Which route should I go

L

LilSpann601

New Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2008
Whats up I have an 81 gp with a 3.8 na motor...a couple of months ago the head gaskets blew and I replaced them and had the heads shaved and magnafluxed...after slapping the engine back together and testing the engine a few hundred times I come to conclusion I wanted to keep the 3.8 v6 in it for gas reasons...but I need more power...I was thinking of finding a carb turbo setup but it seems hard to piece together...I search ebay everyday to find a setup and everytime i find one it's missing something...my 2nd option was to slap a intake manifold and make it fuel injection using grand national parts...when i search ebay i find tons of cheap intake manifolds, and injectors and such...would it be possible for me to swap the intake manifold and injectors and wiring harness from a grand national to my 81 n/a and just run a regular fuel injection system into I piece together the blower????
 
Do yourself a favor, just do a 4bbl conversion. Going to sfi is VERY extensive and aggrivating. There's a 4.1 intake on evilbay right now for less than $50 and it's a good upgrade for the money.
 
carbed turbo is almost impossible to me if you aint got the complete car...i bidded on a 4bl intake but it looks damn near like the one on my car now
 
well I hate to say guys my plans changed i took the grnd prix out for a drive yesterday and guess what the hell happened it over heated then a large amount of blue smoke then it started knocking.....after this **** happened I would rather get a v8 block and rebuild it rather than this 3.8 n/a...After talking to a friend he said he had two blocks he would give me either a 305 or a 350 vortec but both have bottom end knocks...would it be worth rebuilding the motors or just trying something else
 
So sorry. As far as a rebuild you have all the componants to do the v6 and it still gets better milage. If you want to go v8 they're enough parts out there to do whatever you want but make sure of the local emission laws and keep it within the rules.
 
You should be able to pick up a good running n/a motor CHEAP! Go find a circle track racer and he'd probably give it to ya for next to nothing. Nearly any year gbody will work. OR, you could find a running buick v8 and slap it in and go. Not a whole lot to change over from what I understand and I think poston buick sells swap kits. You could also go with a carb turbo 6, which I know may be a longshot but if you post here it shouldn't take long for someone to come up with one. Why put a chevy motor in it that you would have to rebuild? Just as well find a pontiac 400-455:cool:
 
I have a second complete 83 turbo system.

turbo, carb, adapter, intake, cam , lifters, up pipe, crossover pipe, down pipe, left & Right manifolds...... what else?

Make me an offer.

A.j.
 
Ok heres the deal i have a 3.8 n/a v6 i recently replaced the head gaskets but the suckers blew again 2 days ago then the motor started knocking...I was at the point of just saying screw the 3.8 and dropping in a v8...but ive come to the conclusion it would be smarter to just rebuild the 3.8 so i can get some more engine building experience....how much hp can expect if i tear this baby down and change the crank and pistons and maybe get it bored...im also thinking of using grand national crank and maybe forged pistons
 
You will gain nothing by going witha gn crank and forged pistons. OK, this is what you should do. Build the 3.8 to turbo specs for 81, just use your same crank and have it turned if it is still good. an n/a crank will be fine with a carbed turbo. Use the pistons that come in the turbo kit. Buy the spare turbo setup from frankenstein when you get the cash. IF you have extra money during the build get a slightly bigger cam and have the intake and heads cleaned up. If you don't have the extra money just save it for the turbo setup. You will gain more from the turbo setup than from a cam and headwork. Keep the compression stock. If I'm wrong, somebody feel free to correct me.
 
usetaboost said:
You will gain nothing by going witha gn crank and forged pistons. OK, this is what you should do. Build the 3.8 to turbo specs for 81, just use your same crank and have it turned if it is still good. an n/a crank will be fine with a carbed turbo. Use the pistons that come in the turbo kit. Buy the spare turbo setup from frankenstein when you get the cash. IF you have extra money during the build get a slightly bigger cam and have the intake and heads cleaned up. If you don't have the extra money just save it for the turbo setup. You will gain more from the turbo setup than from a cam and headwork. Keep the compression stock. If I'm wrong, somebody feel free to correct me.
Click to expand...


No No, I think your on the right path.... that would be an excellent way to go about it, that gives you an entirely fresh base to start from not to mention the benifits of the forged turbo pistons.

I had just suggested picking up junkyarder N/A 3.8 or atleast one known to be solid. A Plain jane 3.8 around my parts is cheep I dont think there price changes much on where you go, and a junkyarder would be a great learning tool - as you wont cry as much when you make a mistake.

So figuring that a 1983 T-Type turbo motor made about 180hp out of the box. if you build it right, pay attention to cam and carb choice - it should be easy to make 225HP it all depends on what you want to spend to go any higher from that.


A.j.
 
well today i took off the intake manifold,valve covers...i plan on removing the alternator,power steering, and compressor tomorrow to remove the heads...and see whats going on
 
got the right head off...didn't really see nothing wrong...but on the right head the 6 cylinder valves heads were wet...I might remove the driver side later on...what else shoould I check...i rotated the engine by hand it spint freely and i didn't hear anything unusual
 
well by the looks of things the passenger side head gasket went out......i plan on taking out the motor should i just pull the motor or motor and trans...does anyone have the durations of the turbo cam vs the n/a cam..and whats different in the crankshaft?....And should i get it bored??? if so how much?
 
I'd just post up for a n/a 3.8 and buy a carbed turbo setup for it. You'd probably have more money in rebuilding it right than what you would finding a good n/a motor to slap in with the turbo setup-then you/'d have balls and economy like the rest of us:cool:
 
I plan on rebuilding it im going to get a engine stand from harbor freight soon....i just wanna experiment with this engine...the engine suppose to be brand new thats what my uncle told me the last time he asked about the car....so im going to save up some money have it fixed at the machine shop and slap a turbo on it..this all will maybe cost around 600
 
pull it out and tear it open.

from there just, pull a cap and look at the condition of the main bearings, then use a little plasti-gauge and check the clearances.

do the same for the rods.

I bet it was massive detonation that you heard before the head gasket blew, so hopefully the shortblock is still OK.

A.j.
 
i hope so the motor still crunk just knocked as the motor got warmer and the exhaust was pouring out smoke I was under the hood and see white smoke come form the right side of the exhaust manifold somewhere and I seen just a small amount of smoke on the left side exhaust manifold
 
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