Year Screw Up
I responded to your post over in the hot air forum. All I saw was 1986 and didn't see the turbo part. You know whats funny? I bought a 85 Riv T-Type about 10 years ago that sounded just like this. I saw an ad in the paper so I go over to the guys place and this car sounds like the timing chain has gone out. He wanted $500 but I offered him $400. He took it and than starts to tell me about the myths he heard about Buick turbos. Someone told him to buy a spare turbo and he did. It was sitting in the trunk.It was a new GM turbo! He only wanted $75 for it. He had some other parts like 2 wheels for snow tires and extra exhaust manifolds. He really wanted me to buy the car since I was the only one who showed any appreciation for it. I told him a sob story of how all I had was $500 and he said okay. I still have that turbo, just waiting for one of those eBay moments I guess. The car was to rusty to do anything with. I have everything but the sheet metal and frame. There were only two good years for these cars. 84 and 85. In 1984 there were 1086 cars built and in 85 1112 built. Out of those 52 were convertables in 84 and only 12 for 1985. These are the rarest turbo Buicks that were ever made. The only real difference between these two years is the final drive or ring and pinion ratio. 1984 was the better 3.36 and 85 was a higher 3.15. It is hard to place a value on these things. These years are notorious for rust, especially in the snow belt. I saw a 16K mile T-Type go for $5K on eBay about 4 or 5 months ago. If it has some miles and was driven than those usually trade in the $1K to $2K range. I have the window sticker from one of my 84's and it listed for $19,500 and it was what I call a low option car. I would imagine a well equiped one ran in the $23K range. Too bad nobody knows about these cars. They are Buicks best kept secret. I like to call them an executive hot rod. With just a fuel pump,chip and K&N mine would run low 14's on street tires. Not to shabby for something that weighs 4000 pounds and rides like a cloud.
