Turbo Buicks vs LS1's help me out

Some people say that TR's have to be kept under "constant" supervison. What exactly do you mean? I know that you occasionally might have to tune it etc. Other than that what are you talking about guys? Another factor is price. Grand Nationals would be much easier to fit into my budget. I'm looking to spend 14K, but if I got a WS-6, SS, or a Z28 I'll prob spend about 17,500 for it.:D Keep this coming because I'm gonna go over to this guys house this weekend thats got a 1998 black WS-6 M6 with only 32,000 miles for around 17K..... just need some more imput guys!!
 
constant supervision, meaning that thieves are very attracted to them and if you look away for a second they will be stolen.
 
Originally posted by 6=8
Sinful6: I'm not one to flame here, but I've never seen any example of import cars being "Bulletproof". Get off it already! Besides the fact we should all be attempting to keep our money in our country (or at least in North America)


Well I guess you never left the trailer park :rolleyes: Imports are pretty much leading the auto industry in tech, engineering and reliability. Take anything in and around your trailer home and remove any parts not manufactured in the USA and nothing would probably work anymore.....
 
If the car has been "kept up" you should have a good daily drive.

The only thing I was worried about on my 112k mile daily drive was the MAF. So I have the translator+ and extender chip with the LT1 MAF.

Still have original injectors, alternator, exhaust, headers, intercooler, turbo etc.
 
If by daily driver, you mean snow and rain. You better have a BIG set to drive a GN in one. And an elephant sized set to drive a 30K show car in thoses conditions. Just my opinion.;)
 
I will not drive a low mile GN for daily purpose, for what you want to spend $14k. you can get a super clean gn and it will a shame to make that car into a daily driver.Buy a GN for under 10k and buy a POS 4 banger for daily use. If not I will go for the ls1, for daily use, get something newer with ABS/air bag, traction control.The ls1 does have all these options and the GNs dont.

goodluck

Prasad
 
ONEquickGN -

you never said how old you are, so insurance is going to be alot for either car if your under 25--

as alot of people have said, buy a econo box 4 cyl till your out of college, then you can enjoy the other car in nice weather, weekends, and track events

HTH
 
As an aside, I find it interesting that so many TR guys (myself included) are also into LS1 cars.
 
Forget the LS1, get an LS6. I have an 87 T and a 01 Z06. When one breaks, I drive the other...The Z06 has been to the dealer 4 times. The Buick is actually more reliable since I put a new motor in it. The clutch in the 02 and later Z06's is far superior to my 01 clutch. ANd you'll need a truck to go get spare parts for both cars if they decide to break on the same day, so I am keeping my 4.3 L 5-spd GMC truck as it is the most reliable vehicle out there...for me...
 
hum well a Z06 aint exactly on my budget unless you want to sell me yours for like 17,000 :D dude that'd be such a great deal....well at least for me it would be! I've decided if turbobuick owners willing veer me away from having a GN as a daily driver and LS1 owners steer me towards having a LS1 then its kinda clear that LS1's are a favorite for daily drivers. I was really looking foward to taking my car (GN) to the dyno with a TE-44 turbo plus all of the other goods and race gas and run ridiclous torque numbers and impress all of my friends but guess that aint gonna happen if i get the LS1. Its so DAMN expensive to get that thing to break 350 rwhp!! headers and a decent exhaust will run you pretty close to 2 grand!!! Jezzzzz... but they are bad ass cars and they'll sound more like my old 68 Z28 I used to have with a 400 in it:D , but I'll miss the community you guys have here , but then again I might still go for a Grand National. either way its gonna be a badass car whatever I get and I'm 22 some of you might think thats young since my age has come up several times so far so please dont patronize me on my age. Thanks guys for all of the help!! and more imput would be really cool and helpful.
 
Ls1's

I drove a '98 Z28 A4 for about a year. Bolt-on's (long tubes, lid, exhaust, pulley, Y-pipe) with a 100 shot of juice, the thing drove like stock and was almost untouchable in the day-to-day stoplight races. Trapped ~120. Added a 4k stall converter to the mix and streetability started becoming an issue. Then went in a cam (and new motor from bad cam installation by an unnamed LS1 shop) and things started screwing up. The tuning process with the LS1 PCM becomes a PITA once heads/cam are introduced. They are, however, awesome cars w/ just bolt-on's. A 6-spd LS1 will be a bit more reliable depending on how you drive it. Autos die fast once small converters and high HP are added to the mix. The T in my sig has a 2800 D5 and is quite a bit more streetable than my Z was in just bolt-on/converter setup.

Make a long story short, I drive a truck every day now. Stuff breaks when you try to depend 11-sec cars for daily transport IMO.
 
i'll sell ya my 02 WS6 for 25k...ya better hurry, alot of dealers are marking them up rght now (WS6's and SS's) but Z's an regular TA's aren't doing as well.
 
For a daily beater you cant beat a little 4 banger econo-box. My 88 Honduh Accord has 215k on it and its still going strong.
 
For a daily driver get a chevy 1/2 ton pickup from the late 70's to mid 80's. IF anything breaks, you can find a part on Sundays just about anywhere. Now you also have a tow vehicle for your car!!
 
Quote: "Its so DAMN expensive to get that thing to break 350 rwhp!! "

Yes, but the LS1/LS6 is an amazing engine. My Z06 put down 360 rwhp and 363 rwtq (dyno'd in 4th gear) with an air filter and 180 thermostat as the only two mods.

BTW, my Turbo T put down 401 rwhp and 545 rwtrq yesterday (backed up that run with 402 and 541) on the dyno at 17 psi boost with the converter unlocked. That is nearly 200 ft-lbs more than my vette...
 
The tuning process with the LS1 PCM becomes a PITA once heads/cam are introduced
StageII86, why would you make a statement like this......I tuned mine myself with LS1_Edit and it was a piece of cake....and again, results in my signature (N/A ported heads and mild cam).
 
Do you guys remember "Old Grey"? It was a grey '87 T-Type with 250k mi. that ran consistant low 12's on the stock block for most of its life, but when they pushed it into the 11's it spun a bearing after a few passes. :(

TRs can be extremely reliable if you mod them to be. I don't see why you couldn't run high 11's with a dailey beater, and still go over 200k mi. maybe low/mid if you rebuilt it with forged internals. :eek:
 
John B,

I understand your position, I've played around with Edit a bit myself and its a great program. (my car just had bolt-ons, 4k stall, and a thunder cam and made 388rwhp/ 371rwtq through a locked converter) I just think its a bit more annoying to get LS1 PCM tuning to work than TR prom tuning. I think that this is simply because te LS1 tuning has just been pioneered. Drivability headaches took me awhile to work out, and it seemed that soon after the edit tuning, the car would just plain do weird things sometimes. Weird random codes that would never come back, etc... In the end, only thing that really needed tuning (on my car) was idle and shift points as well as WOT TCC lock up and EGR equip deleting. Thats all that I found was worth playin with. I didn't see any improved dyno numbers by changing timing and or fuel tables. I was lucky , I think. I know people around here who still have trouble getting their Ls1's to idle with bigger cams, etc... and still cant get them to stop throwing crazy codes all the time and/or run woth a crap. I just think that w/ major internal mods, they can be just a hair more annoying to tune than buicks. BTW, your Monte sounds sweet. Great idea doin an LS1 swap!
 
Thanks for the positive feedback StageII86 :)
I know people around here who still have trouble getting their Ls1's to idle with bigger cams, etc... and still cant get them to stop throwing crazy codes all the time and/or run woth a crap
You're probably right about this...I have a "lowly" 221/221°, 0.559"/0.559" 114° l/c cam in mine :D
 
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