GN weak spots

[kurst]

woohoo, first post over here. I'm an ex-mustangman and I'm looking into getting a new project car..... and to be honest I want a grand national.

-What are the weak points? Rear end, fuel system, crank, rods, pistons, etc?

I find it hard to believe everybody here has stock internals running like 23psi of boost and not blowing stuff up.

 

[d0n_3d]

Originally posted by kurst

I find it hard to believe everybody here has stock internals running like 23psi of boost and not blowing stuff up.

well believe it...i was running 23 lbs of boost on my stock turbo running low 12's all day long on my stock 85k motor and the valve covers have never been off the car...i ran my TE-44 turbo a couple times with 20+ lbs of boost with the same untouched motor...it still wants more...

not many weak points in a GN...rear end is usually good for low 11's...trans is usually good for high to mid 11's unmodified...minimal suspension mods are needed as these cars hook better than most anything...

one thing that is weak is the flowing of the stock heads as they flow like complete crap and also the stock fuel system doesn't support a STOCK GN...upgrade fuel pump and hotwire it, and add a fuel pressure regulator ASAP!

 

[nickb]

Believe it, as long as you do it properly with high octane fuel, or alky injection, 23 pounds is not that big of a problem.

 

[Scott Atk]

The two things that jump out at me right off are.
1. Poor oiling system
2. non adjustable valvetrain

both can be addressed though.

 

[DCVING 6]

What kind of goals do you have?

These cars are pretty stout from the factory. There is a lot of tuning involved in getting it to run correctly. Once you set some goals, I'm sure other people can give examples of combo's they use.

 

[Two Lane]

Welcome to the board!

Read up on www.gnttype.org ...most of your questions being new to GNs/TRs are likely there, w/lots of pics too!

Then, learn to use the Search feature here. If you had a question
on "Power Plate", then you would enter "Power AND Plate".
Put an all-cap AND between each word of your topic.

Also, visit www.turbobuicks.com ...helpful info there also.
_______________________________________________

Again, welcome!

Hope you find your turbo car soon!

 

[REDS HOT AIR]

stock crank, rods and pistons here even the rod bolts are stock about 120,000 on the parts but new rings and bearings

wait till I crank the boost up this year

 

[WIKEDV6]

They hold up pretty good as is.The trans may go first. but if you want to modify the car and it is bone stock what I would do is:

1) fuel (good pump & adj reg)
2)Exhaust (good down pipe, remove cat and good mufflers or a dump)
3)Good chip
4) Alky injection
5)adj waste gate (turn up the boost)
6)Beef up the trans
7)Good sticky tires (slicks)


Good luck

Prasad

 

[bishir]

A few weak points from a fellow Mustanger...

Stock fuel system is inadequate
Driver's side header has the tendency to crack
Car is as aerodynamic as a brick
Tendency for T-top cars to crack/flex near B pillar
restrictive stock air intake
Down Pipe has tendency to bake passenger side bushings
most cars need a good window adjustment
power antennas always seem to bite the dust
paint was horrible from the factory though some cars like mine made it
plastic inserts have the tendency to crack, fade, and chip paint.
never enough traction


Many of these malidies can be fixed rather easily though. start reading at www.gnttype.org and we'll talk to you in a week!

James

 

[Tom Tom Turbo]

welcome my child.......TO THE DARK SIDE! I too was once a Stangbanger, but Vader (acutally my dad, who's last name is Bader) convinced me to ditch my 5.0 and now I am happily on the winning end of most encounters.

you can learn tons from gnttype.org and asking the brains on this site helps alot too. More than likely, any problem or question you have, will have come about before and someone knows just how to fix it. Good luck!

oh yeah...and get used to people calling it a Monte

 

[kurst]

Ya'll are a strange breed....but im liking it.

Originally posted by DCVING 6
What kind of goals do you have?

Buy a stock or near stock with minor upgrades 87 GN non t-top and go mod by mod and whittle my times down.

my advantage is i dont need it for driving, just street/strip

 

[TurboDave]

Originally posted by kurst
woohoo, first post over here. I'm an ex-mustangman and I'm looking into getting a new project car..... and to be honest I want a grand national.

-What are the weak points? Rear end, fuel system, crank, rods, pistons, etc?

I find it hard to believe everybody here has stock internals running like 23psi of boost and not blowing stuff up.

You've gotten a lot of great advise so far, and as far as running high boost on stock internals. It really is quite easy to do with a proper state of tune.

My motor (Never broke) was always running nothing less than 25# of boost at the track, and a lot more timing than most.
It is/was TOTALLY un touched internally. Up untill the 150,000 mile point, I never so much as had a valve cover off. My mods were all external and were limited to: A good fuel pump/s, larger turbo (TE-44), LARGER injectors (presently MSD 50's), and larger front mount intercooler (not sure how much it added, but an intercooler upgrade of some sort is required), a good down pipe, a good race chip, race gas (114-116 octane required), and sticky tires.

The only reason I pulled the motor is because I had a spare setting around collecting dust and wanted to freshen my numbers matching motor.
My present engine is the same formulay! NO internal mods, it's all stock parts. All I did to the new motor was to clean it up (had 9,000 miles), and put in new rod and crank bearings, and a oil pump booster.
That's it!! Still running the same external parts!!

The one weak spot is the tranny (I have broken mine no less than 4 times), but now days it can be made virtually bullet proof (as mine has been, I no longer am able to bust it) and can run into the 9's!

P.S. I must admit, that on this motor, I have busted two head gaskets. But neither as a result of racing. Both were stupid mistakes on my part

 

[UNGN]

Originally posted by kurst
Ya'll are a strange breed....but im liking it.


Buy a stock or near stock with minor upgrades 87 GN non t-top and go mod by mod and whittle my times down.

my advantage is i dont need it for driving, just street/strip

Welcome to the Board!

You are the Ideal Turbo Buick Owner. The 16 year old kid who wants a T-R as his first car and wants to run 10's on 87 octane gas with $1500 in parts is the non-ideal T-R owner.

If you are familiar with the mods and tweaks to get a stock mustang to run 13's, then runing 12's or better with a T-R should be no problem.

I ran 13.7's with my stock, 3.08 geared LX convertible by free mods and tweaks. With the same free mods and treaks my T-R ran low 12's.

Stay conservative and don't change too many things at once, A T-R can be raced a lot and last a very long time.

 

[GrndNatnl]

Get used to a lot of misnomers! I've already had 3 people ask me "Is that your Monte Carlo?" and two people ask me "Whats with the jiffy lube sign?" It's annoying, but funny too in a sense.

Main stock weak-spot focus: Fuel system! As far as the oiling system, use synthetic and you'll be just fine.

My car is still basically stock, and my only problem is traction. I can never jump on the throttle without ending up sideways.

 

[edwin]

welcome

ex stang banger myself,once you drive a buick you will see its much better,besides they are worth more $ than a stang all day long,

 

[ThikStik]

IMHO,
The issue of octane finickyness is to be considered. After being in the normally aspirated world tooling around with a big bully Pontiac 472 which is happy to drink most gasolines, going to "alittle v-6 on serious drugs" takes some extra care. And the 200r4 tranny is weak, (in initial form). BUT both these issues have been addressed better than ever thanks to the GN crew. Alcholol/propane injection for fuel issues and many good trans builders+new improved hard parts on this board.

 

[Weazel]

Welcome aboard!!
If you're looking for a strip car, then I would advise you to consider buying one in good mid-12s form as is, as opposed to getting a stocker and doing the mods yourself. Most people who have TRs for sale will have taken care of the "Must Do's" for you...which are fuel pump, valve springs, adjustable wastegate, and exhaust IMHO. Check this board for stuff for sale. Most of the ads are very informative, and it'll start you further up the learning curve by buying a lightly modded car instead of a bone stocker.

And enjoy your Turbo Buick!

 

[J Banning]

Originally posted by kurst
...I find it hard to believe everybody here has stock internals running like 23psi of boost and not blowing stuff up.

29psi boost Hasn't blown up yet!

 

[GrndNatnl]

Heck, Banning is running 29 psi on non turbo internals!