New Guy Here Need your Opinions

[extremeracing]

Hi Everyone, I am new on this site but a long time member of Maliburacing.com. I have decided to come over to the dark side and cant get over the power that the turbo buick 3.8 makes. With that being said, I bought a complete drivetrain from a 87 turbo regal to include everything under the hood, transmission, gas tank, and all wireing and computer. It has around 105 thousand miles and has sat since 1997 however I did get to test drive the car before I bought the setup and I must say it ran like a sewing machine with no noises or smoke and seemed to be very strong. all stock down to the air intake setup.

My Question is I plan on dropping it in my cherry 79 malibu wich now has a very aneimic 267 v8. I need to know what I should do to the drivetrian aside from all new gaskets and seals. Ideas on valvesprings, injectors, chips, air intakes, fuel pumps and any other bang for your buck add ons. I dont want to open it up other than the valve covers and oil pan for inspection and new seals. I just want a fun cruiser that is reliable and fun to drive it wont see much drag strip time but a low 12 second time is my goal. Any surprises droping one of these in a malibu, such as adapting the wireing harness?

Any advice you can give me would be great, Anybody on here done this swap before?

 

[bmackinnon]

Stock replacement valve springs, TurboTweak chip, Walbro fuel pump with hotwire kit, K&N open air filter with appropriate inlet tube, adjustable Fuel Press. Reg, Adj. Wastegate, possibly LS1 MAF/MAF Translator setup, and MOST IMPORTANTLY..... SCAN TOOL!!!!! 12's easy with good tune....

 

[extremeracing]

Cool thanks for the reply! Any tweaks to the transmission while its out? New converter? Stall speed? I May just have the tranny rebuilt while its out.

 

[corsair231]

Check this out.

78 Malibu Touring Coupe

He's a member here. Goes by Turbo1dr. Sweet car and a good guy. Check the south eastern section for some more photos of last weekend's autofair where he was showing with us.


P.S. Welcome to the board.

 

[2QUIK6]

Stock replacement valve springs

Well not exactly..you don't want stockers, only stock or slightly above seat pressure. Comp makes a springs that is very close to stock pressure...I don't recall the part# right off hand, but search for a title containing "valve springs" and you'll find them, very common replacement spring, seems like its a 908 ro so..I may be confused with my LT1 stuff...
Some vendros sell an "LT-1" spring, IMO its too much seat pressure, around 100# when the stockers are around 82#...but your used stockers will be very weak and around 62#.

I might also add a stock steel replacement timing chain...the original is a plastic gear..get rid of that on that high mileage motor.
If you have funds left after the other items mentioned (which are a must) then get a bigger turbo (61 or so if changing to a 3k stall convertor or higher..or a TE44 if staying with stock convertor) and an alky kit 24# of boost on pump gas...that will get you into the 11s easily.
the SCANTOOL is a MUST HAVE on these cars..otherwise a little knock/detonation can destroy your motor quick with boost....may add a Knock Gauge in the a-pillar for safe measure as well...I think the most common gauges everyone owns is a knock gauge and manual boost gauge.

And don't worry..everyone on here can spend your money for ya quickly

 

[BLACK6PACK]

You need to determine how fast you want to go before buying a converter. You need to match the converter to the turbo. The stocker can support turbos into the 11s. Once you want to hit low 11s to high 10s you'll need to look at 3000-3400 stalls, low 10s to high 9s you're looking at 3500-3800 stalls.

Dual ball bearing turbos can get away with 200-500 rpm less stall on average.

If you're running the stock turbo, stick with the stock converter.

 

[ChavoLC2]

Turbo1dr

He has one of the nicest high tech hybrid mid 10's LC2 powered Malibus I've ever seen check out his site and get an idea what you want to do. He knows his stufff and I'm sure he'd be willing to steer you in the right direction .

 

[extremeracing]

Thanks for all the good info guys! Keep it coming. I plan on running the stock turbo for now and maybe turn up the boost, for now I am going to change springs, timing chain and all seals, stick it in the car and get it running for now and then start with all the add on's such as chip, injectors wastegate, and fpr. I will definately put in Turbo tweaks Walbaro pump and hotwire kit and also a nice Extra ground kit for the engine comp. I hate electrical gremlins. What about getting the overdrive crossmember to fit my 79 malibu frame, I know the frames are different right were the crossmember bolts up. Does somebody make a kit to bolt it in or will I have to fab it?