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

[81cutlass]

A local acquaintance is running a Treadstone. The thing is downright silly. He's been sub 9.5 seconds with IAT's below 100 degrees.

I've not heard of the Ace Race core that you linked. Do you have any experience with them?

I know tredstone is good stuff, I'd love to use one of their cores too but I can't find one that's right right size to use those tanks I found. I honestly only selected those end tanks because they are pretty cheap at only $40 each and they are the only end-feed pre fab tanks I have found.

No personal experience with as ace race parts core but I know they are common in the performance aftermarket fab world.

Before I pull the trigger on any of this stuff I want to see what my IAT's are with the stock GN cooler. I just forsee it's going to be too small with the 4.1 and extra cubes and 61mm turbo.

The fact I have a TIG now influences my decision making process 😉

 

[81cutlass]

Picked up the wheels off the wagon at my buddy's yesterday and bolted them on.

Looks like a wannabe TType now 😛


Took it on a cruise to a freinds place to help him unload a trailer and out was good to get the car back out.


The new front suspension is snug and feels good. I do need to change the steering shaft from the stock rag joint style to the jeep shaft. Steering floats a bit in the center.

Front springs settled a little but not enough. About an inch high still. I'm going to wait until I swap the EFI engine in but I don't expect that it will add that much weight. Probably end up cutting a half coil in the spring.

Does feel nice to have the car out of storage purgatory though!

 

[81cutlass]

I wanted to see how horrific the AFR on the drawthrough setup is, plus the stock manifold already has a bung in it and I need to wire it in before I EFI swap it.

And alignment tools.

Slow progress this week. It's farm model show this weekend and I have deliveries to make.

 

[81cutlass]

As previously stated for sharts and googles I tossed a wideband in just to have closure on how my guess carb tuning when I was 16 worked it. Not sure why I couldn't drop the $250 on an AFR gauge back then but ohh well.

The carb is basically the stock turbo Qjet with a 455 q jet secondary hanger and lift cam instead of the stockers and the secondary air door flap is loosened up so it opens more easily.

It's lean when cold (choke comes off too fast)
Afr bounces from 14-16.5 at idle
It's uncomfortably lean at 0-3psi when the secondaries aren't open (14.5-16.0)

But in boost when the secondaries are open it's like 11.8-12.8 at 5-9psi which I'm shocked that it's that ok. Considering it's got ported heads, bigger cam, quite a bit exhaust work it's close!

I have the timing controller to pull 1.5 degrees/psi and it has a NA dizzy instead of the fancy electronic module knock retard enabled dizzy so I think it's like 34 degrees or so wide open base and it's effective at 20-25 in boost or so.

But it's sllooooooowwww

A car making 6-9 psi for 5 seconds shouldn't only be going like 45mph at the end of the pull lol.

These are supposed to make 7ish psi stock and the car was faster with the th350. When I did the 2004r swap the governor made it shift at like 3500rpm. I cut the governor down to GN spec and it helped but it still doesn't rev like it used to with the th350.

The stock 82-83 wastegates are known to boost creep with light mods and when I had the th350 it boost creeped deep into the 12psi range with my larger AR housing 78-81 turbo, so it's clear I'm moving more air that some other people. I lost most of that creep when I swapped transmissions and it doesn't rev out and boost creep like it used to. The more it revs the more it boost creeps.

But going from 550hp in the 2+2 to maybe 200hp in this thing is painful lol. I'd love to take this car to the track with some 91 and alcohol injection and tune in some RPM and maybe run a 14.0 but I've got plans this winter and they don't involve not dropping in the EFI 4.1.

Snow is forecast this Friday so I might be shut down for fun car season in a few days.

 

[motorheadmike]

You'll get there... eventually.

 

[Turbo Zach]

Been there brother!

 

[81cutlass]

Spent most of the day cleaning the garage and shifting stuff from the parts shed to the garage and back and forth.

Put the drag radials and a few sets of tires out back, pulled the 8.5 rear out, pulled the engine rebuilding stand out, Etc.

Freed up enough space to get my 200r4 on the stand and start the rebuild. I have been spending lunch going through tech articles for rebuilding the trans and decided what parts I need.

Going with the ~$950 CK performance kit. It's all the clutches and steels, bearings, performance pump, shift kit, big servo and upgraded (Hobbed, not spline rolled) forward drum shaft. Maybe a little overkill for what I'm doing but I'm 90% sure if I called him that's what he'd recommend and it shouldn't have a problem with the 400-450hp the 4.1 should make.

I could probably get away with just putting a hardened stator, high pressure spool valve and spring and a 10 vane pump in my pump I have but the CK pump is like the same price as all the parts separate and it's semi warrantied since I'm buying his kit.

Might also get away without the big arse billet servo and Hobbed front drum shaft but again, it's a few $100 savings total increase and I'm sure the boost will get turned up so it's not a wild increase.

Welded up a trans fixture to install on my engine stand and got it mounted. Some M12 bolts, 2" tube, flat bar and left over scrap and bam! Rebuilding stand!

As expected there was some clutch material sitting in the pan. The trans would not shift under full boost with the turbo 4.1 making about 12 psi but it's an un-rebuilt unit out of my 2+2 that's not a performance unit with probably 70k miles on it. All I did was put a larger MCSS servo in, shimmed the pin length, and cut the governor down to GN spec.

I just gotta swallow the $1000 bill for parts and get started.

I have 4 years experience building and designing 24 speed tractor transmissions more complicated than this, and have 3 years of fluid power design in my masters and current job so here's hoping that translates lol.

 

[Texas82GP]

Love the fixture!

 

[motorheadmike]

Spent most of the day cleaning the garage and shifting stuff from the parts shed to the garage and back and forth.

Put the drag radials and a few sets of tires out back, pulled the 8.5 rear out, pulled the engine rebuilding stand out, Etc.

Freed up enough space to get my 200r4 on the stand and start the rebuild. I have been spending lunch going through tech articles for rebuilding the trans and decided what parts I need.

Going with the ~$950 CK performance kit. It's all the clutches and steels, bearings, performance pump, shift kit, big servo and upgraded (Hobbed, not spline rolled) forward drum shaft. Maybe a little overkill for what I'm doing but I'm 90% sure if I called him that's what he'd recommend and it shouldn't have a problem with the 400-450hp the 4.1 should make.

I could probably get away with just putting a hardened stator, high pressure spool valve and spring and a 10 vane pump in my pump I have but the CK pump is like the same price as all the parts separate and it's semi warrantied since I'm buying his kit.

Might also get away without the big arse billet servo and Hobbed front drum shaft but again, it's a few $100 savings total increase and I'm sure the boost will get turned up so it's not a wild increase.

Welded up a trans fixture to install on my engine stand and got it mounted. Some M12 bolts, 2" tube, flat bar and left over scrap and bam! Rebuilding stand!

As expected there was some clutch material sitting in the pan. The trans would not shift under full boost with the turbo 4.1 making about 12 psi but it's an un-rebuilt unit out of my 2+2 that's not a performance unit with probably 70k miles on it. All I did was put a larger MCSS servo in, shimmed the pin length, and cut the governor down to GN spec.

I just gotta swallow the $1000 bill for parts and get started.

I have 4 years experience building and designing 24 speed tractor transmissions more complicated than this, and have 3 years of fluid power design in my masters and current job so here's hoping that translates lol.


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That's some good work on the fixture. This is lining up to be a great project.

 

[Northernregal]

This thread needs more attention. I am in.