🔧 BUILD LAME Turbo V6 Camaro

[v6buicks]

My Camaro had that as well. I was told by the body shop the glue they used for the sail panel is eating through the panel and causing the bubbles. Painting it won’t help much because once the glue gets hot again it will push through the paint. Only fix that I know that works is to remove and replace it with a new one.

That's very interesting! I never would have guessed that. This car is a beater and always will be, so I don't care enough to fix it anyway.

Triggered rambling incoming....

I honestly still wonder if I'll even keep this car let alone waste money on painting it. Yeah, there's some sentimental value here, but there are still issues I have with it that I'll never be able to do anything about. 1) It's an F-body. I don't even like F-bodies enough to be wasting a very valuable 1 of 2 garage spaces with one. Every modification I do to the car makes me think I'm going to hate F-bodies less, but it'll still always be a shitty Chevy. 2) It's played its role, and the show is long over. I bought an F-body because I wanted a RWD manual 3800 (not a Fiero) and I had never built anything before. If I failed I wouldn't care about scrapping an F-body. Well, I obviously succeeded in the initial goal. It's turbo, reliable(ish), and fun to beat on. Yeah, it still works as the fun beater I guess, but I don't use it like that... It's still put away for the winter, the seats suck, it doesn't have AC, it's loud, and driving stick in my commute isn't all the fun I thought it would be. Most of the time I still prefer to drive my C30. Wild. I never thought that would be the case. 3) Now that the car is getting pretty good I suddenly have an itch to start racing, and this is not a very safe shell to do so in. The class I would want to run requires a G-body Regal and an GM automatic anyway.

Part of me says to keep this car as the racecar, go balls to fucking wall, forget the race class that I would never be competitive in anyway, and forget the streetability aspect. A well done cage would keep me safe, a th400 would make it actually fast.... then swapping the TKX/3800 into a GN with AC and cruise control would be a badass and much more cozy cruiser. Then again, I really REALLY want a big block GS too. That equates to four toys because I still have the stockish Grand National that I'm not selling either. I know I can't have it all, but there's so many flavors to choose from!

 

[v6buicks]

It feels weird talking about the Buick GS Nationals in my shitty Chevy thread. Nonetheless, the shitty Chevy is what made the trip, and it was successful in more ways than I could have imagined! The trip started off with a win a small win (sorta) at the pump.

It's really hard to call $4.19/gal a win, but that or $5.04 + methanol sounds a whole lot worse.


I wish the I-65 sign was a little closer for this pic. Oh well.

After a couple hours of no AC, windows down, 85 degree weather, insane humidity, and working the clutch through 8 miles of stop/go construction traffic, I needed a Wendy's break.

And the car made it down in 3/4 of a tank! Another win. Still no C8 production line tours though.

When I got to the motel, a bunch of Buick diehards were already drinking beer in the parking lot. At first I could tell they weren't happy to see a Camaro parking where they wanted Buicks to take over. However, I the trip wasn't without a small issue that required me to pop the hood and get to work. A bit to my surprise, their attitudes changed when they saw what I had under the hood. Most of the diehards who show up on a Tuesday are the big block/BCA crowd, who are very difficult to please when it comes to modified stuff or anything with a V6. It started conversation with enough people that I didn't think I was going to finish ripping my exhaust wrap off! The dang metal zipties came loose which I've been advised by numerous racers to ditch and just hose clamp from now on.

I made a Wal-Mart run and parked towards the back because the car was still nice and clean at this point. Apparently it was clean enough for this SS owner to feel safe parking next to me. What's funny is that the owner came up with her groceries as I was taking this picture. She was even prettier than the car.... we exchanged the typical friendly "nice car" and went on our ways. That's when I heard the cam and nasty exhaust note. I think my jaw dropped, and my wife would have been soooo jealous and pissed off if she was with me. lol

Anyway, YOLO. I didn't come to "show off" this 3800 powered shit box to bunch of Buick people to not find out what it can do. Tech line!

...and I'm not going to say that it's "quick" but it certainly has a lot of potential if I can find out how to hook! I'm super happy with this.

With that kind of MPH I should easily be able to clock a 12 before the end of the year. It just sucks that I can't launch hard. The tires aren't meant for what I'm doing, and I have no way to build boost. Even if I did, I would probably blow the tires off. I'm super motivated to get to some test and tunes now.

When the track closes, the party doesn't stop. It's not as wild as some of the bigger events, but we can certainly drink with the rest of them. I know this picture makes the party look small, but the folks at this hotel were hanging out in four clusters. I could only get a picture of the Midwest folks.

bs009 showed up to see what this event was all about too.

Double red lights but still a cool action shot. lol

Richard Clark just stirring the pot. Lmao

Time to go. I decided to leave late on Saturday so that I could avoid Sunday morning's heat.

The car made it home just fine. I now look forward to getting some track wheels, drag radials, and more suspension parts. In the mean time, installing the WOT box and fixing my jacked up line lock button is probably a great start. As for drivability, that no cruise control nonsense sucked. It's kinda cool in terms of oddity that this car never had it, but not cool enough to do without it. I think it's going to be too damn simple to install it because the V6 cars are only mussing the stalk itself in terms of hardware.

Confirmed: The connector between the non-existent cruise stalk and the TAC module is in there, and I didn't even have to pull the whole column apart to get to it!

I also got my center console lid. This thing is awesome. It's super sturdy since it's made out of aluminum and matches the car good enough to make my picky ass happy. I'm surprised I had never heard of these. The only trouble is that I threw my hinge away and these don't come with one.

I found a guy who was selling a 35th Anniversary badge for the dash to replace my worn one. He happened to have all the other miscellaneous junk I needed too! Neat! Let's hope I don't need a Chevy dealer to program cruise control to work or anything like that. I'm not betting on it being this easy though.

 

[bs009]

Man that would have been cool to see their reactions change when you pulled up at the hotel and popped your hood!

Super cool to finally see this car in person!
Next year I'll try to see about spending some more time at the event if they'll let me compete haha!

 

[v6buicks]

Man that would have been cool to see their reactions change when you pulled up at the hotel and popped your hood!

Super cool to finally see this car in person!
Next year I'll try to see about spending some more time at the event if they'll let me compete haha!

We can both for sure get into a bracket because that silver M90 Regal was out there. We might qualify for Turbo Pro Bracket, but I'm not sure on that one. I'm going to start picking through the rules.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

God damn that looks like a blast that's why I'm promising myself to get the f****** olds moving.
Suprising folks is theee best part.

It's got the best of all worlds 1 engine from a Buick one engine from a Pontiac, caddy trannys and it's an Oldsmobile.
We can stick it anywhere and it can technically fit in.
We'd still be stuck to exhibition as a class unless rules have changed in the last 3 years.

 

[v6buicks]

God damn that looks like a blast that's why I'm promising myself to get the f****** olds moving.
Suprising folks is theee best part.

It's got the best of all worlds 1 engine from a Buick one engine from a Pontiac, caddy trannys and it's an Oldsmobile.
We can stick it anywhere and it can technically fit in.
We'd still be stuck to exhibition as a class unless rules have changed in the last 3 years.

We're technically still Buick powered, and that Olds should be quick enough that you could qualify for Super 16. lol You'll just need to be consistent because that's a bracket class too.

The whole "Buick power" thing can be controversial because it is not defined in any rule book that I've seen. I even found myself shooting myself in the foot once while explaining this to a buddy. I used to use this analogy. LC2 : L67 :: SBC : LS. This is incorrect because the LS was a clean sheet design during the corporate era. The 3800 is not a clean sheet design. It's a direct evolution of the odd-fire V6 from the 60s. Of course nothing is interchangeable between the two, but the same could be said about the LC2 as well. The LN3 3800 was just a minor evolution of the LG3 which is no doubt "Buick power". The L27 and S1 L67 is hardly any different from the LN3.... so on and so forth. They even built all these V6s in the same building. The only thing I can see being argued is that the evolutions for the Series 1, 2, and 3 may have been developed by corporate engineers as opposed to Buick. However, I can't speak for that. I also don't think it matters.

If you ask me, the 3800 is pure Buick. Buick power died the day that Plant 36 closed in 2008. It was produced and even improved upon well into the corporate era, but that's just a testament to how great the engine was for GM. I love all all the 455s, LC2s, and Stage 2 V6s at the Nats, but 3800s have as much right to be racing there as an '89 TTA which is legal in most turbo classes.

 

[GTPpower]

If you can get that 60ft down to a 1.9, you've got an easy 12 second car.

Nice work, looks like a fun trip!

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Drove long distance, threw down at the track and and drove it home. Doesn't get much better than that.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

The 3800 I believe is one of the last engines to use SAE threads.

Pretty much because all of the tools that machine the original buick engines were still being used to machine them in 2008.

So I got to ask what did you get for fuel economy

 

[v6buicks]

If you can get that 60ft down to a 1.9, you've got an easy 12 second car.

Nice work, looks like a fun trip!

Thanks! This year was by far the most fun I've had there. The racing high is obviously a big reason, but the turnout being so huge gave me another high. Everybody was so dang nice this year for some reason too. I'm used to hearing about so much dumb drama in the pits or people being too shy to converse. It was completely opposite this year. Even the the hotel parties were a lot livelier.

This car is so flippin' slow off the line. It's partially my lack of experience with racing, but also because I don't think this thing is even making boost until after 60'. My best launch was when I just rolled into the gas, and slowly let off the clutch. I left nice a quick and chirped a bit before shifting into 2nd, which leads me to believe that these tires and suspension are not going to hold up to boosted launches as-is. I look forward to playing around with it some more though!

 

[v6buicks]

Drove long distance, threw down at the track and and drove it home. Doesn't get much better than that.

I had no idea how much anxiety I had about this until the car was back in the garage. It feels so glorious, and I'm very proud of the car. The rest of the summer deserves to be filled with test and tunes and burnouts. However, I also look forward to having a truck with AC and a trailer so that I can push this bitch a lot harder.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Thanks! This year was by far the most fun I've had there. The racing high is obviously a big reason, but the turnout being so huge gave me another high. Everybody was so dang nice this year for some reason too. I'm used to hearing about so much dumb drama in the pits or people being too shy to converse. It was completely opposite this year. Even the the hotel parties were a lot livelier.

This car is so flippin' slow off the line. It's partially my lack of experience with racing, but also because I don't think this thing is even making boost until after 60'. My best launch was when I just rolled into the gas, and slowly let off the clutch. I left nice a quick and chirped a bit before shifting into 2nd, which leads me to believe that these tires and suspension are not going to hold up to boosted launches as-is. I look forward to playing around with it some more though!

Supposedly the TTA lost a full second when they tried to use a manual hence it being a 200R4.

 

[v6buicks]

The 3800 I believe is one of the last engines to use SAE threads.

Pretty much because all of the tools that machine the original buick engines were still being used to machine them in 2008.

So I got to ask what did you get for fuel economy

I think you're right! Also true! Retooling doesn't necessarily mean that the whole production line is completely wiped out.

18mpg. This thing cruises at 14.7:1 which I understand can probably be leaned out a bit.

 

[v6buicks]

Supposedly the TTA lost a full second when they tried to use a manual hence it being a 200R4.

Interesting. I didn't know that they ever played with a manual. That full second is not surprising though. Losing all the boost between shifts and no power braking really sucks. I wonder what transmission they tried. T5? ZF 6-speed?

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Now that I think about it a T5 would have been real cannon fodder behind an LC2 wouldn't it?

They tried anything and everything in the 70s to the 80s as well it seemed. There's all sorts of strange dead ends, it was like the wild west at some level still even late as '89.

 

[v6buicks]

I know Chevy couldn't get a cheap manual to hold up behind the 350 TPI. I'm sure the LC2 was a very similar story. Dropping all the boost between shifts would have only made it less worth developing.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

I'd love to have a 4+3 box to play with.

 

[v6buicks]

This has to be the easiest cruise control retrofit ever. Here's the connector. The new stalk is already plugged in, and the little cover is removed.

Here's the new stalk next to the old one. Plug 'n' play.

I mean it. No programming or anything! It works! ?. I should have done this years ago because it's a game changer.

I also installed the new aluminum console lid. Maximum F-body comfort has been achieved!

 

[Mr_Roboto]

wow stoopid easy for cruise.

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

damned DBW cars

 

[v6buicks]

damned DBW cars

Yeah dumb. Unless GM had a surplus of non-cruise stalks, why not put cruise in all of them?

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

Because a dollar savings per vehicle is worthwhile...
Remember they charged extra for some of that stuff back then.

150$ option for 3$ combination switch

 

[v6buicks]

I maybe getting a little over excited about racing, but I went out to the sticks and tried some different launching methods during my test drive. There's nothing that seems to help me get this thing moving quickly in first gear. It's such a slug until boost hits but I'm already about 2 seconds into the race at that point! A 3.73 gear might help a little, but no boost is the root cause.

My first thought was putting the N2MB WOT box in and setting it up for launching. I don't really need the no-lift shifting as bad as I need to launch it, but wouldn't I rather have both? I haven't seen anybody install one of these since the first wave of 3800 enthusiasm, but it seems to be a great solution. MSD DIS-4 Plus

It's a lot of coin, especially when you factor in that I'll need three coil interface modules. I'm just starting to think that a Holley EMS may not be what I really need even long term. The factory system works fine, and I haven't needed a flex sensor nearly as much as I thought I would. Plus, this MSD system looks even easier to install than the N2MB let alone a whole new EMS. Perhaps the addition of a true 2-step ignition controller would get me all the features I crave.

What do you all think? Is this an outdated solution? Waste of money? Is there a better way to get this thing into boost off the line without getting a new turbo or an automatic?

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

Look up the TR6 ignition system

 

[Turbocharged400sbc]

TR6 High Tech Ignition for the Turbo Buicks

High Tech Ignition System for the Turbo Buick cars. Order yours today!!

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