my 1st car was a 74 nova with a 250 6 3 spd manual tranny and 3.50 rear gears.
i had gotten a manifold and headers back in the early 80s for this and put a holley 2 bbl carb on it ,plus a dist advance kit in it. took a little fiddling but this sucker would give some of the other kids cars a run for their money and performed like a small v8 .the standard really helped .
i always thought a well built 292-6 would be good motor too for a light car or a t bucket.