring the distributor hole in the block.

 

I second the motion to stay away from the integeral intake 250s, the heads crack. You can replace them with a conventional setup though. Personally Id find a 292, bigger is better.

 

Recent straight six craze ......????

Damn, probably the first time in my life I've been ahead of a trend, and by about 45 years, too ..... I'm so proud!

That comment caused me to change my signature line.

 

The first car I built was a 64 Chevelle Malibu with a 230 in it. A rebuild with a mild cam, .040 bore, and a stock carb and it was a fine running car. Not a dragster or anything but it surprised the SBC guys around town. I never won against a V-8 but it was close enough to get their attention most of the time. I'd love to find an inline 6 for my 51, I'd pull the 350 in a heartbeat.
Ed

 

You'll like it...great little engine!

 

I ran 6's in a 65 II. From the smallest to the largest with no problems. The dist. wear problem was traced the machining of the pad the dist. bolted down to not being 90 deg. to the dist. bore. If your having a gear wear problem remachine the pad square with the bore.
Be careful of the early 194 heads as most had siamese ex. ports, NOT GOOD.
If you can find TRW pistons for a 283 FI, square dome, they will give you a good comp. boost in the 230. If I remember correct they had to be installed backwards to fit the chamber. All in all a good engine.