1972 Buick Turbo LS Pro Touring - Garage Made

[lwilliams]

injectors spacers showed up yesterday and i got them swapped into the intake, all in all pretty easy.


took the fuel rail off the intake, just 4 bolts holding it on. and then pull the injectors out of the intake.


then take the clips off all the stock truck injectors, this is easy I just pulled them off by hand.



Once they are out and the fuel rail doesn't have any injectors in it i dumped all the old gas out, they were still really full from who knows how long ago.


once emptied i lubed up the O-ring of the injector spacer with a little bit or engine oil and and pushed them into the fuel rail, this was a little hard at times but they went in by hand.



once all the adapters were installed, i lubed the upper O-ring of the LSA injectors and put them in, and now it is ready to go back in the intake. The ICT kit comes with new o-rings for the bottom of the injectors that seal into the intake, but i found that they were a lot looser than just the stock O-rings on the LSA injectors so i just left the stock ones on. lubed them with some oil before setting into the intake as well. i looked when they were installed and they were all tight and the o-rings weren't warped or anything



Lined up all the injectors in their respective holes and pushed the fuel rail and injectors into the intake as one unit on both sides.


once they were pushed in i set the spacer between the rail and intake that comes with the kit and then reinstalled the intake and it is ready for some fuel!


Just waiting on my welder to get home so he can weld the BOV/wastegate flange, an intercooler pipe and the drain fitting in the front engine cover. I'll install them all once that happens, run the vacuum lines and oil drain line then it is ready for some terminator x action.

[lwilliams]

Made some more progress. Got the flanges for the BOV and wastegate welded up and finished the wastegate routing into the down pipe. Also finished making the intercooler piping all blingy haha. Got this heat tape along with the heat wrap so i figured i would put it on there any ways.

Pic of the wastegate installed in the flange on the turbo housing and what the flange looks like through the turbo blanket.




here is the wastegate mounted on with the blanket and then the start of the plumbing of the routing back into the down pipe. I read that you can;t just 90 degree this back in to the DP otherwise it will create tons of back pressure so i angled it in as best i can. I did have the DP in the car when mocking up the routing just didn;t have a pic of it. Ya i aint no welder. covered it all up in heat wrap and also some some heat wrap sleeves for the spark plugs because the down pipe sites pretty close to them. I also heat wrap the log manifold and crossover pipe. I'll probably do that once i have the new trans and converter in as i have to modify the crossover pipe anyways.











Also added in the O2 sensor to the DP. When i get the Terminator xmax i'll use the supplied O2 sensor in the kit for the driver side bank to monitor AFR's on both sides.


this is what it looks like all wrapped up. just need some 1" heat wrap for the small section of pipe right off the wastegate as i didn't want to weld the flex coupler right to the flange on the wastegate. i only had 2: heat wrap and it didn;t look good with the 2" wrapped on it.


I also got the turbo oil drain fitting welded to the front cover and put the hose and fittings together. I'll grab a pic for this all installed.



Here is the blow off valve mounted to the flange on the pipe heading to the TB. Also a pic of all the piping put together now.





Got a rear diff cover on order as well as the e-brake kit for the rear brakes. should have those installed over the Christmas break. going to order some more spark plug heat boot protectors as they are six inches long and they either leave a portion of the wire exposed close to the DP or the log manifold. so i will get another set to make sure they are all protected. Going to run the vacuum lines for the wastgate, boost reference exhaust cut out and the blow off valve next too. Also need to grab a 2bar map sensor,***anyone know off a cheaper alternative to this?*** getting close to having the whole engine bay put together.

[Vimes]

Nice. Sometimes I wish I'd looked harder for another Skylark.

Also need to grab a 2bar map sensor,***anyone know off a cheaper alternative to this?***

GM uses a 3-bar MAP sensor on their forced induction rigs, and they are in the 50ish dollar range. This work for you?

[lwilliams]

Nice. Sometimes I wish I'd looked harder for another Skylark.



GM uses a 3-bar MAP sensor on their forced induction rigs, and they are in the 50ish dollar range. This work for you?

Thanks for the heads up I will check it out!

[lwilliams]

Here a few pics of the turbo oil drain line. i used -10AN fittings and line. I also found this drain that connects to the turbo from performance world it makes it so much easier to connect the line and it clears the bottom of the turbo nicely to avoid super tight spaces. it is also a rubber seal opposed to those paper gaskets that leak all the time. here is the link if anyone wants one http://www.performance-world.com/Tur...n-p/83240l.htm







Here is a pic of the current state with everything put together.

[lwilliams]

Well, finally back at it, just a 2.5yr hiatus i guess. Pushing really hard to have this thing on the road and driving this summer. Just ordered a mid frame brace and front frame brace from Philip Ortega aka tigerchevelle77 on instagram. Also ordered a QA1 sway bar through my local shop. Since i was adding the front frame brace which has some weight to it i figured having the hollow front sway bar to save some weight, would help to balance everything out weight wise. I did a little research and also found that the hollow ones are made out of a some stronger material and although lighter and hollow, they are actually stiffer. pics below of the braces i ordered. i already got the upper shock mount brace from him a while back.

Sway bar i ordered


Braces: the one up top is the mid frame brace - it connects to the the two lower control arm brackets then follows under the body connecting both sides. The front brace is the bottom one in the pic, it connects both of the frame horns and then ties it all together with drilling/bolting to the K-member




happy to be back at this again. Going to get the catch can, fittings and lines all put together next.

[lwilliams]

Got the catch can and the front sway bar installed.

For the sway bar, what was supposed to be a quick 30-40minute install turned into about a 4 -5 hour run around. Had it all greased up with the brackets and ready to mount it with the brackets and plates. Then when i went to use the supplied hardware that came with the kit it was way to small. The bolts just slipped right though the holes it was supposed to mount in to. So off to peavey mart to get some bolts/washers for the 1st of 3 times.




hardware that was too small... damn you QA1


Grabbed the right bolts and then snugged and torqued both brackets down after lining up the sway bar.



Then i noticed that the sway bar was contacting the tie rod. I had mine mounted on top of the steering arm and it sat flat that way when the car was sitting on its own weight. Went to put the tie rod to the bottom of the steering arm but there wasn't enough clearance from the rim. Here is where the job turned timely. Jack the car up on jack stands, off come both front wheels, calipers, tie rods, and the steering arms. Had enough washers to shim out one steering arm but not each side. Off to peavey mart to get 0.72 cents in washers for the 2nd of 3 times that day. got the steering arms shimmed out using three washers on each bolt.

here are the bolts i shimmed out



That gave me enough clearance to get the tie rod away from the rim on the bottom of the steering arm. Then I put everything back together.



so finally time to install the sway bar end links and call it good. Nope. The bolts that QA1 supplied for the end links were too short. i don't think that this is a QA1 issue as the lower A-arms i am running are a lot thicker than the stock ones i think and they took up a bunch of the bolt length. with all of the rubber bushings, washers and sleeve the bolt was flush with the bottom washer and i couldn't get the bolt on. tried to compress everything with all kinds of clamps but just couldn't get anything to work. So off to peavey mart for the 3rd of 3 times. But the longest bolt they had is 6.5". I waited until today and grabbed an 8" bolt (the kit comes with 7") and it worked like a charm. I don't care what they say, size does matter! it says to torque the end links to 11-18ft/lbs, 18 is stiffer for less body roll and 11 is softer for more body roll. I split the difference and torqued it to 14ft/lbs for the moment. looks like it should have good clearance and room to move under there. Its all installed and ready to go.





Next was on to the catch can, this is the kit i ordered off of amazon. Honestly for 62$ for a can, filter 6 fittings and hose the stuff is pretty decent quality. I would buy it again. I also ordered a fitting that goes right on the oil cap with a 10AN fitting and then another barbed fitting that fits in the the back of the drivers side.

Here are the links:
Catch Can kit - https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CH15Q16F?...roduct_details
Gas Cap 10AN fitting - https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07P656N52?...t_details&th=1
Barbed 10AN fitting - https://www.performance-world.com/Va...gs-p/82009.htm

Catch Can Kit


Oil cap breather fitting and barbed valve cover fitting


Everything worked well and was easy to install. I made a bracket out of some steel i had laying around and bolted it to the alternator bracket. Only issue with this kit is i would say that the mounting bracket is not square. it is cockeyed to mount to get the can and filter to sit flat. which you can see in the one photo.



Wanted to keep everything clean and pretty tight so ran the drivers side with a 90 degree straight the front that follows the fuel rail and then comes down the valve cover to a 45 degree to the catch can. on the passenger side i looped it under the intake and then over the catch can. The oil cap breather fitting has a 150 degree fitting on it and the there is a 90 degree fitting off the catch can heading straight left.

fittings installed




Lines and fittings running to the catch can







The frame braces I had made have been shipped and are supposed be here Tuesday next week. Will get those installed sometime that week or on that weekend.

Once those are in the next things on my list are a torque converter (likely circle-d unit), radiator with a shroud and fans, 4l80e and a CPP hydroboost set up and all the brake lines and fittings. Not in any particular order, should likely have enough cash in the next 2-3 weeks to do at least one of those for sure, probably two out of that list.

[lwilliams]

looking for some opinions on either of these control arm braces has anyone used either of these?

These are QA1, more like the stock ones that came on the convertibles i think.



Then the UMI ones

[ryeguy2006a]

Great progress! Look forward to seeing how you like the turbo LS!

[lwilliams]

Spoke to QA1 about the control arm braces and asked about any performance difference between the adjustable and non-adjustable versions they have. They said that there is no performance difference and that the non adjustable are actually easier to install then fiddling with the adjustments and getting everything to line up. so going the non-adjustable route.



Mid and Front Frame braces will be here on Tuesday and I got my welder back so hopefully put those in during next week or on the weekend.

Also, just sourced a 4l80 from an auto wrecker, 170,000kms, tested good. 675$. picking that up on Friday and will get a trans go kit installed.

Next purchase will be a torque converter. Likely going the Circle D route for the TC.

[boss_hoss]

Spoke to QA1 about the control arm braces and asked about any performance difference between the adjustable and non-adjustable versions they have. They said that there is no performance difference and that the non adjustable are actually easier to install then fiddling with the adjustments and getting everything to line up. so going the non-adjustable route.



Mid and Front Frame braces will be here on Tuesday and I got my welder back so hopefully put those in during next week or on the weekend.

Also, just sourced a 4l80 from an auto wrecker, 170,000kms, tested good. 675$. picking that up on Friday and will get a trans go kit installed.

Next purchase will be a torque converter. Likely going the Circle D route for the TC.

Great build, Congratulations on getting back into the project. It's hard getting up the steam to get these projects going again after you've taken some time off. What did the Front and Mid Frame braces cost if you don't mind me asking? I've got the stock frame on my Pontiac and would love to add some more rigidity without blowing the car apart again and those look like great options.

[lwilliams]

Great build, Congratulations on getting back into the project. It's hard getting up the steam to get these projects going again after you've taken some time off. What did the Front and Mid Frame braces cost if you don't mind me asking? I've got the stock frame on my Pontiac and would love to add some more rigidity without blowing the car apart again and those look like great options.

the front brace was 230USD and the mid brace was 200USD. you have to pay shipping on top of that. UMI also makes a front brace but its not nearly as effective as this one. Philip Ortega is who builds them, tigerchevelle77 on instagram, message him on instagram if your interested. He is great to work with. He had mine built and shipped in 4 or 5 days i think it was.

Because the frame horns on the A body's move up and down so much the front brace really helps to prevent that, and since it is triangulated its real strong. Research i found said that the front frame brace adds more rigidity to the body than even a frame brace kit. I would be curious for you to put one on after driving your car without one and see what the difference feels like. I haven't driven my car in so long and the entire thing has changed top to bottom so much that i don't have anything to compare it to.

[boss_hoss]

the front brace was 230USD and the mid brace was 200USD. you have to pay shipping on top of that. UMI also makes a front brace but its not nearly as effective as this one. Philip Ortega is who builds them, tigerchevelle77 on instagram, message him on instagram if your interested. He is great to work with. He had mine built and shipped in 4 or 5 days i think it was.

Because the frame horns on the A body's move up and down so much the front brace really helps to prevent that, and since it is triangulated its real strong. Research i found said that the front frame brace adds more rigidity to the body than even a frame brace kit. I would be curious for you to put one on after driving your car without one and see what the difference feels like. I haven't driven my car in so long and the entire thing has changed top to bottom so much that i don't have anything to compare it to.

Awesome thanks, those prices are very reasonable I'll have to give him a holler. I'm definitely very aware of the amount of flex in the front of the A-bodies frame whenever I jack my car up or put it on a lift.

[lwilliams]

yeah they have some serious give to them, that hellwig Frame FX kit i put in also really helped with flex that i could notice just from jacking the car up. The nice thing about that front brace is i am pretty sure you can use it as a jacking point as well. I have trouble getting a jack under my K-member so that frame brace should make a good lifting point to. I should get both braces tomorrow so ill post some pics of the installed result when i have it put it.

[lwilliams]

Brace, braces. braces. Got the rest of the frame braces and it is all about 85% done. Pic below has the Front frame brace (top), rear control arm braces (middle) and the then the mid frame brace (lower).




Got to work on the control arm braces first. I had already used some lengthy bolts when putting the control arms in so i didn't need to use the longer bolts that were supplied with the kit. Just took the nuts off and then flipped the nut over on the bolt and tapped it out a bit to make fitting the braces on the upper and lower bolts a little easier.







Next i fit the brace on the top an bottom bolt. Super easy install, especially cause i didn't have to take my bolts out. pointier side of the brace goes up top and the flat side on the lower control arm. They are side specific but you can't screw it up they only fit one way.





once it was put in place i just snugged everything up on the onside and then repeated the process on the other. they fit real nice and happy i went this route compared to the adjustable ones, easy peezy.


Next was the mid frame brace. you can bolt this in but with my welder i figured it would be easy enough to just weld it in. I used a couple clamps to set in place where i wanted it and also make sure that it had some room on the little cavity that it follows in the body. i set it a little below the hole that the parking brake cable passes through.







A bunch of tac welds once it was in place. i didn't fully weld it in at this point. I moved on the the front brace once it was all tac'd together. my welder is getting real low on gas and i need to set up some light under the car and remove part of the exhaust to really be a in a good spot to weld it. I won't be bale to fully weld all the seems at the moment but will get most of all 3 sides welded in. Once i have the body off the frame in the winter, ill finish off the welding before the frame is sent to powder coating.

This pick shows how the brace sits in the car, it is a little lower than what i ended up setting it at but gives you an idea how it sits in the car.



Now on to the front brace. This was a little difficult just by myself, so i put a piece of plywood on the lift rails and then wedged a box under the k member and the brace to give me a little support holding it. Once i had it in the position i wanted i traced the tabs that are on the frame horns so i had a good reference point to work off of. When i had it set in the right place I center punched for some holes and drilled one on each side of the frame rail.

this is the tracing of the tab with the the center punch hole



then i drilled that one and installed that side as it just made it so much easier to hold and orient the brace the the passenger side.



Repeated the same process for the passenger side and bolted that together as well.



this is where i called it a night. I will have to drill and tab the two holes that go into the k member. i don't have a tap and die set, so either buying one or seeing if a buddy has one i can use. here are the tabs that mock up to the k-frame. i also need to get some hardware for this as i don't have any, also need another 1/2 inch bolt nut washer for the passenger side. I bolted it together with a few things i found laying around in the bolt box.



Either way it is all lined up so this pic gives you and idea how it sits on the car. The brace and tabs are also oriented enough that you have a decent amount of wiggle room to fit it with room around the sway bar.









will try to get that mid brace welded in and the rest of the front brace put together this weekend. once that is done next thing is to get the radiator/fans/shroud sorted out. I stumbled across a company called autoplump that makes some real sexy looking AN20 radiator lines and fittings that i am going to have to try and talk myself out of.

[lwilliams]

finished up the rest of the bracing this weekend. welded in the mid frame brace supports and drilled and taped the other two holes for that front brace.

it wasn't too bad welding in that mid frame support, it can be bolted in but i opted to weld it. basically got all the side done except for the top of the plates. I will do those when i have the body off the frame again in the winter and finish it up at that time. a little wire wheel and grinding actions and it should all look good.

My fuel lines were right where i was welding so i undid a few clamps and then tucked them up and away. I put an oven mit between them and where i was welding to protect them.







passenger side all welded


drivers side all welded


I also was looking at the lower control arm brackets, has anyone ever boxed these in?????



i think i am going to do that when i have the frame off the car again. I think ill box the top and bottom since it will just be really easy to do and likely provide a ton more support and stiffness there.

Next was finishing the last two bolt holes for the front brace. I wouldn't be able to run a bolt and nut where it was lining up so i had to tap the hole for the bolts. First time tapping anything so it was fun to do something new. Pretty easy overall, drilled 28/64's hole then used the 13-1/2 tap to make the threads. spun it in about 1/2-3/4 turn and then backed it out about 1/4-1/3 of a turn to clear metal shavings. repeated the process until i was all the way through the hole. the one hole on the more passenger side was a little off when i went to tap it, so i just used the air dremel and a carbide bit to hollow out the mounting hole on the brace side a little bit more. I did put a bunch of extra weight in the car to mimic the weight of the transmission, since i don't have one in at the moment. not sure if it really matters or not but i didn't think it would hurt.

Everything bolted right up and is installed. looks pretty good.







the bars on the front brace are all hollow. When i have the car apart again in the winter ill plug them up with a chunk of metal and weld it in there to stop stuff from getting in and eventually getting rusty and what not.



All the frame chassis stuff is done on the car now!

On to the next thing. Going to likely order a radiator, fan, shroud kit and get that put in. Also got a stock steam vent line tubing set up from a buddy that i will rout to the radiator as well. Also going to get going on the brakes. CPP Hydroboost set up is the rout i am going to go. ill probably get the front brake lines and the the brake lines on the diff all set up in the meantime as well. Should hopefully be ordering the radiator set up, hydroboost and brake lines this week.

[Threepointtwo]

Great progress!

[lwilliams]

Great progress!

Thank you sir! really going hard on this thing at the moment.

[lwilliams]

Curious if anyone has any recommendations on electric radiator fans?

Ordered my radiator, but when I went to order the shroud and fans, the shop I get my parts from couldn't get the fans. i need two 14" fans that flow a combined 4000+ CFM.

Radiator should hopefully be here friday or monday, Then i can install it and remove the intake to run the steam vent lines and tie those into the rad as well.

I also think i am going to pause the CPP hydroboost and brake line install and instead order the terminator xmax. once the rad, fans, shroud is all put together i will have everything i need to fire this thing up.