stock vs modded

[litdog83z]

Well, I'm not really new here, but I finally got an 87 Grand national, so i feel like i can post here now :lol:

Anyway, my question is about leaving my all original car with over 100k miles (still drives really nice and strong) stock, or mod it. My parents think i should leave it all stock, because it would be worth more like that. I went up to the cruise strip last night, and have a huge urge to modify it some.. (after it's all paid for of course)

So, how much do these cars lose value when you start modifying exhaust, intake, and fuel systems compared to a completely stock one.

The car is pretty clean, the interior is NICE, the exterior has the expected few paint chips and a couple door dings, but over all you'd think it was a 56000 mile car instead of 156000 after driving it.


Here's a couple pics too:

What do you guys think?


EDIT: and if someone has one of the 3.8 SFI turbo hood emblems and a center cap turbo 6 decal thing, i would buy em off you for the right price

 

[Vendor Defendor]

Or, you could just mod the car and be happy with it. Do what you want with it, its your car.

 

[DCVING 6]

not to be a jerk, but tell your parents that if it has 156k on it, its not going to bring more than $3500 if you were to sell it. Modify it and have a little fun.

As far as exhaust, air filter, etc, that won't hurt the value of the car at all, unless it was a LOW LOW mileage car.

Put a fuel pump and hotwire, fuel regulator, exhuast, filter, and a chip, and you can easily run mid 12's with some traction, and it will still drive like a stocker.

 

[Drac0nic]

I've got a feeling it's a veiled way for your parents to keep you out of trouble, no offense or anything. Go for some "light" mods mentioned above, the Fuel pump and the hotwire kit at the very least. The peace of mind they'll provide is well worth it, even if you don't take it further (I would personally, but that's just me) Nice car btw.

 

[salvageV6]

Hood emblems should still be a dealer part and some TR vendors sell them as well as repros.

Turbo 6 emblem wheel cap complete is $20-$30 inserts may be available from a vendor such as Kirbans or our own Kevin BFH or Mark H.

Do a search on those parts and you should come up with tons of info.

Mod. it. Worth more than $3,500 too at 156K.

 

[mygrain]

Nice car. Looks very nice for the mileage.

 

[broke1]

Keep all the original parts and youll be fine

 

[Turbo Indian]

Originally posted by broke1
Keep all the original parts and youll be fine

then mod the sh%# out of it . if it's done in the correct way it will drive as nice if not nicer than a stocker. our last fast GN ran 10.96@126 (on c116) & the wife would drive it & got 21 mpg on 93 pump gas. I would not push a 156k mile car that hard, but you could have a 11sec car & have so much fun.

but becarfull & I'm sure everyone here will agree with me these cars are so addictive. 12's turn into high 11's turns into low 11's to a I want to see one 10 sec pass!!! then I'll slow it down. 2 words for that bull sh%#.

 

[sixnboost]

I agree that light mods go along way on these cars. Fuel is your friend, so use the 340 Walbro and hot-wire and upgrade the injectors. Opinions vary quite a bit on injector size but I like my 50's They work great w/stock turbo but will accomodate a much larger turbo in the future (do it once and be done). The 50's are usually a bit more expensive though.

On a another note, if the car is all original I would replace the stock timing set before anything. I am rebuilding my motor (107k miles) because of the stock timing set.

Good Luck and enjoy your new vice!

 

[litdog83z]

i definately plan on doing light mods for 12s or something, but it'll take a lot of crap from my parents to get there :lol:

and if you saw the 56000 on the odometer you'd swear it hadnt rolled over yet... it's that nice... driven daily since 1987, always garaged kept and taken to the dealer for oil changes, etc...

 

[litdog83z]

oh and stock boost is supposed to be about 14psi? mine's only running at 9-10psi according to the stock boost meter... i know they're way innaccurate, but can they be THAT inaccurate?

if that's too low, what should i check to see about getting it back to stock level, it's never been played with i dont think. The guy bought it 15 miles from my house in 1987 from a dealer, then drove it to work and back every day (60 mile round trip or so) then a guy 15 miles from my house bought it and drove it 4000 miles total then i bought it, so i dont think the wastegate actuator was tampered with judging by the owners...

 

[John Larkin]

A nice Thrasher 92 chip ($25), gutted cat ($0), new plugs and 8mm wires ($75), catback exhaust ($250), 340 fuel pump($75), fuel pump hot wire(see below), adjustable fuel pressure regulator & gauge ($110), adjustable wastegate actuator($30), boost gauge($30), knock gauge($35-65) and pillar pod ($25) is really all you need. Set the fuel pressure at 45, boost at 17, use good 93 octane or Sunoco 94 and enjoy; it'll be quick enough for now. Keep your eyes peeled on the board; most of these things are for sale cheap at one time or another. You can make the hot wire yourself for about $25. Plus you can install all these things and save the labor.

 

[denn454]

sounds like my car. when i got it, i think it had 150k, if i didnt' have paper work showing it was 150, i would have known it was 50. that was untill an unfortinute thing that happend with a tree. now it looks like its been to hell and back.

the FIRST thing you or anyone one should do is the spring cleaning on gnttype.org, dont' skip on anything because you don't feel like doing it, trust me, just do it.

i too have the parent thing to deal with. i don't know if your parents are very car litterate, but if they aren't then your in luck. tell them your fuel pump is going out and you need a new one. its an old car with lots of miles, theres a good chance they will believe you. my dad knows too much about cars and still bought some of the stuff i told him. i'm still trying to convince him i needed nitrous to make my motor last longer (don't do nitrous).

but anyways, watch out for problems and fix them before they get out of hand. a car with lots of goodies is no good if it won't run. going from what i had to go through, check the coil packs its easy to do. use an ohm meter, on the top of the motor where the spark plugs go in, you'll see 3 boxes each with 2 connections. measure the resistance of each box, if there all the same then your in good shape. that left me walking already. and be ready for stuff to go wrong

OH, a good well hidden fuel pump shut off switch, or computer switch wouldnt' be a bad idea either. a daily driven gn is the perfect car for someone to steal.

 

[litdog83z]

my dad has messed with cars for over 30 years now

we actually own an antique auto salvage yard and have for over 27 years now, so there's no fooling him at all

i'll end up convincing him of it in the long run though, and when it comes down to it, it's my car...

and yeah, i'm getting ready to do all the fluid/filter changes on the whole car and check everything up. i gotta find out why i'm at only 9 psi instead of 14... the car still pulls very nicely though

 

[DCVING 6]

Originally posted by litdog83z


and yeah, i'm getting ready to do all the fluid/filter changes on the whole car and check everything up. i gotta find out why i'm at only 9 psi instead of 14... the car still pulls very nicely though

with those kind of miles, it's most likely a cracked drivers side exhaust manifold. Check it for cracks and have it welded up if you find any. A ticking noise is a dead giveaway.

 

[litdog83z]

Originally posted by DCVING 6
with those kind of miles, it's most likely a cracked drivers side exhaust manifold. Check it for cracks and have it welded up if you find any. A ticking noise is a dead giveaway.

there's no loud ticking, there is kind of a soft tick on light acceleration but nothing like the header gasket leaks on the camaro

 

[Raven]

Nice!

Congratulations on the GN! You'll find that these cars are very addicting.

First - the post that your car is only worth $3500 at 156k is WAAAAAAAAAAY off. As clean as it looks, I would bet it's worth twice that if not more. It just depends on who's buying it and how solid the car is. Don't sweat the 'worth' value unless you're selling it. My guess is - you won't be selling it for a long, long time.

Secondly - get the basic stuff done to the car asap. That includes the spring cleaning and definitely go through the timing set AND put some new valve springs in it if they have not been replaced. Comp Cams makes a great set but check around and do some searches in the Tech Arena and you'll get tons and tons of valuable information. It's all there for you - just search it out. The boost issue could be the gauge, it could be the exhaust manifold and it could be something else such as a bad boost sensing hose, etc. Just narrow down the possibilities and take the most obvious first. Take your time and think it through - it will pay off big in the end.

Thirdly - definitely secure your car by some manner such as the fuel cutoff switch, an alarm, etc. These cars are HOT items on the street for thieves so don't make it any easier for them to snatch yours. It happens every day so do all you can to keep your car YOURS.

Again, congratulations and welcome to the family of Turbo Buicks. It's always nice when the younger generation jumps on the bandwagon!

 

[Raven]

Originally posted by litdog83z
there's no loud ticking, there is kind of a soft tick on light acceleration but nothing like the header gasket leaks on the camaro

It's hard to believe but my car had a crack over 2" long and yet it wasn't making any sort of a noise that was discernable.

Sound is not the only giveaway - shine a bright light down there between the #3 and #5 tube on the header (driver's side. rear) and look closely. Unless this has been repaired before, I would wager a hot fudge sundae that it has a crack in it.

Easy to fix but can be a challenge getting it off. Again, do a search under "Header" and you'll find a wealth of info about this problem alone.

 

[litdog83z]

no rust at all anywhere on the car (save for SLIGHT surface rust on the rear axle... the gas tank still almost looks brand new.

It also just had 2800$ put into the top end of the motor this spring... that was the original owner, and not the guy i bought it from, so i dont know what was done.

here are some pics of the underbody i snapped real quick (poor car got rained on today )

http://img1.uploadimages.net/570482CIMG0977.JPG
http://img1.uploadimages.net/167089CIMG0979.JPG
http://img1.uploadimages.net/547364CIMG0978.JPG

the whole underbody looks like that... i'm sure it's worth what i paid for it, considering i've seen 100k mile cars in worse condition going for roughly the same

 

[Renthorin]

that car is VERY clean. I have 33k on my GN and it is not as clean under there.

What is that thing in front of the Y pipe? It looks like a catolytic converter.......nutty.......

As for modding the car or leaving it stock…. I had the same battle when I bought mine with 21k on it 4 years ago.

I made the decision to modify mine because:
1) I plan to keep the car until I die
2) I have kept all the stock parts that were not junk (exhaust, belt, air filter)
3) if you do sell the car I would hope someone within our community would purchase it in which case the modifications already being done is a bonus.

If the person who buys it wants it 100% stock they are probably going to go for a lower mileage car anyway.

I have only done the basic mods to mine and the difference is night and day. Go for it!!!!

Some of the mods you will/should do are really just fixing issues that GM let slide – VC breathers, HP fuel pump……things like that. In that respect, you are just getting the car into "best stock form"...not really modding it for racing.