I was surfing the junkyard the other day and found this old rusted out nova. I looked under the hood to find the usual SBC all rusted up, but I noticed that it had "roller" guide plates. It looks as if when the pushrod went up and down it was on a set of rollers rather then just hitting the sides of the plate like normal. Anybody ever see these? I tried to do a yahoo search and came up with nothing.

 

Never heard of it. Almost sounds like it would be some kind of old winston cup technology though.

 

Since I own a Nova you got me very interested. Its definately nothing factory but I would like to do some research on this to. I will report any findings.

 

I'd talk the yard owner out of them for a few bucks. They sound very unusual. I'd also look the rest of that car and motor over real good for other possible oddities. Get them home and take some pics for us. Never heard of such a thing before, and I'd love to see 'em.

 

Well I just called my machine shop who does all of my work, and he says hes seen about 5 motors over the last 30 years that have come in with those. He said that stock circle track guys used to run those. He says those were around during the 60's and early 70's.

 

fascinating!
i wonder if an ohio foundry or machine shop was putting these out?
i din't recall ever seeing any of these!
pictures would be awesome!
might want to check the block #'s as well!
Eric B

 

I wonder what would be the benefit of such a creature. I suppose it might free up an extra 1/10 horsepower as i doubt there is a lot of parasitic power loss at guide plates. Or would it have been a valvetrain stability thing, to keep from bending pushrods?