My first GN

[GNRookie]

I am in the process of relieving a family friend of a 1985 GN that has been idle in his garage for almost 10 yrs. I remember when the car was new, I was 14 or so, and him taking me for the ride of my short life. I have been a fan of GN's ever since.

The car was VERY well maintained prior to being parked but it has suffered from the storage as expected. The body is in great shape, save for 2 rocker mouldings. I am NOT a mechanic. I have a basic grasp but I'm trying to learn with this project.

The motor will undoubtedly need to be rebuilt as it has been fired up like 3 times in 10 years (criminal isn't it?) I don't expect everyone to weigh in with the laundry list of parts I COULD put in this thing, but I do have a couple of questions up front.

I don't want to build a drag car. I do want to build a daily driver that can eat most others off the line and cruise at 85-ish (nice highways near my house.) I know that I can add a Big Mouth, '87 ECM, etc later but for the initial rebuild I don't want to severely limit my options down the road with things like a choice of cam etc. Bearing in mind that we have a budget here...what should I be looking at for the motor now? Any help would be greatly appreciated and I look forward to learning more and more about GN's everyday.

 

[fullahotair]

In my opinion, if you are going to pull the motor and freshen it up, i would consider doing the following: (aside from the typical rebuild stuff like new bearings rings etc...)

1. porting/polishing the intake and heads - since you will have them off. This will give an excellent foundation for a strong motor. It also something easily done with a die grinder and such. Do a search on this..you'll get some good info

2. Rollmaster timing chain

3. Valve springs- the stock ones are weak...

4. I would probably stick with stock cam, maybe upgrade. My though for stock is that, stock cams are proven to work well although some like the 204/214 cam...again, do a search on it..you'll get plenty of opinions.

I would think that would provide a real solid foundation for a strong motor. If you didn't do that stuff now, you would probably be doing it all at a later date anyway in your pursuit for more power

my two cents...

N8

 

[GNRookie]

Thanks for the quick response. I will investigate these suggestions. Should I assume the turbo is going to be in need of a rebuild as well?

 

[BRAD_PADGETT]

Not necesarily. Check the turbo blade shaft for any foreward or backward play. Any play can mean a bad turbo.

I was in your position last year but mow I am almost done. I lost 3 rebuilt turbo's because of the defective oil fill cap. It can plung up the engine ability to breath which caused excessive oil being pumped into the turbo. Either replace the oil fill tube with a new design filler and breather or cut off the protusion on the oil fill cap which limits the engines ability to breath. I have been down your road with my own 85 GN this year and it was not fun. I can give you some tips.

Brad 85 GN, Poston headers, 30 ils injectors, Hooker exhaust, hot wired, ultra chip, frame braces, etc...