1972 Buick Turbo LS Pro Touring - Garage Made

[lwilliams]

Next steps are to connect the exhaust through the trans crossmember, run all the brake lines, get a drive shaft built and set the rear end angle opposite to the trans, run the trans harness through a bulk head that i ordered, connect the gps to the nex gen dash, make sure the trans cooler fan works then get all the fluids set properly.

once that is done it is ready for the first drive.

assuming the first drive goes well i will set up a date to get it tuned.



ill post some pics of the cpp hydrastop installed with teh lines.

[Vimes]

Don't know if it's just me but all your links you just added that I tried come up as invalid. I dropped a note to the admins.

[lwilliams]

Don't know if it's just me but all your links you just added that I tried come up as invalid. I dropped a note to the admins.

thanks for the heads up, yeah i'm not sure what's happening there. ill fire amessage their way too. cheers

[lwilliams]

So the car is on the road!!!

Got a few things to work out but overall it drives pretty nice. CPP hydroboost works really well. brake feel i would say is between a normal car and say a race car. the feel is slightly stiff but nothing i would ever complain about. they feel nice. Going to wait for the admins to confirm the issue i am having in loading up pictures that aren't working. then ill upload all the pics of the car more or less complete and a video of it driving. the 3000-3200 stall torque converter is great and functions really well, seems great for daily driving and will definetly light off when i get into it.

Just running the Holley base tune at the moment and utilizing the learn feature. definitely not getting into it at all. maybe given it at most like 35% throttle and just watching the AFR's, temps etc.

A few things to work out:

1. Original trans cooler was tucked up in between two body braces and i just don't think it got any airlfow that it needed. I ordered a trans cooler fan kit off amazon from american volt. the fan sucked balls. it was a literal puller/pusher. the center of it would push air and the outside would pull air. i tested with a piece of shop towel. so it made sense why my trans temps just kept slowly keeping up up up as the cooler was just circulating the same temperature air constantly. So i got a different fan from Sir Amazon. flows more and works better. also lowered the cooler so it has more free flowing air. i also switched the location of the trans temp and thermostat. thermostat sees the fluid coming from the trans and the temp gauge sees the fluid leaving the cooler. when the fane is one (only had it on for a little bit) it got like 20 degrees cooler leaving the fan than what the transtemp was so it seems to be working now. It does hang a little lower than i think id like at the moment. it is also level to the ground. i am going to adjust the bracket so that it is on a bit of an angle to catch some air. for reference i have it mounted under the car right under the drivers seat more or less. *** also going to build a little heat shield out of the 20 gauge metal sheet i got to separate the crossover pipe that sits under the converter, that will also help the trans temp stuff.

2. Pretty sure that that power steering pump is leaking pretty good at the moment. picking up a new unit today or tomorrow and i will swap it out.

3. Alternator doesn't seem to be doing a good job keeping up to engine rpm. if i start accelerating under some load and the rpms start getting up to 3000 or so voltage drops all the way down to about 12.5-12.6. so got another unit that i will pick up tomorrow as well and swap in and hopefully that corrects the issue.

4. drive shaft i got was slightly short for what i wanted. car is at the driveline shop today to correct that and also add a 1350 series pinion yoke on the rear end as it just has the 3R which is somewhat questionable if it will consistently handle 500-550 wheel.


This pig gets tunes on Tuesday the 20th! wastegate spring is set to 7psi so we will start there and see where everything ends up. i have a turbosmart boost tee to add a few more pounds if required, but im a little limited, i still have the stock fuel pressure regulator which will only compensate to about 10psi at the most.

either way just driving this thing around i can tell it wants to get f**kin moving. its feels pretty effortless to get it moving, should be fun when its all tuned and ready to really hit the pavement! Some dude in a cowboy hat and handle bar moustache screamed "**** yeah brother!" with a rock out hand gesture at me when i was driving it, the car gets some attention haha.

i'll post some pics/vids once i know they will work.

[lwilliams]

Got the car tuned yesterday! Made 460whp/430tq at 10psi.

Ended up stopping there just because i am still running the stock fuel pressure regulator, stock fuel rails etc. thought it would have made more but i think a limiting factor may be my exhaust manifolds and the log i built likely doesn't flow the best. Didn't have much time to drive it after the dyno and was in rush hour traffic the whole way home. either way this thing moves well. got into only once on the way home due to traffic. Car drives really nice and also handles the tires breaking loose really well too.

Going to just drive it like this for the summer and get used to it. will do fuel mods in the winter and then go back to bump things up to 12-13psi and aim for around 500whp.

I will get some pics of the car all assembled on here soon. just really busy at the moment. I also have some dyno pull videos i can set a link to.

Biggest change that i made was notching the front bumper out and tucking the trans cooler at the front of the car. it lays flat and then i set up some ducting to it. Had the fan on the cooler on the dyno the whole time and the temps never went above 150 degreed, it was a cooler day at about 15 degrees Celsius outside but either way the cooler is doing its job.

The converter seems to be a really good match as the boost ramps in and they pair really nicely together.

SUCH A Freaking bummer it is pouring rain today, likely all day but everything clears up tomorrow and ill be able to go for a good rip!