New to me 86 GN

[kornball426]

Where to start?

A lot of old school aftermarket stuff going on there. Intake doghouse, turbo (leaking oil) , intercooler, adj. bleeder valve , down-pipe, 60 lb injectors, Accufab fuel pres. reg.

That orange wire by the battery is ECM power. That Turbo-Tweak chip is the one you wanna use. Kenne Bell is ancient.

That thing was a week-end race mule.

I'd be digging deep into the condition of the motor before anything else.

Any idea what the intercooler is? Was it some aftermarket piece sold by some.l turbo Buick vendor back in the day, or is it something someone improvised? I have no idea honestly, it looks well made, cast end tanks, beefy thick core with considerable cooling area.

How can you tell what the injectors are? They don't look like anything special to me.

Do you know how to ID the turbo? I knew it's aftermarket the second I saw precision cast into the turbine housing (and that it's quite possibly shot), but if it's a decent turbo, maybe overhauling it rather than replacing it will be the way to go.

Hoping to get to work on it a bit this weekend, Friday afternoon and Sunday before I have to do family obligations.

 

[kornball426]

And yeah, has a Kenne Bell upper plenum on it, heard it's not worth anything except looks, assuming you prefer the look of their intake over stock. Gotta say I don't really care for the kenne bell valve covers, think the OE ones look better, the intake is a toss up really, if it was just finned and polished I think I'd like it better than having the kenne bell logo cast into it. I've never been much for having to slap a logo on stuff, I don't see how that's supposed to be "cool" or whatever lol.

Thanks for clearing up what That loose orange wire is for on the battery. I actually figured that one out after I put the new battery in it yesterday.

Also got some other little things done. I put a battery cutoff on it, just in case this wiring is as bad as it looks, and it decides to start having a meltdown while I'm working on it, can just flip the lever and disconnect the battery. Thought it was worthwhile investment.

 

[fastNYsix]

The wiring doesn't look too bad. Some of those connectors are not used. I'd recommend you get the Peter Hoffman turbo Regal guide, there's a lot of good info and pictures. The injectors appear to be siemens 60lbs, there should be a part number on them. The turbo tweak chip is correct for those injectors. Not sure about the turbo, I'd open it up to measure and rebuild it. As long as there's no damage. A rebuild kit is cheap and not that hard of a job. Not sure about the intercooler.

 

[1 RARE T]

I can't tell what turbo or intercooler that is. Those injectors are either Mototron or Seimens but look like 60's and there was a street chip in the ECM so I'd assume as much.

Again, do a compression test before anything else to see if the motor is sound.

 

[motorheadmike]

Blow the car apart. Buy a couple cases of brake cleaner. And service anything you can (injectors, turbo, intercooler, rad, exhaust, etc).

 

[1 RARE T]

Also, call your financial institution for a credit limit increase!

It's a TR. You're gonna need it.

 

[kornball426]

The wiring doesn't look too bad. Some of those connectors are not used. I'd recommend you get the Peter Hoffman turbo Regal guide, there's a lot of good info and pictures. The injectors appear to be siemens 60lbs, there should be a part number on them. The turbo tweak chip is correct for those injectors. Not sure about the turbo, I'd open it up to measure and rebuild it. As long as there's no damage. A rebuild kit is cheap and not that hard of a job. Not sure about the intercooler.

There's another turbotweak chip that I didn't bother to take a picture of because I won't be using it, but it's also marked 60# but 110 octane and 24-26 psi instead of 16-18 lol.

I'll look up that book, I have to admit I'm a little intimidated by this car, it's not like what I'm used to. Before I got it, I haven't worked on any performance car in years, just been maintaining my daily drivers, and the performance cars I've had in the past were all carbureted.

 

[1 RARE T]

http://www.vortexbuicks-etc.com/

Memorize everything here. This guy's forgotten more than we know.

 

[kornball426]

Blow the car apart. Buy a couple cases of brake cleaner. And service anything you can (injectors, turbo, intercooler, rad, exhaust, etc).

I was planning to pull the front cover and check the timing chain and sprockets. Been told they can fail catastrophically. I don't want to, but I feel like I should pull the intake manifold off and have a look in the valley, strictly because I was told the car has a roller cam, and I don't know how else to verify that without looking.

The exhaust from the down pipe back needs to be replaced, the DP is stainless, but the rest of the exhaust is just basic aluminized steel and it's very rusty, many holes and leaks lol. I know the manifolds/headers are prone to cracking as well.

 

[kornball426]

http://www.vortexbuicks-etc.com/

Memorize everything here. This guy's forgotten more than we know.

Thanks, I'll read that when I I get home from work.