New Grand National - Help with a setup
- Thread starter camarox53
- Start date
ZNix, Your GN sounds pretty sweet man, hope you get it back up and running good again soon! and thanks again for the Spark Plug advice!
GNRick, Thanks for the vivid description of the E3 Plugs haha, I will call summit and see if I can get them refunded, not a big deal, I believe the order has already shipped though. Ohh well.
V6sleeper, thanks for the break down on the parts!
Everyone,
I wasn't really familiar with what spark plugs these cars liked the best, I normally go with NGK's for the SBC motors I have worked with but I wasn't sure for the GN. I looked at Kirbans website and saw that the E3's were the only ones listed for the Buick's so I figured their was a reason for that.
With that being said, thanks for the advice on not using them!
As Fast4Ward stated, I think I am going to slow down a little bit on the build. I am going to get the springs installed and everything hooked back up try and learn how this scan master works, whats normal, whats not, and try and get a better foundation on how the cars act. I ordered a Prologger today and I should have the scan tool in soon as well. Hopefully I will learn a lot from those tools.
I think I am going to go with the 60lb injectors and have the chip tuned according to my current setup and run that for a while. I feel like that is the best approach for my situation.
Thanks everyone,
Cam
GNRick, Thanks for the vivid description of the E3 Plugs haha, I will call summit and see if I can get them refunded, not a big deal, I believe the order has already shipped though. Ohh well.
V6sleeper, thanks for the break down on the parts!
Everyone,
I wasn't really familiar with what spark plugs these cars liked the best, I normally go with NGK's for the SBC motors I have worked with but I wasn't sure for the GN. I looked at Kirbans website and saw that the E3's were the only ones listed for the Buick's so I figured their was a reason for that.
With that being said, thanks for the advice on not using them!
As Fast4Ward stated, I think I am going to slow down a little bit on the build. I am going to get the springs installed and everything hooked back up try and learn how this scan master works, whats normal, whats not, and try and get a better foundation on how the cars act. I ordered a Prologger today and I should have the scan tool in soon as well. Hopefully I will learn a lot from those tools.
I think I am going to go with the 60lb injectors and have the chip tuned according to my current setup and run that for a while. I feel like that is the best approach for my situation.
Thanks everyone,
Cam
I run NGK UR5's to 120mph in the quarter and they work well. I have a stockish build and I run my TE44 pretty much all out. I will attest to what others state; a 11 sec ride is about all you need on the street. I too want 10's but am not in a hurry as I'm afraid the car will spend time on a trailer more instead of just driving to and from the track and ripping off big block ego's in the meantime. A buddy with a Lingenfelter tuned ZL1 Camaro just went 121mph this past weekend; I went 119mph on 26psi of boost. I could buy and build four of my cars for what he has in his. Needless to say, he's not happy. You too can be the bane of Camaro and Mustang owners.
Can't agree more... Pick a combo that does what you want and replicate it. Many people have gone through the trial and error phase so that we don't have to!
Nascar83Fan
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2010
They do get upset when an old mid late 80's car with 2 less cylinders is as fast or faster than they are with less spent to do so. Old school proven base mixed with new school updates is proving to be as good or better than most of the new breed of cars
Agreed guys!,
I have been looking at " recipes" that other buick owners have been doing and I have dropped my original ideas of the 10 second car for awhile. Like everyone said, an 11 second car on the street is very fast! It has to be funny beating people that don't expect it haha.
-Cam
I have been looking at " recipes" that other buick owners have been doing and I have dropped my original ideas of the 10 second car for awhile. Like everyone said, an 11 second car on the street is very fast! It has to be funny beating people that don't expect it haha.
-Cam
Nascar83Fan
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2010
They just get very ticked off and their ego's get hurt when an old buick kicks their butt without spending nearly as much.
Thats the best part!
VtheGNMan
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 19, 2014
WE4Mateo- Arrows in bums. You crack me up! So true though, you do not have reinvent the wheel for an 11 sec TR. Stock block, heads, manifolds- they all will take you there.
For the TT Chip and injectors. Eric would be the one to answer that for sure but I am pretty sure there is enough adjustment and tuneablity in the chip to accommodate a different turbo and some mods later on. Chips are not that specific. The biggest change is fueling from the stock injectors to 60s. I know he makes an Alky chip but his street chip can be run with Alky too.
Another thing to note Cam, is that you will hear a huge difference of opinion on somethings. Plugs, oil weight, trans fluids, to go syn or not. All of these seem to have many different opinions. There are many many different preferences on these things. Your plugs you order will work. They may not be what 1 person orders but you will get opinions both ways.
The only thing you really need to be careful of when ordering from Jegs or Summit is specific Turbo parts. Things like head gaskets, injectors, chips etc. The strains on our Turbo cars are far greater than a standard 3.8 V6. Even gauges- Sometimes our TR vendors have kits made up that come with specific fittings and adapters that make installations a breeze. Sure you can go on and order a gauge and all the specific adapters and fittings from somewhere else but what if you forget one or don't know you need a certain fitting. You get the part and still can't install it. Frustrating if it means downtime.
Keep updating us as you go.
For the TT Chip and injectors. Eric would be the one to answer that for sure but I am pretty sure there is enough adjustment and tuneablity in the chip to accommodate a different turbo and some mods later on. Chips are not that specific. The biggest change is fueling from the stock injectors to 60s. I know he makes an Alky chip but his street chip can be run with Alky too.
Another thing to note Cam, is that you will hear a huge difference of opinion on somethings. Plugs, oil weight, trans fluids, to go syn or not. All of these seem to have many different opinions. There are many many different preferences on these things. Your plugs you order will work. They may not be what 1 person orders but you will get opinions both ways.
The only thing you really need to be careful of when ordering from Jegs or Summit is specific Turbo parts. Things like head gaskets, injectors, chips etc. The strains on our Turbo cars are far greater than a standard 3.8 V6. Even gauges- Sometimes our TR vendors have kits made up that come with specific fittings and adapters that make installations a breeze. Sure you can go on and order a gauge and all the specific adapters and fittings from somewhere else but what if you forget one or don't know you need a certain fitting. You get the part and still can't install it. Frustrating if it means downtime.
Keep updating us as you go.
And as a general rule, gimmick plugs are never better. They're only job is to set fire to gasoline vapor and oxygen. You don't need 'essence of newt' to make that happen.
I like platinum on N/A engines but on boosted applications plain ole nice fat electrodes are all you need.
The only performance advantage from rapidfires, splitfires, etc... it a lighter driver because the wallet weighs less.
I like platinum on N/A engines but on boosted applications plain ole nice fat electrodes are all you need.
The only performance advantage from rapidfires, splitfires, etc... it a lighter driver because the wallet weighs less.
Thanks for the tips everyone,
I think I am going to go ahead and take the advice many others have said and buy a set of NGK plugs. The E3's could work but I would rather be safe and go ahead and get a good set of NGK's. The fuel pressure gauge I got was from GN1 Performance so that should be alright. My dad called me earlier and said all of my parts from summit came in today. I am still waiting on the parts from Kirban, GN1, and Turbo Tweak. Turbo Tweak emailed me and said my Prologger was on the way. I saw that Head gaskets for these cars are ~$200 so I can believe the parts for these cars are more expensive and different being turbo cars. I am hoping that we won't have to pull the heads off and that the springs will fix the valve seating problem. If the heads do have to come off, would you guys recommend porting the stock heads or would you just make the upgrade to the GN1 Performance Heads? Just curious. I presume porting the stock heads is the way to go but I figured I would ask just to be sure.
Anyone have any experience with the SD2 chip from TT? "Pronto" said it is [hard to use] but I wanted to get some other opinions. I was watching some of Eric's Youtube videos and it doesn't seem all that bad. I really like the idea of being able to adjust things as necessary and the ability to plug in a laptop and view all the Prologger runs and compare them to what your chip settings are.
Thanks guys,
Cam
I think I am going to go ahead and take the advice many others have said and buy a set of NGK plugs. The E3's could work but I would rather be safe and go ahead and get a good set of NGK's. The fuel pressure gauge I got was from GN1 Performance so that should be alright. My dad called me earlier and said all of my parts from summit came in today. I am still waiting on the parts from Kirban, GN1, and Turbo Tweak. Turbo Tweak emailed me and said my Prologger was on the way. I saw that Head gaskets for these cars are ~$200 so I can believe the parts for these cars are more expensive and different being turbo cars. I am hoping that we won't have to pull the heads off and that the springs will fix the valve seating problem. If the heads do have to come off, would you guys recommend porting the stock heads or would you just make the upgrade to the GN1 Performance Heads? Just curious. I presume porting the stock heads is the way to go but I figured I would ask just to be sure.
Anyone have any experience with the SD2 chip from TT? "Pronto" said it is [hard to use] but I wanted to get some other opinions. I was watching some of Eric's Youtube videos and it doesn't seem all that bad. I really like the idea of being able to adjust things as necessary and the ability to plug in a laptop and view all the Prologger runs and compare them to what your chip settings are.
Thanks guys,
Cam
If the heads HAVE to come off, open the bowls, put oversize Ferrea valves in them and cut the exhaust guides for seals. And of course, buy new fasteners as you can only use factory bolts once.
Do what you can to avoid pulling the heads unless you have to.
Do what you can to avoid pulling the heads unless you have to.
Nascar83Fan
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2010
Upgrading the Valve Springs with stiffer ones should help out a bit with making the valves behave like they should. Unless you absolutely have to pull the heads off due to the seals on the valves being tired even after the valve spring upgrade, alot of people would not recommend pulling the heads off if you don't need to do so. If it isn't leaking fluids, don't have low compression issues in cylinders and the head gaskets aren't blown, not really necessary to yank off the heads when you're trying to get the car running a stable & correct baseline.
If you do end up having to pull the heads off, getting the bowls and such cleaned up would make them breathe better without getting too crazy. Even with just a mild porting job, you would see gains over factory stock unported or cleaned up heads. You don't have to go the route of fully ported head work or get heads that are fully ported to have a solid quick TR. You'll be better off while learning the car to just at a minimum if the heads have to come off to get them cleaned up and if you decide to have them ported, a mild port job would take you pretty far without blowing through tons of cash. Like Earl said above, buy new fasteners as you can only use factory bolts once.
Once you get things working good after awhile and are looking for more performance, then maybe consider either getting the stockers fully ported or going to an aftermarket set of heads.
There's not a lot of point in throwing parts at it and not having corresponding pieces complementing each other. There's quite a few running 11's without race heads.
I realize the temptation to want to put this and that part on is hard for some to resist, but have to make sure what you do is going to put you closer to the goal and not make you stay the same or go slower nor make the reliability go south.
If you do end up having to pull the heads off, getting the bowls and such cleaned up would make them breathe better without getting too crazy. Even with just a mild porting job, you would see gains over factory stock unported or cleaned up heads. You don't have to go the route of fully ported head work or get heads that are fully ported to have a solid quick TR. You'll be better off while learning the car to just at a minimum if the heads have to come off to get them cleaned up and if you decide to have them ported, a mild port job would take you pretty far without blowing through tons of cash. Like Earl said above, buy new fasteners as you can only use factory bolts once.
Once you get things working good after awhile and are looking for more performance, then maybe consider either getting the stockers fully ported or going to an aftermarket set of heads.
There's not a lot of point in throwing parts at it and not having corresponding pieces complementing each other. There's quite a few running 11's without race heads.
I realize the temptation to want to put this and that part on is hard for some to resist, but have to make sure what you do is going to put you closer to the goal and not make you stay the same or go slower nor make the reliability go south.
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Nascar83Fan
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2010
No problem Cam, i've gotten some help over the 3+ years from many of the members here and learned some things in the process ( still learning things ). We all at some point were in your position and remember what it was like with our 1st TR. That's why this community is still fairly strong, a bunch of helpful people that at some point or another had to learn how these TR's tick and how to keep them running.
I'm no TR expert, but i've learned enough things to be able to pass on some of the knowledge that was passed onto me by those that went through stuff with these cars at some point before. I've with reading and asking questions on here have kept my TR going without needing any engine rebuilding work since i've owned the car for nearly 4 years knock on american steel.
We're here to offer help and pass on knowledge, just have to ask questions & be open to accept the information by those that know the answers.
I'm no TR expert, but i've learned enough things to be able to pass on some of the knowledge that was passed onto me by those that went through stuff with these cars at some point before. I've with reading and asking questions on here have kept my TR going without needing any engine rebuilding work since i've owned the car for nearly 4 years knock on american steel.
We're here to offer help and pass on knowledge, just have to ask questions & be open to accept the information by those that know the answers.
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Cam, you might also want to check into this thread every now and then.......http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/forums/vendors-customer-service.64/
