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First time Buick owner!!! 85 t type....All info much appreciated!!

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steedaflow99

New Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2009
Messages
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Hi all....New to Turbo Buicks....Got my first 85 t type about 3 weeks ago.....made the mistake of signing up on another buick forum that wasn't hot air, and boy did I get it!!! Those cold air guys don't like us or our cars very much....lol.....Anyhow....Ive gathered a decent amount of info over the past few weeks about where to start and what to do to these particular cars but my main ? is what is a safe boost for these cars, stock? and what can they be boosted to? also is the size 28 mm? I wanted to be prepared for when I get my gauges and controller in.....Thanks all
 
welcome,

what forum were you on that didnt like HA's?

A.j.

Hi all....New to Turbo Buicks....Got my first 85 t type about 3 weeks ago.....made the mistake of signing up on another buick forum that wasn't hot air, and boy did I get it!!! Those cold air guys don't like us or our cars very much....lol.....Anyhow....Ive gathered a decent amount of info over the past few weeks about where to start and what to do to these particular cars but my main ? is what is a safe boost for these cars, stock? and what can they be boosted to? also is the size 28 mm? I wanted to be prepared for when I get my gauges and controller in.....Thanks all



Welcome. :cool:
You are correct about the cold air guys (Many ofthem are pretty cool and started in the HA world :wink: )
Many of the non IC'd cars have already been converted - See, what it all comes down to are goals, and budget.
In general, they will convince you to go IC'd.
Your choice is;
1- Get used to it.
2- Convert to IC'd.
3- Sell and buy an IC'd car.


I am going to ruffle some feathers with these statements :tongue: :eek: but, IMHO many HA cars have been converted for various performance reasons;
- Higher performance for less $ - Clarifying statement; Anything faster than low 12's gets tricky and real expensive in true HA form.
- Greater availability of "Off the shelve" performance parts for the IC'd crowd - Clarifying statement: Quite a few IC'd cars with performance parts still running 12's.
- Inability to get to the bottom of it all. Clarifying statement; Some just could not cut it in the HA world, and converted thinking they will run and easy 10's -11's.
- Peer pressure - Clarifying statement: "My buddy runs low 12's on 17lbs boost, and he told me if I just install an IC, I could run that as well."

If your goal is restoration, stay HA.
If your goal is low 12's, stay HA
If your goal is low-mid 11's or faster, sell and buy an IC'd car, convert to IC's, or add NOS.

As far as boost;
Stock boost is about 9 PSI
Safe boost can be defined as; Any boost level that there is no detonation. This could be 5 or 25 PSI.
Not sure what the stock turbo size is, but I think it is bigger than 28mm.

Some basic advice;
Set your goals, and stick to them!
Read the stickies, all of them, and visit the links in the stickies!
Read GNTTYPE.org
Do the spring cleaning
Get a good scantool.
Have fun! :cool:
 
Oh, forgot the MOST important thing to ge theswe cars to run correctly;
Get a TurboTweak Chip!! :cool:
 
Great....Thanks for the info, Ill prob be getting a turbo tweak chip here soon...What injector should I pair it with? My goal is to run anywhere in the 12's and thats it....Don't need to go faster then that, Just something to sneak up on people every now and then.......My plans were 86-87 ecm, maybe a down pipe, no cat exhaust, the tt chip with injectors, fuel pump to handle the "enough fuel" issue and maybe alky injection to handle the detonation if any...Whataya think?
 
Great....Thanks for the info, Ill prob be getting a turbo tweak chip here soon...What injector should I pair it with? My goal is to run anywhere in the 12's and thats it....Don't need to go faster then that, Just something to sneak up on people every now and then.......My plans were 86-87 ecm, maybe a down pipe, no cat exhaust, the tt chip with injectors, fuel pump to handle the "enough fuel" issue and maybe alky injection to handle the detonation if any...Whataya think?

Stock injectors with the alky will be fine, but, make sure you get them cleaned if they are dirty.
TurboTweak has some GREAT injector/chip combo deals as well. :cool:
 
Great....Thanks for the info, Ill prob be getting a turbo tweak chip here soon...What injector should I pair it with? My goal is to run anywhere in the 12's and thats it....Don't need to go faster then that, Just something to sneak up on people every now and then.......My plans were 86-87 ecm, maybe a down pipe, no cat exhaust, the tt chip with injectors, fuel pump to handle the "enough fuel" issue and maybe alky injection to handle the detonation if any...Whataya think?
if you can get into the 12's, you will win 95% of the heads up races you get into. unless you see a new Z06 Vette next to you at a stop light, you should have nothing to worry about.
that's all the faster i want to go with my 84- it seems like it starts to cost more to get a car to run consistently faster than the mid to low 12's, and parts seem to get more brittle..
 
if you can get into the 12's, you will win 95% of the heads up races you get into. unless you see a new Z06 Vette next to you at a stop light, you should have nothing to worry about.
that's all the faster i want to go with my 84- it seems like it starts to cost more to get a car to run consistently faster than the mid to low 12's, and parts seem to get more brittle..

I agree with this statement 100%. This is why I lowered boost to 16lbs and richened the fueling on my car.

I beat my head against the wall getting my car to where it is today (beautiful). This beating my head against the wall on my hot air knocked some sense into me. I can help with real answers on upgrading a hot air and costs. Just ask. Brad
 
excellent response in post #3!
welcome aboard steedaflow!
lots of good help on this board. lots of advantages of having a 86/87 setup if you want to go 11's or faster, so alot of guys like to slam the hotairs. most of them do it because they have too much time on their hands and just want to start crap or like to argue. some will tease all in good humor.
not near as many fuel injected hot air cars where built as ic'd cars.. you have a rare and unique vehicle.
 
Welcome aboard!!!:biggrin: ....this is where the FUN begins....or is it the bankruptcy??? I can't remember...too many fumes.:D :D


Oh yeah, post your location...AND LOTS OF PICS!!!!!!!
 
IDK...haven't raced it...got a little tuning to do. It's a kick to drive.
 
Welcome to the forum! Don't worry too much about the IC guys, just get some thick skin and stick to your goals. When you start posting numbers equivalent to theirs you'll gain a lot of respect due to the fact that you did it with a Hot Air.

Before getting too carried away with modding, make sure the car is running in tip-top shape. Modding a marginal car ends up being more expensive than fixing the stuff in the first place.

Also be sure to get some way of monitoring your car if you don't have anything already. I highly recommend working your ECM mods towards a powerlogger setup.
 
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