Charlie , When we raced our 62 Nova,I remember most things but others may chim in..WE did this exact swap in 1968..First off, the V8 wasn't installed in the Nova until 64, and then it was the 283 with a powerslide ,or a 3 speed manual. If I remember correctly, there was no factory 4Sp in the 62-65 Nova. It was 66 before the Nova came with a 4Sp. The only change for the V8 other than heavier springs was the bigger brakes with optional power assist and 5 lugs and 14" wheels.
As for installing the engine. The Chevy V/8 motor mounts towers are bolt in.You need to get Nova V/8 towers,probably from,GM,Junk Yard or aftermarket company. No frame changes are needed. The mounts towers need to be for a Nova,small block motor mounts work fine, and will bolt right in.
The oil pan, oil pick up, and the oil pump drive all need to be changed. The pump drive is shorter. The pick up reaches to the front of the pan, and the pans sump is located forward of the cross member. Back in the day the filter had to be changed to a spin on filter. The original canister hung to low, and had exhaust clearance issues,use a short oil filter,not the longer one..
The wiring was a matter of moving the wire for the distributor and that' it. The alternator wiring was long enough that it reached the alternators new position with no problem. The same went for the starter wires.
I do not recall what stock exhaust manifolds were used,we use wheel well headers since the car was strictly used as a race car,at first modified production,then gas,and finally altered, but back then the selection of manifold were minimal. Best guess were ram center dumps.
As for transmissions, the original powerglide was the easiest swap because there's no drive line work needed, just drop in the engine and go. The standard was easy as well, but who wanted a 3 speed with a V8, no one!
Personally we went with a Muncie 4 speed , and the shifter came right up through the floor like it was factory installed. But this did require some trim work on the cross member to keep the cross member from making contact with the tail housing of the 4 speed where the tail housing bolted to the trans. If I remember, it was about a 15 minute job to trim the cross member with a grinder.Other than that it was a direct bolt in, and the original auto trans mount was reused with the 4 speed.. Even the same drive shaft from the original 6 cylinder auto went right into the 4 speed without any cutting! (its a 60's Chevy, one size pretty much fits all)
Using the original Corvette linkage with the shortened throw made that car a whole lot of fun to drive.
Nothing Special about the clutch . We used a blow proof Lakewood bell housing, zoom clutch and aluminum flywheel for a Corvette application , and a fork from I don't know what, and never had a problem,but you could use pretty much any GM bellhousing,Corvette Clutch and Flywheel if your going stock with the car. Nothing was ever done to the suspension other than an alignment, and I think the brakes were swapped out for larger ones, but once again I've forgotten just what was done with the brakes.Our wheels for originally 4 lug,we swapped them out for 5 lug wheels from a later Nova.
The exhaust was could be custom made with 2 1/2" pipes from front to rear. Your car could be one neat sleeper,sounds like a real neat project.
So here's the here's the bottom line, it takes an oil pan, an oil pump pick up, a couple of engine mounts and the oil pump drive. Those are the only specific parts needed to install any small block Chevy into a 62- 65 Nova.Good luck and post some pictures.
John
