Turbo

[Dr.rinco]

What type of turbo should I buy ? On that is the best bang for the buck.

 

[Pronto]

Impossible to answer that with no information. Is something wrong that you know of with yours?

 

[Grand_87_national]

Exactly as Pronto stated: Impossible to answer. What are your goals? Your budget? What converter? What heads? Fuel system? Driving habits? Street or Strip? Both? There are many vendors with a lot of knowledge regarding how each turbo will respond and behave given different setups and conditions. Bison is who I contacted for mine and he's as knowledgeable as you'll find.... anywhere.

 

[Dr.rinco]

Exactly as Pronto stated: Impossible to answer. What are your goals? Your budget? What converter? What heads? Fuel system? Driving habits? Street or Strip? Both? There are many vendors with a lot of knowledge regarding how each turbo will respond and behave given different setups and conditions. Bison is who I contacted for mine and he's as knowledgeable as you'll find.... anywhere.

It's just stock

 

[marleyskater420]

It's just stock

Could you please provide us with a list of modifications that have been done to your car?

Regarding your new turbo that you are looking to purchase, do you have any specific horsepower goals or ET goals for the dragstrip?

Do you have a budget in mind for your new turbo?

Just throwing this out there, but my company, RPS (aka Boosted RPS) works very closely with WORK Turbochargers ( www.workturbochargers.com ) to provide economical "Rebuilt" turbos for customers who are looking for some of the best parts you can find in a turbo, but without the price tag of a new unit. We use 100% AMERICAN made center sections and as many USA-made parts as possible...not every turbo builder for the Buicks uses AMERICAN turbo wheels or parts, which we have learned from rebuilding their blown units...so you may want to keep that in mind... WORK Turbo has almost 25 years of experience building turbochargers. NO ONE building turbos for the Buicks that are vendors, and I mean NO ONE, has that much experience building turbos for these cars.

I recently wrote an article about the new billet turbos that companies offer. You may want to take a moment to read a bit of it. So far I have heard nothing but good reviews about my writing, and I even include a pricing guide at the end of the article that gives you an idea as to how much you should expect to pay for certain types of turbos. Here is a link to the article I wrote: https://www.boostedrps.com/single-p...rpay-Or-Be-Fooled-Into-Buying-The-WRONG-Turbo


If you have any questions about what turbo to get, or what direction you may want to take, please feel free to call me at 707 362 6030.

Thank you,
Tyler

 

[Pronto]

Tyler, this guy is nowhere near needing a turbo. He's a super noob. Trying to stop him from spending thousands on stuff he doesn't need and steer him in the right direction. Will he listen and learn? Take your bets, lol.

 

[Marty Fairchild]

Factory turbo can go high 11's low 12's.
Do a search, your on the very best most knowledgeable site on the planet!
Take advantage and good luck!

 

[Jerryl]

OP,
Unless your turbo needs replacement, the "best bang for the buck" is still the stock turbo.
If it needs replacement, "best bang for the buck" is the stock turbo.

 

[Dr.rinco]

What's the warning sings that I should replace the turbo besides white exhaust smoke

 

[marleyskater420]

Tyler, this guy is nowhere near needing a turbo. He's a super noob. Trying to stop him from spending thousands on stuff he doesn't need and steer him in the right direction. Will he listen and learn? Take your bets, lol.

I tried to send him a message to get some more information on what exactly is going on, but I got no response.

I don't even care about selling him anything, I am more concerned with giving him the right recommendation for his setup, but I cannot even get that done until I know what he has.

I'm sure there will be some other vendor that will be HAPPY to sell him the most expensive dual ball bearing, Gen 2 CEA, PTE turbo, that they can make the most amount of money on....one particular vendor comes to mind... but I can tell you for certain that we- RPS- will NOT be selling this guy anything, based on this minimal amount of information posted...

It would be kinda funny if this guy ends up having some fully built Stage 2 engine waiting to go in, and that is what he is asking for a turbo....hahahahah!

Factory turbo can go high 11's low 12's.
Do a search, your on the very best most knowledgeable site on the planet!
Take advantage and good luck!

This! ^^^

OP- We are here to help you out and try to help prevent you from spending money when you do not need to.

What makes you think that you need to replace your turbo in the first place?

What other modifications have you done to your car?

There are a LOT of modifications that can be done to your car before you need to replace the stock turbo.

What's the warning sings that I should replace the turbo besides white exhaust smoke

Oil in the downpipe/turbine housing, or oil in the compressor housing.

If any of the wheels are bent or dented on the turbo, that would be cause for a rebuild- but NOT mean that you need a new turbo.

If you could please provide us with more details about your setup, and what exactly you are looking for, I think we would all greatly appreciate it because it will help us provide you with better assistance with what you are trying to achieve.

 

[Dr.rinco]

When you say more detail's about my set up what are you exactly looking for me to explain ? I bought the 87 GN from my uncle with 133,765 miles. It seems to be leaking oil in the cat or some where next to the cat, have yet to get under it. I definitely need to change the spark plugs and fule lines. And when it's idling there''s ticking some where under the alternator, also when it's idling the rpms are at 2,000.

 

[Dr.rinco]

When you say more detail's about my set up what are you exactly looking for me to explain ? I bought the 87 GN from my uncle with 133,765 miles. It seems to be leaking oil in the cat or some where next to the cat, have yet to get under it. I definitely need to change the spark plugs and fule lines. And when it's idling there''s ticking some where under the alternator, also when it's idling the rpms are at 2,000.

I'm just trying to bring the car back dorm the dead then make it a sleeper that smokes 5.0 mustang's and he'll cats

 

[SCOOBY DOO]

Give Tyler a call at boostedrps. He's honest and is knowledgeable far beyond his years.

 

[Pronto]

Take off the intake pipe. Grab the nut holding the impeller on and wiggle it. It should have slight play. If it moves a lot and scrapes the housing then it's done. If it blows blue smoke out the exhaust then the seals are probably blown. Ok, some details but how about a list of mods, chip, repairs, rebuilds, previous known issues, etc. What is your mechanical experience?

 

[TOOMANYTOYS]

He said white smoke from the exhaust. Seems like a new turbo should be the last thing on his list

 

[Pronto]

133k miles if unrebuilt will need plenty of work including timing set and possible cam. Oil drip is probably the valve covers.

 

[chris kirk]

What type of turbo should I buy ? On that is the best bang for the buck.

Take the car to someone that knows these cars and have them thoroughly go over the entire car. Give them as much history on the car that you can. Once it's all checked out and running up to it's peak performance you'll have a good baseline for your application, at which you'll be able to ask the members here (whom are all very knowledgeable) what best performance parts you should add. But it's important that you take to someone that knows these cars specifically and currently. If someone tells you they worked on them 30 years ago, then find someone else. Good luck and welcome to turbobuick.com

 

[Dr.rinco]

Is there anybody in Colorado ? Or close to this state ? Could you give me A contact ?

 

[RUQWKNF]

To be honest, there are only 3 well established shops that come to mind that are "semi" close to you, but I'm not sure if they take in work or not. One vendor in Tooele Utah which is Jason and crew at RJC Racing. Next would be TA Performance in Scottsdale AZ and finally Nick at Arizona GN in Phoenix. You might try reaching out to them and see if they know of any vetted Turbo Buick specialty shops in Colorado. But to be honest, I do not know of any in CO that have been around as long as those guys.

http://rjcracing.com/contact/

http://www.taperformance.com/

http://arizonagn.com/


Hope this helps.

-Patrick-

 

[marleyskater420]

When you say more detail's about my set up what are you exactly looking for me to explain ? I bought the 87 GN from my uncle with 133,765 miles. It seems to be leaking oil in the cat or some where next to the cat, have yet to get under it. I definitely need to change the spark plugs and fule lines. And when it's idling there''s ticking some where under the alternator, also when it's idling the rpms are at 2,000.

Instead of us asking you to list your modifications done to the car, how about I ask you if the following modifications have already been done to the car, or if you know anything about the parts I'm asking about (have they been replaced, are they aftermarket versions, etc)

1) What type of downpipe does the car have?
2) What type of headers does the car have?
3) Has the engine ever been taken out of the car?
4) Has the engine ever had work done to it, such as the timing chain replaced, the camshaft replaced, or any rotating assembly parts replaced?
5) What type of MAF sensor does the car have? What type of MAF piping does it have?
6) Is the engine currently very dirty from years of either sitting or neglect?

Give Tyler a call at boostedrps. He's honest and is knowledgeable far beyond his years.

I dunno about that man...I just try to be honest and if I don't know the answer, I try to find it out.. but thank you for the vote of confidence!

Take off the intake pipe. Grab the nut holding the impeller on and wiggle it. It should have slight play. If it moves a lot and scrapes the housing then it's done. If it blows blue smoke out the exhaust then the seals are probably blown. Ok, some details but how about a list of mods, chip, repairs, rebuilds, previous known issues, etc. What is your mechanical experience?

Exactly what Pronto said ^^^

OP- if you are getting white smoke you may have a head gasket blown, or a leak in the intake valley pan gasket. If there has been any work on the intake manifold, and the manifold was removed and put back, it may not have the gasket installed correctly and there may be a leak around the coolant ports. Not saying this is for sure the cause, just that it might be.

He said white smoke from the exhaust. Seems like a new turbo should be the last thing on his list

We are not trying to push him towards a turbo. We just want some information to determine if the turbo is blown, or if there are some blown seals in the turbo.

There very well be multiple issues with this car and/or multiple leaks. We are trying to address and help the OP with one area at a time. With the white smoke I think there may be an intake valley pan gasket leak, or a head gasket.

133k miles if unrebuilt will need plenty of work including timing set and possible cam. Oil drip is probably the valve covers.

Are you saying the cam because it may have flat lobes?

I agree with the oil drip on the headers most likely being valve cover leaks.

OP- I would suggest cleaning of the valve covers all around the gasket area, underneath the VC's on the cylinder head, and anywhere else that you currently see oil.

The easiest way to determine where the oil leak is coming from is to start with a clean engine so that when it does leak, you will know exactly where it is coming from.