TR-6 On Twin Turbo

[~JM~]

That's what I meant, just written poorly.

Really looks sharp!

 

[1986 Buick GX1]

It looks like the passenger side valve cover breather tube should be 97 1/2 thousandths longer to provide a perfect elliptical arc. Hehe

Just razzing you a bit. It looks fantastic!!

I remember when people weren't acronyms, they just called you hard core, and you my friend are HARD CORE!

Your work may not be pertinent to a lot of us, but it is definitely inspirational. Keep up the great work.

 

[Pronto]

As usual that's quite a clean install. I might have missed it but how are you filling the oil?

 

[NY Twin Turbo]

As usual that's quite a clean install. I might have missed it but how are you filling the oil?

See posts 17, 18, and 19.

 

[NY Twin Turbo]

As usual that's quite a clean install. I might have missed it but how are you filling the oil?

Above was my quick answer from my phone at work.

But as mentioned in the posts numbered above, I will add oil by pouring it into the breather tanks. And since I already installed the oil pan, that's exactly what I did. Worked flawlessly. There isn't any reason why it shouldn't have.

I got an extra long dipstick from a bone yard years ago when I built this thing the first time.

Back then, I had to fabricate my own dipstick tube to connect to my aluminum oil pan attachment. Then I cut the bone yard dipstick to a length that would allow it to reach all the way to the bottom of the pan. I put a twist on the flat so it wouldn't drag along the dipstick tube when being pushed in or pulled out. This prevents smudging the oil making it harder to read the level. Then I marked the stick with an engraving tool at each quart of oil that was added.

I checked my old indicator lines as I added oil. Quart by quart, they all made it into the pan.
Nothing should be hanging around in the breather hoses.

 

[ttypewhite]

Fantastic workmanship, but then again I wouldn't expect anything less from you. I really like the creativity on this, your attention to detail is spot on the money. Looks perfect.

 

[NY Twin Turbo]

It looks like the passenger side valve cover breather tube should be 97 1/2 thousandths longer to provide a perfect elliptical arc. Hehe

Just razzing you a bit. It looks fantastic!!

I remember when people weren't acronyms, they just called you hard core, and you my friend are HARD CORE!

Your work may not be pertinent to a lot of us, but it is definitely inspirational. Keep up the great work.

Fantastic workmanship, but then again I wouldn't expect anything less from you. I really like the creativity on this, your attention to detail is spot on the money. Looks perfect.

Thank you both.

And Mike, this means a lot cumming from a guy who's got a set of BAD- ASS Buicks such as yourself! I know how much you understand. Even the simplest tasks can become very complex when you just must have it the way you want it to be.
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So now it was time to send everything off to the polisher!

I normally give the pipes a buff-out every winter myself. But since I didn't have the time and I also needed the valve covers done, I decided to pay to have it done this time.

I was going to include a link to a recent thread documenting my experience with paying someone to work on my parts. But apparently it was wiped out with the recent board crash!

But anyway. Off they go!

 

[1952ray]

Joe, this is why I refer to your car as the Josey Wales of the Buick world. Never thought anyone could match Donnie ( coach ) skill level, but damn your close. And yes Mike has two bad cars no ? About it, but there’s only one Josey. You just stride for perfection, I for one doesn’t call that OCD, I call it damn good. Ray

 

[NY Twin Turbo]

Now I needed to get started on the electrical work.

As I mentioned earlier, Bob Bailey provided me with a harness set-up for Holley coils and left it extra long. All the wires were pushed through the weather-pack connections in the proper location and numerically numbered 1 through 6. All the terminals were provided in a little bag. I can't believe how easy he made it for me! This guy is great!

Thank you Bob!!

The coils also came with a wire spec sheet to cross reference if needed, and additional weather-pack connections and terminals. Now I had spares in case I messed up something.

When I had the coil brackets on the engine, I marked out my length of the two whips from the TR-6 to the brackets. The ignition wires were already cut to length as seen in my previous post. Now after this, everything else I was able to do at my work desk in my home.

I bought a great ratcheting weather-pac terminal tool on the internet (not pictured). Also, I have been making my own ignition wires for years now. But I was never happy with the terminal crimping tool I have always used. So I bought the type that gets pressed in a bench vice. Big Difference! My advice...........Get the right tools and do the job the right way!!!!

I photographed all 6 connections Bob had set up for me before pulling the wires out to snake them through the brackets. This was obviously a little bit of a pain in the ass. Here in the picture below, you can see how I was completely looming all exposed wires in long marine grade shrink wrap before terminating. I even slipped an additional short length over to shrink later after termination. This was so that I could get within 1/2 inch of the plug. The shrink wrap is pushed as far into the coil bracket as possible to protect the wires from chafing. And a little rat-tail file helped smooth around the opening in the bracket before I began.

It could be tedious work to do things in close proximity like this. But I don't watch TV and it was cold outside.

Below you can see that this is before my final termination. And you may notice a few things that may be different about the Holley harness. Every coil needs it's own individual ground wire that must go to the head that it is firing on. And these grounds may NOT share a ground point with any other electrical component. Although, they MAY share the ground point among themselves. This is the 3 green wires on each side I have twisted together to a heavy ring terminal.

Don't ask. I just do what I'm told. Sometimes you need to leave certain things to the experts in their field.


On the drivers head, the ground will be on the back. On the passengers head, it will be on the front. Also, I extended the main TR-6 ground wire to go direct all the way back to the battery in the trunk.

In the engine compartment, I also have relayed hot-wires to the factory coil-pack plug which is now going to plug into the TR-6.

Photo below, passenger side terminated.

Photo below, drivers side terminated.

HARNESS COMPLETE !

 

[NY Twin Turbo]

Joe, this is why I refer to your car as the Josey Wales of the Buick world. Never thought anyone could match Donnie ( coach ) skill level, but damn your close. And yes Mike has two bad cars no ? About it, but there’s only one Josey. You just stride for perfection, I for one doesn’t call that OCD, I call it damn good. Ray

Ray, I don't even know how to say how much I appreciate your comments. I'm speechless.

 

[Pronto]

That's interesting that the grounds can't be shared side to side.

 

[NY Twin Turbo]

That's interesting that the grounds can't be shared side to side.

Yes. But both Bob and Holley recommend that they be installed this way. 6 individual grounds. 3 directly to the head on each side.

 

[TurboTnZ06]

Looks good! Yup, my Holley smart coils are grounded on the head they are for. They also get power right from the battery. I really like your mounting orientation for them, but my breathers would be in the way. I'm thinking about directly welding blocks right on top of my valve covers to thread studs into so they fit around the breathers. Maybe next winter.

 

[NY Twin Turbo]

Looks good! Yup, my Holley smart coils are grounded on the head they are for. They also get power right from the battery. I really like your mounting orientation for them, but my breathers would be in the way. I'm thinking about directly welding blocks right on top of my valve covers to thread studs into so they fit around the breathers. Maybe next winter.

Doing away with the breathers was very important to me. Because of the symmetrical layout of my engine compartment, it was important that the coils be equally spaced and the wires go un obstructed to the spark plugs.

I also considered having six tabs welded to the valve covers to except all six coils. But this would have been impossible for me to mark up, measure and hold things in position while I sized other components. I would have had to probably been restricted to the initial exact positioning of the coils and not been able to make slight adjustments along the way as I tested for best fittment and aesthetics.

This system turned out best for my application. The entire harness, bracket and coils can be removed as a complete unit with only 4 bolts and a plug.

 

[NY Twin Turbo]

After multiple visits to his shop and a totally frustrating experience dealing with my polisher, I finally got my parts back. Now it was almost time to do the final assembly.

But there was one major thing that still needed to be worked out. The alcohol supply lines needed to be reconstructed.

If you refer back to my "before pictures" in post #1, you may remember that I ran my stainless alky supply lines down the leading top edge of my valve covers using little home made straps bolted to the upper valve cover studs. Then I mentioned in post #14 that I removed them in order to make more available room for my coils.

Well, now it was time to rebuild them.

My alcohol tank and pump are in the rear of of the car. And from there, the alky is pumped to a splitter manifold on my firewall. On the manifold I have the filter and one-way check valve behind the cover, and a gauge, transducer, and two outlets to transfer alky to the intake pipe.

This is from before. All this is fine and can stay as is. But the two supply lines coming off the manifold had to be reconfigured. See below.

I always liked the way I had run the alky lines. I didn't want to change the general direction they were run previously. So I decided that they would go in the same direction as before. But I would have to lower them into the valley to keep them under the coils. But in order to do this, they couldn't be strapped to the valve cover studs any longer. Instead, they would have to pass through the coil bracket tabs. And unlike last time, they needed to be done in two pieces.

The first thing I did was bend up two lines leading from the manifold to the back of the valley. This puts the flare fitting in a good spot in order to facilitate removal and reinstall. Then I needed to fabricate a section of alky line that would permanently be inserted through the valve cover coil tabs. Once the flares and fitting were installed, it would be non-removable. But this is OK because the fittings would easily be accessible when the coils are removed. Then this small section of alky line would just have to come off with the valve covers.

See below.

There was a lot of "Put-It-On" and "Take-It-Off" during this build.

Sometimes it feels like I'm living in the movie "Groundhog Day".

After this, I was ready to finally install the valve covers. As you can see, they are now polished. Just don't look too close. Someday, I will get them a little better myself. Funny thing though........It looks like a V-12! Because the reflection doubles the count of ignition wires!!!!

Here pictured below, you can notice the entire configuration of the alky lines.

Now I was able to begin finally installing the TR-6, wire harness, coil brackets and connect the valve cover vent hoses. I made some nice little straps to hold the vent hosing neatly against the firewall as it moves up towards the underside of the cowl. Also notice how I protected my wide-band XFI O2 sensor before it was installed. And there was never a need to change my dip-stick location so it stayed the same.


And before I went any further, I needed to test the alky system for any leaks. I temporarily installed the nozzles, powered up the car, and slowly applied a regulated 30 PSI to the MAP sensor. I watched the alky come on strong and the gauge max-out as it sprayed into a couple of plastic beverage bottles. While this was happening, I inspected and double checked every fitting and connection from the pump to the nozzles.

All is good!!!!

See the brackets-harness, TR-6, and beverage bottles below. Wow, those bottles fill up fast!

 

[larry33kc]

Joey I did something similar with mine, except I came of the top valve cover bolts

. Sorry for the dirt haven’t had a chance to clean it yet this year

 

[NY Twin Turbo]

At the same time that this TR-6 project was going on, I also was doing some general winter maitenance work.

Other things to mention...........

I purchased silicone hose connections for my aluminum upper radiator pipe. I also purchased a silicone lower radiator hose from Nick Micale. Then I changed all the hoses. I did a full flush and serviced the cooling system using RMI-25. I did a complete transmission service on my Extreme Automatics TH-400. I use B&M Trick-Shift, TCI filter, and a Morroso heavy duty vulcanized gasket. I changed a few AN hose-ends and fittings. And obviously, it received new spark plugs and oil. Maybe a bunch of other things I'm forgetting to mention.

But now it was time to move along with the rest of the conversion components.

Next came the coils.

Also, a closer view of the valve cover breather hose connections.

 

[NY Twin Turbo]

Now the pipes!

First the down pipes.

 

[NY Twin Turbo]

And now we finally we get down to the conclusion of this build. The rest of the pipes went on just today.

Tomorrow afternoon, I will make an attempt to start it for the first time since September. I normally drive my car well into October or even November. But last year, on September 8th, I was sent to Florida for the Hurricane Irma reconstruction efforts. I never returned home until the first week of November.

Doing these builds is much harder for me than it was in the past. Work, family, responsibilities, and just being older than I used to be. I'm only 47, but 30 years in the Construction Industry has begun taking it's toll and most days I take a fist full of pills before I have my first cup of coffee in the morning. This can make a fabrication project time consuming and costly. I sometimes need to spread out the work over months of odd-ball hours.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I actually hate working on my Buick. I much rather be driving it. But, I have no choice. Even if I could afford someone to do this for me, no one could do it exactly as I ask them to. And it must be done EXACTLY as I ask it to be done. I Don't want someone to pretend to know what will look best or take shortcuts, If I was to pay someone to put it together, Then they just must only do what I ask. I don't need a designer. I need a fabricator. Problem is, most fabricators think they are designers. And quite simply, they are not.

If it looks like crap, than it's no ones fault but my own.

When it comes to the technical part, that's when I shut up and do what I've been told. I do my best to understand what the experts tell me to do. Then I could play around with the configurations to meet my needs. But all in all, It is what they say it needs to be.

One more thing. Jack Cotton is going to kill me. I still don't have his name on my valve covers. But I don't think it's going to work out so well. The red ignition wires reflected in the polished valve covers with the red "Cottons Performance" logo may make for a visually distracting picture. We may need to find a new place for the logo.

Maybe a custom upper aluminum radiator support in the future?

 

[NY Twin Turbo]

Here is a few more.