WELCOME HOME ERIK! (Eno213) and Welcome to the Buick family!

[Squid4life]

Alright guys, this may be quite a read, but will be worth your time I hope.

WELCOME HOME ERIK! (Eno213) and Welcome to the Buick family!

A while back a new guy on the board (Erik) contacted me about buying a set of taillights, and we struck up a conversation about his new purchase, an 85 Grand National. He has wanted one for a very long time and finally bit the bullet, and traded his BMW for the GN he currently has. He read some of my posts about how I converted my old hot air to IC’ed and he was considering the swap, of which I had a lot of the parts he needed, plus a spare 109 so we decided I would freshen this motor and put together the whole conversion parts lot. This crazy Buick family we have all been inbred into always helps each other out, plus Erik is prior Navy, then went to the Army, then the reserves/DoD contractor and was in Afghanistan serving our country. I really felt this community could do something little by little to show our appreciation for the time he spends away from his family, but I wanted to keep it a surprise, and since Erik is a member on this board, (even while he is in Afghanistan he gets to search the board!) so no open forum posts asking for assistance. I had to contact people via email or private message. I started by contacting Steve Monroe.


Everyone knows Steve Monroe (throttlebodys.com). He ports stock throttle bodies and upper plenums to 62mm, and let me tell you; they are ART!!! I asked if he’d be willing to cut a discount on one of his ported stock throttle bodies because I wanted Erik’s build to be a little more than a stocker. Steve agreed and was excited to help. We worked a trade and a little cash for one of his 62mm ported throttle bodies and ported upper plenums. These things are works of art, just look at the pics!

I next contacted Dennis Kirban to see if he would be willing to help with a few small items to clean up the motor and make sure it was ready to support more power safely, and he went out of his way to help out. He was also excited to help and sent one of his billet adjustable fuel pressure regulators, a set of his high output plug wires, and a set of high pressure intercooler hoses and clamps! (NOT PICTURED BELOW ARE THE CLAMPS, SORRY! THEY ARE JUST AS NICE AS THE REST, TRUST ME!)

I had a set of 30lb injectors and stock injectors I planned to install in Erik’s motor, so I asked Check Leeper if he would take the stock injectors in trade for doing a flow job on the 30’s. He upped the ante and said he would do both sets for free, no problem! If you are chasing a miss, your car has sat a long time, or you buy a set of used injectors or they have sat on the shelf a while, do yourself a favor and send them to Chuck! One of the injectors was stuck completely until Chuck cleaned them up!


I have always used Turbotweak chips, from the time I bought my first GN about 10 years ago. They have always been PERFECT with regards to performance and drivability, so when I needed a chip for this build, Eric Marshall immediately came to mind. Eric agreed to do a chip for the newly freshened and flowed injectors for no charge!

Since this build needed to be done 100% right, I thought it required a set of forged pistons, and I always had good luck with the Edelbrock 204/214 cam and lifters. I also wanted to get it balanced, and I would be porting the heads and intake. Erik’s wife contacted me on the side and sent me some working money to help out with parts and machine shop fees. At this point the build was getting me really excited, but do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a secret!? I wanted to tell Erik all about this build but could not! I was talking to my parents one weekend and told them all about this project and how I was so excited to get it all together and have a “big reveal” like it was Overhaulin’ or something. Hell, they got excited about it too and the next week I was surprised to see a check for $250 and in the memo line it said “$ for machine shop fees or parts for your project!” Love my folks! They have big hearts! Here are a few pics of the shortblock coming together in my garage.

 

[Squid4life]

I still needed a balancer and fexplate for the balance job, so I contacted my buddy Mike (m233roller on here) as he always sold nice parts to me in the past. He said “pay shipping, and the parts are yours!” He sent me a flex plate, front balancer, and even a stock up pipe I was missing, all for free. These parts looked damn near NOS. They were absolutely spotless and beautiful!

So while I was waiting for some parts to arrive I snagged a set of ARP rod bolts for the stock rods. Anytime I run stock rods, I usually polish the beams and get rid of the “seam” along the side to eliminate the stress point. The aim was not to remove too much material, just the seam and then polish the beams. Swapping the bolts is not a “tap old out, tap new in” job, because of the radius under the heads of the ARP bolts. They required adding this chamfer to the rod cap so they sit nice and level. Here are a few before and after shots of the rods:

I also spent some time doing a little port work to the heads. For some reason every time I have a set of heads off a vehicle I feel the extreme need to port them! A little bowl work, some unshrouding, a little opening up of the ports, etc. Also ported the intake and welded the EGR port closed and milled the tower off. J

Now that I had all my parts for the bottom end, I took them to the same shop a few of the local Buick guys go for machine work. This is the same place Donnie and I have used for some of our machine work on our Stage II engines, and they know their stuff! The name of this place is ARCE Engines in El Cajon, CA. (http://www.arceengines.com/) They have a very, very nice shop and are great guys to work with. If you ever need work done in SoCal, this is the place to go. When I dropped off the parts for bore/hone, resize rods and hang pistons and balancing the rotating assembly, they were surprised to see me again so soon, as I had just picked up my Stage II stuff the week prior. I told them what I was doing and who it was for, and they jumped at the chance to help as well. They only charged me ½ price for all the machine work!!!! Again, GREAT guys here!


I know everyone on here has seen SPOOLFOOL2’s bumper fillers. He makes the fillers that are so nice, if your car is black you don’t even need to paint his fillers as the gel coat is so perfect! What you may not have seen of his are the custom, hand fabricated aluminum turbo covers. These are works of art. It all started out with the one he made for his car, and guys lined up to tell him to make more. I was getting ready to see him and the annual Buicks at Bates show so I told him about the project, and he immediately told me he would bring me a cover for Erik’s build. Not only is this Buick community close, but our SoCal community is very close! (And not just because Neal Steward has owned all of our cars at one time or another.) At the show, I saw Mike and he said “awesome project, would love to support. Here you go.” And handed me one of his covers for free. You really have to see this thing in person to truly appreciate the quality.

 

[Squid4life]

Speaking of the Buicks at Bates show, I had Erik ask his wife if she would bring his car out to the show so I could see it, meet her and their son, and introduce her to this Buick craziness. She said since it was leaking tranny fluid she wasn’t sure it would make it but she would try. The one place in town I trust to do my tranny work is owned by fellow Buick guru Donnie Wang (known on here as the mad scientist AlkyV6), so I asked if he wouldn’t mind taking a look at the transmission later and maybe throw a seal or two at it. After I explained the project a bit, he basically said “let’s go big”. He suggested I contact Dusty at PTC for a converter, and Chris at CK Performance transmissions for a billet intermediate shaft, and Donnie would build Erik a killer transmission free of charge. I was stunned and caught totally by surprise. Dusty sent a new converter right away, and Chris sent Donnie his goodies as well! Chris sent a billet intermediate shaft, forward clutch drum, and overdrive clutch housing! Once Erik gets back we will get the trans out and to DRW Transmission in Santee, CA for a full rebuild! (http://www.drwtransmission.com/) Everyone knows Dusty for his converters. If you look at some of the builds and specs for some of the fastest cars out there, especially our Buicks, you will see MANY of them run PTC converters thanks to Dusty. Check out http://www.ptcrace.com/ or hit him up on the board as he is always available to set you up with a correct converter. Chris at CK Performance (http://ckperformance.com/) carries everything you need to build a bad ass transmission, and as long as I have been into these damn cars, everyone goes to him for his killer internal trans parts as well as instructions or all out built transmissions.

Let me say again, Erik does not know anything about this at this point. As I am posting this thread, Erik is on his way to my house to visit and take a look at the progress. Do you know how hard it is not to spill the beans here!!!



Surfing the for sale section I came across a few things for sale from our members that I could use on this build. Each time I sent them a PM and asked if they might be able to cut me a discount for the parts for Erik’s build (in order to keep the costs down so I can keep it a surprise and reallocate that $ saved to buy a few nice items for the build.) these guys all jumped at the chance to help:


-Richard Lynch (Dlynch1130) was selling some TA rocker shaft studs, hold downs, and an oil pickup tube, and when I told him what I was doing, he gave them all to me 1/2 price!


-my1stgn had a set of new Comp valvesprings for sale, and since I was porting the heads I had, and they unknown springs, I thought it would be smart to get new ones. Vic hooked me up and gave me the springs for free, as well as a spare set of heads and a gasket set to seal everything up for another $40. The spare heads were a good buy in the event I got a little crazy porting!


-RIDDICK had a set of TA cam bearings for sale, and they were the new teflon coated ones like I used on my Stage II. He gave me a hell of a deal at $30 shipped!



\

 

[Squid4life]

At the same time I was working with m233roller for the up pipe and rotating assembly parts, I had contacted Jason Cramer at RJC to see if he would be willing to help out. He also immediately wanted to help out and sent out a beautiful 3” aluminum up pipe, and two of the items I ALWAYS run on my cars: the biggie oil filter adapter, and a power plate. These are must haves in my books. Who wouldn’t want more oil capacity/better filtration as well as better airflow and even air/fuel distribution??? Jason has come out with so many new items in the past years, it is almost hard to keep up! My next car will run his 3” exhaust. I have seen it in person and heard it, truly amazing. Great parts from RJC!!! http://rjcracing.com/

Everyone who knows Buicks also knows Mark Hueffman at TR Custom parts. (Buickgn.com) His site has tons of Buick goodies and it gets me in trouble every time I look as I find more stuff I want to buy. I have run his Big Mouth cold air kit on my cars and loved them. Mark wanted to be part of this project, so when I ordered the aluminum MAF pipe and couplers, he threw in a complete Big Mouth cold air kit for free! This is the one that comes with everything; clamps, couplers, NICE aluminum piping and a big K&N!!!

When I was at the Buick at Bates car show, I was hoping to win something in the raffle. This years raffle had a TA front cover and an RJC downpipe. I could really use those items for this build. I always get a little nervous putting a used front cover on a new motor, and who wants to run a stock downpipe with all the other things I have done to this motor!? Well, if I didn’t have bad luck I would have none, so of course I didn’t win anything! L I ran into Nick Micale at the show, and know he works hand in hand with TA Performance with their products so I asked about the front cover that was raffled off. I explained this project and he said “email me your info and when I get home I will put a cover in the mail.” He even asked “what else do you need?” Nick ended up cutting me a hell of a deal on the front cover and an RJC stainless downpipe with test pipe!!!!! I had a Terry Houston down pipe on my car and the RJC is very similar, but in my opinion is much better quality. The fabrication and welds on this thing are amazing! One of these will go on my next T or GN for sure!

I talked to John Spina at Caspers electronics because the stock engine harness I had on my shelf was a little worse for wear… There were numerous broken clips, broken conduit, and that nasty, sticky tape residue everywhere. John sent me everything I needed to restore the factory harness, including new clips, conduit (including the correct oval conduit), the correct non-gooey tape, and even the tools to swap out the pins and connectors and clips. He said he would have sent me a whole new harness but they were out of stock. Check out casperselectronics.com for anything and everything you need pertaining to electronics for your turbo Buick! From something as simple as a single clip, to a full harness to getting work done like repairing the factory instrument cluster, they can hook you up!

 

[Squid4life]

The names Paul Ferry and HRPartsNstuff are nothing new if you are into Buicks. Everyone knows about their rear sway bar, motor mounts, and many other items. Paul was gracious enough to contribute one of their motor mounts, which as we know are REQUIRED on our cars; otherwise your motor does all kinds of jiggles and wiggles in the engine compartment! Thank you Paul, I really appreciate it!

I imagine you have seen some of the fab work done by 6LE DESIGNS (www.6litereaterdesigns.com) on here with the custom grille, hood, etc on their car, plus the GNX style gauges, console with cup holders, etc. They are building some bad ass items for our cars! I had a GNX style dash on my white T and absolutely LOVED it, so I contacted them to see if they would possibly help out with the gauge mounting plate or something to bring Erik’s car in the modern world a little bit. Again, I was met with “whatever we make is yours free!” I didn’t want to be choosy, so I said whatever you wanted to contribute would go to good use and would be greatly appreciated. He said “no issues, I will send you the gauge mounting plate, bezel, shift plate with cup holders, and the black lenses for the turn signals”. Again, I was blown away. Now Erik can create his own GNX style dash with whatever gauges he chooses! Check these out:

It has been said time and again you CANNOT own one of these Buicks without running a scanmaster and/or powerlogger. Bob Bailey is the man his ingenuity in what he builds for our cars is amazing to me. I asked Bob if he would be willing to cut a discount on a scanmaster for this project and he said no problem. He said forget the discount, I will send you either a scanmaster, powerlogger or MAF translator! I asked for the scanmaster, and the next day Erik sends me an email and says he ordered a scanmaster because he heard you cannot run a Buick without one! Damnit, so hard to keep a secret! Bob had no problem whatsoever changing my order to the powerlogger. Class act, thank you Bob!!!

Instead of using crappy old used, rusty bolts I really wanted to buy all new bolts. I tried to do this before by going to home depot and lowes and searching and really never finding all the right bolts, especially never all allen head or all hex head. Well, Earl Brown (famously known not only for his sarcasm and smart-assed-ness, but also the “Earl Brown” front cover mods.) puts together some stainless bolt kits that are really top notch. Why use used crap, or piece a kit together when Earl already did the hard work?! Check them out: http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/threads/updated-super-groovy-ss-bolt-kits.400311/ Earl is putting a full set together right now for Erik’s build!

 

[Squid4life]

Everyone knows what a hell of a Nice guy Coach is, and he is taking turbo Buick builds to a whole other level with his Executioner. He makes some bad ass parts so I asked if he might be able to do something for this build. He asked about the combo and offered to send a custom made bracket for the RJC boost controller. This is perfect for this car! Very nice work Coach. Here is a pic on Coach’s car:

Year ago I bought a set of used heater hard lines and hoses and they sat on my shelf forever. I pulled them out for this project and when I removed one of the hoses, part of the hard line came off with it! It was rusted to death! I checked out GBODYPARTS.com, since Brian Weaver seriously everything you need for our cars. At this point I was starting to run a bit short on cash due because I was trying to keep the cost low to keep this a surprise, so asked Brian if he might be able to cut me a military discount or could he donate the hard lines he sold. He immediately replied to my email and said “I will do one better” and sent a screen shot of a parts list (like in checkout on his site) which included:


-stainless coolant lines

-intake nipple (connects hard line to intake)

-thermostat

-thermostat housing

-thermostat hold down & bolt

-silicon PS hose

-silicone Z hose

-silicone heater control valve hoses (3)

-silicone upper/lower rad hoses

-silicone PS return hose


I didn’t realize they sold these silicone hoses, but once the box showed up overflowing with goodies I was sold on them. They look awesome! Brian was also one of the guys that said “what else do you need?” I asked if he knew of someone who rebuilds turbos as the stocker I was going to use had a little more play than I was comfortable with, and he said “send it to me, we will rebuild it.” Then CC’ed one of his workers Michael and said “on second thought, don’t you have a TE-44 you were working on?” So, I sent in the loose stock turbo, and Brian and Michael sent me a freshly rebuilt/resealed TE-44. I could not believe it! Before the box of parts was sent I emailed Brian to see if he could toss in a fuel line as I was missing one of the lines from the frame rail to the fuel rail. I told him he had already done so much, let me know what I owed him for it. I totally assumed it would be a used line off one of his cars as he sells used parts too, right? NOPE! He sent me BOTH brand new lines from the frame to the engine. Again, Brian and GBody went above and beyond my expectations in a HUGE way. Hell, Michael emailed to make sure I got the turbo safe and sound and wasn’t sure if he had put the used actuator in the box with it, so he threw a brand new actuator in the box with the rest of the parts! Seriously, if it was not for Brian at GBody, this project would not have gone as smoothly or ended up as perfect as it has. Thank you Brian!

 

[Squid4life]

Thank you so much to all the vendors and members who really stepped it up and supported this build. You guys are all great! Think about it: some random guy sends you an email or private message asking you to contribute to a build for another random guy. All the members and vendors mentioned above learned it was one of our Buick brothers serving his country and were more than happy to provide whatever was asked in support of this. What started out as something pretty small and simple really ballooned into a large build for a great guy. Erik and I talked often about Buicks, family, etc while he was in Afghanistan, and I was lucky enough to meet his wife and son at the Buicks at Bates event where my family and I were in attendance. He is back from Afghanistan for less than a month and has to head back. I was really hoping to have this build 100% complete and on the stand but my time is also rare here lately as I am active Navy and have been underway a lot... I think my plan is to bring his car to my house and I will continue the work and go ahead and install everything, and get the transmission out and over to Donnie at DRW for its freshening. Anyhow, Erik is on his way here and he has no idea what awaits him!


All of you guys who contributed to this are also contributing to a guy getting his dream car, and getting it to a high level of performance and aesthetics. Again, thank you all for what you have done; this is a super, fun build! I am far from done, I still need to get the heads 100% finish ported, then take them in for valve job, get the springs set up, etc. I would like to get every single bracket blasted and powder coated, so that will take some time! I will also be scouring for some AC lines, an aluminum vacuum block and a few other parts, so let me know if you have anything laying around!


Anyhow, Erik, welcome home brother, enjoy the family while you are here, congrats on the new car, and welcome to this crazy Buick community!!!!!



All the best to everyone, and thank you again!


James

 

[SPOOLFOOL2]

James,
Big thanks for doing this.

Erik,
Welcome to the Turbo Buick family and thank you for your service. We are proud to have you as one of us. People first buy these cars because their great cars. People keep them because of the great group of people who own them. You are one of those great people.

Hope to see you at a car show in the future.

Mike Barnard

US ARMY 84-87

 

[charlief1]

You went above and beyond James, and it shows the type of people that we have on this board.You just don't see this type of thing happen very often and I'm proud to say it happened because of the TB community.

Welcome back Erik, even though it's a short time, we know you'll be back again and again.

 

[TR Custom Parts]

Good job James! Glad to be a part of it.

 

[Instro84]

nice job James and welcome t the community Erik.

 

[Eno213]

Man you have no idea how much of a surprise this was. I just wanted taillights then thought I could get more horsepower by doing a inter cooler swap. I tried my best to stay on top of everything and be a part of the build and just wanted a cool fast daily driver. Never would I have ever imagine something like this. To the level of quality of these parts to the peoples willingness to contribute to this build for me is just to much to comprehend. When James was explaining all the parts and who helped out, I was almost speechless and couldn't really wrap my mind how much he really stepped up and did all this for me. I work my ass off in Afghanistan to provide for my family and usually stay for months and months and only come home for no more then 30 days a year so when I come home it's all about them. To come home and have this done for ME is overwhelming and I just don't have the words to describe my gratitude to everyone on here. Again thank you James and your beautiful family for everything. And thank you everyone on turbo Buick for helping out as much as you have. Big thank you from me and my family

 

[Instro84]

Erick, throw up some pics whne you get a chance, would like to see the beast.

 

[charlief1]

Did you get a pic of his face when he saw what was going on James?

 

[Eno213]

Thank you guys. Hopefully there was no pictures lol I was just trying to take everything in. Driving to my house is when it hit me that all those parts where for my car. I've read this post about 20 times. Thanks again guys

 

[cruzn57]

WOW, James, you are a true nut job!
your desire to help and seek help for a fellow buick owner is beyond great!
I am thrilled that all the locals and not so locals stepped up on this,
having been around for a while, all lthe people you mentioned are all stand up vendors,
and should be supported aggressively, ( you named the "who's who" of the buick community)
Erik, glad to have you as a fellow buick owner, welcome to our community!

 

[larrym]

you have been Overhauled well done!!

 

[Squid4life]

Charlie, no pics of Erik's reaction but I sure wish I would have gotten some, it was classic. Erik seems to be the type of guy who is always smiling and when I started telling him about everything and telling him about all the guys who have contributed he was pretty stone-faced. I am sure it was a lot to take in, going from the garage with a sexy short block and ported heads and intake, to pulling the blanket back on all the new parts inside. There was a lot, and this isn't even all of them. Thanks again to our Buick community for stepping up. Awesome bunch of guys and we are doing something for a truly great guy. Erik is a hell of a guy and I am glad to call him a friend now.

Be safe when you head back, I will keep you up to date on the progress.

 

[SPOOLFOOL2]

Thank you guys.

No! Thank you.

Every day, we enjoy the liberties that were given to us by brave men and women. We here are grateful for this.

Let us know when you're ready to take it to the track and see what it'll do.

Mike B.

 

[trixdout]

Hats off to you James and all the vendors. Makes me greatfull to be apart of a community such as this one!!!!

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