Scottie-GNZ

If everyone can show a little patience I will take on that arduous task.

In the most simplistic of terms, imagine a line that connects the tranny to the diff and has then perfectly aligned. If the tranny tailshaft was 1* below that line, then the nose of the diff should be 1* above the line. You check your angles with a angle-finder tool which most good shops will carry or you can get one from harbor Freight or McMaster-Carr. See if this helps: http://www.iedls.com/guide.html

I will see if my local hydraulic shop has them. How much of a rush are you in? In the meantime, how is your flaring skill? Might want to think about buying 2 pieces of brake lines. One with the metric and one with the SAE, cut one end on each to the appropriate length, then re-flare both pipes with metric on one end and SAE on the other. VOILA!

Touching story. It takes nothing away from you to give/show a touch of kindness and ironically you can receive so much fulfillment.

Sart here: http://www.gnttype.org Go to the Technical section and there is enough information there to keep you occupied for a week. There are no kits, or documentation on this swap anywhere except for what I have posted here and on the Buick boards. Go to http://www.turbobuicks.com and search the Hybrids forum as there are lots of GN-powered hybrids built or in progress that hang out there. As for the wiring, you can do it yourself if you are not intimidated and have patience, else you can buy a special harness for about $500 designed for engine swaps in general. I did a little write-up on the approach to successfully grafting the harness in a swap but you will have to search for it in the Hybrid section of Turbobuicks.

I am using a Biondo. You can use SAE/metric adaptors or flare your own lines with different ends.

86-87 Buick Turbo Regal, Grand National (GN) and Grand National X (GNX), 89 Pontiac Turbo Trans Am (TTA). You can forget about finding one in the JYs. The TTA and GNX are both collector cars so the best bet is searching the classifieds in the Turbo Buick boards: http://www.turbobuicks.com and http://www.turbobuick.com If you are interested in buying one NOW, Misred had one for sale complete with harness, ECM and datalogger. Contact him at mike@turbobuicks.com When one oif these jewels come up for sale you have to be prepared to buy immediately.

There are 3 types of GN motors and the prices will vary wildly. Very early motors were carbureted. 84-85 were EFI but were not intercooled. These are referred to as "Hot Airs". The desirable ones and the one I recommend is the 86-87 EFI and intercooled. My car is very streetable and MOF I drove to the Reynolds meet last weekend and registered 26+mpg cruising at 70-75 up the freeway. It might be putting out almost 500hp but when it is not on boost it is just a low-compression 6-cyl with a stock cam, 3.07 gears and OD. If "granny" did not put her foot into it she would not be the wiser .

Whatever tranny you use, make sure you get the clutch actuation components that goes with that tranny or you will be pulling your hair our out trying to make it work.

I think the problem here is that a lot folks in this thread do not understand the forces involved here, so I am going to attempt to use the numbers from my most recent run at Reynolds to put it in perspective. We all accept any car that can do 0-60 in under 6-secs as being pretty quick. Most recently Chrysler unvieled the Tomohawk, a Viper V-10 powered motorcycle. They claimed 0-60 in 2.5-secs and I am willing to bet many in this thread would sh*t their pants if they mounted that thing and twisted the throttle. At Reynolds my car had a 60' of 1.49 and 6.621 @ 104.34 at the 1/8-mile. I plotted an acceleration curve from my datalogger and this is what it amounts to: 0-60 in 2.16-secs and 0-100 in 6.21-secs! Yes, it blows the Tomohawk away so you better believe this should scare you as much as riding that bike. Any Z-car with 500hp has that capability. More times than I like to recall I have left a stripe in my shorts launching my car and worse, almost losing it on the the top-end. That is with racing tires, IMHO a well setup suspension, on an enclosed racing circuit and with a healthy dose of respect for this beast. With that kind of power there is no margin for error. We all love our Z cars but in stock form the chassis, brakes and suspension is really crap compared to new cars like the Supras and we want to add 500hp in that short wheelbase on the street with street tires? There is no way in hell I would do on the street what I do with my car on the strip. On the other hand, I use to street race when I was younger and I can tell if I had this kind of power back then I would be posting from Heaven.

This really is going to be difficult to give a straight answer because a lot of it depends on your ability and luck to find the right parts and at a reasonable price and your design, fabrication and mechanical skills. People see my car and like the results and want to duplicate it but they have to understand that NOTHING on my car (related to the swap, drivetrain and suspension) was done with a kit. That is not to say it cannot be duplicated, but if you do not have the skill, it is going to cost you a ton of $$$ simply because of what fabricators and machinists charge to do one-offs. I would be doing you all an injustice if I led you believe it would cost you $x because that is what it cost me. Another thing, a lot of what I did could be considered overkill and was done as an engineering challenge. With that said, here are the basic components and steps needed with cost defined where applicable: Drivetrain - If you could find a complete engine with turbo, tranny, ECM and harness for $2700-3000, do not even blink. Compared to the typical low-buck SBCs one can find in the JY or from a wreck, that is a high entry fee. However, my bone-stock setup went 12.40s first time out with an easy launch and no idea how to tune this beast. It is going to take a hi-po crate SBC to match that and after you finish dressing the crate engine and getting a tranny you will have spent more than $3K. For another $100 you can pull 50+hp out of the stock GN engine. Install Pt I - There is no kit so you must fabricate your own engine and tranny mounting. There is no way for me to quantify this. If you are a skilled fabricator and understand the concepts of engine swapping regarding driveline angles, etc, it is not a difficult task because the engine is physically small relative to the roomy engine bay. However, if you have to get this all done by a shop........ Install Pt II - Once the engine/tranny is in the chassis, you need to take measurements and have a custom driveshaft made. I recommend a 3" diameter steel with the big Spicer joints and that will cost about $250. You will need a shifter and the easiest route is an aftermarket, keeping in mind that this is a 4-spd tranny (5-spd actually, if you count the LU). Anywhere from $75 used to $250 for a fancy ratchet-type. You will need a VSS and you can get that from JTR for about $60. You will need this as the ECM relies on speed data and you need to know that you just went over 100mph w/o knowing it . You will need a custom alternator bracket or you can use the factory setup but it is bulky and probably will not clear the hood. I made my own. The engine's torque will rip stock motor mounts to shreds so I strongly recommend a polyurethane mount for the drivers side, $80 and worth every penny. Cooling - Get the Griffin radiator and a good electric fan that moves a lot of air and is shrouded. Do not waste time and money with the generic 16" fans. The radiator is about $190 + mounting + the fan setup. Since the radiator is generic you will have to find hoses that will fit and you will end up with some generic flex hose at the bottom and cutting up 2 hoses to make a top one. Exhaust - If you are on a budget, scrounge the Buick boards and get a ported stock wastegate elbow for about $50+ and have a shop fabricate a 3" DP from that and a 3" exhaust with a free-flowing muffler. If you can fabricate and weld you can save a ton here and make it all yourself. I will not attempt to quantify this either because of the variables such as SS or not, TIG or MIG welds, mandrel vs press-bent, cheap cherry-bomb vs Dynomax Ultraflow.... You get the idea. Intercooling - No Starion, Saab, Volvo, et al here!! Minimum would be the BIG NPR or use a stock GN and make it fit and work as a FMIC. DO NOT GO CHEAP HERE! Mandrel-bent pipes and good clamps is also a must. Remeber I said you can get 50hp for a couple of $$$? The way you do that is to get the right chip made, put in some race gas and turn up the boost. The GN runs 12psi boost stock. You will be moving a lot of air. Electrical - With luck you got a complete GN harness and ECM. This harness is independent but can be (IS) a daunting task if you break out into sweats doing electrical work. The harness must be opened up as you will end up eliminating almost half of it. A good wiring diagram and patience and you can do it or pay someone. Run a couple of new 10-gauge wires from the battery to support the electrical sources for this harness. DO NOT use any of the original Datsun wiring except to trigger relays where necessary. Suspension/Brakes - This had better be in your budget right up front. R200 is a must with a minimum of solid u-joints in the halfshafts if you are running street tires. If you step up to DRs or slicks, the CV conversion is a must. The final-drive ratio is going to be difficult part. With just a couple more psi of boost and careful tuning, the car will do 120 in the 1/4-mile. This engine has so much torque that I am not sure what the rear would do if it was not a LSD. Problem is that the LSDs are 3.70 forcing you to shift to OD which is .67 (big drop in RPMs) and not designed to handle that type of driving. If you do not frequent the drag strip often, this is not a problem but, trust me, you will. Best bet is a LSD with the rare 3.36 gears. Now you understand why I went to the Vette IRS. If you are starting from scratch you have to get a LSD, find the rare 3.36 R200, have a driveline shop do the swap with new bearings, find CVs and buy the CV swap kit. The rear brakes must be upgraded to disc or run the best shoes available. The fronts should be upgraded to a 12" setup from Ross or SCCA. Overkill? Look at it this way. With minor upgrades the car will be capable of hi-11s and close to 120mph. Another way to look at it is 0-100mph in probably about 9secs! If you like to push your car on the street, you MUST respect that capability and have stopping power that can match the acceleration. Nickels & Dimes - The little things that you never think about when planning a swap. Whatever your budget, add 20% for this category. I am sure I forgot a lot. This is no different from any other swap, you just are not working from a kit so if I left anything out, others can fill you in. HTH and I do not want to write this again so I hope in the future folks utilize the Search feature. And, before anyone asks, I am not in the fabricating business so do not look to me for parts .

By my calculations, here would be the engine speeds at 70mph in 4th gear (1.0:1): 195/70-14 & 3.54:1 = 3,455.6 RPMs 215/45-17 & 3.70:1 = 3,629.7 RPMs HTH

This post is being locked. It served no purpose in the first place.

One of the reasons why there appears to be no definite answer is because we are dealing mostly with used parts making it a crapshoot. You cannot expect every 20+ yr old CV pulled out of a J/Y to be perfect. The solid u-joint makes the halfshaft a strong unit but like Terry has said several times, angularity plays a big role in how well it holds up. If you run the car hard with lots of squat, you cannot go wrong with the CV setup. I advise against rebuilt CVs because, like Stony said, the cage is made of pot-metal, probably where all the Yugos have gone . Get a pair of CVs and a spare pass side. To show how much of a crapshoot it is, I broke a CV, the drivers side which is not the side that is suppose to break.

Rick, sorry about the engine. Take Mike up on that offer as we want to see that car there, racing or not. It is one of the STARS!

That is not necessarily an accurate statement and is more applicable to NA engines. If you want 450+hp and perfect street manners with gas mileage to boot, then turbo is the way to go. Remember, when you are not in boost, you are driving a mildly cammed, low-compression engine.

When you think about fuel for a turbo setup, you have to think of it as a "system" that includes pump, filter, lines, FPR and injectors. As you increase power, all (except maybe the lines to a point) will be affected. If you are doing it in steps, like say add the turbo w/o the I/C, here is something you can do to get a little extra fuel for that increase. - Get an adjustable FPR (you will eventually need one) and raise the fuel pressure a little to get more flow out of the stock injs. be aware that this might cause a little richness at low speeds also. - "hot-wire" the pump. Voltage has a huge effect on the efficiency of the pump and I can gaurantee the stock wiring is not supplying enough voltage. Wire the pump with 10-gauge wires from the alt or batt and run them through a relay, then use the original hot wire to trigger the relay. At WOT the pump will have more voltage and flow more. I am not advocating these are "upgrades". These are things you should be doing regardless but will get you a little more out of the stock components. Be aware that if you are currently running say 9psi with the stock turbo, 9psi with the bigger turbo is a BIG difference. Start with a lower boost level and work your way up. Make sure you have a proper, accurate boost gauge and at a minimum, an A/F meter to monitor the mixture, but an EGT gauge would be better. Run the highest grade gas you can get/afford.

The trick to not blowing off I/C hoses is to have a lip on the ends of the pipes and use the T-clamps as advised. No problems here with 25psi.

Here is the procedure I followed that worked for me: - If the studs are not new, clean the threads. - Chase the hole to also clean its threads. - Apply thread sealant (I will get the brand when I get a chance to dig it out). - Insert studs and let set for 24hrs - Finish install as normal. - First time I had the problem I ended up adding "Aluma-Seal" to my coolant and it solved the problem with no noticeable side effects you normally get from such additives. As routine I added it when I did it again and recommend it. I also run 1 each of WaterWetter and RMI-25. With the V-6 I can see if it is seeping because not all the studs are under the valve covers. I suppose with the Z you would need to run it for a while then pull the valve cover.

Anyone looking to use race gas is obviously going to be racing and should be aware of octane ratings. The advertised octane rating, (R+M)/2, is meaningless for racing. What you need to be looking at is Motor Octane, MON. Now, for the average Joe just looking for an octane boost to be safe, this is probably meaningless and the cheapest one you can find will suffice. If you are pushing envelope though, this is important. E.g., the most commonly available race gas are the Sunoco 110 and the Unocal 110 but their MON are 105 and 106 respectively. On the other end of the scale is VP C-16 which has an advertised octane of 117.5 only 7.5 above the others, but its MON is 117 making the MON difference quite substantial. There are other properties that must also be considered but that is another story. As for mixing, multiply the volume of each by its octane rating, add the results and divide by the total volume. E.g., mixing 3 gals of 93 with 3 gals of 110 results in 6 gals of 101.5. Be aware that most race gas is leaded and will contaminate the simple 1-wire O2 sensors quite easily. This will eventually affect you if you are running a closed-loop system or rely on info from a A/F meter. BTW, do not waste your money on octane boosters. They say it raises your octane x points and they really mean is .x. Ask the hard core racers where they buy their race gas and you will find there is probably station in your town that sells 110 at the pump usually for about $3.50 - $4.0/gal. No, you cannot pump it directly into your tank .

It is not very good but I would say the headlight covers are a cheap investment that goes a long way in helping and IMO also cleans up the lines.

The leak you are probably referring to is coolant seepage(sp?) if the studs bottoms out into a water jacket. This was a serious problem for me because the head studs act like a wick and coolant just comes up pass the threads. Do not know if this is an issue with the L6 but there are thread sealants to use and special procedures to follow to avoid this problem.

Ceramic coating, SS DP with header wrap and underhood temp is not a problem, not even with 500hp.

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