Opinions for a newbie

J

jrowenturbo

New Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2017
Hello I am new to the turbo Buick world and I'm looking for some opinions on building a good streetable car. I just bought a 85 t-type. It is a hot air car and I'm going to convert it to a cold air car (already have most of the parts to do so) . It has a freshly rebuilt motor (out of the car along with the tranny) with mildly ported stock heads.

I am wanting to build a mid 11 sec car.

What should I go with as far as turbo, intercoller, injectors, throttle body, torque converter...? Thanks for the help in advance !!
 
You can run a 57/58 turbo from Comp Turbo or a TA 49 is a good street turbo too.
A stock location intercooler will work fine for your goals, injectors will depend on turbo, you should absolutely run an Alkycontrol set up on the car unless you will be running E85 in the car. A ported stock throttle body will be fine, it opens it up to 62 mm. Talk to this man here for that:www.throttlebodys.com.

Use a Turbotweak chip for the ECM and your life will be easier. You can run an SD2 chip and learn how to tune and datalog, always a good thing.

Torque converter you can run a 9.5 inch or 10 lock up converter with a higher stall speed and the trans will live. A 3000 stall speed would work well. You may want to get the trans built and then do the converter because you will kill the trans when you go to turn up the wick on the turbo. Its a crap shoot just know that going in.

That should keep you busy.
 
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This is an approximation....

Your car is around 3100 lbs
plus a driver 200 lbs

equals 3300 lbs. You will need at least 400 horses to get you in the mid 11's. From people that are much wiser than me and hopefully they will chime in here; they have told me that 400 horses is the absolute limit of a good 'stock' rebuild motor. Assuming your motor was rebuild by a reputable person that knows these cars and your goals, it will be fine. Your trans will definitely need some professional help from one of our vendors ( I recommend David Husek, goes by turbo Dave) a stock trans with xxx,xxx about of miles will not handle that horse power goal. Making sure the foundation is strong is the most important thing. After that, some simple "bolt-ons" will get you there.

In short. The stock engine and trans will not hold up.
 
I'll just add my two cents : I suppose it's how the power gets to the ground. That being said, parasitic power loss through the tranny, drive shaft and rear end.
If we use the above theory of 400 horse to get into the 11's, transmission work needs to be considered, as a good converter and rear end. The stock rear end with the
342's will probably hold out.

I can tell you that my mostly stock LS1 Vette is in the 12's with some mild headwork and exhaust. 400 Horse (estimate).

Just got my 87 GN and can't wait for the nice weather to start playing with it! Like yourself, turbo, exhaust, downpipe, etc........
 
I'll be 'that guy'.....



Get your 'fresh rebuild' running FIRST. See if it lasts before you spend a bunch of money and time trusting an unproven engine.

If it has a roller cam, you're light years ahead. If it's flat tappet, go ahead and assume it's going to eat itself, the be happy at anything less than a worst case scenario.
 
Rafs-T-Type said:
3100 lbs? Not too many 3,100 lb regals out there.
Click to expand...


wow! did you see the first sentence...this is an estimation! And lets stay on track here. Instead of bashing some solid advice, why don't you contribute some useful info.

To the OP,

You have two options;
1) Keep it stock with some upgrades for reliability and daily driving. This is mostly in the tune.
2) Have your driveline, trans, and motor built to handle your goal.

I recommend the first option. Enjoy it for a year or more...get to know the "in's and out's" about the vehicle, how to upkeep it and save some money. Then, have a NO-BS goal and build the motor, trans, and driveline components to handle that goal.
 
I didn't bash, I was just saying the number wasn't too accurate. Now why don't you contribute something useful instead of pulling numbers out your ass.
 
jrowenturbo,

I want to apologize for this unnecessary interaction between myself and Rafs-T-Type. Not sure were that "penis measuring" contest came from:confused:

The original point wasn't so much about accuracy of your personal weight and your car's weight. It was a realization to help you understand the power requirements to get into the 11's or faster in one of these cars. The point is simple...you need a solid foundation built by people how know these cars (not just any engine/tranny builder). I hope you understand, I am not someone that would be willing to show my 'ass' to the world without some merit to what I am stressing here.

No...I don't know how to build one of these motors!
No...I have no knowledge how to rebuild a transmission!
No...I haven't been doing this for 30 years (like most of our supporters).

But, I have learned a lot in the last 4 years to know, your question about building a good "streetable car" that will go into the 11's down a quarter mile WILL without a doubt need lots of money and time to make it reliable and fast. The car is 30 years old! Engine, trans, suspension, drive train, cooling...brakes....ext...

Please use this forum. There are some great people on here that will go out of their way to help. My advise is to find out who lives by you and start networking.

Good luck.:)
 
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Thanks to everyone for there input I really appreciate it. So after a little digging I've found out a little more info on what I have. Long story short I bought my car as an unfinished project... my dad bought a real nice WE4 car from the same guy that has a TON done to it... The engine is freshly built and has a little more in it than I originally knew. Here is a breakdown more less. Bored .030 over, Weisco forged pistons, Eagle H beam rods, stock crank .010 under, has been balanced, mildly ported stock heads with RJC Bullet Proof head gaskets, Comp Cams 69-248-4 (can and will change this if I need to)?, ARP head bolts and 1.6 roller rockers. I have a stock 87 intercooler and related ductwork and brackets. Stock intake and Throttle body that haven't been installed on the engine yet. Also no headers or downpipe yet. It also came with a TE44C turbo and brand new 42.5 injectors but from others suggestions here I'm thinking about getting a TA-49 instead...??? Also thinking about adding a RJC girdle now while the engine is still on the stand. My dad is a machinist so he can help me with that. I'll also be having the original trans built before I put it back together. Any more thoughts and suggestions most appreciated.
Thanks
 
To the OP.

First of all congrats and welcome to our site. As you can tell, we are very passionate about what we do here.
You are asking us what you need. No one yet has mentioned the most important thing you need to make your car haul ass and live a long and healthy life.
KNOWLEDGE! That is what you need the most. It is what these cars require the most. It really ain't that hard. We give knowledge away for free here. Before you go buying tons of parts, read, use the search and ask questions if you can't find the answers. Here's a good place to start.
http://www.turbobuick.com/threads/info-for-new-turbo-regal-owners.380856/

If you are willing to take your time and enjoy the journey, this will be the most fun and satisfying hot rod you will ever own. :)
Keep us updated on how it's going.

Happy spooling.
Mike Barnard
 
earlbrown said:
Get your 'fresh rebuild' running FIRST. See if it lasts before you spend a bunch of money and time trusting an unproven engine.
Click to expand...
^^^ This is great advice which only comes with much experience.
 
Jerryl said:
Recipes:
http://rjcracing.com/speed-recipies/

Whoever said the stock block is only good to 400 Hp should probably keep reading. That may have been true in 1990 but tuning has come a long way. This is not an opinion.
Click to expand...

For the record:

I didn't say "stock block", I said a "stock rebuild". A "stock rebuild" would include stock crank with stock caps and hardware. And the "guy" that said this has been doing this for 30 years....I don't think he needs to keep reading.

jrowenturbo,

That is awesome, you have a personnel machinist. Wish I had one.

With that recipe, it sounds like the weak link in your engine might be your stock crank. The stock crank has been known to flex under greater power demands. I would suspect the girdle will help prevent that...dunno, I have no experience. Maybe some billet caps and ARP bolts on the mains as well...but again, this is all from what others have said.

Please, show some pics
 
Do you have any good info? Being a staff member, I would think you could provided some relative info to the original question. If you want to make the thread about me and my 3100# comment...I am ok with that. I don't mind constructive criticism. But your comment doesn't provide any usable info. It only implies that I am wrong. OK, well what is right?

jrowenturbo,
It seams my example of weight vs time wasn't a good (accurate) example. But in the bigger picture, it also seems that you will require even more (force) power from your engine to get your goals. Which means my under estimated 400 horses won't get you there. And for the record, I wasn't giving you the "end all-be all" answer to your goal. My attempt was to enlighten you about what other (with years of experience) have stressed about the limitation of a "stock build".

Post your goals and current engine build in the Engine Tech Forum. Hopefully someone with useful info will help you figure out what, if anything, you will need to do the the bottom end to keep it from wanting to jump out.
 
Rafs-T-Type said:
I didn't bash, I was just saying the number wasn't too accurate. Now why don't you contribute something useful instead of pulling numbers out your ass.
Click to expand...
Actually you didn't even say it was inaccurate you just spoke the truth that there are not a lot of 3100lb Turbo Regals....
 
DeltaBravo said:
For the record:

I didn't say "stock block", I said a "stock rebuild". A "stock rebuild" would include stock crank with stock caps and hardware. And the "guy" that said this has been doing this for 30 years....I don't think he needs to keep reading.
Click to expand...
Cool man.
Guess I need to start looking for different friends or into a SII for my goal. Good luck.
 
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