Can anyone give me any reason to keep a hot air turbo engine over a LS?

[Ribbedroof]

Build what you want.

IMO, there's more to a GN than the 3.8, especially the hot air cars. Paint it, pull the ornaments, tell everyone it's a t-type, not a turbo t.

Anybody figure the 72 Chevelle SS 307 and 350 cars that have had BBC swaps are less than they were as-produced? Didn't think so.

 

[jiho]

It is an underappreciated fact that in bone-stock form, the Hot Air is actually better for "normal" street use than the Intercooled because it has less turbo lag, meaning it spools up boost faster. However, the intake is choked off at the top end and there isn't much you can do about it, which is why everybody looks down their noses at it. The Intercooled meanwhile can be easily modded for the strip. The Hot Air will never do well there, in fact trying to milk more out of it with mods is where "gremlins" enter the discussion. So it all boils down to what you want to do with the car. Personally, I think the glory days for the Buick V6 at the strip are at the crying over beer stage anyway.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot parts. Yes, they are a problem. But ironically, you can often score parts from all the people converting to Intercooled .... or swapping in an LS.

 

[307 Regal]

We're all in the present; none of us can see the future. And we're all going down our own paths to our own goals.
So there's only one question you've gotta ask yourself:
"Do you care?"

The hot air GN may or may not be woth "more" money one day. But do you care?
The LS engine is far more optimized and makes more power to go fast. But do you care?
The hot air V6 is unique and it's a Buick engine. But do you care?
Buick purists may hate you for unbolting that incredibly niche part of history. But do you care?
Etc.

Do you care about speed, do you care about being interesting, or do you just care about having something that feels nice?
It's best to give yourself your own reasons for doing things.

 

[fleming442]

I'm not sure if that was supposed to insult me or what? My ls swap parts are all the holley ls swap stuff, full ac and all of the hvac staying. I hate when people rip that stuff out. From my research, the holley ls swap parts are the only ones that I believe are the correct way to do it, just my personal opinion.

I changed the plug wires and fuel filter tonight. The car runs and drives, sounds decent. I drove the car for the first time around the block. Roads are wet and it couldn't break the tires loose around a turn but it wanted to. It idles a little up and down but foesnt stall out anymore. It had a hyper tech stage 2 chip in it. It has noise coming from the back of the engine or trans. The previous owner said it had a flywheel or torque converter issue but had no clue what it was. I will further look into that tomorrow

It wasn't directed toward you at all. You got a man bun or a guilty conscience?
It was directed toward some of the hacked up shizz I've seen on the interwebs over the past few years. There was some clown at a "wrecker"/junkyard in Canadia that claimed he could do LS swaps for $800. I can only imagine what that looked like.
Also, while there were a buttload of turbo cars built, I fondly remember them as something somewhat revolutionary in their time. I have this weird, pseudo-purist thing in my head- Olds cars should be Olds powered, Pontiac the same, and turbo cars similar. The conflict comes with the fact that G bodies are "corporate" cars meaning they got whatever the General felt like throwing together. Therefore, yes, LS swaps should be acceptable (and they are to me), but it's been done too much already as far as I'm concerned. How about a Caddy turbo 6? A Duramax? A Cummins 4BT? The LS swaps aren't interesting to me at all when you can buy all the parts to drop it in. And, don't get me started on carbed LS engines......

 

[83StreetMachine]

As already said, your car build it how you want.

I'm going to be doing a Predator swap soon!!!


I'm joking, maybe.....but it's worth the watch

 

[Silent viewer]

It wasn't directed toward you at all. You got a man bun or a guilty conscience?
It was directed toward some of the hacked up shizz I've seen on the interwebs over the past few years. There was some clown at a "wrecker"/junkyard in Canadia that claimed he could do LS swaps for $800. I can only imagine what that looked like.
Also, while there were a buttload of turbo cars built, I fondly remember them as something somewhat revolutionary in their time. I have this weird, pseudo-purist thing in my head- Olds cars should be Olds powered, Pontiac the same, and turbo cars similar. The conflict comes with the fact that G bodies are "corporate" cars meaning they got whatever the General felt like throwing together. Therefore, yes, LS swaps should be acceptable (and they are to me), but it's been done too much already as far as I'm concerned. How about a Caddy turbo 6? A Duramax? A Cummins 4BT? The LS swaps aren't interesting to me at all when you can buy all the parts to drop it in. And, don't get me started on carbed LS engines......

Maybe I do have a man bun........ Ok, I really don't but if I did it would make me at least 10 years younger and I wouldn't mind that as I feel old age daily lol

As far as the butchered LS swaps, there are plenty of those and I agree, that is a mess but it isn't my car to worry about. That's why I chose the Holley system for mounting that is actually engineered for the car. I also chose to go with a self tuning EFI system because most of the tuners out there are charging 500 bucks and don't actually know enough about tuning to do you any good. And again, as you said, I absolutely can not figure out why you would put a carb on a modern EFI engine. GM put a ton of cash into making a pretty decent EFI setup and then you toss it for old school tech? But hey, not my build so i don't need to understand it. The purest thing has never computed to me, I grew up with a bunch of street rodders that swapped SBCs, LT1s and whatever they wanted into whatever they wanted. Lots of old fords with chevy drivelines. I loved the one guy really embraced the haters and put a big sign next to his 50s ford truck that said "Built ford tough with chevy parts". I will never forget it, blue truck that was appraised at around 100k, this was almost 20 years ago so 100k was actually a chunk of change back then. That guy probably had more cash in custom body work and paint than most spend on their entire car. I wish I had a camera phone back then, pagers did not take photos lol

 

[Texas82GP]

I think the Grand Nationals are cool, especially the 86-87's. Still, I would rather have a well executed LS swap with turbo than the turbo 3.8. The intercooled 3.8's are cool and it is still hard for me to believe they got built. I just prefer a V-8 and the technology leap of the LS is hard to argue against.

 

[Silent viewer]

As already said, your car build it how you want.

I'm going to be doing a Predator swap soon!!!


I'm joking, maybe.....but it's worth the watch

I'm gonna sound bad here, but I have been waiting for years to see more electric powered swaps. I thought by now you would see those all over the place.

 

[Texas82GP]

In the end, it's your car. Build it how you want so it does what you want. You're keeping out of the crusher. No guilt there!

 

[Silent viewer]

I think the Grand Nationals are cool, especially the 86-87's. Still, I would rather have a well executed LS swap with turbo than the turbo 3.8. The intercooled 3.8's are cool and it is still hard for me to believe they got built. I just prefer a V-8 and the technology leap of the LS is hard to argue against.

That's exactly where I am at. I want modern technology in my old school car. A cammed 5.3 will run more than likely beat a very built hot air 3.8. That is assuming there are much for aftermarket parts even, they only made about 10,000 turbo regals in 84/85, performance companies know that they won't see many people buying those parts, heck even stock stuff.

I just had a idea, I have a 85 buick riviera with a olds 307, I wonder what it would take to swap the hot air engine into that car. They came that way from the factory so the parts have to exist. That would be a upgrade for that car