Headgasket set

Hey man you should just put new headgaskets in yourself and save some money and see how the car runs. It's not really that hard if you have a place to work on the car.
 
tta983 said:
The cylinder walls are scored pretty badly also. Will have to be rebuilt or get another short block....

tta983 said:
I have it at a shop here in Jax, the owner evaluated it himself. I know the heads are still on the car. I just took it over there today and I got the news just a few minutes ago....

Just reading these two posts has me scatching my head. I would honestly get that car back to the house as soon as you can, because if they are telling you that you scored the walls badly without even taking the heads off, then they are trying to screw you. What will happen is they will throw new gaskets on for you, then clean the tops of the pistons that are already in there, while telling you that they honed the block, and installed new pistons, when they didn't. Take the advice above, install new head gaskets and call it a day....

Edit: this is what I mean when I say that they will clean the stock parts, while telling you that it is all new. I'm building a 310 SBC that has way more miles than your TTA, and these are before and after pics using the same stock parts, as well as cometic head gaskets. I had my neighbors convinced that it was totally rebuilt, when it was merely cleaned. Get that car back to your house as soon as you can for a second opinion, trust me...;

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Just reading these two posts has me scatching my head. I would honestly get that car back to the house as soon as you can, because if they are telling you that you scored the walls badly without even taking the heads off, then they are trying to screw you. What will happen is they will throw new gaskets on for you then, then clean the tops of the pistons, while telling you that they honed the block, and installed new pistons, when they didn't. Take the advice above, install new head gaskets and call it a day....

Man I agree 100%, they said they would try to get me a quote together to fix it, no way, I am picking in up in the am.
 
If you have a socket set and a torque wrench than you can do this. I had never thought I'd be able to do it but I did anyway with help from others who had experience over the phone. It's not that bad. Just be sure to buy new fasteners and clean the Parts really well. All the guys on this forum will answer any question you may have. You'll be really happy with yourself when all finished too
 
If you have a socket set and a torque wrench than you can do this. I had never thought I'd be able to do it but I did anyway with help from others who had experience over the phone. It's not that bad. Just be sure to buy new fasteners and clean the Parts really well. All the guys on this forum will answer any question you may have. You'll be really happy with yourself when all finished too

Appreciate the advice.
 
And would you take your TTA to a shop and they were curious what PAS was.

Yes....that doensn't classify a shop as good or bad IMO. You can know the GN's inside and out and not know what ASC was or PAS for that matter.
 
Yes....that doensn't classify a shop as good or bad IMO. You can know the GN's inside and out and not know what ASC was or PAS for that matter.

This is not a turbobuick shop, the only turbo vehicle I saw there was the owners old chevy pickup with a v8 in it and he is putting a twin turbo kit on it.
 
If your needing a shop in Florida, contact KDK in Orlando. In South GA there is Wildcat in Valdosta.
 
Went and got the car today, talked to the mechanic that did inspection. He used a bore-a-scope to examine the pistons and cylinder walls. Middle piston on pass side was the worst, he talked like the piston was damaged on the side thus causing cylinder wall damage. He said it could be bored out to correct it.
I asked him why did the piston fail and he said the type of pistons that are in there will not hold up long in a turbo engine, under boost conditions. He told me it needs forged pistons.
Then I told him a lot of guys are racing these engines using the same pistons. He said if they do they are tearing them down quite often.
Did not want to get in a argument so I left it at that. He said he could rebuilt the engine for like $2500, putting his so called forged pistons in there. He said he would not install a engine that has been rebuilt by someone else, but only if he rebuilt it himself.
 
I would take it to a Buick guy. Like KDK or Wildcat as Razor posted. Or someone else locally. Even if you have to drive a little ways. It will be well worth it.
 
Just spoke to the people at Wildcat. They do not do repair work themselves but do rebuilds. They did give me good advice:
They said the gasoline these days is horrible and for these turbo cars you need ALKY INJECTION to make it run right. There is another guy in south ga that works on turbobuick engines, I will have to give him a call.
 
Well I talked to Fred in Hahira GA and he still does the turbobuick work. HE has GNX 26 as well as 8 or 9 turbobuick cars. Sounds like the plan will be to take it to him.
 
Wow i was out driving mine yesterday and sure enough it started smoking again after the new turbo center section replacement and it still smokes im not happy i traded a killer gn for this car and now i have to work on the Tta it never fells when you trade for something take it out and run the **** out of it before you do make sure to check everything guys.make sure that 15 psi is a clean run i didnt my mistake.
 
Did a compression test had nothing on no 3 150 pnds on all other cylinders found that the head bolts in the center has stretched abit so cylinder looks great piston looks good no damage to the head so with a little cleaning and re install taking my time about 2.5 hours pulling 1 side and that would be the drivers side i found many short cuts of removing this head wich i have never done before on TTA but many buick v/6 heads wich close to the same but on the tta you to remove the header to get the bottom bolts unlike our buicks with stock headers the head bolts side right by the header not on the TTA HEADS LOL.So you can do this job its not real hard just time consuming good luck.If you need any help give me a yell im sure myself and others on the board will help you get it done.
 
cylinder head off 2.5 to 3 hrs.

Did a compression test had nothing on no 3 150 pnds on all other cylinders found that the head bolts in the center has stretched abit so cylinder looks great piston looks good no damage to the head so with a little cleaning and re install taking my time about 2.5 hours pulling 1 side and that would be the drivers side i found many short cuts of removing this head wich i have never done before on TTA but ive done many buick v/6 heads wich are pretty much the same close to the same but on the tta you have to remove the header to get the bottom bolts unlike our buicks with stock head bolts will sneak right past the header not on the TTA HEADS LOL.So you can do this job its not real hard just time consuming good luck.If you need any help give me a yell im sure myself and others on the board will help you get it done.
 
Typically if you pop the HG it wont have compression. #4 is not the typical cylinder that goes. Typically its #3 on the drivers side.

You must of detonated the daylights out of the motor to create enough damage to require a rebuild. I popped many a head gasket on a TTA.. never needed anything but a gasket. My worse one happened with Cometic gaskets and it tore up a piston. I installed a new piston and back on the road it went.

Blocks are tough on the cars. As are the pistons.

This is why I say pull heads and post pixs. If your at the mercy of a shop.. you may want to get a second opinion.

FWIW.. TTA pistons are different than GN pistons. Doing a rebuild can be pandoras box.




I went to Champion today to drop a extra set of TTA heads to have ported, so I can use on the car when it is put back together. So I had a discussion about pistons with Tom at Champion, he said the pistons are tough in those cars, even if they are only cast pistons.

Thinking about the pistons and all, my theory is: The engine blew a HG and possiblely damaging one piston, being the #4 piston. So I am thinking I do not need a rebuild after all. Just replace the piston and HG and put my new heads on when I get them done. RAZOR said the same thing happened to his car before with cometic gaskets. I guess the same thing could happen with stock or felpros also.

Still trying to get the car to a shop, it looks like GA in a week or so.
 
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