Soon to buy 84 GN, looking for some hot-air info?

[FlaBoy]

Hey guys,

I think I may soon be the new owner of an 84 GN, and I was hoping for little help. I have big a big fan of GNs for years now, and consider myself pretty knowledgeable about them.. Unfortunately, I generally didnt learn too much about the non intercooled cars, as I had always assumed that when I bought one, I'd go for an 86 or 87. well, i recently found a good deal on an 84 I'm looking to buy, and I realized I dont know all that much about teh earlier year GNs. I guess I'm mainly wondering what, besides the lack of an intercooler, are the major mechanical differences betewen the 84/85 and the 86/87 models. Also, are their any major styling differences between the two? I havent actually gotten a chance to see the 84 im interested in in person yet, but I'm sure there are a few differences in looks. I know they dont ahve the total-blackout grill in 84, and a few other minor things, but are they otherwise very similar looking? Also, how much of a limit does the lack of an intercooler place on performance? I know from being around on a few of the boards, that there are guys with hot-air cars making some damn impressive numbers, but for a stock-ish car, how much of a performance gap is there? And lastly, how tricky is it to convert the car to intercooled, either with a stock unit, or aftermarket? I'm just trying to feel out some mroe information on the hot air cars, as my interest has generally been in the later year cars. thanks for any and all help, and I'm hoping i will soon once again be the proud owner of a fast black buick... though I imagine this one will be a little different than my old 67 GS i used to drive

-Corey

 

[GNBeswick]

Well, to start.....if its an 84 you're gonna buy, the interior is alot different. 82 and 84 were the only years to have the leather Lier Siegler seats, the color of the dash is also different, a much darker grey. Really just an interior appearance difference. There's quite a bit of difference from the 84/85s to the 86/87s. While the most known difference is the intercooler, the placement of everything is reworked. The later models have a new intake, some of the sensors are different (TPS, IAC, wastegate solenoid, some others) the radiator is bigger...has an oil cooler, the turbo is larger, different ECM, different coil pack, alot of things like that. Fundamentaly they work in the same way, its just the later models are of course updated. It takes alot more to get a hot-air fast. If you're looking into adding an intercooler, there have been kits such as the spearco kit, which I hear was hard to tune, but unfortunately is no longer in production. There is a post on this board about a new intake so you have the ability to intercool the hotair cars, you might want to check it out, it looks very promising. Might wanna check out ebay and see if they have any 82/84s so you can see what the interior looks like.

 

[racemybuick]

Hey Flaboy! Good to see someone looking at a nice car!!! About how far away is St. Petersburg from Kissimee? My Future wife and I are moving in just a couple months to the sunshine state, and if you ever need help, I will be there. I am almost positive we will be in Kissimee (probably spelling it wrong), if late july, early august.

As for the car...Get it! There are only 2000 1984 GN's. They came witht eh leather cloth intereior as stated earlier, T-Tops are most common, full power, and can give a good jolt of fun when tuned right. If you wanna go faster, it will cost a bit more than an IC car, but then compare the cost of an IC car to own, and the cost of a Hot Air...I think they are almost equal in the long run.

Let me know if you need anything....
Racemybuick@yahoo.com!

John

 

[FlaBoy]

Hey john,

Depending on where you live in the Kissimmee/st.cloud/orlando area, anywhere from an houra nd a half to 2 hours from there to st. pete. I know from lurking on this board and others for a while that there are quite a few GNs in the central florida area, so you should be able to find a lot of support around there. Thansk for the advice. I'm hoping to go look at the car in teh next weekend or 2, so I'll know by then, but I'm definitely leaning towards buying. I know its in pretty rough shape interior and exterior, but its supposedly pretty mechanically sound, and has had some work done to it, so its not a total project car... right now, I'm pretty short on funds, so I'm actually kidna pleased its in rough shape, cuz that puts it down into my price range tHanskf or the help, and keep it comin!

 

[BuickTV6]

Hey flaboy, welcome to the channel and welcome to the hotair world. Hope you decide to buy the 84 GN. Would be a good investment. There are many guys on here who have gotten into the low 13's with their hotair regals with veyr few mods. Just like the 86/7 cars, the hotair cars respond to mods quite well, especially the bacics. (filter, chip, adjustable fuel pressure regulator, adjustable wastegate, removed cat, tb lines blocked) and so on. Based on the price you would pay for a intercooled Turbo regal and decent running condition, you could by a hotair, mod it, have it running good numbers, and still end up paying less then you would for a stock intercooled machine. There have been a few intercooler kits available for the hotair cars, that have made impressive results, however there are other ways to get these cars moving, such as propane kits or alcohol injection. There a lot of options available for these cars, it really all depends on how fast you want to go. In my signature, there are some pictures of my car that has an after,market intake and intercooler on it. Take a look at the ling, it will give you an idea of how things look. The company who made the kit is no longer in business, but I do know there are a few of these kits available for sale on ebay and on here. There is also a nre intake/intercooler kit being made for hotair cars on here that has impressive results. So there are many avenues to go down. Hope that helps you, and again, welcome

 

[racemybuick]

RIght on BuickTV6!!!

John