St Pete TTA

[milesengineer2]

Well I finally got my dream car, 1989 TTA, 42,000 miles leather interior and t-tops. It only took me 400 miles to spin a bearing on the crank. In the middle of a rebuild now, so soon there will be another TTA on the streets of St. Pete

 

[Pace 1989]

Good to hear from you, sorry about your misfortune. I went through almost the same thing a few years ago when my converter ballooned.
I know of at least two other TTA's in St. Pete. One is someone everyone with a TTA should know (Julio). The guy's just incredible with these cars, and one hell of a nice guy.
Who's doing your rebuild? What machine shop are you using? Are you making any other mods? Keep us posted.

Ken TTA#1426

 

[milesengineer2]

The rebuild from hell

I have spoked to Julio and he has already warned me of the ballooning convertor. Before the motor went the thing popped a couple of times, felt like it was right at my feet. I wonder if that had something to do with it, maybe a warning sign.
As for the rebuild I had Nelson Bros. do the machine work, bored it .030 over, using TRW forged pistons. Had to replace the cam, was going to use a crane cam but after talking to Julio I think that I am changing my mind on that one. Just had the heads refreshed, nothing major. The hardest part has been the crank. Upon inspection of the original one I noticed that it was cross-drilled but did not have rolled fillets, that has been the fork in the road. Well finally got a crank from a TR and am using it after a little machine work. Everything should be machined and ready for me to assemble this weekend.
Now the only question is, what about the torque convertor. Who do I see, how do i know, all that good stuff. How much is a new one, who has the best ones?? Thanks for the help, any info you could pass on would be great.

 

[turbo buicks]

hi i know julio also, he helped me try to tune my car for like 2 hours and made me a coule chips for free the other day, nice guy. he was telling me about you i think b/c he said he knew a guy w/40K mile TTA who didnt have a scanmaster and blew his motor in under 500 miles. sorry to hear about your engine but your new one sounds like its gonna be nice bruce (WE4) on this board in the transmission section builds trannies and converters and such. he has stock D5's stalled to 2800-3000 i believe for about $300 if i recall correctly and a 9-11 extreme converter (3200 stall i think) for more (dont remember price but its not too bad). i have never seen a negative post about his work. also, precision industries makes some really good converters but they cost more than bruce's. i think w/the precision you get one free re-stall for the life of the converter. i would get a nice converter w/anit-balooning plates if i were you.
thats all i can think of for now, good luck maybe ill see you at a car show sometime in the near future.