hello. i'm new to the gn crowd. while i've always admired these cars, i've never been able to personally indulge myself with the pride of ownership until now. i bought a moded 87 regal type-t, but i have no idea where to start! i bought the car from a lawyer that got the car for payment of attorney fees. he told me what his client told him: he had the engine professionally built in Memphis with aftermarket turbo (i don't know how to identify it), stage II aluminum heads (even though my research shows that the stage II heads are for a performance block?), some type of chip, and that the car runs on aviation fuel. i'm still trying to reach the owner, but he's been elusive because of his recent incarceration. through my own research, i've found that it has an aftermarket intercooler, fuel regulator, headers, downpipe and exhaust. my biggest question is how to tune this car. there is so much that i don't know, yet i've learned so much just from this site. i've got ALOT of pics to those of you interested in helping me out. thanks in advance, Jeff
Bruce Plecan had this to say on the mailing list:
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If the past owner was in jail, and not happy about it, I wouldn't be telling him who has his car now. While one might do things under a given set of circumstances, at later review he might want to undo his past desicions.
FWIW, I wouldn't be trying to get ahold of him in any way.
Just run it as is, while you figure out what all you have.
Buying an unknown is going to take a little extra work.
At the GNTtype site they have what's called Spring Cleaning, you'll want to do that first.
Then replace the fuel pump and hot wire it.
Then a scan tool, and depending on what you want to do one with datalogging.
Tuning first means establishing a base line.
The single most critical item in a GN is fuel.
Get the fuel pump done, and scan tool, then so the Spring Cleaning.
My address is on the header [ bplecan@woh.rr.com ], drop me some pics, I might be able to ID a few parts for you.
Bruce
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To this I would add that before you change & hot wire the pump, check to see what is there... chances are that this was already done, considering what else it has.
I would put a scan tool / data logger (Turbolink or Directscan) at the top of your list, along with a boost/vac & good quality fuel pressure gauge, and work on learning how to monitor and tune, first. DS will show a bit more info that will help you decide if something needs to be done with the chip (like the BLM table) so that you don't have to run "aviation fuel". The timing may be too high for pump gas... or maybe just the boost needs to come down.
"Mike", on the mailing list, mentioned that it "sounds like a race car to me". Could be. You need to identify what you have there.
Dean