Trans Question/ Rocker Shafts

[mat231v6]

i got my forged pistons for a little over $100 off ebay.

$5000 is way to much for all that. for that price my might as well get a create motor.

 

[Mr. Upholsterer]

Big Bust

I am seriously thinking of getting a Mitibushi dual overhead cams with twin turbos engine and throwing it in with the trans...Hate to ruin the Antique classificiation of the car though...As long as as I install the original motor and any options for that year I would be OK...but I have already qualified and chances are that is it and nobody will every look at the car again ...no inspection required too...

 

[Mr. Upholsterer]

One last try

Im going to give it one more college try...to try to dig up a GN motor...Anybody have a complete engine for sale with wiring harness and computer ??

 

[charlief1]

Just got the Estimate for my Engine...hope you are all sitting down How about $5000 plus sales tax which is around 7% in NJ... That was for forged pistons, roller cam, turning the crank down a little, exhaust valves and machining the heads and assembly...Too Rich for my blood...:frown: Going to go pick up my parts and punt.

Sorry to say but that's about right Vince.:redface: Buicks aren't cheap to build if you want them to stay together. When I built my first NA engine it cost me $600 just to have the block bored, and that was in the mid 80's. The benifits are that you can suprise a lot of people with it and make them look like idiots.:biggrin: The bad part is that it takes money to do it.:redface:

You could put a SereisII or III in it and make it hussle with very little cash if you can figure out the wiring but it's a bit time consuming.:smile:

 

[Mr. Upholsterer]

Engine Build

Yes your right...There are a lot of little problems to over come to really make that Engine hum...not hard to do...if you have the money...What is a Series II or III Engine ?? I was reading about this guy having a Hyper pistons with a special heat treating on the top of his pistons and on the sides some kind of a slippery coating and running over 20 lbs boost... I thought you had to have Forged pistons to run that high...??

 

[charlief1]

Series II or III are FWD engines but have been adapted to RWD cars. Basically they're Stage motors in a more civil app. Look in the general section and you can see where one was adapted to RWD and right out of the box it was running 10's

 

[Mr. Upholsterer]

Engine Replace

OK...Series III is that 2004 or 5 Buick engine with the turbo on it... Isn't that thing Transverse ?? could you even put it in a rear wheel drive car without a ton of work ?? Would a 200R4 bolt up to it ?? I think I saw one of these at a local junk yard last year..could of had it cheap too..But I saw it in there sideways and said forget it..That supercharger looked pretty tiny...Tight unit though...If I had a schematic I probably could do it..as long as I had the wiring harness and computer too..The big problem would be the electronic controlled guages and speed o meter...I would have to change the whole dash too..since all of my guages are old school...yep would be a lot of work.

 

[usetaboost]

I don't understand why some members think they need high end parts to build a fast car? Forged pistons are a waste of money. Just get a engine kit for a 83 turbo engine and use your standard crank. Then spend all the money you saved on getting the heads redone and cleaned up. My car doesn't have forged pistons. Seems to run fine to me. No one makes fun of me for having an 82 shortblock in my 87 we4 either. Put your money in the heads and get a 204-214 cam. With a draw thru, the more power you make n/a, the better. Get a d5 stall to go with the OD trans

 

[Mr. Upholsterer]

Smokin the Buick

As far as the Forged Pistons go..The Machinist / Builder Refused to build the engine without Forged piston...He even refused to build the engine without a Hydraulic Roller cam too....He told me that he has seen cams wear out in less than 1000 miles....He showed me a standard Hydraulic lifter that super concave on the bottom that happened in 15 minutes. My engine only had about 55K miles on it....I had to beat the cam out of the engine and destroyed the first cam bearing in the process... Jack told me that one of the reasons was the split journal on the front of most of the cams...they cut right into the bearing, especially right at the bottom of the cam bearing...I felt the ridge with my fingernail. I found out that if you don't want to take chances you do it right the first time.....and bring lots of money too...Oh yes he also would not build the engine with used pistons...he said even the slightest play in the ring grooves will allow the rings to twist and the edge of the ring will scrap the side of the cylinder walls and wear them down quick.. I knew a lot of guys that would slap stuff together and it seemed to run fine...But now some have really tuned their skills to a really high level and insane amounts of HP are coming out of engines because of attention to details...and they are getting good gas mileage and living long too..
Like I said Jack has no problem making 9 second engines...that is if you have the money...:wink:

 

[Mr. Upholsterer]

Charlie, I was checking out the Series engine here put in that GN...Man that looks like one rock solid engine.. I have seen these engines in the regular cheap section of the Local junk yard too...What is the best one to get?? and what cars did they come in ?? I will do more checking about this on line too...That block setup and heads look a ton more solid than the 3.8 do you have any idea if the computer is linked to the Speed o meter ?? I guess I would have to take the dash out of that car too.?? I guess you would need the computer to regulate the injectors right..>>? What I like is it looks a lot like the 3.8 and I might be able to pull it off as a opitional engine or something...almost...I guess with a little imagation.:wink:

 

[charlief1]

Charlie, I was checking out the Series engine here put in that GN...Man that looks like one rock solid engine.. I have seen these engines in the regular cheap section of the Local junk yard too...What is the best one to get?? and what cars did they come in ?? I will do more checking about this on line too...That block setup and heads look a ton more solid than the 3.8 do you have any idea if the computer is linked to the Speed o meter ?? I guess I would have to take the dash out of that car too.?? I guess you would need the computer to regulate the injectors right..>>? What I like is it looks a lot like the 3.8 and I might be able to pull it off as a opitional engine or something...almost...I guess with a little imagation.:wink:

The 4th gen Camaro and Firebird had a RWD engine set up so most of the parts will need to come off of it. If I remember right Brad Zeigler (sp?) adapted one of the blowers in a hybred, but hasn't finished it yet. Very cool project. There's also a guy from Aussie land that's been posting some of his car that was built with the Series II engine. It's a factory RWD car as well. He's posted almost all of it in the welcome new member section so you might want to go look at it as well. Look for the name delcowiz or something like that.

The wiring and computer will be the biggest issue you'll need to figure out but if you understand basic wiring then you shouldn't have a problem with it.

 

[mat231v6]

I don't understand why some members think they need high end parts to build a fast car? Forged pistons are a waste of money. Just get a engine kit for a 83 turbo engine and use your standard crank. Then spend all the money you saved on getting the heads redone and cleaned up. My car doesn't have forged pistons. Seems to run fine to me. No one makes fun of me for having an 82 shortblock in my 87 we4 either. Put your money in the heads and get a 204-214 cam. With a draw thru, the more power you make n/a, the better. Get a d5 stall to go with the OD trans

the only reason i got forged pistons was they were $100 on ebay. plus i am going to be using a little more nitrous.:biggrin:

 

[charlief1]

I agree that forged aren't required, but with the tendancy of the draw through system to detonate it's cheap insurance. Remember that we don't have the same options as an SFI car to be able to adjust timing and fuel curve so we have to be extra vigilent on the parts and equipment we put on. We shoot blind compaired to the other guys.

 

[Mr. Upholsterer]

Smokin the Buick

Charlie, your starting to sound like Jack Merkel now..You gave me a lot of food for thought..I guess I have some digging to do...expecting snow tomorrow. Will let you know what Jack thinks about the 3800 engine..

 

[usetaboost]

I agree that forged aren't required, but with the tendancy of the draw through system to detonate it's cheap insurance. Remember that we don't have the same options as an SFI car to be able to adjust timing and fuel curve so we have to be extra vigilent on the parts and equipment we put on. We shoot blind compaired to the other guys.

I will agree with you on this one. Draw thru setups weren't given the best tunes even right out of the box. But why not just get a knock detector and a wideband that way there IS no guessing?

 

[charlief1]

Charlie, your starting to sound like Jack Merkel now..You gave me a lot of food for thought..I guess I have some digging to do...expecting snow tomorrow. Will let you know what Jack thinks about the 3800 engine..

Well I've done the research on what I intend to do and I don't want to spend 5K and watch it blow up first time on the track.:frown: I think I'd sell the car at that point.

I will agree with you on this one. Draw thru setups weren't given the best tunes even right out of the box. But why not just get a knock detector and a wideband that way there IS no guessing?

There is always guessing with a draw through Jesse. The only thing I'm missing at the moment is a wide band and a timing controler for the MSD unit. So far I've got a 6A, BTM, ported headers and parts to build a second set of KB style. I really believe in being prepaired so I don't have any issues with it.:biggrin:

 

[CamoDeafie]

what i'd do is look for a 4th gen Camaro or firebird with the 3.8L Series 2 engines; and grab both the trans and engine from them....just my opinion lol. i'm not sure what other RWD GM from 90s got the S2 engines, but didnt the GTO redo have v8s?

 

[83turbomon]

Well I've done the research on what I intend to do and I don't want to spend 5K and watch it blow up first time on the track.:frown: I think I'd sell the car at that point.



There is always guessing with a draw through Jesse. The only thing I'm missing at the moment is a wide band and a timing controler for the MSD unit. So far I've got a 6A, BTM, ported headers and parts to build a second set of KB style. I really believe in being prepaired so I don't have any issues with it.:biggrin:

id love to see some more progress there charlie, if you need a hand, im not doing chit anyways:frown: till school restarts again that is.

 

[charlief1]

id love to see some more progress there charlie, if you need a hand, im not doing chit anyways:frown: till school restarts again that is.

Shop is keeping me pretty busy so until I catch up there won't be any progress.:frown: I've got the new frame here but haven't had time to get it in the shop. That's the next thing on the agenda. Several mods will be done to it and I'm not gonna tell all of them for a reason.:biggrin: The anti squat mods and a correction of the front upper control arms will have to wait until later. Still haven't taken the new block and heads to have them crack checked and cleaned.

I do have a set of HA headers that I've ported and they're getting welded up where they're cracked but really haven't gotten anything else done lately.:redface:

 

[Mr. Upholsterer]

smokin the buick

I have been doing some digging and this is what I came up with...2004-2007 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP L32 Supercharged engine rated at 260 HP. Any thoughts on this setup ??