1987 Turbo-T Rebuild/Restoration thread

benoitthegr8

Sociopathic TR Ownership
Joined
Mar 21, 2004
I really wasn't sure where to stick this thread at, but I figured maybe I can generate some local interest which would be inline with trying to schedule a TR get together in the Fayetteville area for when the weather breaks. As a military guy I've spent allot of time deployed the past few years followed by a 3 year stint in Japan, this has severely hampered plans to finish my car. As of now, I'm back at Fort Bragg and have the time and energy to get my car running, on the road and hopefully completely gone through over the next year or so. While this will be nothing close to a total body off restoration as the car is not in half bad condition, it will require a bit of mechanical work and to also body/interior attention. I purchased this car with the intent to give it lots of love and attention, I believe these unique specimens of engineering deserve to be treated as one would treat a Corvette, Viper, or an exotic. This car was purchased in running condition but had some major short comings in the build. The car had been moderately modified in some areas, the motor had been gone through and freshened up, yet the bottom end remained untouched. This perplexed me as the motor had champion ported iron heads and match ported intake with roller cam and a 6252 turbo installed. I would have figured billet center caps would be considered at a minimum, however I was told by the owner was his tuner was good enough that detonation was never a concern of his.....

The car was purchased in 2008 with 82,000 original miles, the seller was asking $12,000 for the car, he came down to $10,000 a week before I purchased and I took the car home for $8500. I thought this was a fair price especially considering at the time we were in a recession and not too long after the housing market crashed. I knew the car needed some work, also considering I had a spare drive train, it seemed like something that I could accomplish in a reasonable amount of time. Shortly after purchasing the car I deployed for 10 months, was back for 5 months and then deployed for another 10. While I was on the second deployment I ended up coming down on orders to go to Japan in early 2012. I knew the timeline was not to my advantage and tried to get the car running and tuned at a minimum, this was not the case and the car went into mothballs and had remained untouched for nearly 3 years. Fast forward to 2015 and here we are, my spare motor is at Richards Clarke's shop getting gone through. The build will consist of eagle crank, TRW pistons, stock 2 dot rods, ARP fasteners, girdled, roller 210/210 cam, topped with champion ported iron heads and match ported intake, accufab 70mm TB/plenum, the car has PTE stretch SLIC, CPT6566BB turbo, 80lb injectors, ATR DP and 2 1/2" dual exhaust, Aeromotive stealth 340 fuel pump/hotwired, Julio's Alky, FAST XFI, Art Carr trans, 9" 3200 stall N/L converter, Eaton posi-trac, H&R parts sway bar, control arms, ect, ect.

I've always just want a good street/strip rod, this is my 5th Turbo Regal and I'd never had the assets to build a car that was fast enough, now I do. Here are some pics, the paint is actually good, but the dust from sitting years makes it look like a 20 year old barn find...lol. The car does need the interior replaced, no worries and I'm trying to decide what direction to go with that (leather or original). I have always loved those Grey turbo T's and really want this one to be a unique and respected head turner with, comfort, luxury, and excessive power, not necessarily in that order.

Edit, I'm headed to RC's shop this Friday March 6th to drop off some parts and maybe get some motor work done that's within my limited mechanical skill set, with some adult supervision from Richard of course, lol....
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We spent the day yesterday at Richards shop and got a ton of things done to the block and even had time to bench flow some injectors. The block needed to be machined for the girdle install, this was routine work and Richard had us pointed in the correct direction and set us up for success. The block needed machining on both side (top/bottom) to ensure continuity. It took some time but was very educational as I've been told and explained the process but had never seen it done. Issue#1 the rear main had the girdle spacers welded onto the cap, making the cap nearly unworkable, after some time and elbow power we figured out a work around that didn't require a ton of time or expense. The second hang up was my stupidity, I didn't bring the front cover which resulted in us having to stop work 3/4 of the way through. Anyway, it was a remarkably productive day and we are making measurable progress towards getting the motor finished and hopefully back in the car sooner than expected. Richard Clarke is the Turbo Buick Man..... period.


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Great write up, Ben. I hope to be able to get to RC's in the near future and watch the work in progress.
 
Great write up, Ben. I hope to be able to get to RC's in the near future and watch the work in progress.

Jim it was great to see you, thanks for meeting us for lunch at Ardo's. I found out that we have a training holiday this coming Monday, I cleared it with RC to head up your way and work on the block some. Maybe we can do lunch again of if your feeling up to it see you at the shop. I'll give you a call this weekend to firm up.... BT
 
I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. RC built my motor five years and it is still going strong without any problems at all.

I hope to see you on Monday.

You are so very lucky to live so close to "the shop"..... But in all actuality I consider most of us somewhat close blessed to have someone so knowledgable and willing to mentor on these cars and the proper way to build/tune/maintain. When I see posts on here about people looking for a good TR mechanic its a reminder of the dark days past when I didn't know how to find Turbo Regal heaven there in Burlington.
 
And to add you can ask him your Car Audio questions as well. I consider him the most "well rounded" person on earth. I still say to those that have not been to his shop, it is a must see to put on your bucket list.
 
Had a long day in Burlington, got a lot of work done and the block is finally finished and the girdle fitted, as I result I didn't get home last night until 1AM. The block was evidently square as a ball and there needed to be some machining done to the rear of the block. The starter ear was broken off at some point and welded back onto the block, it wasn't square and Richard was worried it would crack my trans case under torque. The problem began with the weld being off, to make matters worse it was really off and Richard had to machine off quite a bit of material to get things good and strait. Richard was joking that "well now you really have a short block", It's great that he could see the humor in the situation as we probably already have nearly 10 hours of machine work into this nightmare SG1 block. We also finished the new front cap fitment, machined the oil pickup seat, and did a clean up cut on the entire bottom of the block and caps to accommodate the girdle. Once this was done it was onto the line bore, this seemed to be a very tedious process, it amazed me how much the clearances changed when we bolted the girdle down versus when we just had the main caps under torque. We also discovered that my girdle wasn't flat, it took about 30 minutes on the belt sander to get it flat, I fault myself for being cheap and buying a second hand girdle on the board... you live and learn. This block would have been abandoned by many an engine builder, Richard has a ton of resolve not to give up on this motor, considering the fact that I do have another block on hand and had mentioned this to him several times says allot about him. BT
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I headed to RC's shop tomorrow to work on the motor, hopefully it will be as productive a day as my last outing there.... Good times.
 
We got the girdle final fitted with bearings, dropped in the crank and it needed to be turned, way too much meat....
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Haven't posted in a while, been super busy with work, the kids and recently moved back to Hope Mills area. Anyway, we are planning a trip up to RC's shop next Wednesday or one week from today. I picked up some forged rods for the motor and they'll need machining and fitting for my setup. I'll post an update next week sometime. Mr. Anson, if your a available maybe lunch or a look at your GN that I'm always drooling over and seems to motivate me to work on my ride...
 
Ben,

Are you going to RC's tomorrow?

Jim, my apologies as I haven't logged in since the last post, Junior and I have been flip floping days and have not been able to get a good day that works for both of us.

In other news, they put me on a P3/MEB this past week, looks like my days are numbered. I'll keep in touch for a day we head up, take care and hope your feeling well. ~BT~
 
Let me know when you come up and hopefully I will feel OK. Today is the 123rd day with fatigue (45% of the year) which is a record for me. :( I haven't even been to the track this year.

You're right about the days being numbered. Why don't you just drop the papers and enjoy retirement! I know when I retired I missed the people, but not really the job/politics.
 
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