First Mods..

[awash242]

I got an 87 Grand National about 2 weeks ago and Ive been driving it just to get a good feel for the car and everything. I took it to a friend of mine who is a mechanic and owns a few Turbo Ts. He basically took it through the "Spring Cleaning" and ran his scanmaster on it(mine is on its way ). Everything with the car is in order and it runs great. Now I plan on doing some performance mods, the usual bolt on stuff, but I dont know where to start. The cars going to be street driven, and I want to be pretty fast. Im open to all suggestions. Thanks in advance.
Ps- its all original and has 95,000 miles on it.

 

[boost86]

First thing I would do is get yourself a Scanmaster,Better Fuel Pump,AFPR, Boost gauge.

 

[awash242]

First thing I would do is get yourself a Scanmaster,Better Fuel Pump,AFPR, Boost gauge.

My scanmaster is in the mail, should be here within a day or two. As far as the other items, i was looking at...

AFPR

Hotwire Harness

Fuel Pump Kit

Let me know how those are and what other options I have if they arent suitable. Thanks for the input so far.

 

[boost86]

All good choices in my book. Have fun with the car and welcome to the board

 

[turbo nasty]

Congrats on the purchase and welcome..

First thing FUEL PUMP AND HOTWIRE

 

[ES1]

This first thing to do is not rag on your car until you read gnttype.org then do the spring cleaning at http://www.gnttype.org/maint/basics.html.

The things to do after spring-cleaning:
Fuel pump upgrade & hot-wired - 150.00
Scantool - 225.00 – Scan Master, Turbo Link, or Direct Scan (Turbo Link & Direct Scan require a computer, Scan Master is self contained)
Adjustable Fuel Pressure gauge that you can read while driving – 75.00
Boost gauge – 50.00
9 in K & N – 45.00
Gutted catalytic convert – free if you can get away with it.
Adjustable waste-gate – DIY or 85.00 new
Turbotweek chip or other chip burner – 75.00

Replace timing chain & vale springs - less than 100.00 if DIY


The above should get you a good running 13 second street car.

To get a 12 second street car:

Stock turbo -no need to upgrade
Stock injectors – no need to change but cleaned – 60.00
Large neck put on stock innercooler - 75.00
Ported elbow on down pipe – DIY or buy for about 40.00
Boxed lower control arms – DIY for about 25.00 or buy for about 85.00
ATR sway bar (could get by without) - 180.00
Nitto DR - 300.00
Alky injection - 450.00

 

[BlackMetal]

ScanMaster, Fuel system upgrades, intake/exhaust, TurboTweak chip.

On my mostly-stock car, the best upgrade I've done is the Dutt-necked IC, so look into that as well.

 

[turbo39151]

1. scanmaster
2. misc odds and ends that need replacing (plugs, fluids, filters, gaskets, etc)
3. Fuel pump (like Walbro 340, hot wire, Adjustable FPR, and fuel rail gauge -so you can see your fuel pressure.)
4. Boost Gauge, Oil Pressure gauge, temp gauge
5. Air Intake (preferrably not inside the engine bay sucking up hot air)
6. Down Pipe and (freeflow cat or test pipe )
7. Exhaust (pretty cheap if you can get a local muffler shop to do it for you)
(While I haven't changed my exhaust from it's restricted original configuration, I use a electric exhaust cutout which is nice and loud and really lets the car breathe when I need to go fast. Other wise it's closed and I'm silent -for long drives (cost about $189.00 - most fun ever!)
8. Alky (buy a older style used kit- probably around $200-300)
9. TT Alky chip

If you need to, do valve springs, and timing chain (probably need to)

-that should keep you busy for a while... :biggrin:

 

[buzzman]

do a complete spring cleaning then..... scanmaster, fuel pump, better intake, hooker exhaust with test pipe, 237 regulator, 160 stat, good chip, breathers both sides and go. i agree on the dutt neck

 

[awash242]

do a complete spring cleaning then..... scanmaster, fuel pump, better intake, hooker exhaust with test pipe, 237 regulator, 160 stat, good chip, breathers both sides and go. i agree on the dutt neck

I was actually going to go with Cottons S/S Catback Exhaust with the S/S Magnaflow mufflers and Hi-Flow Cat.

Ive already done the Spring Cleaning. I got my scanmaster in the mail today so ill set it up this weekend when i get some time. Ill be ordering my Walbro fuel pump and hotwire kit next week, along with the K&N Breathers and a Big Mouth Cold Air Intake and 3" MAF pipe from BuickGN.com. Im still looking into the Dutt neck, what steps are involved in the installation? The spring cleaning made the car feel much better overall. And as for the chip, I dont even know where to begin .... please help with that....other than that i feel like im heading in the right direction.

 

[Paul Clark]

From what little I have learned from experience and the good folks in the turbo Buick community -
Every time you make a change/addition/substitution from where you're at now, drive the car awhile and make sure everything still works right.
Then proceed to the next change/addition/substitution.
Small steps are much easier to correct than big leaps.
What I said.

 

[terryjh6]

www.turbotweak.com for your chip and www.kirbanperformance.com for your dutt. neck and cheap down pipe.. www.rjcracing for boost control..www.fullthrottlespeed.com has good stuff also.. have fun

 

[awash242]

What are the benefits of adding and aftermarket chip? I know they are great for tuning etc., but what kind of HP gains should I exprect?