new turbo owner and have some questions

[gordsgn]

i just bought a stock 1986 grand national and it is my first turbo car and i have some questions. when the boost climbs it often goes into the red at the end of the boost guage, is this ok? i dont want to overboost and blow something. also i need some new front end parts (ball joints, tie rod ends, swaybar end links, etc) and my buddy has the parts for an '82 monte carlo, will these parts work on my car? they are both g bodies so i think that they should. just wondering any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[QwuickTurbo6]

The factory tach and boost gauge are almost never accurate at their age. Get yourself a new boost gauge to bolt on the a-pillar along with a scantool ASAP so you know whats really going on

 

[charlief1]

Welcome aboard. Some simple things for you. Go to your user controls and add some info such as your location and info on your car. This helps if you need some one to come over and help you if you have a problem. The dash parts are old and weren't verry good from the factory so they probibly not reading right. Do some reading on here and ask questions so you can understand the car and systems better.

 

[87granny]

Welcome aboard the boost and tach gauges on the dash are so inaccurate the only thing they are good for is a light show get some aftermarket gauges boost. coolant, oil (this one may scare you when you see the stock oil psi at idle) also you may wanna get some sort of scan tool to monitor other perameters (scanmaster is a good start) and the most important thing read read read before trying to go faster.

 

[turbo39151]

X2 on all the prior advise and welcome...

 

[FlaBoy]

If you haven't already discovered it, the website Turbo Regal Web Site has LOTS of invaluable information. When I first got my GN I spent days on end reading everything on that site. Specifically for you, it'd be worthwhile to perform their basic "The Grand National / T-Type / Turbo Regal Buick Spring Cleaning Guide" checklist. That gives you a good base to start messin around with your car. Before you do any of that (messing around with the car that is) I agree STRONGLY with the previous posts... the stock boost and tach gauges are pretty much worthless, some of your first purchases for the car should be a decent set of gauges. If money is an issue, you can probably pick up some good used ones on this site in the parts for sale section. I got a set of used boost, oil pressure, knock, and water temp gauges, as well as pods to mount them on the A-pillar (boost and knock) and in the console (other two) all from guys on this site, and for a pretty good price. It would also be a good idea to get a scantool of some kind. This will enable you to monitor (and depending on what you get) record all the information your ECM is sending/recieving. Its an invaluable tool for diagnosing problems and tuning your car. As far as which scantool to get, there are several to chose from. Some basic standalone ones (the classic scanmaster) to much more detailed laptop based programs. They vary in expense, scan rate (how many times a second they sample the data stream), and other features (some have ability to record data for a period of time which allows you to share that with experts on this board who can then diagnose your problems). Do some research before you buy, as they can be expensive.

Lastly, almost any question you can think of has probably been asked and answered several times on here. You can save yourself a LOT of time by using the advanced search feature. It may take a few minutes of trying different search options and keywords, but you can almost always find your answer. I'm not trying to discourage you from posting new threads, thats what the board is here for. I just can't tell you how many times I've gotten on here to ask something and found it by searching in 5 minutes, which saves a lot of time compared to waiting for people to read and respond to your post.

Congrats on being one of the select few to own a piece of American history... ENJOY IT!