What can I do?

[Utah Blaine]

The turbo is dead on 79 231. What can be done to drive the car again? Can't find a turbo any place!

 

[mat231v6]

http://gpopshop.com/services/rebuilding/ You can get a rebuild kit, or have someone rebuild it for you.(like Reed or Gpopshop) I am for sure someone on the board has a turbo for sale. Aj (Dr. Frankenstein ) has a ton of turbos contact him he might have one to sell.

 

[Reggie West]

Contact Bison on this board. He can take care of that.

 

[charlief1]

I believe I have 1 good 1 sitting. I'll try and check it tomorrow and since I don't have any plans to use a stock one again I'll give you a price on it.

 

[Utah Blaine]

I believe I have 1 good 1 sitting. I'll try and check it tomorrow and since I don't have any plans to use a stock one again I'll give you a price on it.

I have been informed that I'll never be able to get more than 200 hp from my engine. They said that would be expensive in it's self. It seems that my engine is an old type and I need a new type. My question is: can my engine be made into a 80's style using used parts from wrecking yards and then over a period of time replace with performance parts?

This turbo stuff is all new to me! The car sat for 15 years. I get it running and something else goes wrong. Call people and tell them that it is a 1979 "hot air" turbo and it's met with silence and then "ah... no, can't hep ya' man". This site seems to have a lot of knowledge and thought maybe I could get some help on a cheep way to get caught up in time.

 

[charlief1]

Link in my sig will tell you how to do a modified TTA (79-80) turbo which will get you above 200 easily. Matt is using one, successfully I might add, and I've got one TTA owner that's using the fully modified TE60-DT with good results. With the TE60-DT our cars are capable of 10 second runs. The guys that told you you couldn't do much didn't have a clue what they were talking about. It does take money though. There were also some that didn't believe a HA SFI car could make it past high 11's, and now we've got several that have broken into the 10's and a few that we've been waiting on to break the 9's. If the people telling you this stuff haven't messed with a draw through car don't listen to them.

 

[Utah Blaine]

I like everything you said. Can you direct me to a place where I can read up on this type of turbo engine? I need to understand how it works. That may sound stupid but I don't know exactly what this draw-thru turbo is. I understand how a blower works but not this turbo I have. What does TTA stand for and non-SFI ?

 

[blacknight80]

Lots of good stuff at http://www.beforeblack.net.

 

[charlief1]

I like everything you said. Can you direct me to a place where I can read up on this type of turbo engine? I need to understand how it works. That may sound stupid but I don't know exactly what this draw-thru turbo is. I understand how a blower works but not this turbo I have. What does TTA stand for and non-SFI ?

A "draw through" set up is exactly like a blower with a carb on it, but the "blower" is powered by exhaust rather than a belt. GM made 6 production draw through cars since the 60's. The Corvair spider, the Olds F-85 thunder jet (?), The Buick Regal (G body) platform, the Rivera, the Lesabre, and lastly, the 79-80 Pontiac Tans Am. TTA stands for turbo trans am.

Non sfi means it's not sequential fuel injected like the 84-87 turbo Regals. Do some searching on the board in this section and you should find a bunch of info. Matt has his own site which is titled before black racing. You also have the 301 garage, which is all about the TTA cars and the 301 Pontiac.

 

[b4black]

Draw-thru means the turbo is after the carb. It draws air (and fuel) through the carb. A blow-thru swaps the order and the turbo is before before the carb.

In a blow thru, the carb get's pressurized. In a draw thru, the carb is pretty much standard, but the turbo then has to deal with gasoline going thru it. Pro and cons to each.


Any Buick V6 turbo from a 1979-1983 RWD engine will work and bolt right on. http://www.beforeblack.net/turbos.htm


I highly recommend getting a factory shop manual off ebay.

 

[Utah Blaine]

Are you saying that the 79 turbo creates a HUGE vacuum under the carb and pulls the fuel into the heads ( adds to the pistons own vacuum)? With no belt what regulates the carb to turbo ratio? Exhaust flow? Thus the term "hot air"? Are there any electronics involved other than the Turbo Control Center, and what is the Detonation Sensor for?

Let me go read http://www.beforeblack.net/turbos.htm

 

[mat231v6]

https://sites.google.com/site/beforeblackracing/adjustable-wastegate
The wastegate (picture in link above) regulates how much boost you produce. The detonation sensor is to measure how much knock your engine is producing, and to tell the turbo control center to retard timing. Hooking a boost gauge will tell you how much boost your are running. Here is a link on how to hook up a boost gauge' https://sites.google.com/site/beforeblackracing/hooking-up-a-boost-gauge Hot air (HA) just refers to the fact that we don't have a intercooler on our setup. i would classify our cars more as a drawthru/ carb turbo (CT) because the 84/85 guys call their cars hotair, which might confuse some people if you post in another section.. their is alot to learn and you are in the right spot. We have several really knowledgeable people here that love to help.

 

[Utah Blaine]

There is no doubt about the knowledge that has been shared here with me. I thank everyone. I can't wait for the weather to warm so I can go to work on this car.

 

[mat231v6]

Trust me, i cannot wait either for the warm to come.

 

[charlief1]

It was in the mid 50's today so you guys just need to move south.

 

[Utah Blaine]

It was in the mid 50's today so you guys just need to move south.

This winter has been nothing but rain, wind, ice and snow. Tomorrow starts two days of rain then maybe into the 60's
Maybe I should take the hay and tractor out of the barn and move the Buick inside. Oh well, couldn't heat that big thing anyway.