Sports Cars someone?

[Gary]

One thing a Porsche can't outrun is a bullet - not even one from the Vopos, let alone the Russian troops.....

Yep - Miss Kalashnikov will go from 0-60 a hell of alot quicker than any 911 Carrera

[RF]

Are you sure?

[Byron Angel]

Just found this thread. So Karl's a gearhead! Who knew???

I have had a very schizophrenic automotive history, which goes like this -

Grew up driving Oldsmobiles, which my father was very fond of. Spent most of my teen years driving the family 1960 Olds 88 with 394cid 4bbl and 3-spd turbo-hydramatic transmission. I had one summer when my parents were travelling in Europe when I got to drive dad's 1966 Toronado (IMO one of the finest styling exercises in the hitsory of American automobile manufacture), a front-wheel drive beast with a 425cid 4bbl making 385 rated hp at the flywheel - just a beautiful, powerful, great handling highway car capable of 135-140mph.

Just out of high school, I spent a couple of summers (1966-1967) as driver for my friend's 1961 De Soto Adventurer street-racer. It was a black 4-door with great huge tail fins, but it was actually an optional high performance version of the DeSoto sedan. My friend was running a 413 dual-quad Wedge with solid lifter cam through a Torqueflite pushbutton automatic transmission with 4:56 gears (IIRC) in the rear-end. We used to specialize in running against automatic transmission Pontiac GTOs - never lost a race. The 4-doors and big fins fooled 'em every time.

First personally owned car was a 1968 BMW 1600 (probably one of the first BMWs in Boston MA area - there were no dealers back then and I had to get all my spare and service parts from the importer in NJ) which my father was kind enough to buy in Europe and bring home for me. I drove the daylights out of that car and it began a long-running relationship with BMW. I've owned four of them in all - the 1600, a 1973 Bavaria (loved that car), a 1987 535is with lowered suspension (loved that car, too), and a 1992 M5 (which I still own and drive every day, because I love it best of all - just put a new suspension system in it).

In between BMWs, I have owned a 1972 Datsun 240Z (which I drove daily for 10 years), a 1967 Corvette L71 427 (which I owned for 22 years, but drove only rarely - mostly a trailer queen), a 1982 Toyota Supra (a soulless car with no real elan or personality; it should have been better than it was), and a few very short dalliances with a 67 Mustang and a 1968 Volvo 122 (which my wife adored - it was her personal "Fozziemobile a la the Muppets). Wife has moved on from Volvos and is currently on her 3rd Saab.

Biggest adrenalin ruch was the 67 Vette in a straight line - took my mother in law out one night on Rte 128 and she peed her pants :-) true story!


Byron

[RF]

Can't say that any of these old cars would turn me on really. I'm more up to date.

[Karl Heidenreich]

I am about to restore my 1987 GMC pick up truck. I'm thinking in a bright yellow paint work.

[Gary]

I'm getting shot of my 53 plate MG ZR (basically a souped up Rover 25) this Friday and I'm getting a BMW 318 (2nd hand)
The BMW has a 2 litre engine and a leather interior.

Whilst car shopping at the weekend, I also saw a BMW M3 (4 litre V8) but sadly it was a little out of my price range and I dread to think what the insurance premiums would be!

[Dave Saxton]

^^^The BMW 3's are solid cars. I had to drive one almost cross country to deliver it to the client's Great Lakes address. It was a fun car. It was a convertible with a 2 something Liter motor and the manual gear box. Actually pretty quick. Got 36 mpg too.

[Dave Saxton]

I am about to restore my 1987 GMC pick up truck..

Well I got my old blue mustang tore down partially right now. I sheared three bolts right off going into the head and holding the alternator bracket on. Fatigue failure it looks like. I'll have to drill and tap the bolt holes. Also noticed a thermostat housing leak. Now I'm deciding how far I need go. It's been more than 10 years since the last time I was into the internals and I race the old gal hard at times. I'd like to slam in a more aggressive cam shaft than the one I have in it now. But if the engine needs a complete overhaul I'll just pull the whole motor and completely tear it down.

I ran a leak down, or at least tried to yesterday. I couldn't get the female air hose fitting on the male air fitting on holes numbers 2 and 3 without removing the exhaust header, which I'm not ready to do yet, and While I had enough room on number 8 for the air fitting I could not physically snap the fittings together while holding back the lock ring on the female end with my hand. I had to snake my hand down between the the head, the firewall, the header tube, the dip stick tube, and the brake booster, and it just barely fit. On Number 4 the air was leaking past the fitting so bad no reading could be made. I pulled the fitting to re-tape the threads but then couldn't get it to screw back in again. LOL. So I only have readings on 1/2 the cylinders so far. They are good reading though:

#1 77/80
#2 na
#3 na
#4 na
#5 74/80
#6 75/80
#7 76/80
#8 na

I need to get more readings from the pass side head to find out its health. I'm happy with the drivers side bank and the spark plugs also looked good from that side. But the spark plugs from the bank with only one reading didn't look so good. Could be worn valve guides, but why would one side be all good and the other side not? Head gasket?

[Karl Heidenreich]

I got bad luck too: By getting out at full gas I broke my Porsche's transaxle fitting, mauled it in pieces. Now waiting for the repair.

[Dave Saxton]

Well good news. I was able to run tests on a couple more cylinders yesterday and my short block is in excellent health. Since number four was already at TDC, I first just pressurized it and came up with a faulty result. I was just about sick when it read a 57/80. Then I remembered that you have to bring it up from BDC on the compression stroke under a bit of pressure to re-seat the rings, or you get a false indication. When I did it properly it posted a rather spectacular 77/80. So all's good with the short block incuding the head gaskets. I'll pull the valve covers tomorow and inspect the valve guide seals, but I may be able to just manage the slight oil control problem of the pass side head by tightening up the tolerances a bit by running it 190*F instead of 180* F and by using higher shear strength synthetic oil. I hate to pull the heads just because of a slight problem with one head. And both heads must be the same as far as machine work goes, so to do a valve job on one head requires doing it to both. Everything is bolted up to the heads on an American V8. We will see. I'm going to go with these cam specs: 222*/ 230* @ 050" lift and .512/.512 gross valve lift. This is compared to 220/220 -.500/.500. It may be a lot of work for a marginal gain, but now I want to know what it may do.

[steffen19k]

Proud owner of a 1984 Buick Regal T-Type, powered by the Buick LM9 OHV Turbocharged 3.8L Even Fire V6 with Sequential Fuel Injection, 200-4R Transmission, a 3.42 Posi-traction Rear end, and sitting on 15x7 rims wrapped with 215/65R15 skins.

I inspected her before buying, as I was looking for a project car, so I knew what I was getting into. This was not a lemon deal.

I've torn the poor old girl apart as step one for a long and intensive overhaul. The Floorpan was half rusted out, and I need to do a body separation to inspect the frame for fatigue and corrosion issues, as there were signs of rodent inhabitation. past that, every thing seems solid.

the rear main seal was pushed out, and oil was leaking. the cam shaft had almost no lobe on a couple of cylinders, and the number 6 (piston on the passenger side, right before the firewall) was showing signs of valve scorching. All the stock pistons were cast, and were junk. The Exhaust manifolds have horrible airflow, and on top of that, have serious exhaust leaks. The Crankpin journals were scuffed, and the engine cooling system didn't seem to be working right.

The Turbocharger needs a thorough inspection and replacement of the integral wastegate actuator.

The transmission needs a freshening up (Thank God! Transmission Fluid didn't smell like popcorn) as the TV Valve was pulled out to stiffen up the shifts. (A HUGE no-no)

As of today, the engine is ready for primary assembly. Now I have to sort out whether or not to get a new intake manifold or get the original ported and matched for the heads. And then comes the point of whether I start with the transmission or the carbody.

So far its been fun, and a learning experience.

[Dave Saxton]

Ah, fun project Steffen.

So are you putting in a forged rotating assembly? What static compression? Same boost level? Stock cam? Speed density EFI? With forced induction, port matching and porting the intake isn't crucial.

[steffen19k]

Actually, ALL of the Turbo Buicks cranks are non twisted forgings with rolled fillets on the crankpins. If you own a turbo buick, and it doesn't have a forged crank, its not original, and probably not safe to drive.

I much prefer a MAF setup for the fuel injection, especially since I want the car to be something more of a long distance cruiser. In that light, I have heard all kinds of good things about FAST's XFI system. I'm also considering a Mallory Hy-Fire ignition, as it offers many of the same features as an MSD, but without the pricetag.

The stock compression is 8:1. I know I had the compression upped, but nothing significant, to about 8.5:1. I know I told the shop to not exceed 9:1. The cam is a Comp Hydraulic Roller Symmetrical cam.

Cam Specs: http://www.compcams.com/Company/CC/cam- ... id=46&sb=2 .

I don't intend to get into playing with the boost levels, not unless its really necessary. Considering that the turbo is easily capable of 15 lbs at peak, I've got more than enough huff to get some decent numbers out of it.

I figure simply improving the cars ability to move air with a mandrel bent exhaust should be more than enough to make this car worthy of its V8 slayer legend.

As far as porting or portmatching, the Turbo Buick, especially a "hot-air" or non-intercooled (84-85 model years) has an asthmatic intake, and anything that can be done to smooth out the air flow is a huge benefit

[Dave Saxton]

Well you got a pretty good understanding, and your right about converting to mass air/fuel. It will be worth the expense. The alterations to airflow will confuse the early SD system. Mass air will also allow more flexability in air flow and charge temp, perhaps even allowing an intercooler.

Will a later or aftermarket intake bolt up? Reducing the intake bottle neck will reduce the amount of boost measured at the gauge even though the actual airflow is greater and cooler. More flexability with the fuel management under boost and control of the spark retard curves will be handy as well.

You said something about cast pistons. I wouldn't consider anything short of forged with wide clearances for a high boost application. Hypers are okay for mild boost with the right tune though. But it had cast???? Yikes.

[steffen19k]

The machine shop I'm working with, which specializes in Industrial stationary motors, and myself really had a long and in depth discussion, and it was a mutual conclusion that that since I don't intend for the car to be a garage queen, and not expecting to exceed 500 HP (I'll be happy with 350) the Hypers are the way to go.

The cars original Sequential Fuel Injection is MAF based. The FAST XFI is just modernizing the system. (the stock 84 GM setup is only good for 256 CFM and the engine itself, using off the cuff math, for better or worse, sez the engine can flow anywhere from 600 to 1200 CFM before tweaks)

On top of that, there's some considerations for a new fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator, and some bigger injectors. I'm thinking some 42 lb/hr units, but that's something I've got to discuss with a good tuning shop, and I'm not quite at that point yet.

As far as the cast pistons go, they're the proper P/N for what GM's stock option was back in 1984. The interesting point is that the shop had to do a double take to discover that they were cast.

And yes, I'm looking at some Aftermarket intakes. TA Performance, Weber, and such.

There is also a slim possibility that a similar year Ford 3.8L intake might be used, since the Ford 3.8 is almost a license built reproduction of the GM 3.8, just using Cleveland parts. But that's entering the territory of where Angel's fear to tread.

I'm definitely not planning on anything aggressive enough to want, or need an engine girdle, although with two bolt mains it might be a good idea.