1984 Buick Grand National coming back to life!

[tobyp]

trunk kit installed today

Was leery about not installing a grey trunk carpet kit, however...the black kicks *ss

Everything stands out against it.

Even dirt....lol

 

[Bweavy]

Nice job Toby

 

[tobyp]

Well its winter. The engine that I drove thousands of miles to get reworked this year ended up a dud with enough issues that I took every part of it out of the car, as I swear it was possessed.

The block went to a new home
the cam.....trash, as that is all it was worth and was stock anyways
Crank somehow had a crack in it
Rods were out of round
Deck was uneven
timing cover had the cam walk somehow, maybe because the chain had 5/8" slop in it...not sure, and nearly drilled the button though the front of the cover

The heads were new as was the intake and they are fine, so they came over with the billet caps, everything else....good bye!

whew.....so I started fresh...completely. I hereby restart the coming back to life thread once again!!! (one of these days ill restart the 85 442, promise...actually got the engine back!)

 

[tobyp]

Here is the donor engine. It is a 50-75K,,,,not sure exactly sure of the mileage...GN 109 block engine. Picked it up in Chicago from a friend of mine.



Block torn down ready to take a ride to the machine shop



A wear item commonly known on these blocks is the cam thrust surface, notice this block has no wear.



A true basket case on its way to Barker Machine



While I was waiting on the machining to start I messed around with my intake and got it cleaned up and reassembled this time with 60lb injectors. However, wasnt good enough. You will see why more, below.



Ordered some T&D roller rockers because I knew I was not going to rebuild this once again



Since I was bored in the evenings listening to the wife complain I decided to buy a powder coating machine, as well as a new sandblaster to keep me busy in my man cave.



Here is some of the projects I took on to powder coat EVERYTHING i could find under the hood, and then some.









intake







misc brackets will all get coated as well



intake completed all powder coated and cleared with a mirror clear coat







Took some plain old headlight trim rings, blasted them as well and coated them 80% gloss powder..no more paint chips









Found a NOS timing cover, ported it as well as gasket matched and powder coated it as well. It gets a Canton Racing oil filter fitted with a turbo saver to keep me from spending big$$ on turbo rebuilds from all the crap the engine had sent through it.











Took the intake drilled and tapped a 3/8-18 npt and relocated the coolant sensor and installed an IAT (intake air temperature sensor) so I can monitor the air charge temperature of the alcohol injection system. THis will allow me to record, see and adjust using the power logging data in combination with the wide band 02 sensor, 02 sensor readings, MAF, etc.





was able to re-use the billet main caps and made an align hone pass. It's under machine work!!



I then later found that the Weber crank, that was with the engine (after sonic reading) had a freaking crack in it! So...it's going to now be a stroker 249 CI engine

4340 Steel crank



4340 H rods, Wiseco Tru Forge Pistons



Comp Cams 212/212 Roller cam, 125CC Roller Lifters, TD shafts, Total Seal Plasma Moly rings, Roll Master Billet sprocket timing set




Will be powder coating and clear coating more parts this weekend. Engine is underway in machining and should come together soon. It's gonna be a beast!

 

[ssn696]

Toby,

Thanks for illustrating that if you stick with one project at a time, you can actually get to an end point. The engine setbacks are minor - nowhere near the investment of time that all the body, interior and paint has taken.

 

[L92 OLDS]

Nice work!

 

[tobyp]

Thanks,

Worked on some of the misc brackets and pulleys.

 

[ssn696]

So how are you baking the parts to set the powder coating? I hope not in the kitchen stove!

 

[tobyp]

nope, using a small oster oven, the biggest one I could find

 

[ssn696]

That's one big little oven if you did the intake manifold in it. I hope you only coated the top of the master cylinder cover. I powdercoated some motorcycle parts, and then later dripped brake fluid and it discolored the coating, even after I rapidly wiped it off. On the other hand, it didn't melt and peel right off like auto paint usually does.