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Am I missing something?

nonstocker

nonstocker

Member
After almost a year of sitting covered in the driveway & suspense, I had my head gaskets replaced... finding a piece of one wrapped around a rod. I was really afraid of more damage.

Adding an alky control kit, I figured my detonation/head gasket blowing days were over...

After blowing off a sleeve on my exhaust off at the collector, I got that connection welded... and since it has already been 30 miles on the motor buttoned up... I did a nice sustained blast down the road...

18 to 20 lbs of boost pulling hard past 120 I feel that familiar feeling of sudden decrease in acceleration... and the puff of oil in the mirror.


I didn't hear any detonation, and the knock sensor is connected

No loud engine noise now... just rough running (no damage I will guess)

Question:
Am I missing a blow off valve or something? It seems I am building or holding enough boost to continually have it find a place to go... AND not where I want it... out the rear

I am guessing a scantool, a light or senors for knock (on top of the connected knock sensor) are a couple items I should get.... YET what is the fix for this?

Frustrated to say the least as 1st it was lack of fuel/detonation... fixed that with WAlbro and regulator.

Detonation still... alky

now this thing is crazy! zero lag, sideways at 50mph... yet....

another blown gasket I assume...

only 18-20 lbs on the stock gauge. Should not be an issue right? Only thing stock is the intake and heads that have had a 3 angle and good cleaning

Any ideas or insight?
 
Are you saying you don't have a scanmaster or scan tool of any sort?
:eeks:
Have you verified fuel pressure is 1:1 for boost?
 
correct. nothing of the sort yet...

verified... nope...

not even sure how i would do that ( I hit the gas and keep em on the roasd better than I know how to repair them... learning curve getting expensive :)
 
nonstocker said:
correct. nothing of the sort yet...

verified... nope...

not even sure how i would do that ( I hit the gas and keep em on the roasd better than I know how to repair them... learning curve getting expensive :)
Click to expand...

scan master hotwire fuel pump and a real boost gauge will help alot ... and when u get extra change a powerlogger will be well worth it
 
nonstocker said:
correct. nothing of the sort yet...

verified... nope...

not even sure how i would do that ( I hit the gas and keep em on the roasd better than I know how to repair them... learning curve getting expensive :)
Click to expand...

Your kidding right?
No SM , much lest PL... in other words you know nothing about nothing... good luck... if you are serious about tuning the car you will need both...
 
You can't just turn up the boost without knowing how to monitor what the engine is telling you or it ends that way every time. This is true of any boosted application. Do you even know what chip you are running in it and how much timing? What type of fuel?
A SM at the very least, get a knock gauge and a boost gauge as suggested, most of the factory boost gauges are way off either direction. My low mile car I used to have was off by almost 4psi before it would even start to move.
 
nonstocker said:
Adding an alky control kit, I figured my detonation/head gasket blowing days were over...
Click to expand...

Nope...they're still in front of you.

nonstocker said:
18 to 20 lbs of boost pulling hard past 120 I feel that familiar feeling of sudden decrease in acceleration... and the puff of oil in the mirror.
Click to expand...

Nope...that was antifreeze you saw gently wafting in a cloud behind you....while in front of you more silica based anti freeze is dilluting the oil in your engine....slowly ruining your main bearings.


nonstocker said:
I didn't hear any detonation, and the knock sensor is connected

No loud engine noise now... just rough running (no damage I will guess)
Click to expand...

...there is always damage...know it.

nonstocker said:
Question:
Am I missing a blow off valve or something? It seems I am building or holding enough boost to continually have it find a place to go... AND not where I want it... out the rear

I am guessing a scantool, a light or senors for knock (on top of the connected knock sensor) are a couple items I should get.... YET what is the fix for this?

Frustrated to say the least as 1st it was lack of fuel/detonation... fixed that with WAlbro and regulator.

Detonation still... alky

now this thing is crazy! zero lag, sideways at 50mph... yet....

another blown gasket I assume...

only 18-20 lbs on the stock gauge. Should not be an issue right? Only thing stock is the intake and heads that have had a 3 angle and good cleaning

Any ideas or insight?
Click to expand...

Without addressing every thing in that paragraph and just addressing the first line of it....what you are missing is knowledge,experience...not questioning what you know about cars, but about the TB engine.

You will always struggle with these boosted buick V6's until you can utilize every tool in the arsenal to tune these cars,that you can afford. It's not cheap...but these cars are a helluva lot of fun when you get it tuned properly.....you just need to slow down and do some research....and of course.....be prepared to spend MORE money.


...
 
thanks gents :). I know I stepped into a learning curve opportunity.

No water in the oil

Yes I know what chip... Just got a new one from Turbo Tweak
I have the Walbro pump and a regulator (I will get the wiring harness)

This is my first turbo car. My previous experience is with small block chevy's and building power and playing around on normally aspirated cars... forgive me for my ignorance of the finer points I am now getting into

All of the above is in the plans. When it gets pulled apart this time hopefully it will last for a while once it is put back together.

Even if that means the boost is WAY down while adding the more expensive parts... as now I can spin at 50mph or spin for 50 yards so the extra boost (and my dumb ass) is just burning tires and breaking shit

I did not know that NOT being at full throttle would lean the motor out... adding to the list from kirbans is the half throttle/full throttle thing

I thought the alchy kit would keep this from happening this easy.

I think I blew the same side as before... and will be checking to see if I have a bad injector if it is the same cylinder

anyone have a SM or PL, knock gauge etc. for sale?

Thanks again for the input.
 
Sounds like you have a plan, take baby steps when it comes to turning up the boost once you have all the needed tools to monitor and tune. You sound like where I had been some 22 years ago when I got my GN, knew very little about these motors, new all kinds of stuff about SBC..just there was no internet forum to learn from, and not many folks knew much about them anyway except for the Kenne-Bell catalog and if you bought all the KB bolt on parts you should have been at 600+hp with stock internals :D yeah right...my how things have changed :)
 
Hey, welcome. Yeah, lots of info here and at turbobuick.com for your TTA

These are great cars when tuned right. Easy 475+hp on motor with bolt-ons without much $

Transmission will have issues though, so be prepared to spend $ to strengthen or rebuild. It's the TTA weakness

All I can add to what WS6 and 2Quick6 said is, when you go "tune" spend a little extra for 100+ octane fuel, it never hurts.
 
Last edited:
2QUIK6 said:
You can't just turn up the boost without knowing how to monitor what the engine is telling you or it ends that way every time. This is true of any boosted application. Do you even know what chip you are running in it and how much timing? What type of fuel?
A SM at the very least, get a knock gauge and a boost gauge as suggested, most of the factory boost gauges are way off either direction. My low mile car I used to have was off by almost 4psi before it would even start to move.
Click to expand...

Rob, after all my testing lately, my car is like yours too. On my a piller big boost gauge, it gets to about 4 psi before the dash gauge even moves... you can hear the car spool and build build boost and the dash gauge doesn't move....weird feeling...thank god I have a better gauge and I ordered a Power Logger thanks to Robert Lee's advice, sounds like the best $200 spent on the car after all the rest of money put into it....

STILL LEARNING THE HARD WAY!!!!!!!!!
 
I've been unable to locate 100 octane fuel. I can find 110 but it's leaded. Any ideas where to locate some 100 in the Detroit area?
KID
 
kidsixpack said:
I've been unable to locate 100 octane fuel. I can find 110 but it's leaded. Any ideas where to locate some 100 in the Detroit area?
KID
Click to expand...

I googled it for my area. Try:

Speedway
37416 7 Mile Rd
Newburgh Rd & Bethany St
Livonia, MI 48152-1002
Phone: (734)464-3913

They may have it.
 
Yea, we got 103 unleaded at the Speedways here in Chicagoland too, well at least the ones that used to be Gas City's. It is usually around $7/gal.
 
I had just the opposite experience with Bosch, seems like they were fairly slow to get 255 x-counts even when new compared to a new Delco or Denso, I later went with a heated O2 that Caspers used to sell, an NGK, and have never had to replace it, but I started using methanol many years ago but several tanks of leaded were ran through it, still has very active x-counts.
 
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