hey guys im new here so please go easy on me. i don't own a gnx, or a t-type, or a grand national. what i do own is an elcamino. well we all know theyre the same car as far as chassis goes. ive come acrossed a poor innocent imbicile who is dissecting his turbo regal to install an oldsmobile 350. why? i dont know. so apparently im going to be able to pickup the ENTIRE engine assembly and wiring harness for about 200 bucks. it has a rod knock, and im told the turbo needs a rebuild, but everything is there. so my plan is to get this motor and rebuild it and then drop it in my el camino all decked out in charcoal paint black chrome and gnx wheels. hence the name "el national" i am a speed freak but im looking for speed on a budget here. basically im shooting for a 12 second car that i can drive 60 miles to work each day and still knock out some decent gas mileage. what kind of e.t.s can i expect with a fully ported stock engine and turbo? what kind of mods can i perform without a great expense. headers and a good exhaust are not a problem. im not naive to performance, just naive to gn performance. my suspension is not a question as i have that already finished. im just curious about the engine and turbo. i can perform the porting myself. only the block work will have to farmed out. cam suggestions? this will be a complete rebuild but im shooting for a budget minded motor here. my promise to my fiancee is that this motor buildup will replace the 30000 dollar truck i want and hopefully give me some dependabilitly that is severely lacking in my 500 horse small block. thanks for going easy on me. i know this swap may be somewhat of sacrilige but oh well. you can email me at dgumotorsports_moe@yahoo.com
oh yeah...im not positive but i think its a hot air engine
It has been done before, so I don't think it is sacrilige. In fact I've done something similar. If you are looking to see what kind of performance you are going to get, then just look at the performance that people have gotten out of their Turb Regals. Your El Camino should get similar performance and fuel economy compared to a similarly setup Turbo Regal. If you are using this to replace your $30000 truck, then you can build one hell of a motor for quite a bit less. Hot airs take a little more to squeeze out the same amount of power as an intercooled version, but it can be done. Your best bet would probably be to convert it to an 86/87 ECM. You have a better choice of chips that way. Also, if you are swapping everything from car to car, you might want to convert the whole setup to the intercooled version. You would have most of what you need to start and could locate the rest. Good Luck.
Brian
i would like to know if the 96/87 ecm is just a plug in ecm or do i have to do some customizing?
You have to do a bit of customizing, ut if you have everything out of the car already, it shouldn't be too hard. The instructions, and parts list are listed here: http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/ecmsensors/8487ecm.html
Brian
One more thing, according to the tech article, it is suggested that you get the 86/87 MAF sensor. These are no longer available new. You have to try your luck at a reman unit. If you buy used, they are usually expensive. OR, you could go with a MAF Translator, and an LT1 MAF, but this is expensive also. Good Luck.
Brian