Guys, i have a hot air dilemma, Help me

[BlackBuick84]

I cant decide if I should keep my 84. I just got the engine an turbo rebuilt, so its worth more now than once the engine gets miles on it. I want to eventually mod it out into an 11sec. car, but w/ the lack of the 86/87 ECM and intercooler, will it be harder to make it go that fast? I dont know everything thats involved w/ the conversion. If I keep the 84 I want to put in the ECM and IC, but would it be easier to sell it and find an 86/87?

What are yer thoughts guys? any input would be appreciated--Dan

 

[dfisher]

Yes

 

[HOTSIX]

You got the car to build on now...so if its in decent shape - use it.

I bought an 85 GN from a back yard that was just wasting away....tore it down and rebuilt it all....I've been at it for over a year now.

I have a Turbomotion V2 intercooler / intake kit on the way for my car.....this eliminates the major restriction in the stock intake and moves the TB to the front like the 86/87's. I had your same delimma but found that it would be cheaper to fix up this car then buy an 86/87 car.

Intercooler kits, for the most part go for about 900 - 1,000 USD. The V2 kit is 1,400 or is it 1,250 now....Jay will give you the exact price..... The kit, plus a bigger turbo with all the other usual little mods.....your as quick if not quicker than an 86/87 car.

 

[BlackBuick84]

u mean jay @ jaysgn.com?

 

[kysard]

I have the same dilema as well. Remember that 84 has a different block than the 85-87. I think 11 sec would be unrealistic for an 84 block unless you add a girdle and steel mains , it would be easier to just swap a 109 block (85-87) For mine I just want to make it a high 13 sec car and this is really pushing it. I have budgeted $5000 to get this type of performance. It is much cheaper to make a 86-87 car fast than these cars. I chose thia 84 because it had a good solid body and was unique, but not to make it a dragster

 

[NOSjohnWE4]

DAN

...i can remember a few years back looking in either a GMHTP magazine or a Turbo mag. a certain '84 or '85 that a husband and wife team raced...the wife drove it. with some simple mods, blueprinting EVERYTHING and a little tuning patience...the car has the national, yes NATIONAL record at 11 seconds in the class they race...stock something 'er other!! i can't remember if it was high, mid, or low 11's but it was VERY impressive for the little amount of work they did. do some research and you might be suprised what you find. later...

John C.
G.M.
Platinum Motorsports

 

[turbo6x2]

Her name is Marka and it's low 11's not sure where you got your information about the block but I think that's incorrect. Most of the people on this section going fast have done 12's and 11's on our stock block.

 

[WFO]

john and marka gallina run that fast hotair car,among others.


as far as the stock 84-85 block there is no difference in the bottom end other than the 14 bolt oil pan,it should be good for low-11's bone stock.

and if you've got $5000 to spend on a hotair car,copy chris wilson's old combo and all else being equal you should have a low 11 second "hotair" car.

 

[kysard]

Who is Chris wilson, where do I find info on his old car and I doubt you can go 11's on $5000. I tranny is $2000, headers+ exhaust is $1500. That leaves $1500 for extras. Doubtful

 

[cool 84]

$5,000 will take you solidly into the 11s. That's not counting if your tranny is already burned up or anything is wrong with the car. I have well under $5,000 into my motor/fuel system and I guarantee I will go solid 11s on street tire and pumpgas. I will say again, there is no difference in the strength of the bottom ends from 84-87. If anything the 84s have the advantage with the steel shim headgaskets.

 

[NOSjohnWE4]

hot air car

so what is the "correct" information on John and Marka's engine? anyone, anyone...i was VERY impressed and this was due to the block internals being VERY close to stock. later....hope someone can find this.


John C.
G.M.
Platinum Motorsports

 

[SLOW_85]

Here's the Gallina Racing web site:
http://www.fastbuicks.com/ HTH

 

[kysard]

I don't think you could reliably turn 11's with a stock tranny more than a few times. Now if you have the ability to rebuild a tranny and add the good components then yea. So far here is my budget:

$1500 for SS exhaust and Headers
$2000 for a tranny
$600 for Tires
$900 for injectors, fuel pump, chips, and turbo link
--------
$5000 total

I was guessing 13.8 sec with the above

 

[NOSjohnWE4]

Hot air

Like I said, just real careful attention to detail...

The weight of the car had to be INCREASED to 3,445 pounds
NHRA rules are very specific as far as what can and cannot be done to a car running stock eliminator class.




Over the past 5 years we’ve done some changing and improved upon our original combination. This is how the car is currently set up:

4" K & N air filter.
Electric water pump.
Accel plug wires.
Fuel Management System
Terry Houston 3" downpipe.
Kenne Bell Headers
Richmond 4.10 gears.

Mark Williams Spool.

33-spline axles and C-clip.

Koni drag shocks on all 4 corners.

Mickey Thompson 29 x 4.5" front runners on Weld Pro Star wheels

Mickey Thompson 30 x 9" slicks on Cragar wheels.

Air bag in right rear (25 lbs.), and left rear (5 lbs.)

Weight box (25 #’s) bolted over right rear tire.

Additional weight, up to 75#’s, can be carried in weight box.

Drive shaft loop.
"Simpson" five point seat harness.
Eight point roll cage, padded.
3 angle valve job
52 lb. Bosch injectors
Engine has been balanced & blueprinted by Kenny Duttweiler
JE forged +0.030 over pistons
AND, for the largest improvement to performance the addition of the Precision Industries Vigilante 7 disc lock up converter.
Additional notes:
Engine:

Block surfaced and heads decked
4 steel shim head gaskets on the ’84 engine
Fuel System:

Bosch Fuel Pump - hot wired
Bosch Adjustable Fuel Pressure regulator
Turbocharger:

Stock – balanced and blueprinted by Turbonetics, Inc.

...STOCK TURBO !!

HTH....

John C.
G.M.
Platinum Motorsports

 

[cool 84]

Look at my trap speeds. That was with a plugged catalytic convertor and the boost falling to 13 psi. Now consider how I ran that car every weekend at 23psi on racegas with a test pipe in place of the convertor. It easily had 11 second power and I never broke the tranny. All I had done is a good shift kit and two big external coolers with no radiator cooler. The car seriously must've had over 1,000 passes on it.

You can get away with replacing just the passenger side header and uppipe and downpipe. The crossover and drivers side are ok. Chips are only $50 Hoosier Quick time pros are only $300 for the set.

Besides, if you tune, tune, tune you can go 13.9 with basically stock everything.

 

[TType85]

You can make your hotair as fast as a IC car.

You have to look at it this way. How much can you sell your 84 for? A NICE 86/7 will cost you more than what you can get for your 84 unless you get lucky. I picked up a 86 for $3000, but it needs a bunch of work. (and is SLOOOOW )

How much it costs depends on how fast you want to go.

A combo like the one I had below ran 117mph @ 23psi at 3500ft elevation on a race chip and race gas without much tuning. Thats 122ish MPH at sea level. With traction i'd have a low 11 second car.

Converting the car over to the 86/7 setup is possible, but difficult unless you find a doner car to get EVERY little part off of it.

 

[turbo6x2]

I agree a 110% you can make your stock block go fast just have to know what you are doing. You said you have a $5000.00 budget so build your hot air. It can be done otherwise we wouldn't be doing it.

 

[Black Cherry T]

Keep your '84. You won't need all that money ($5000) to get you into the 13's.
I improved an 89,000 mile '84 from 16.2 et down to 13.9 with probably less than $1200.
BFG Drag radials - $275, ATR stainless exhaust & test pipe - $700, Adj. fuel reg & adj. wastegate - $100, 93 oct. chip - $75, 9" K&N filter rerouted to behind front bumper - $45, 160 stat - $8.

Now with a few more changes, we're heading down into the low 13's and high 12's.

Hope you'll fall in love with the rare car that you have.

 

[cool 84]

I'll post this again, for a 14.0@ 100mph on street tire and pumpgas you need 20psi boost, adjustable FPR, chip, K&N, and practice driving.

This was my dad's car on regular radials, pumpgas, through the stock catalytic convertor with the exhaust disconnected, that's it. The car had 40,000 miles on it and was in perfect shape. I can't understand why anyone says you need $1,000+ to run high 13s.

My first mod was an intercooler. With nothing else besides a K&N filter (stock chip, non posi, stock cat and full exhaust) I went 13.9 @ 101mph at 13psi boost. That's a total of $840 invested with very low boost and stock timing. That same combo on slicks with 20 psi and a race chip with race gas would've gone high 12s.

 

[Black Cherry T]

Cool 84:
My 89,000mi. valve springs were real tired, and the exhaust system was rusty and falling apart. Sure, I didn't have to spend $700 for a stainless system - but I wanted the pretty stuff, and didn't want to ever have to worry about replacing it again. So, yeah, you're right - didn't HAVE to spend $1200 to get into the 13's with these cars. But with my tired valve springs, did have to spend some bucks on aids to help them out.

And, I just got tired of always breaking the street tires loose at the start of a 1/4 mile run - so I got the Drag radials. Besides, BFG needed the money to meet their stockholders expectations!