A Fabricobbler's Guide to the Turbo Buick Galaxy- Cutlass Rehash

[81cutlass]

Bought a set of 255/60 drag radials and mounted them on my 8.5" vectors. Pro they fit the wheel and frame great, con the backspace is a bit small and they are closer to the quarter than I'm comfortable with. I've gotta roll the lip and get some more clearance.

The headliner I redid in 2010 fell down so picked up some fabric and replaced it. Kinda a bummer that it only lasted 14 years but it's an easy replacement and only cost $75 for glue and fabric.

 

[81cutlass]

Limited updates-

Got the other drag radial mounted and rolled both fender lips. A baseball bat works better then the actual tool.

Bought an e85 chip from turbo tweak, I plan on going with a Holley ECU but I don't have the time to rewire the car this summer so just a stop gap measure for drag weekend in September

Also got my passenger window to go up all the way, it was a manual window car and I put electric regulators in but for some reason they didn't have enough travel and the window was always 1/4 down even though it was adjusted right

I also got the torque converter lockup wired in, just never got the power wire connected.

 

[81cutlass]

E85 chip from TT came in and I swapped the injectors over to the 60lb'ers

Took it for a drive last night (probably the most aggressive I've ever launched the setup) as the trans can actually take the power and I don't have to worry about knock retard. I actually trust this chip vs. the old 42lb injector Reds chip I had with 91 and GTP 37lb injectors cranked to 4 bar so it made them into 42lbers.

-Makes about 12-13psi so far, I got the chip burned for up to 20 psi and the stock turbo will allegedly run high 11's at 22ish psi before it runs out of breath. I don't expect it to make it that far as I have another 20 cubic inch of displacement over the 3.8. I already have an adjustable wastegate so adding boost is easy, I'll probably bump it to 15psi for now and take it to the track, if it runs good on day 2 or 3 of drag weekend I might turn the boost to 18 and see what it does
-Fueling is pretty decent, I have a Wideband and scanmaster with the stock ECU and chip with a MAF translator so 1994's best tech haha. It's 11.8-13.0 in boost according to my wideband at the 12psi setting. 130F intake air temp with the temp sensor relocated in the manifold runner. The knock sensor never sees any detonation where it used to see regular detonation in the 2-4 degree range even on 91.
-Makes about 3psi brake boosting before it spins the street tires. From an off-idle launch it squwaks the tires pretty good at about a 5mph roll. The extra displacement, good converter and 3.73's mean there is almost no turbo lag and definitely needs the drag radials.

I'm happy overall. I need to change the fluids and take it to the track for a test pass before drag weekend next month. If it runs high/mid 12's I'd be happy. I fully expect to find some issue(s). I think this setup will max out at high 11's with the stock turbo and intercooler in good air and a good track. Considering the car has never been to the track, test and tune night track prep is almost always a crap shoot, and it's August so the air is likely hot, I don't expect anything in the 11's this year.


Trying to keep the engine from detonating itself apart. It's got good spark with the LS coil on plug setup, a reliable MAF, good 525 walbro fuel pump, a decent chip, flow'ed and cleaned injectors, relatively fresh valve springs, so I basically am giving it everything I can (minus a powerlogger to monitor data) to keep it healthy.

Biggest concern I have is just overloading the pistons from boost. They are mismatched early 90's era 30 over TRW replacements. 4 came out of this engine and 2 came out of the engine that the crank came out of. It makes no significant vibration so I don't think it's out of balance but 20psi is a lot on a basic parts store replacement piston from 30 years ago. Reportedly OEM 3.8 GN pistons are really good hypereutectic AL, I can't image these TRW's are anything special. Forged 4.1 replacement pistons are basically all custom and $$$ so when I put this setup together in 2017 I was 1 year out of college and cheap/broke. I am less broke but still cheap so living with my past self haha.

Either way I am happy it runs as good as it does.

 

[DRIVEN]

There's only one way to find the weak link.

 

[Sweet_Johnny]

There's only one way to find the weak link.

SEND IT!!

 

[81cutlass]

Drove the 150 mile round trip to the 1/8 mile last night for some test passes.

My goals were to make the trip without a trailer, not break, make sure the trans shifts under full power, make sure it can do a sub 2.0 60ft without wheel hop or tire shudder.

If I ran in the 12's (1/4 equivalent) I'd call it a win.

Did the drive without issue, trans shifts good and got a best of 1.9 60ft smoothly with only 2psi on the launch.

Ran a best of 8.70 at 79mph which is like a 13.55 at 100ish in the 1/4. I thought it was a bit slow but it's faster than a bone stock GN and the DA was 3750ft so it corrected to a 13.00ish.

Problems, the boost flutters a lot in WOT, could be a cheap gage. Brakes are weak and I can only make 2psi on the line before it pushes through the beams.

I need to identify if the boost gage flutter is real or just bad data from a old cheap gage and get better front brakes on the thing.

If I can brake boost launch it to maybe 5-7psi and get the boost consistent to 18-20psi at the top end of the track in decent air I think a low 12 is feasible which is all I expect for a stock turbo and intercooler.

Video of boost flutter

 

[81cutlass]

Working on getting my brakes upgraded so I can build more boost on the line. Drag weekend is next weekend so cutting it close.

Same dealio I did on the 2+2. Cut the factory rotor down to a hub, cut the g body caliper bracket off the spindle and fab a bracket to mount a LS1 f body caliper.

My plan was to get it on the road again Sunday but my calipers I robbed off the rusty red firebird were also rusty and I needed to order some reman parts that are here Thursday.

These LS1 brakes fit under a TType wheel with light grinding on the cooling fins.

 

[81cutlass]

Calipers and new master showed up Friday

Got the calipers on, replaced the factory 3/4" master with a 1" 82ish Riviera disk/disk master and bolted it up.

I had to put a small radius/chamfer on the outside of the cooling fin on the caliper to provide clearance to the wheel but otherwise just a 1/4" spacer from oh-really and the wheel bolted right on with no rubbing. So yes, 15" wheels (select) do fit under LS1 calipers.


Bedded in the pads and it's a LOT better. At the track last month I was only able to make 1psi of brake boost before it pushed through the brakes (drag radials on the track). Now it will make about 2psi (street tires on asphalt) before it just spins the rear tires. Be interesting to see how much boost I can make before it either pushes through the front brakes or likely just skids the front tires.

Side effect the pedal is a lot more firm (I assume the 40 year old brake hoses were partially to blame) and the pedal no longer has the moderate shake as the rotors must have been warped.


Got rid of a few rattles, flushed the brown sludge (err antifreeze) out of the rad and replaced with water. This 4.1 block must have had sludge in it and it's always been brown-town.

Car gets loaded on a trailer Thursday and towed down to Iowa to start drag weekend (3 day drag week) this weekend.

 

[81cutlass]

 

[81cutlass]

Drag weekend #7 for me is done and car still runs great. About 18 1/4 mile passes and I think everyone was clean. Trans and chassis worked great which helped. I didn't spin a single launch (granted I am only running high 1.7 60ft times) but no wheel hop or drama. Trip was 500 miles so great test for the car. Had about 45 cars on the trip (smaller group of mostly SD, MN, IA, WI, IL and MO cars)

I think I finished 3rd in my 'dial' class, I think I had a .011 spread between the 3 tracks with my 13.51 'dial'. 1st place spread was a .008 and 2nd was a .009. I had a .006 spread going into day 3 but I decided to shoot for 12's instead of a tighter spread. I thought I'd feel more accomplished with a 12 than a trophy so i went for it.

Only had 2 mechanical failures. 1st track I was burping some fuel out of the fuel filler tube on launch so had to run the 2 miles to NAPA and get a new cap. 2nd track my passenger window motor died in the staging lanes so I had to pull the door panel off and vice grip the regulator up.

Friday drove from TriState to Great lakes, goal was figuring out the launch, was able to get a 13.510 @ 96mph, 14psi and about 2-3psi on the launch. Figured out double bulbing and stomping on the brakes and then building boost resulted in the best outcome. Terrible reaction time but IDC.

Saturday drove to Byron dragway, goal was seeing if it would repeat, it did with a 13.516 @ 97. Put another PSI of boost in and ran a 13.42 @ 98. Started to play with fueling. It's got a TT e85 chip which I know is right. AFR is great at idle up to 4200 rpm but past there is starts going rich. By the time 5000 rpm hits its 10.2 or less. Pulled 8% fuel out with the MAF and it cleaned up fuel at 5000rpm but it was too lean at 4000rpm so I split the difference and set it at -4%. Still 10.2ish at 5000 rpm but not in the 9's. Drove to hotel Saturday PM for parking lot beers and taco party

Sunday drove to Tri State. Ran a 13.3 @ 99. I always get .1-.2 and 1-2 mph free at Tri State. It's usually cool Sunday AM and the track goes downhill slightly. With my .006 spread I had to slow down 2 tenths so I left off 5 inch of vac and killed my 60ft but got a 12.521 for a .011 spread. Said that was good enough and turned in the slip and shot for the 12's. Cranked the boost to 18psi and got a 12.97 @ 100.5. Called it a weekend.


Car did what it needed to but the biggest learning is the turbo and down pipe are killing a ton of airflow past 4250rpm. My 1st day on 14 psi it picked up 18mph between the 1/8 and 1/4. On 18psi the 3rd day it picked up 17mph so despite it running over .5sec faster to the 1/4, .3sec was in the 1/8 mile and it lost trap speed improvement with more boost witch is entirely backwards. It's also drowning in fuel at 5000rpm because the chip is expecting the air to go out which it's not.

Running in the 12's and barely breaking 100mph is off. It should be trapping at 106+ with my weight and 1/8 mile time especially for a turbo car. The backpressure is probably killing 30+hp.

Lesson: time to put the 6062 turbo I have on the shelf on and fab that 3" down pipe and front mount IC.

Had fun and learned some and good to get the car out again after it being in storage mostly for 10 years. Not running in the 8's or faster like the cool drag and drive dudes but 12's with a comfy car and nothing but changing tires and turning some threads on the wastegate and a dial on the MAF box was relaxing.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

If you want to check out more pictures mr. Fabulous photography on the facebooks has a good collection