BUILD THREAD The Mullet Maurader, The Epic of the LS swapped Buick

[Northernregal]

Brought the Regal back home today, it's been at the parents house while my house was up for sale. Since I cant stomach the loss I would have to take right now to sell, taking the house off the market and getting this car turbofied.

Time to get back to work.

 

[Rktpwrd]

Sorry to hear trying to sell the house was a bust Duke, but über happy to hear you’ll be back on the car!
Tuned in as always brother...

 

[Northernregal]

Sorry to hear trying to sell the house was a bust Duke, but über happy to hear you’ll be back on the car!
Tuned in as always brother...

Thanks D. I'll try again next year, market is complete crap right now anyway. If I wanted to lose money I could have sold my house, I wasnt into that.

 

[motorheadmike]

Housing market tied to big oil?

 

[Northernregal]

Housing market tied to big oil?

More or less. Add in a few things changed with mortgage lending and its harder for just anyone to buy a house.

 

[Northernregal]

Had some time last night after getting it home. So I put on the custom wheel spacers that I ordered 2 months ago and fit the E92 18" rims.

The rears need a taller tire and I think I'll stick some 3/8 or 1/2" spacers on the rear. It wont quite tuck the 275/60-15 rubber without some serious rubbing at the current ride height so 285/40-18s will need a tad more.

Either way. Looking good.

I also ordered something special for the next step. Time to haul out the headers and drop the fuel tank for the second fuel pump. Then to finishing the drivers rear fender and wheel well.

 

[Northernregal]

Finally home after a 2 week hiatus including a trip down to freedom land and 10 days at work.

I've been ordering parts while I was at work for what I'm calling phase 2. Turbification.

BUT before I got too deep in a good buddy of mine was passing through from the mountains where I used to live. Hes been dying for a chance to ride shotgun in the Maurader for a while, and the last time we went for a spirited drive we ended up with a BOLO out for us for half the province, it was bound to be fun. I had been doing some minor tweaking on the tune and it was really going to be the last dance before I tear it all apart again and deal with some stuff that's been bugging me, like natural aspiration. So out we went, test out the new rims and de-tread the winter rubber that came on them. After a few second gear rolling burnouts I was going to go down a secondary highway and really warm it up. After a 1/4 mile or so I romped on it, it was awesome, we giggled like kids until I spotted a cruiser with the lights flashing and someone pulled over. It was at this point that I realized I need quieter mufflers. I was fortunate enough to whip it around in an approach and limp it home before he finished his stop. Lol. We then proceeded to drink our faces off in the safety of my house.

Tires took a beating.

So today I laid on the livingroom floor until about 1pm, in "recovery" until the pain drugs kicked in and I could handle the world around me.

Moved the car out of the garage and got the passenger side header cut, cleaned up and welded up the V-band for the crossover. The weld isnt Instagram quality but it didnt crack and technically I havent run a tig in 2 years.

Also got my vise cleaned up and properly mounted to my bench. It's only been 2.5 years....

 

[Canon_Mutant]

🤣 I feel SO much better. After we moved out here, oh I removed and brought my vise from the old garage, but I too just got it re-mounted to my new bench a while back. But 50/50 I lose, I mounted mine at the other end but have now decided it would be better to slide my bench on down about 4’ right against the north wall so I have more room right around my car working area . . . So, I get to do that twice too!

 

[Northernregal]

So I've been fabri-cobbling the hot side together on my spare motor when I discovered that I ordered the wrong flex coupler from summit, a 2.5"..... This was Thursday so I rushed down to the local speed shop and ordered the proper 2.25" flex coupler from them.... and got another 2.5". 😡

Double fail. Plus I wanted the bellows style not the woven style. Back to the speed shop.

Without the Log side of the manifold this is where she sits. Tacked and ready to weld out.

Nothing fancy, 16ga 2.25" steel. I will upgrade to stainless later, once I am satisfied with everything and I have a proper fab table to work on. Standing to tig sucks.

So after that I decided to tackle some idle issues I've been working on. I have no issues getting it to idle in neutral, it will hold 700rpm no problem, IAC, fuel and timing have been messed with endlessly and without success. As soon as I drop it to reverse it stalls. It's weird because this is new with the trans rebuild....

In my diagnosis I switched back to the stock 31lb injectors, I have noticed a strong fuel smell in the garage and that my rail pressure was bleeding off, it never did that before either. So the 210 injectors must have picked up some debris from the fuel system.... even with a 10 micron filter before the regulator. Annoying but not really a huge problem, they just need a cleaning. Might as well flow test at the same time.

Further in the diagnostics I went to test my vacuum modulator, make sure the pump was unloading at idle.... That's when I found this gem.

Seems someone was in a rush to put the intake on and bolted it up with the trans vacuum line under the #8 injector. Nice.... weird it didnt have a vacuum leak but after some diagnostics with a vacuum pump and watching my trans pressure gauge on the Holley dash I have normal pressure modulator function and a better shift at idle.

I dug a little further into the stall on shift issue and it seems this is a normal thing for 4L80e's. The oil circuit that supplies the converter doesnt have enough flow to fully disengage a triple disc lockup converter. Luckily Sonnax makes an upgrade valve to divert more flow to the lube system and away from the line pressure system for better lockup disengagement. It also moves more fluid through the cooler and rear lube so it's on the list for this winter. I dont remember if I specified my converter specs to my trans builder, gonna have to check that out.

 

[Turbolq4]

So I've been fabri-cobbling the hot side together on my spare motor when I discovered that I ordered the wrong flex coupler from summit, a 2.5"..... This was Thursday so I rushed down to the local speed shop and ordered the proper 2.25" flex coupler from them.... and got another 2.5". 😡

Double fail. Plus I wanted the bellows style not the woven style. Back to the speed shop.
View attachment 122021

Without the Log side of the manifold this is where she sits. Tacked and ready to weld out.

View attachment 122022

Nothing fancy, 16ga 2.25" steel. I will upgrade to stainless later, once I am satisfied with everything and I have a proper fab table to work on. Standing to tig sucks.

So after that I decided to tackle some idle issues I've been working on. I have no issues getting it to idle in neutral, it will hold 700rpm no problem, IAC, fuel and timing have been messed with endlessly and without success. As soon as I drop it to reverse it stalls. It's weird because this is new with the trans rebuild....

In my diagnosis I switched back to the stock 31lb injectors, I have noticed a strong fuel smell in the garage and that my rail pressure was bleeding off, it never did that before either. So the 210 injectors must have picked up some debris from the fuel system.... even with a 10 micron filter before the regulator. Annoying but not really a huge problem, they just need a cleaning. Might as well flow test at the same time.

Further in the diagnostics I went to test my vacuum modulator, make sure the pump was unloading at idle.... That's when I found this gem.

View attachment 122023


Seems someone was in a rush to put the intake on and bolted it up with the trans vacuum line under the #8 injector. Nice.... weird it didnt have a vacuum leak but after some diagnostics with a vacuum pump and watching my trans pressure gauge on the Holley dash I have normal pressure modulator function and a better shift at idle.

I dug a little further into the stall on shift issue and it seems this is a normal thing for 4L80e's. The oil circuit that supplies the converter doesnt have enough flow to fully disengage a triple disc lockup converter. Luckily Sonnax makes an upgrade valve to divert more flow to the lube system and away from the line pressure system for better lockup disengagement. It also moves more fluid through the cooler and rear lube so it's on the list for this winter. I dont remember if I specified my converter specs to my trans builder, gonna have to check that out.

I had that issue with my 80e after I put the big stall verter in it too. The sunnax valve does fix it. Trans work is witchcraft and voodoo but it wasn't really that bad.