My Engine's Gone! My Engine's Gone!!!

[Buick From Hell]

I finally broke down (like my car did a year & 1/2 ago) and decided to call for help, and Scott North came to my rescue!

Seems I had a blown head gasket in addition to the rod knock; cam's about flat; headers are cracked in about a dozen places...seems the crank isn't all that bad and should turn down okay.

so NOW I'm in search of replacement parts! Money IS an object, I'm afraid...and I'm not building it for the racetrack, just to drive it.

Anyone have any ideas/prices/vendor options for:

Cam & lifters?

Pistons? (going .030 over)

These are the spendy items I'm looking for, everything else is basically a given...

thanks!

 

[6PacktoGo]

I'm using JE pistons and Reed cams. Not cheap, by any means, just damn good parts, possibly the best. About $550 for the pistons, and about $160 for the cam.

 

[cool 84]

If you're planning on staying near stock, buy the hypereutectic pistons for ~$220. I get headgaskets for $10 a piece, felpro 1200 intake gaskets for $18, most any cam for $100 and GM lifters for $30.

A good place to look is Summit. They had rebuild kits (TRW forged pistons, rod main and cam bearings, and rings) for ~300 which is cheaper than you can normally get just the pistons for. I know TRW no longer makes those pistons but it would be worth checking into and if I remember right they offered a cheaper kit with hypers.

 

[TType84]

his car likes to knock i dunno if hypers would be good hehe

 

[crazygn]

northern auto parts, they have speedpro cams pretty cheap a lot less then the comp cams, iam getting ready to run a speed pro in my car soon.


ask redshotair he can tell yea about the cam, he loves them.

 

[TurboRegal84]

Kevin....good for you!

Im glad to see that one of the FIRST 84 Hot-Air car's is getting a new motor! There should be more people like yourself; who like to keep their car stock, and enjoy the several speed bump's that GM threw your way. (no sarcasm..most of us know the story with your car!)

Hope it all goes well, and starts on the first turn of the key....Keep us updated!

(no half naked pictures please)

 

[Buick From Hell]

Thanks guys!

Matt, I got on Summit's website today, and punched in "buick rebuild kit" and got zilch?? (Scott suggested the same thing btw)

In pistons, their site had ONE hyper, a Sterling for $29.69 each...

Would I have better luck just calling Summit on the phone?

I'll check with Northern about a cam, thanks Ryan!

 

[WFO]

i've a got a recent summit catalog here that lists a forged piston rebuild kit for buick turbo for $449.95.

speed-pro forged pistons
speed-pro piston rings
speed-pro main,cam and rod bearings
high volume oil pump
"top quality" gaskets
freeze plugs
plastigage
assembly lube

also says pistons and bearings are available in common over/under sizes.

later,sean

 

[Nocooler]

I'd get the summit kit /w hypers

They seal nice and tight - and are quiet. And mine saw 30+ degrees of retard, and they looked prefect upon removal.

Cam - ramchargers 208/208 with federal mogul/sealed power lifters. Gm lifters were noisy in my car

You'll have damn near everything there to put it back together -might want to look @ a HV oil pump too.

 

[Buick From Hell]

Crazy, you seem to know about Northern Auto, I found they sell COMPLETE kit, here's the list:

Buick 3.8-9 Turbo 84-85 - Master Kit
INCLUDES

-Seal Power Moly Rings
-Federal Mogul recessed head Pistons
-Federal Mogul Rod Brgs
-Federal Mogul Main Brgs
-Federal Mogul Cam Brgs
-Melling Oil Pump Kit
-Seal Power Camshaft
-Seal Power Lifters
-Melling Timing Components
-Pioneer Frost Plugs
-Victor Gaskets
price: $402.37

Are you (or anyone else!?) familiar with this kit/these parts? Okay, junk? Can't beat the price, but...

 

[Nocooler]

I've used one of Norhtern's NA buick v6 kits (on an N/A of course) and it was all good stuff.

Note: It will probably have regular cast pistons.

 

[crazygn]

I use some speedpro and sealedpower parts and they seem to work as good or better then most. I run the sealedpower lifters and they work better then my comp cams lifters and at half the price. Ask REDSHOTAIR he runs a speed pro cam 204 214 and talks about it all the time. Me and my brother are getting ready to buy cams from northern auto.

sounds like a good deal to me, i dont think you will need anything to crazy if you will not be racing it.

 

[FJM568]

Sealed Power, SpeedPro, TRW...All these companies are owned by Federal Mogul now...They are good parts, btw...Along with Melling, etc...As for the Victor gaskets, the stock 86/7 graphite headgaskets were made by Victor for GM, so the gaskets are okay, too, as long as they are the turbo headgaskets...If not, just get a set of steel shim gaskets from GM, and use the rest of the Victor gaskets on the rest of the motor...

As for the replacement cast pistons...I had a set of them in my motor...They are the cast replacement "turbo" piston...They did have the steel plate reinforcements in them, but I couldn't see on in the top or crown of the piston like the stock GM cast turbo piston has...I had them in my motor for 30k miles and when I tore the motor down because of a blown headgasket and to replace the NA crank that was in there, the pistons looked just fine(and I detonated the crap out of them!!! ...If you aren't going to be doing any racing, then they should be fine...Just compare them to your original pistons and make sure that the steel reinforcements are there...You can't miss em...

 

[Buick From Hell]

Wow, such speedy service, how did I know to come here to ask all these questions!!

I REALLY REALLY REALLY appreciate the feedback guys!