A few silly questions from a newbie Buick guy.....

[Chad Nelson]

Ok guys, please forgive my ignorance with the Buick knowledge.... I just aquired a very clean low milage '82 Regal that has the newer frontend and tail lights. It still has the original 3.8L V-6. I guess what im wanting to know is..... what are the differences between this engine and the newer 3.8L turbo engine of the T-types and GN's??? I know mine still has a distributor and carb, where the GN use coil pack and sequintial fuel injection. How difficult and what kind of money does it take to replicate this turbo engine and can I use my block, heads, etc.....???? With my questions out of the way.... please dont answer in "laymans" terms as I have plenty of mechanical and fabrication experience.

any help will be greatly appreciated!!!!

Chad N.

 

[SloGN]

The best thing for you to do id find a wrecked gn/ttype and simply switch every thing over. If your wanting to stayed carbed/dist. check out the before black section. That section is dedicated to the carbed turbo cars from 78-83.

The NA block you have is ok. But the Na crank , pistons, and cam are totally useless. The later model blocks 86-87 (109) castings are stronger.

 

[Slow91z]

Not sure useless if the term I'd use...my car has a NA crank in it and while i don't expect it to last forever it has been in there for a few years.

 

[Chad Nelson]

I believe my days of trying to make gobs of power are behind me??? This project is still in the development stage, so I have a few ideas as to what I'm going to do.... and I havnt ruled out just leaving the stock 3.8L in it! I have already done 2 LSX swaps and one of thosejust happened to be in a G-body! But I was curious about what it would take to make a 3.8 turbo reality. Obviously LS 5.3's are always a cost effective route (for now)

 

[Chad Nelson]

Sorry I got a bit sidetracked for a minute.... thank you for the info!

 

[blackdeathtrap]

i love the 3.8 turbo as much as any body else but unless you have a doner car with all electronic ei harness complete engine with everything in functioning order you mint end up in alot of empty bank accounts specialy if you end up getting bit by the 3.8 turbo bug causing delusion and never feeling like you have enaugh power the v8 swap you are thinking is alot cheeper and if you look up chris chow he made something amazing to a gbody twin turbo carbed but again thats alot of doremi

 

[charlief1]

With the car being an NA car you'd have to do quite a bit to go SFI. If you're just interested in having a turbo car you can do either a blow through set up ro the earlier draw through system. Either can be done fairly cheaply and work ok, but right now they're not as fast as the SFI cars. If you just want a fast car. since you've already done an LS swap then I'd do that again.

 

[Fast Farmer]

Whatever you decide to do, just have fun. My vote would be to do a LS based twin turbo setup. Use an LQ9 motor out of a truck, and flip the manifolds upside down, and mount the turbos to them. Saw a Chevelle in Car Craft a while back that was set up this way, and it ran mid 10's. What a sleeper it would be!

 

[blackdeathtrap]

basicaly what i was putting down that be much much simpler cuz then you could keep your carb going sfi is gonna cost alot of money

 

[Chad Nelson]

I appreciate all the advice... a local Craigslister has made my decision for me! Just scored a 90K mile 5.3L complete takout for $800!!! Should have enough left over for atleast 1 air to air intercooled turbo!?!

Thanks again everyone!

Chad N.