My first build! Guidance is always welcomed.

[bcn30141]

Ok so I got my first GN a little while back, unfortunately I got to only drive it for a whole two weeks before I blew the head gaskets. As my story goes I bought this car after sitting for a long time...thankfu lly the owner had a receipt book exceeding 10k of work that had been done to the car. So I was thinking there shouldn't be much more I had to do to make it fast. Keep in mind this is my first turbo car and it also hadn't been running in like 3 years....ok so I trailer it home and after a few little repairs with the ignition I got it running. Items I had to replace to get this car right again were the cam and lifters, fuel pump, replaced entire alky kit, ignition module, and map sensor, plug wires, plugs, boost controller, all soft rubber vacuum lines, fuel filter and I added Gen2 with LS1 MAF.  Ok so here's my two weeks of driving...car was hauling ass, I never took it to the track so I don't know how fast. So I tuned by driving and adjusting gen 2. All was great except I kept leaning out WOT in high Third low fourth. Anyhow long story short I blew both head gaskets at the same time. Problem I believe was a bad kink in my fuel line going up around the cam senser. I'm not gonna admit it but I may had done it on the cam install...whoo ps....Ok so let me tell ya I know a lot more now than I did when I started.
So here are my changes with the new build....210 215 roller kit from Fullthrottle (Thanks Mary), Harland Roller Rockers, replacing the TT chip with Extender Extreme chip so I can use the tune by AF feature on Gen 2, AFX wide band set up, roller timing chain set, ARP head studs and Bullet Proof Head Gaskets, new valve covers which  are too expensive! New SS fuel lines. All new gaskets from Victor Rienz. Venders to thank....Cotto n's, RjC gaskets, Fullthrottle, Summit. Wish me luck on my build...lookin g forward to the arrival of my parts! I will add picks of the carnage and build to come....

[bcn30141]

The fun hehe

[bcn30141]

I also noticed after cleaning the heads somebody did a lot of porting and polish work...that will save some time! PS I'm no mechanic, but I'm learning, the only way I have been able to do what I've done and learned what I know is thanks to being OCD and reading thousands of threads on these buick forums.  Also I learned some things about the turbo, it's a Turbonetics cpt 61DBB type, I'm not sure of its capabilities quarter mile but I do know it pulls and spools really well.

[Forzfed]

Build looks pretty good.  I wouldn't put the steel shim gaskets in though.  It is always better to blow a head gasket than drive over your crank and rip your block in half.  It's like having a fuse.

[bcn30141]

Yeah I had thought about that but since I don't have a huge turbo I was gonna run 28psi with a focus on safe air fuel and timing. I didn't wanna pop regular headgaskets under a high compression ratio. If I went with a bigger turbo then my 60lbs aren't gonna cut the cheese. It's costly as it is, I think I've spent 5k on parts alone and I've installed everything so I didn't have to get a 2nd mortgaged the house...

[gusszgs]

Are you running a fuel pressure gauge or do you have access to one? I would highly recommend hooking one up if you haven't already, and verify your fuel pressure is rising 1:1 with boost.

[bcn30141]

Thanks for asking Guss, that will be confirmed, there is a gauge on the rail.  My fuel components include a hot wire kit, new areomotive stealth 340 pump, brand new Accufab FR and 60lbs injectors.  I will adjust to 42 hose off and make some small colored marks on my gauge so I know where fuel psi is in regards to boost. I'm gonna do this hood off...I may get more elaborate and stick a boost and fuel gauge on the window. When I tore the engine down I found a very kinked fuel line coming up around cam sensor...I believe that was my trouble maker, so I paid $$$ for new SS lines. I really wanted something that went away from the front on a flex, but oh well. Anyhow Guss, you probably hit one of the most important checks on the list to keep this engine together. Thanks for the response!

[bcn30141]

Question for you fellas, For a Turbonetics DBB CPT 61 (I was told it had a 61 intake housing and 65 exhaust housing) given all the fuel and Alky and timing is correct, at what level of boost would the turbo lose its efficiency due to heat or rpm or whatever....I have stock headers and 3.5 inch down pipe with evolution ext waste gate if it matters.thanks!

[Steve Wood]

Your injectors are capable of high nines with a dual nozzle alky...dual nozzle is harder to tune tho as one tends to get too much alky too early...but tuning the controller can fix that.

Stay out of fourth gear.....it really puts a load on the engine and that leads to detonation and pushing the gaskets out as you found out before.

Did not notice if you mentioned tires, but 28" tires will work better than 26"s.

The turbo will probably top out somewhere 11.0 with that cam, I suspect unless something has been done to it to increase the volume

[bcn30141]

Your injectors are capable of high nines with a dual nozzle alky...dual nozzle is harder to tune tho as one tends to get too much alky too early...but tuning the controller can fix that.

Stay out of fourth gear.....it really puts a load on the engine and that leads to detonation and pushing the gaskets out as you found out before.

Did not notice if you mentioned tires, but 28" tires will work better than 26"s.

The turbo will probably top out somewhere 11.0 with that cam, I suspect unless something has been done to it to increase the volume

Thanks for the info Steve....

I put some MT DR's 275/55/15 ...i will have to look into that height ....I like the idea of a duel nozzle set up but is my turbo big enough to really need it? When you say 11.0 is that in reference to quarter mile time or something else...before the blow out I noticed the turbo spooling up to 28 lbs very fast, takes no time at all, is a small turbo like I have ( pte 61 DBB ) still efficient at that boost....or should I back it down...my goal is high 10 low 11 in the quarter.

[Steve Wood]

I did not suggest a dual nozzle set up..I mentioned that your injectors were capable of going much quicker than you appeared to believe-if using dual nozzles...but, of course, the rest of the combo has to be up to the task.  A 61 is not going to get you there.  It might get you high 10's in the quarter but I was guessing that 11.0 seconds was close to the limits.  I am guessing that if the turbo will make 28 psi, that you will be moving out of the higher efficiency zone of the map and not making any additional power given the cam that you are using is going to extend the amount of air required to maintain that boost level at high rpm.

Further, the combination of parts required to obtain a prescribed level of performance is usually a lot easier than actually making it work to get there.  Tuning and driving skill is the hard part.

[bcn30141]

What's interesting about the turbo boosting is when I have it directly hooked up to the waste gate (20lbs spring) it spools slower, if I add the BC and dial it all the way down it spools faster to 20,  and then if I turn boost up to 28 it spools super fast. Wonder why??? This might be trivial but it's a curiosity....I noticed my heads had been shaved, ported and polished like crazy, also pistons stamped 30 over...the transmission is super built with billet servo, 13 vain pump, reds clutches and bands, shift kit and modification to internals, 2800 stall...I'm hoping this will help towards a good quarter mile time.

[Steve Wood]

the boost controller prevents any boost from getting to the wastegate until the checkball in the controller comes off its seat.

If you don't have the boost controller installed, then the puck starts creeping off its seat much earlier which slows down the spool.

Now, the initial spool, in either case, from 0-15 or 20 is slower and is dependent upon your converter stall.  Spool up is not linear and normally increses in rate past a certain point. 

[Scoobum]

As Jim said...mount a FP gauge on the hood...or you're gonna be doing this all over again. Steve is correct that 60's will take you into the 9's...as Grumpy cracked the 9's with them. That 61 will likely take you to a high 10...IF...you know how to tune...IF...th ose heads were ported by someone who knows what they're doing...and IF...you have an efficient convertor. Getting the car to launch hard...and driver capability also come into the equation. I went 6.90 at 101.58 which is the equivalent of a 10.87 with my 62...so there's no reason you can't do the same.

[Steve Wood]

Absolutely, do not run the car hard until you can monitor the fuel pressure while going down the track.  That should be the number one commandment of forced aspiration racing.