I have a nice 84 T-Type (58K miles) that's going on the road very soon. I bought an 85 GN that was hit in the r/front for parts. The GN is so nice I'm going to repair itas well. I had bought it for the turbo and other parts for the 84. Does anyone know if there's a turbo upgrade for these cars? Do I need it for normal go quick street use? Is there a better place than Poston to get a rebuilt ($400.00)turbo, and lastly, will an intercooler make a big difference on these models? Thanks in advance
$400 is pretty reasonable for a good rebuilt turbo! You can check John Craig (Limit Engineering) as well, but I'm sure either will be fine.
There is a turbo upgrade, but due to turbo position at the back of the motor, it's kind of a pain to do. Talk to Limit Engineering, I'm sure John does upgrades for these turbos.
An intercooler is a good thing, but the location of the turbo again makes this pretty expensive and a lot of piping needs to be run. There were a couple of places that made a kit (Spearco I think was one) but expect to spend $1500+.
A business called Turbomotion supposedly offered a kit to intercool these cars. I have an '84 also and have been trying to contact this company/person. (w/o success) I understand Turbomotion offered a revised intake manifold in addition to the intercooler. Does anyone knows if this company is still in business?
Thanks guys. I'm new to the board (and turbo Buicks) and am still exploring. I always knew that these were special cars but they're unbelievable! After I wrote the message I found a bunch of tech stuff that you all know about already. What a site! I can't wait to get my Buick registered. I guess the first thing I should get is a scan tool. From what I can see the Scanmaster seems to be real popular. The other turbo model which requires a laptop will have to come later. I don't have a laptop yet. I suppose the spring cleaning will be the first order of business. Thaks for the help.
George
ScanMaster won't work with an '84/85....
Take a look at:
http://www.turbo-link.com
and click on the Comparision Chart for several of the popular tools.
No turbo motion is no longer in business and yes an intercooler set up helps these cars. But there is a hot air doing 10's with a modified stock intake (I can set you up for someone to port and polish)and alcohol injections. T link is the only program that works on the hot air, you may want to consider upgrading to a 87 (or 86) ECM to open the door for more chips and computer set ups. Tlink works but the info is limited.
If you send your stock turbo to John Craig and limited he can upgrade your turbine right in the stock housing and get you a 63. Ask for the first turbo Lee Thompson used.
I do know for sure that Poston Enterprises offers an upgrade turbo for $849 says it is good for about 30 to 40 hp. Also a place in Illinois called ANS Performance has a front mount intercoller kit for your year car. I'm not sure on the price of it though. E-mail me if you wnt the number to their place, I used to be from the area and the do excellent work and offer awesome products you won't be dissapointed
Thanks guys. I sure appreciate the help. I looked at the Turbo Link site and it looks like a nice setup. If I change to the '87 ECM, coil pack, etc, can I use the Scanmaster? Not knowing a whole lot about these cars yet makes it hard to choose. If T-Link is the deal I'll go for that. I have read comparisons but I don't understand all the data that they provide. It'll come to be all right. I just need to dive into the thing and figure it all out. Until I read these posts and the "recipes" for the hot air cars I thought the only way I was going to have a quick street machine was to convert everything over to the later stuff. I guess that means from the heads up, the way I understand it.I'd rather not do that. Who is it that modifies the intake manifolds? That sounds like a good idea.
George
If convert over to the later ECM, you can use TurboLink, ScanMaster, etc.
If you need any help deciphering stuff ... gimme a shout at kmosher@acceleratetech.com and I'll try to answer them.
Also, you can download the demo of TurboLink and play with it as well...
The place you need to get in touch with that can port and polish your stock intake to make it flow better and open it up is
http://WWW.IWINENGINEERING.COM
Thanks Jamie. I'm looking into that intake mod. Thanks to Ken as well. I think I'm going to go with the Turbo-Link to get me started. My '84 is all stock and I don't think I'm going to change anythng on it. It's the '85 GN that I want to do the mods to. I'm pretty sure I'll have to sell the T-Type to finance the mods though. We'll see as things progress. I'm going to be out of town until Sept 7th. I'll catch up then.
George
I have my new ported intake on the car and let's just say it's making a big difference. The car idles better and is running a lot harder. It's surprising how much material is there that can be removed. The polish part isn't necessary though since we are just pushing air not fuel. But the upgrade was all good. Let me know how things work out. And Ken is top notch for information and T-link is a top notch program to tune your car with.
That sounds pretty cool Jamie. I'm sure I'll do that to my '85 GN. I just ordered the replacement turbo for my '84 T-Type (stock) from Poston for $395.oo. That's the best price I have found anywhere. I have to get the '84 set up so I can sell it and finish up the '85. The '84 T-Type is now a GN exterior look-alike except it's in Lincoln white pearl. It looks real good and has 58K miles on it. The interior is not too bad but needs a few parts that were stolen. It has the Lear Siegler buckets and should be a nice ride. If I can get a decent number for it I can do a real nice job on the GN. I'd appreciate any updates on the ported manifold and other stuff you do to yours. Thanks
Glad to help, let me know if there is anything else. I'll make sure to post updates as the results come in.