Turbo recommendations

jp032870

New Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2018
Hello,
What turbo do you recommend for a 1987 Grand National. Here are the things already done to the car.
3” Air Mass System
3” Down Pipe
2.5” Stainless Up Pipe
Stainless Exhaust / no CAT
72mm Throttle Body / Plenum Polished
Power Plate
Computer Chip – Turbo Tweak 5.7
FUEL INJECTORS 42.5 LB - 009's

Thanks
 
What are your goals with the car


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Fast street car. I dont plan on taking it to the track
There are so many different turbos out there i don't know which one to buy. TA-49, TE-44, TE-60, TA-60??? Are the newer turbo's better? The Cheetah series for example.
 
Fast street car. I dont plan on taking it to the track

HOW fast of a street car?

How much HP you looking to make? What sort of ET's are you looking for?

Do you plan on building up your transmission and getting a new torque converter anytime soon?

Do you plan on doing any other supporting mods, like a MAF translator, or intercooler, or alky injection?

Have you already done the "Spring Cleaning" that is recommended for these cars?
 
HOW fast of a street car?

How much HP you looking to make? What sort of ET's are you looking for?

Do you plan on building up your transmission and getting a new torque converter anytime soon?

Do you plan on doing any other supporting mods, like a MAF translator, or intercooler, or alky injection?

Have you already done the "Spring Cleaning" that is recommended for these cars?

450 HP. Looking to be in the low to mid 11's.

I am not looking to build up the transmission and getting a new torque converter. I don't want to go crazy. its going to be a weekend driver.

I have a new stock location intercooler. Had trouble installing it so i gave up on it. Does it make that much of a difference?? No alky injection. Probably a MAF translator.

No not yet? What should i do for the spring cleaning? The car has 34k on it.

I appreciate your feedback.
 
Last edited:
450 HP. Looking to be in the low to mid 11's.

I am not looking to build up the transmission and getting a new torque converter. I don't want to go crazy. its going to be a weekend driver.

I have a new stock location intercooler. Had trouble installing it so i gave up on it. Does it make that much of a difference?? No alky injection. Probably a MAF translator.

No not yet? What should i do for the spring cleaning? The car has 34k on it.

I appreciate your feedback.



...yeaaa.... You're going to need to rethink either 1) your entire approach to making power on this car. 2) owning a GN if you aren't ready to spend money on things like a new tranny or torque converter ....ESPECIALLY if installing a stock location intercooler was too difficult for you.

You will break the tranny eventually. No argument here. It is going to happen. Period.

A new IC helps, but it isn't required. Alky injection also allows you to run more boost, but again, isn't required if you run race gas.

Yes, you need to do spring cleaning before you do anything else. Just because it is only 34k doesn't mean it can't stand to have those things addressed.

Do your spring cleaning and then get back to us.
 
You will need high octane fuel or an anti detonant at minimum if you want a “fast” street car.


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450 HP. Looking to be in the low to mid 11's.

I am not looking to build up the transmission and getting a new torque converter. I don't want to go crazy. its going to be a weekend driver.

I have a new stock location intercooler. Had trouble installing it so i gave up on it. Does it make that much of a difference?? No alky injection. Probably a MAF translator.

No not yet? What should i do for the spring cleaning? The car has 34k on it.

I appreciate your feedback.

Check out & save these sites:
http://www.gnttype.org/maint/basics.html (Spring Cleaning Guide)
http://www.gnttype.org (Check out the drop-down feature labeled "Resources" upper right side)
http://www.vortexbuicks-etc.com/index.html
http://www.vortexbuicks-etc.com/howto.htm
http://www.vortexbuicks-etc.com/TuningBasics.htm
http://www.vortexbuicks-etc.com/combinationexamplesNew.htm

The SLIC (Stock Location Inter Cooler) can be difficult to work around if you have big arms, bad back, etc. The SLIC inlet is the choke point. Often it is cut away & a new "Dutt Neck" is welded into place to remove the restriction. Another option is to remove the SLIC & replace it with an FMIC (Front Mount Inter Cooler). This relocates the IC in front of the radiator & opens up the engine bay. Usually a high quality FMIC will provide for better flow & charge cooling at the possible expense of blocking air flow to the radiator. If you live in a hot climate, it may cause cooling issues.

If you are running on 91-93 octane pump gas without adding some form of octane enhancement, you will be limited to about +/-16psi of boost.

Make sure you have a Scanmaster. (Mandatory piece of equipment)

Consider upgrading the fuel pump, run a "Hot-Wire" kit to the pump, a Turbo Tweak chip, an adjustable fuel pressure regulator (AFPR) & a 160 degree thermostat. An auxiliary transmission cooler is also a very wise addition. These items enhance reliability & performance.

Read up & welcome to the world of cars that require some study. :D

PS. I reread your initial post & see that you already have several items I mentioned.
 
Fast street car. I dont plan on taking it to the track
Build it around the tire and suspention with excellent turbo response time.tire needs a lot of footprint and sidewall for unpreped road surfaces.49 turbo is great light to light on stock motors,loosen the stall on the converter,build the trans right away or at least put a shift kit and trans cooler on it, run methanol injection to run higher boost and to keep intake charge temps lower for repeated street hits on the street.tune your own car with a wideband and scanmaster.
 
Build it around the tire and suspention with excellent turbo response time.tire needs a lot of footprint and sidewall for unpreped road surfaces.49 turbo is great light to light on stock motors,loosen the stall on the converter,build the trans right away or at least put a shift kit and trans cooler on it, run methanol injection to run higher boost and to keep intake charge temps lower for repeated street hits on the street.tune your own car with a wideband and scanmaster.

I like your idea of building it around the suspension and tire.

For a fast true street car, stick to a 6262 or smaller turbo, run a good rear swaybar (HR bar or a Hellwig pro touring bar), a 9.5 PTC converter for spooling, some good adjustable shocks for the front (I use Varishock QS2 double adjustables) to help with dialing in weight transer, and some good shocks in the rear to help with the tire hit/load from your launches, some good trick springs in front will help with launches, and you could do some airbags in the rear. Look into some adjustable rear upper control arms for pinion angle adjustment and some good rear lower control arms as well.

Alky injection is a must for a streetcar. With alky and a te60 or te61 it will allow you to run those turbos right in their sweet spot and if you pick up the AXIS translator unit from Turbotweak you can make spark and fuel adjustments to really dial in the tune.

Id look into a wideband O2 sensor eventually. If you run that with the wideband chip from TT you can use the autocorrect function to help prevent serious failure.

If you see a decent SLIC or FMIC up for sale Id grab one as well.

That is my 2:30am quick parts recommendation haha!
 
Thank you everyone for all of the valuable information. I will have to re-think my ideas. Does anyone know a GN specialist in the Tampa/Sarasota/Bradenton area i can take my car too to get some work done to it?
 
If your plans are to keep the 12" stock converter/heads id do a ta49 or 58mm but you have to push it hard to get in the mid 11s and at that point you need a whole fuel system first.
 
I'm running a TA49 with a stock tranny and converter . From my little knowledge about Turbo's a Ta49 is bout all you can run with a stock converter anything bigger you may just be falling on your face . Listen to BISON that replied to you , HE pretty much is the " Turbo Guy " and will not steer you wrong and try to sell you some thing you don't need . You can read in my signature all my upgrades and they are all just bolt on's , The heads have never been off . I'm running and Alky kit which will let you run more boost . More Boost = Slick back tires ;) But just figure out where you want your car , If your on this site your already in the right direction . Have Fun Keith
 
I'm running a TA49 with a stock tranny and converter . From my little knowledge about Turbo's a Ta49 is bout all you can run with a stock converter anything bigger you may just be falling on your face . Listen to BISON that replied to you , HE pretty much is the " Turbo Guy " and will not steer you wrong and try to sell you some thing you don't need . You can read in my signature all my upgrades and they are all just bolt on's , The heads have never been off . I'm running and Alky kit which will let you run more boost . More Boost = Slick back tires ;) But just figure out where you want your car , If your on this site your already in the right direction . Have Fun Keith
Great thanks for your input Keith.
 
Check out & save these sites:
http://www.gnttype.org/maint/basics.html (Spring Cleaning Guide)
http://www.gnttype.org (Check out the drop-down feature labeled "Resources" upper right side)
http://www.vortexbuicks-etc.com/index.html
http://www.vortexbuicks-etc.com/howto.htm
http://www.vortexbuicks-etc.com/TuningBasics.htm
http://www.vortexbuicks-etc.com/combinationexamplesNew.htm

The SLIC (Stock Location Inter Cooler) can be difficult to work around if you have big arms, bad back, etc. The SLIC inlet is the choke point. Often it is cut away & a new "Dutt Neck" is welded into place to remove the restriction. Another option is to remove the SLIC & replace it with an FMIC (Front Mount Inter Cooler). This relocates the IC in front of the radiator & opens up the engine bay. Usually a high quality FMIC will provide for better flow & charge cooling at the possible expense of blocking air flow to the radiator. If you live in a hot climate, it may cause cooling issues.

If you are running on 91-93 octane pump gas without adding some form of octane enhancement, you will be limited to about +/-16psi of boost.

Make sure you have a Scanmaster. (Mandatory piece of equipment)

Consider upgrading the fuel pump, run a "Hot-Wire" kit to the pump, a Turbo Tweak chip, an adjustable fuel pressure regulator (AFPR) & a 160 degree thermostat. An auxiliary transmission cooler is also a very wise addition. These items enhance reliability & performance.

Read up & welcome to the world of cars that require some study. :D

PS. I reread your initial post & see that you already have several items I mentioned.
Thanks for your reply
 
Thank you everyone for all of the valuable information. I will have to re-think my ideas. Does anyone know a GN specialist in the Tampa/Sarasota/Bradenton area i can take my car too to get some work done to it?

Cruz performance is over there. Do a search in the parts for sale section. I’m sure he can help you and give you some advice as well.


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