Squid4life
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2004
Alright guys, this may be quite a read, but will be worth your time I hope.
WELCOME HOME ERIK! (Eno213) and Welcome to the Buick family!
A while back a new guy on the board (Erik) contacted me about buying a set of taillights, and we struck up a conversation about his new purchase, an 85 Grand National. He has wanted one for a very long time and finally bit the bullet, and traded his BMW for the GN he currently has. He read some of my posts about how I converted my old hot air to IC’ed and he was considering the swap, of which I had a lot of the parts he needed, plus a spare 109 so we decided I would freshen this motor and put together the whole conversion parts lot. This crazy Buick family we have all been inbred into always helps each other out, plus Erik is prior Navy, then went to the Army, then the reserves/DoD contractor and was in Afghanistan serving our country. I really felt this community could do something little by little to show our appreciation for the time he spends away from his family, but I wanted to keep it a surprise, and since Erik is a member on this board, (even while he is in Afghanistan he gets to search the board!) so no open forum posts asking for assistance. I had to contact people via email or private message. I started by contacting Steve Monroe.
Everyone knows Steve Monroe (throttlebodys.com). He ports stock throttle bodies and upper plenums to 62mm, and let me tell you; they are ART!!! I asked if he’d be willing to cut a discount on one of his ported stock throttle bodies because I wanted Erik’s build to be a little more than a stocker. Steve agreed and was excited to help. We worked a trade and a little cash for one of his 62mm ported throttle bodies and ported upper plenums. These things are works of art, just look at the pics!
I next contacted Dennis Kirban to see if he would be willing to help with a few small items to clean up the motor and make sure it was ready to support more power safely, and he went out of his way to help out. He was also excited to help and sent one of his billet adjustable fuel pressure regulators, a set of his high output plug wires, and a set of high pressure intercooler hoses and clamps! (NOT PICTURED BELOW ARE THE CLAMPS, SORRY! THEY ARE JUST AS NICE AS THE REST, TRUST ME!)
I had a set of 30lb injectors and stock injectors I planned to install in Erik’s motor, so I asked Check Leeper if he would take the stock injectors in trade for doing a flow job on the 30’s. He upped the ante and said he would do both sets for free, no problem! If you are chasing a miss, your car has sat a long time, or you buy a set of used injectors or they have sat on the shelf a while, do yourself a favor and send them to Chuck! One of the injectors was stuck completely until Chuck cleaned them up!
I have always used Turbotweak chips, from the time I bought my first GN about 10 years ago. They have always been PERFECT with regards to performance and drivability, so when I needed a chip for this build, Eric Marshall immediately came to mind. Eric agreed to do a chip for the newly freshened and flowed injectors for no charge!
Since this build needed to be done 100% right, I thought it required a set of forged pistons, and I always had good luck with the Edelbrock 204/214 cam and lifters. I also wanted to get it balanced, and I would be porting the heads and intake. Erik’s wife contacted me on the side and sent me some working money to help out with parts and machine shop fees. At this point the build was getting me really excited, but do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a secret!? I wanted to tell Erik all about this build but could not! I was talking to my parents one weekend and told them all about this project and how I was so excited to get it all together and have a “big reveal” like it was Overhaulin’ or something. Hell, they got excited about it too and the next week I was surprised to see a check for $250 and in the memo line it said “$ for machine shop fees or parts for your project!” Love my folks! They have big hearts! Here are a few pics of the shortblock coming together in my garage.
WELCOME HOME ERIK! (Eno213) and Welcome to the Buick family!
A while back a new guy on the board (Erik) contacted me about buying a set of taillights, and we struck up a conversation about his new purchase, an 85 Grand National. He has wanted one for a very long time and finally bit the bullet, and traded his BMW for the GN he currently has. He read some of my posts about how I converted my old hot air to IC’ed and he was considering the swap, of which I had a lot of the parts he needed, plus a spare 109 so we decided I would freshen this motor and put together the whole conversion parts lot. This crazy Buick family we have all been inbred into always helps each other out, plus Erik is prior Navy, then went to the Army, then the reserves/DoD contractor and was in Afghanistan serving our country. I really felt this community could do something little by little to show our appreciation for the time he spends away from his family, but I wanted to keep it a surprise, and since Erik is a member on this board, (even while he is in Afghanistan he gets to search the board!) so no open forum posts asking for assistance. I had to contact people via email or private message. I started by contacting Steve Monroe.
Everyone knows Steve Monroe (throttlebodys.com). He ports stock throttle bodies and upper plenums to 62mm, and let me tell you; they are ART!!! I asked if he’d be willing to cut a discount on one of his ported stock throttle bodies because I wanted Erik’s build to be a little more than a stocker. Steve agreed and was excited to help. We worked a trade and a little cash for one of his 62mm ported throttle bodies and ported upper plenums. These things are works of art, just look at the pics!
I next contacted Dennis Kirban to see if he would be willing to help with a few small items to clean up the motor and make sure it was ready to support more power safely, and he went out of his way to help out. He was also excited to help and sent one of his billet adjustable fuel pressure regulators, a set of his high output plug wires, and a set of high pressure intercooler hoses and clamps! (NOT PICTURED BELOW ARE THE CLAMPS, SORRY! THEY ARE JUST AS NICE AS THE REST, TRUST ME!)
I had a set of 30lb injectors and stock injectors I planned to install in Erik’s motor, so I asked Check Leeper if he would take the stock injectors in trade for doing a flow job on the 30’s. He upped the ante and said he would do both sets for free, no problem! If you are chasing a miss, your car has sat a long time, or you buy a set of used injectors or they have sat on the shelf a while, do yourself a favor and send them to Chuck! One of the injectors was stuck completely until Chuck cleaned them up!
I have always used Turbotweak chips, from the time I bought my first GN about 10 years ago. They have always been PERFECT with regards to performance and drivability, so when I needed a chip for this build, Eric Marshall immediately came to mind. Eric agreed to do a chip for the newly freshened and flowed injectors for no charge!
Since this build needed to be done 100% right, I thought it required a set of forged pistons, and I always had good luck with the Edelbrock 204/214 cam and lifters. I also wanted to get it balanced, and I would be porting the heads and intake. Erik’s wife contacted me on the side and sent me some working money to help out with parts and machine shop fees. At this point the build was getting me really excited, but do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a secret!? I wanted to tell Erik all about this build but could not! I was talking to my parents one weekend and told them all about this project and how I was so excited to get it all together and have a “big reveal” like it was Overhaulin’ or something. Hell, they got excited about it too and the next week I was surprised to see a check for $250 and in the memo line it said “$ for machine shop fees or parts for your project!” Love my folks! They have big hearts! Here are a few pics of the shortblock coming together in my garage.