This story is full of do's and don'ts, enough technical bits that it could go in the tech forums, but here it is.
I had been collecting parts to build a shortblock for a long time. Since I hate having my GN down for any significant time, I felt that building a second block would be best. Unfortunately I bought the cheapest block I could find, this was a bad choice.
I did get a forged crank, rods, and pistons from here on TB.com, those parts worked out great.
I horse-traded for a set of heads, thanks to all those involved, the heads had been thru hell, but cleaned up nice.
I had a local expert build up the shortblock, he came highly recommended and had great credentials, but was not a "Buick" guy. Shoulda known better.
2 years ago Richard Clark offered to look over the shortblock to make sure it was right. When we started checking things it was definitely wrong, so he offered to go thru it. When it was done it was a work of art. With the heads installed, Richard, Patrick, and I started and ran it on the stand at last year's TB.com event and installed it in the car.
Well, that block I had bought years ago at the Bowling Green swap-n-swindle turned out to be bad, and all the work up to that point had been a waste. There was hidden damage that was covered up by the sleeves the local guy had installed. Drat.
Richard offered to go back thru it, and we decided that my original block would be used, and just transfer all the parts over. It was a long road but it came out magnificent.
I brought the car home last weekend, its running great. I'm not sure I will push it as hard as the 93/alky guys (several of them are running engines that Richard built), but it sure seems solid. Kinda like walking a 6 month old Dalmatian..... 2 hands on the leash......
Anyway, many many thanks to Richard Clark for his help on this build. And huge thanks to Patrick, none of this would have been possible without your help!! Thanks as well as the rest of the crew there: Mike S, Eric S, Jim A, Mike (painter guy), if I missed someone, its only due to absent mindedness on my part. You guys are great.
Richard did a ton of work for me, just out of kindness and dedication to the Buick community as a whole. He's a pillar of our community. As a small token of thanks I tuned up his "driver car" a little, several in the Buick community contributed and many thanks to them. We installed Scanmaster, Powerlogger, SD2 chip (THANKS TURBO TWEAK!!), boost gauge, A-pillar pod (THANKS PETE H), crankcase breathers (THANKS RICK L), and an incredibly nice and shiny rebuilt stock turbo (a real work of art) (THANKS BISON!!!). There were some other bits here and there, but the 300K mile car really runs nicely and it was nice to give something back.
Thanks for reading
Bob
I had been collecting parts to build a shortblock for a long time. Since I hate having my GN down for any significant time, I felt that building a second block would be best. Unfortunately I bought the cheapest block I could find, this was a bad choice.
I did get a forged crank, rods, and pistons from here on TB.com, those parts worked out great.
I horse-traded for a set of heads, thanks to all those involved, the heads had been thru hell, but cleaned up nice.
I had a local expert build up the shortblock, he came highly recommended and had great credentials, but was not a "Buick" guy. Shoulda known better.
2 years ago Richard Clark offered to look over the shortblock to make sure it was right. When we started checking things it was definitely wrong, so he offered to go thru it. When it was done it was a work of art. With the heads installed, Richard, Patrick, and I started and ran it on the stand at last year's TB.com event and installed it in the car.
Well, that block I had bought years ago at the Bowling Green swap-n-swindle turned out to be bad, and all the work up to that point had been a waste. There was hidden damage that was covered up by the sleeves the local guy had installed. Drat.
Richard offered to go back thru it, and we decided that my original block would be used, and just transfer all the parts over. It was a long road but it came out magnificent.
I brought the car home last weekend, its running great. I'm not sure I will push it as hard as the 93/alky guys (several of them are running engines that Richard built), but it sure seems solid. Kinda like walking a 6 month old Dalmatian..... 2 hands on the leash......
Anyway, many many thanks to Richard Clark for his help on this build. And huge thanks to Patrick, none of this would have been possible without your help!! Thanks as well as the rest of the crew there: Mike S, Eric S, Jim A, Mike (painter guy), if I missed someone, its only due to absent mindedness on my part. You guys are great.
Richard did a ton of work for me, just out of kindness and dedication to the Buick community as a whole. He's a pillar of our community. As a small token of thanks I tuned up his "driver car" a little, several in the Buick community contributed and many thanks to them. We installed Scanmaster, Powerlogger, SD2 chip (THANKS TURBO TWEAK!!), boost gauge, A-pillar pod (THANKS PETE H), crankcase breathers (THANKS RICK L), and an incredibly nice and shiny rebuilt stock turbo (a real work of art) (THANKS BISON!!!). There were some other bits here and there, but the 300K mile car really runs nicely and it was nice to give something back.
Thanks for reading
Bob
