Easy performance mods

[mrg7243]

Hi all,
what are some easy and cheap mods to do to the gn, this is my dads car and he wants to keep stock appearence, as of now it has open air filter and performance wires. please help i know alittle about this car, but i own a 4cyl mitsu so the performance mods arent exactly the same.

 

[HUMBLE-U2]

turbo tweak chip, 60lb injectors & upgraded fuel pump hot wired. 3" downpipe will help for starters.if can not afford those mods go w/ fuel pump and tt chip first. then add 60lbers and down pipe later.

 

[gnmaster2004]

mods

Up grade the fuel system, bigger injectors, pump and a chip. Turn up the boost and put some higher octane fuel or e85 and have sum fun!

 

[gnmaster2004]

mods

Hambone your a smart som b!tch

 

[jasjamz]

Hi all,
what are some easy and cheap mods to do to the gn, this is my dads car and he wants to keep stock appearence, as of now it has open air filter and performance wires. please help i know alittle about this car, but i own a 4cyl mitsu so the performance mods arent exactly the same.

First: a Scanmaster and Spring Cleaning
The Grand National / T-Type / Turbo Regal Buick Spring Cleaning Guide

Then the stuff the other posters said if every thing checks out.

 

[gusszgs]

One of the very first simple mods I did out side of the spring cleaning and fuel pump was to add the passenger side breather kit. My intercooler and upipe had a whole bunch of oil and residue in it from the stock breather. Now it's always nice and clean and dry. I bet I got 1/2 liter of oil out of the intercooler.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

Don't mean to be argumentative, but don't do ANY of the above mods, until you get a boost gauge, a scanmaster, seat braces, valve springs, fuel pump, and a power plate. Once you do that, do the spring cleaning. Check for vac leaks, hose connector leaks, intercooler leaks, etc etc. Then tune it. After it's genuinely tuned, do the injectors, 160 t-stat, DENSO 02 sensor, adjustable fuel pressure regulator, chip, dutt neck on the intercooler, good z rated tires, thick rear sway bar, bilstein shocks, and better stall converter. Along with UNLEADED, I say again, UNLEADED gas, you should have a blast. Nothing else is really needed to be honest. These mods are good enough for fun street use, and you'll be suprised at what you can get accomplished with this stuff. None of it except the sway bar, shocks and tires are noticeable.

Quick note; STAY AWAY from Bosch. Bosch ANYthing. It's just a **** company overall. Their products are crap.

 

[mrg7243]

Up grade the fuel system, bigger injectors, pump and a chip. Turn up the boost and put some higher octane fuel or e85 and have sum fun!

That sounds fairly easy to do. E85?? wouldnt i have to have a whole bunch of other supporting mods to do this??

One of the very first simple mods I did out side of the spring cleaning and fuel pump was to add the passenger side breather kit. My intercooler and upipe had a whole bunch of oil and residue in it from the stock breather. Now it's always nice and clean and dry. I bet I got 1/2 liter of oil out of the intercooler.

I already did all of the spring cleaning except the transmission stuff i will probably do it when it warms up. The intercooler was fairly clean. where did you find the breatehr kit?? and can you post pics of this??

Don't mean to be argumentative, but don't do ANY of the above mods, until you get a boost gauge, a scanmaster, seat braces, valve springs, fuel pump, and a power plate. Once you do that, do the spring cleaning. Check for vac leaks, hose connector leaks, intercooler leaks, etc etc. Then tune it. After it's genuinely tuned, do the injectors, 160 t-stat, DENSO 02 sensor, adjustable fuel pressure regulator, chip, dutt neck on the intercooler, good z rated tires, thick rear sway bar, bilstein shocks, and better stall converter. Along with UNLEADED, I say again, UNLEADED gas, you should have a blast. Nothing else is really needed to be honest. These mods are good enough for fun street use, and you'll be suprised at what you can get accomplished with this stuff. None of it except the sway bar, shocks and tires are noticeable.
.
Quick note; STAY AWAY from Bosch. Bosch ANYthing. It's just a **** company overall. Their products are crap.

He doesnt want another boost gauge he says the stock is good enough, he thinks it give the car a cluttered look. Seat braces and power plate what are these??? and how would i tune it, he said back in the early ninties he had a performnce chip added, but i am not to sure on that, why an o2 sensoer the one on there is fine. trying to get a new t-stat but he says why get a new one, i told him the car will run cooler and better. he has the if it not broke than why touch it attitude
nice to know about bosch,do you know of a low resitance wire that is the grey color like stock?

 

[HUMBLE-U2]

gnmaster2004,bubba you taught me well. and you think the only thing i learned from you was BAD DRINKING HABITS!

 

[Quick6'n'-K.C.]

There is nothing wrong with bosch products, they make alot more than wires and 02 sensors.


Everyone brings up good points with parts you need to add before you start turning the car up.

First make sure the car is in good running condition, if the car misses, or has issues, your going to hurt it more than anything else.

Fuel pump, filter, fuel pump hotwire kit.
Ngk UR5 spark plugs gapped at .032
Msd Black plug wires.

Replace all the 7/32 hoses under the hood and zip tie them, if any of them falls off, its not good on the motor. There will be 2 check valves, blow on them to see if they are still working, if air gets past it in both directions, replace it.

On the turbo, make sure those small hoses are replaced, if one falls off the boost will go thru the moon.

Please start there before farting around with rjc power plate, x braces, ect..

You wont need a aftermarket fuel pressure regulator, i suggest buying a temporary fuel pressure gauge to varify fuel pressure. We can get into this later.

Hope this helps.

Dont blow it up.

PS i have a scan tool , its called a scanmaster for 175.00 shipped in the lower 48 states.

BW

 

[84gnguy]

You mention the car already has a performance chip...I would go with either the Hooker or Pypes exhaust. A pillar mount boost gauge isn't a bad idea..doesn't really clutter the car up..factory one isn't the greatest/accurate.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

That sounds fairly easy to do. E85?? wouldnt i have to have a whole bunch of other supporting mods to do this??


I already did all of the spring cleaning except the transmission stuff i will probably do it when it warms up. The intercooler was fairly clean. where did you find the breatehr kit?? and can you post pics of this??


He doesnt want another boost gauge he says the stock is good enough, he thinks it give the car a cluttered look. Seat braces and power plate what are these??? and how would i tune it, he said back in the early ninties he had a performnce chip added, but i am not to sure on that, why an o2 sensoer the one on there is fine. trying to get a new t-stat but he says why get a new one, i told him the car will run cooler and better. he has the if it not broke than why touch it attitude
nice to know about bosch,do you know of a low resitance wire that is the grey color like stock?

What's he doing trying to mod the car then, if it's "not broke", or "the stock stuff is good enough" ? If he thinks the stock boost gauge is good enough, then I hope you're saving your money for a new crank, pistons, and/or head gasket kit. And if you don't believe me about bosch O2 sensors, do a search on them. And don't just read 4 or 5 posts, read them ALL, and you'll soon be able to draw your own conclusions.

Seat braces, are a set of 4 bars, that mount to the rear of the rear seats, in a dual X type pattern, stiffening the car up a bit, to try and reduce some of the flex, that often starts the famous A pillar crack. Mine even has a little starting, till I put in all 4 brace kits from Kirbans. The power plate, from RJC racing, is an air distribution plate, that goes on the manifold, underneath the intake plenum. It redistributes the air flow going into your engine, into a more even pattern, greatly reducing the chance for a lean condition in the front cylinders. The mods I suggested, except for the dutt neck on the intercooler, are for reliability. So that the car can be safer while being pushed harder. Once you do a fuel system upgrade, converter, power plate, duttweiler intercooler neck, cool thermostat, and suspension upgrades, you can turn up the boost and actually have a lot of fun. When you have a cool running, tight handling car, it makes all the difference in the world.

 

[Joe 1320]

i own a 4cyl mitsu so the performance mods arent exactly the same.

The same principles really apply to all engines. The fuel system on these is marginal at best in stock form. You want to go fast, do the fuel mods first or you'll likely be breaking parts. After that, every tweak adds to the end result.

Various mods already mentioned work wonders once the above is done.

 

[jasjamz]

You can go about this two ways.
1. Take the car to someone near you who is experienced with Turbo Buicks and can help you get the car to where it needs to be.

2. Read the Vortex Turbo Buick Site to learn the basics and use the search function on here to learn about parts and tuning techniques. READ, READ, READ!!! Its a lot of info here but after reading some of the replies you're getting....

I have been using a bosch sensor for a while on pump gas, alky, and even a 50/50 mix of E-85, no issues. They hate race fuel, but if he does not intend to upgrade to a boost gauge I'd guess he intends to stay at 15psi or less. If not no biggie you can tune a car to stay in a safe 02 range(Low 800s) and no detonation(knock retard) and who care what the gauge says. Its guys on here that can run 19-21 psi on 93 octane with no alky or E-85. Oh, and it's the rear two cylinders(5&6) that tend to go lean not the front two when speaking of the power plate from RJC. He can also supply you with Black MSD wires with stock coil boots

 

[mrg7243]

The same principles really apply to all engines. The fuel system on these is marginal at best in stock form. You want to go fast, do the fuel mods first or you'll likely be breaking parts. After that, every tweak adds to the end result.

Various mods already mentioned work wonders once the above is done.

With my car i can add perfomance coils, plugs, and wires and gain a couple hp. with the buicks from what i heard is different.

You can go about this two ways.
1. Take the car to someone near you who is experienced with Turbo Buicks and can help you get the car to where it needs to be.

2. Read the Vortex Turbo Buick Site to learn the basics and use the search function on here to learn about parts and tuning techniques. READ, READ, READ!!! Its a lot of info here but after reading some of the replies you're getting....

I have been using a bosch sensor for a while on pump gas, alky, and even a 50/50 mix of E-85, no issues. They hate race fuel, but if he does not intend to upgrade to a boost gauge I'd guess he intends to stay at 15psi or less. If not no biggie you can tune a car to stay in a safe 02 range(Low 800s) and no detonation(knock retard) and who care what the gauge says. Its guys on here that can run 19-21 psi on 93 octane with no alky or E-85. Oh, and it's the rear two cylinders(5&6) that tend to go lean not the front two when speaking of the power plate from RJC. He can also supply you with Black MSD wires with stock coil boots

I still dont get why i would need to get another o2 sensor, the car always has and will run 95 oct. with 15lbs untill i gas convince him other wise, it took me three months to convince him about a new open air filter, the only reason he said go ahead was the stock replacment was 45.00 and the open air was 25.00. Now he loves the sounds, the perforance and everthing about it.

 

[jasjamz]

Sorry to confuse you, you don't. I just see a lot of bashing of the bosch and for an unleaded fuel car its fine. If yours is working fine then dont change it.

 

[Joe 1320]

With my car i can add perfomance coils, plugs, and wires and gain a couple hp. with the buicks from what i heard is different.

.

Plugs and wires "may" give a HP or two if they transmit increased energy to the combustion chamber. If there car has old plugs and degraded wires, you may experience an increased level of performance.

Just curious...... where did you hear turbo buicks are different?

 

[feotram]

I witnessed Terry Houston make an 8 second pass on AC delco wires fwiw.

 

[mrg7243]

I witnessed Terry Houston make an 8 second pass on AC delco wires fwiw.

DAMN

Plugs and wires "may" give a HP or two if they transmit increased energy to the combustion chamber. If there car has old plugs and degraded wires, you may experience an increased level of performance.

Just curious...... where did you hear turbo buicks are different?

I read it back about 2 years ago, when i was active, and some guy came one saying stuff about imports, and a few people posted back saying that was not applicable to the turbo buick. i cant remember the detaisl about it.

 

[jasjamz]

Im guessing it had something to do with blow off valves and most Boosted imports being manuals vs. out automatic TRs.