My Buick is slow. Need to know why.

[Turbo6Smackdown]

You're going to need race gas or alky now. What intercooler do you have? Anything done to your heads?

 

[BMR]

Its all stock.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

Do you have fuel pump w/ hotwire kit? If you're running a stock intercooler, there's one reason why you're not feeling the thrill in the seat of the pants. You're also on stock or fairly stock timing too. Regardless of what you do next, you may need more octane to go any further than your 17 or so psi on a TE44. Gonna need a decent tire as well. How's your valve springs? We're they gone through at least some point in the past?

 

[BMR]

Its never going to feel "fast" to me, because that's not what I bought it for. I bought it for a driver, BUT I do want it to perform as it should. It has a walbro 255 pump, and the springs were done before I got it. I'm not concerned with it now, and don't plan to tune it up any hotter. As long as its running correctly, that's good enough.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

Ok cool. Just outta curiosity though, what tires do you run on it? And do you have posi in it? Are you going to still change the stall? A nice PTC would wake her up a little more I bet. The old D5's were really inefficient compared to today's stalls.

 

[BMR]

Ok cool. Just outta curiosity though, what tires do you run on it? And do you have posi in it? Are you going to still change the stall? A nice PTC would wake her up a little more I bet. The old D5's were really inefficient compared to today's stalls.

It has regular hard street tires, 265/50/15 on 8" welds on the rear, and skinnies on front. It came factory with an open diff. When I got it, someone had put a gov-loc in it, and because they suck, I put the posi I had on the shelf in it. It is a stock G80 carrier from an 87 GN rear that's under my Malibu. I gutted it a few years ago, and put all Moser 33 spline stuff in it. I may change the converter later on, but I am itching to get this LQ4 swap finished in the Malibu, so I'm not fooling with this Buick any more for a while.

 

[BMR]

Got an update. I fixed my ac with a reman 2.8 S10 compressor this weekend, and put on a set of $150 eBay bumper fillers.

I have been studying and decided there could be a problem with the wastegate. So I pulled the elbow today and took a look at the puck and this is what I found.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

That's a wastegate hole... What was the problem

 

[BMR]

Puck not sealing properly. See the soot towards the bottom?

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

You got all that from one blurry picture? Dam lol. I never assume.

 

[Wahoo]

Or it could be from when it opens to by pass the exhaust and control the boost? Doesnt look like its leaking by much

 

[BMR]

Or it could be from when it opens to by pass the exhaust and control the boost? Doesnt look like its leaking by much

I agree, but these things seem to be crazy ticky about any kind of exhaust leak. I am trying to exhaust all possibilities before I burn or sell it lol.

 

[m3x1c0]

I agree, but these things seem to be crazy ticky about any kind of exhaust leak. I am trying to exhaust all possibilities before I burn or sell it lol.

Get a better pic of that and/or buy one of Bison's sealing plates. It has a tiny hole that you open up to fit your turbo without needing a new housing.

 

[V6sleeper]

No oil coolers here for 20 years, more should be focused on Trans fluid temps..my 2 cents

 

[BMR]

Update for today. I have been talking with Bison through all this, and he had already pretty much decided the reman converter was marginal at best for the TE-44. I scored another stock turbo today, and stuck it on to see what happened. It's a different car now. Tried hitting it from dig at 5psi and it killed the tires on the street. With the 44 it would just spin a little and just go, but not with the torque the turbo Buicks were famous for.

So what has ultimately been learned here is that not all D5s are the same. There was something that GM did a little different with the stator and pump on the real original BRF D5 that seems to be very difficult for the aftermarket to replicate with a reman converter. I am going to make a couple of passes at the 1/8 mile track and see if it's on point with where it should be now. So far I'm much happier with the stocker.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

I KNEW there was something seriously wrong, as your original post made zero sense to me when you said 1. TE44 2. Hard tires & 3. Traction is not a problem. Traction is ALWAYS a problem, or the owner before you paid Cal Hartline or Jack Cotton 10,000 dollars to set up and modify your entire rear end lol. So now imagine what's going to happen when you put that bigger turbo on with a good converter and slicks. And was that wastegate genuinely messed up and leaking, or was that picture just showing a little carbon build up?

 

[BMR]

I have a friend that got into the 6s in the 1/8 on regular, plain old, 275/60/15 turbo tech tires with his. He had his car sorted out and it worked really well. Anyway, the wastegate was a minor issue. After some work, it was doing better, but not like it is now.

I have been looking around and there seem to be plenty of people having trouble with "lackluster performance" as Bison put it with the 44s and reman converters. I need to find an original unopened BRF D5.

 

[Turbo6Smackdown]

I have a friend that got into the 6s in the 1/8 on regular, plain old, 275/60/15 turbo tech tires with his. He had his car sorted out and it worked really well. Anyway, the wastegate was a minor issue. After some work, it was doing better, but not like it is now.

I have been looking around and there seem to be plenty of people having trouble with "lackluster performance" as Bison put it with the 44s and reman converters. I need to find an original unopened BRF D5.

I'm thinking you need a better more modern converter. If I were you I'd put the converter Bison suggests on there. I bet you you'd need a LOT better rear tire if you did that, AND you'd want to drive the car a LOT more lol.

 

[BMR]

OK guys, another update. I have been a bit unhappy with they way my trans has been shifting. After some research, I found that the full mark on the stick is inadequate, so I added another quart over full and started getting much better operation from the trans. Today I swapped valve springs. It had 979s with no dampers, shims or anything. I dropped some 980s in it and now I feel like I have a different car. It pulls clean and hard to 5200 and spins the tires on the 1-2 shift. I still have not swapped converters. I have a nice low mile BRF D5 here, I just have not swapped it in yet. This car has been a bear, and was a major mess of mismatched parts from its previous owners. It has FINALLY made some good progress in the right direction and is performing in the manner I feel like it should.

I hope my fiasco of parts swapping and head scratching can help another member at some point. Thanks to everyone that has taken the time to help.

 

[BMR]

Oh, I want to add it was just as slow on the track with the stock turbo as the 44. It has the 44 back on it and runs great now. No numbers yet, I hope I can get my wife to drive it to the track next week so I can check it out.