New guy from across the pond.

Hi, I'm a new member. Have to be honest to start. I don't own a Supra, but a 1972 Celica with a 87 Buick Grand National Drivetrain (3.8 SFI Turbo V6 ) So yes... I am a car nut. I'm from across the pond (Canada) I stumbled across your forum, and see there lots of info here that translates to many vehicles in general, so here I am.

I noticed that I am unable to post anything yet (except for here) or reply to posts, or PM ? How does that work here? Do I need moderators approval first? I assure you I am not a spam bot.

 

Paul

hi Paul, welcome. Love the Celica, great looking car. If you want full rights on the site you have to pay a £10 membership fee.

Lovely car Paul, I am slightly jealous

 

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome! I'm always a bit envious when I see these engine swaps. 'So far above my own ability!

Welcome, I'll be that's a lot of fun

Welcome.

You have a special car, I love it!

Nice looking car that, bet you get a lot of " oh here he is in his Datsun" in american twang ( I know you're Canadian so not trying to offend)

hi Paul, welcome. Love the Celica, great looking car. If you want full rights on the site you have to pay a £10 membership fee.

 

Hi Hammer, thanks for the compliment, and the membership info.

Lovely car Paul, I am slightly jealous

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

Thanks gordy.r :-) and I am slightly jealous of you guys. :-)

 

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Welcome! I'm always a bit envious when I see these engine swaps. 'So far above my own ability!

 

Thanks.

Welcome, I'll be that's a lot of fun

Thanks. Oh it is! But you guys too know that wonderful feeling of being pinned back into the seat. ;-)

 

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Welcome.

 

Thanks!

You have a special car, I love it!

 

Thanks so much!

Nice looking car that, bet you get a lot of " oh here he is in his Datsun" in american twang ( I know you're Canadian so not trying to offend)

 

Hi! LOL Yes I do. Lately, because it is so old, I get "What kinda car is that?" No offence taken :-)

Paul, lovely car

Lovely Celica, welcome to the forum!

That Buick V6 may be long in the tooth, but they certainly could churn out some serious torque and were very reliable. The car looks fabulous, a real sleeper, and a really pretty little car indeed. The class and restraint in appearances of conversions always seems better in Canada than the US

 

If you are of a mind to post some more photos of the conversion I for one would be very interested in seeing them.

Hi Chris. Yes they are a bit long in the tooth now, but were way ahead of their time, when they were produced. Also, because of the love of them, and huge following, many modern innovations have been made to bolt on to them. These motors are easy to tweak, with minor low cost simple fixes, to bring out more horsepower. We have a huge variety of modern ECU chips available. (Some are fully programmable.) The aftermarket turbo selection specifically made for this engine, runs from mild to wild. We have piggyback components that allow us to switch from Mass Air Flow technology, to Speed Density fuel management. I personally run a wideband oxygen sensor setup, that is fully programmable, and can be set to track, and maintain specific, or desired AFR. I can adjust my Air Fuel Ratios on the fly in car, along with the ignition timing tables. Tech support is huge, and there are a couple of large Buick Grand National forums I belong to, where the wealth of knowledge and experience is incredible.

 

Back to my car...Thanks for the compliments and praises. LOL I hear you! I guess to each his own. ;-) But some conversions I have seen, are just butt ugly :-)

Here are some previous engine swaps I have performed on the car. The car originally came with a 4 cylinder single overhead cam 2 litre engine, that I added a Weber side draft carb, larger cam, and header to. The first swap was a Japanese imported race motor (first pic) Twin cam, dual side draft carbs. I added high compression pistons, race cams and had a custom header built for it, and added an electronic ignition. Second pic was my first north American engine swap. Stock naturally aspirated, carbed 3.8 litre Buick V6. Added better cam, headers, carb, etc. Maxed it out, and went for my first turbo. Same Buick V6 family, but what was called a "hot air" motor. (Draw through carb turbo.) Did a bunch of tweaks to it, and maxed it's potential out, and finally stepped up the the rare fuel injected turbo engine that in there now. If interested, I can detail later all the drivetrain and suspension mods done to it as well.

 

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Paul, lovely car

Thanks Matt. :-)

Lovely Celica, welcome to the forum!

 

Thanks sebas.

What a great history, and despite the various power plants it still looks factory under the bonnet. I would love to see more photos. Those Grand National engines were brilliant old lumps. I came very close to buying an Indy car with the V6 in it some years back, I have never seen bigger valves in what were originally basically stock road car head castings. The cam profiles were truly wild too, I can only imagine the stresses the valve train would be under. Look at the size of the roller rockers! Beast of an engine, yet they rarely went bang on methanol. For anyone who thinks they've seen big inlet ports I offer these! The crank was awesome, too, full circle, a work of art, a *proper* big HP jobbie.

Thanks. I really wanted to make sure that I never allowed the car to look butchered.

They were impressive. Great pics. They were beasts that held together, considering the stress they were put under. (Monster size roller rockers!) A lot of that R&D was directly transferred to the non-race daily drivers. Our engines came with factory forged cranks! "a *proper* big HP jobbie." Love that! :-) So true!

 

I'll see if I can dig out some more pics.

 

This is our main site the has a ton of pics and info on the history of the Buick Regal as well as archives that date back.

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/techpage.html

 

This is one of the forums much like yours, where we post and share.

http://turbobuick.com/

 

Here is a list of the car build:

Motor 231 Cu in V6 30 over, 10/10 crank,

Ported and polished heads,

SpeedPro 194/204 Cam, (Recently changed to SpeedPro 204/214 Cam) Comp Cam 980 valve springs,

High vol.oil pump, and modded cover,

PTE (Precision engineering) 44 turbo, 0.65 Ex housing,

Dutweiller Big neck intercooler,

Jay Jackson’s 62 mm Throttle body,

Ported and polished plenum with upper part of EGR tower removed,

Power Plate,

Solid MAF pipe, K&N Filter.

Postons headers and 2 pce crossover pipe.

Hand made Terry Houston style Down pipe,

3” exhaust split to 2 ½ “ dual Magnaflow mufflers,

H&R' s Polyurethane motor mount.

52 # Siemens low impedance injectors,

Red Armstrongs’s modded ECM,

Bob Baileys MAF Translator Pro,

Innovate wide band O2 sensor setup,

LT1 MAF, (can switch between Speed density and MAF mode)

Bob Baileys Extender ECU chip,

Boost Commander adjustable boost controller, dual wastegate solenoids,

“Razor's” progressive Alky injection kit, Adjable Fuel pressure Regulator, Hot wired Walbro GSS 340 intank fuel pump,

ATR billet Overdrive H20 pump pulley, FlowKooler H2O pump,

Ford Taurus 2 Spd electric fan,

RMI 25 and distilled water for coolant.

Delco Type II coil pack and module,

8.5mm Magnecor plug wires, AC CR42’s spark plugs.

DirectScan, Powerlogger, Tuner Pro (diagnostic and monitoring software)

Caspers Knock gauge, Autometer 30/30 boost/vacuum gauge, Autometer tranny temp gauge.

Built Heavy Duty 200 4R tranny,

B&M 28,000GVW and 19,000GVW SuperCooler tranny coolers, Remote tranny filter,

Protorque 2800 stall torque converter,

B&M Megashifter,

Chopped Ford 9” @3:25 Trac Lok rear end, Adjustable 4 link setup, Air bags

KYB AGX 4 way adjustable struts with Ground Control Coilovers and camber plates front,

KYB Gas-A-Just’s shocks rear.

Rear brakes: 300 ZX disk brake setup.

Front brakes: 96 Infinity Q45 dual piston front calipers, 11” vented rotor, on 86 Supra struts,

Nissan 300 ZX 15/16 master cylinder,

Toyo T1R's 205/45/16 front, 245/45/16 rear

Sportmax XXR 513's Rims 16 x 7 front 16 x 8 rear

Hurst Roll control,

Ford power steering rack.