Been reading a lot on here about the turbo 3.8 motors and I picked one up that had spun crank bearings. Crank is no good so im going with a stroker kit from ta performance that includes crank rods pistons. This being said, goals for the build is street with around 600 wheel this is all going in my 89 trans am. Going to be running 3.50 gears and a tremec tkx 5speed with 3.27 first gear. non 109 block with stock iron heads. Just looking for input on cam selection, fuel system, turbo size, etc. also gonna be running a stand alone terminator from Cruz performance
First time turbo 3.8 build
- Thread starter RedheadTA
- Start date
- Joined
- May 28, 2001
????
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2011
Read through the Turbo TA section, theres a few problems your going to face, first getting a stock 3.8 engine to fit in an F body because of the head width, second a lot of block work has to be done to strengthen it for hp and oiling provisions not to mention the heads which need a lot of work to support 600 wheel. Then you can get into all the supporting mods after that
Im just giving you a crystal ball vision of the $$$ thats involved in a build like this
Im just giving you a crystal ball vision of the $$$ thats involved in a build like this
- Joined
- May 28, 2001
You can make 600hp on ported iron heads but V6Sleeper is right, the Buick heads were not the same ones on the TA. I would bolt a bare block and heads together to use as a mock up for the engine bay so you know everything fits ok.
As for power goals, 600 on ported iron heads is no problem. Your choice for a 5 speed stick will be fun, a 6 speed might be better but that will take some modification to fit. Scott Atkinson is the guy you should look at for some tips on that. He did a Buick with a 6 speed and then put all of it in a 68? Camaro. Your choice of turbo will be even more essential to get into boost below 3000 rpm. Especially on a street car. I would recommend you look at a triple ball bearing from Comp to make that work.
As for power goals, 600 on ported iron heads is no problem. Your choice for a 5 speed stick will be fun, a 6 speed might be better but that will take some modification to fit. Scott Atkinson is the guy you should look at for some tips on that. He did a Buick with a 6 speed and then put all of it in a 68? Camaro. Your choice of turbo will be even more essential to get into boost below 3000 rpm. Especially on a street car. I would recommend you look at a triple ball bearing from Comp to make that work.
quite a list I sent you a pm
- Joined
- May 28, 2001
The Turbo TA used 3800 heads on a 3.8 block from the factory.
