what upgrades needed for 85tr

[lou hernandez]

thinking of buying a 85t type, what quick inexpensive upgrades can be done to make this hot air car move. car is really clean.

 

[jacksorroche]

How much are you looking to spend. Can you give a general number?

 

[lou hernandez]

what can 1000. get me.

 

[jacksorroche]

A $1000. Ok, that will give you a great start. Now, what do you want to do? Complete engine rebuild? Upgrade electronics? Here are some sites that you should look at, and bookmark. Although most products will be geared for 86/87 IC TR's, they do have some stuff for our Hot Air cars. Check them out, and figure what you need to do first. Careful though, you can drain your bank account. Pace yourself. Hope this helps.

http://www.casperselectronics.com/
http://www.buick-parts.com/
http://secure.johnsperformance.com/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi
http://www.postonbuick.com/
http://www.buickgn.com/

 

[buickpower]

well, first you will probably want to do the spring cleaning as detailed here , then get a fuel pump upgrade & hotwire kit, Racetronix who is a vendor for this board makes some awesome setups for our cars. From there you can probably get a big mouth intake from mark hueffman (buickgnboosted i think is his name) who is another vendor for this board. I would also upgrade the ecm to an 87 (50-70 dollars usually) so that you have greater chip(~$75) availability from people like eric marshall who runs turbotweak.com. From there I would get an ATR downpipe, which runs about $140. After that, the big thing on these hotairs is the exhaust, after the downpipe, headers are the next big restriction, especially the passenger side header, but the headers from poston get pretty pricey and I'm not sure if you will have enough by then. Try to get the chip last so that you can have someone like eric burn the chip to your specific combo.

so, to sum it up I would start by doing spring cleaning, fuel pump & hotwire, 87 ecm, big mouth intake, downpipe, chip. Then if you have extra cash upgrade the exhaust.

 

[lou hernandez]

thx for the info guys. what about adding a intercooler?

 

[BRAD_PADGETT]

Buickpower has it nailed on the head. The only thing I did different from all his recommendation was to stay with the 85ECM and used a Caspars Ultra Chip as well as stayed with the stock downpipe. I do not drag race. The car now is a huge improvement over stock. Beware of the stock oil fill tube cap and the Huffman cold air kit. Make sure if you replace the air intake with a Huffman that you either buy an KN filter to replace the oil fill tube cap or buy a new oil fill tube from Poston. My mistake cost me three new turbos. Thanks- Brad

85GN-Hot wired, 30lbs injectors, Poston headers, Hooker Hi Flow exhaust, no CAT, Huffman cold air kit, adjustable waste gate actuator, new fuel pump, frame braces and new VDO boost and tach gauge.

 

[BRAD_PADGETT]

I have studied the thought of adding an intercooler and for me personally ruled it out. The Spearco one seams to be the most popular one but is no longer made. You can find a used one by looking around on the internet. If you want to put in an intercooler After you did everything recommended before:I would switch to the 86/87 ECM, install an adjustable fuel pressure regulator, buy Turbo Link or something similuar, upgrade the turbo and have alot of fun. Brad

 

[cool 84]

Fuel pump and hotwire, K&N, chip, test pipe or open exhaust, and more boost will drop a second or more off your ET putting you in the high 13s and you'll still have $700 or more to spend on bigger mods.

 

[lou hernandez]

thats what im talking about, thx cool 84.

 

[lou hernandez]

thats what i am talking about. thx cool84