New to site, just some basic questions.

[BUICKGNMAN87]

I have a bone stock 87 gn that I just purchased. The car is not in good shape, and the motor may as well be dead. The previous owner did NOT know what he had. in fack he stated "I allways felt this car was fast for a buick." he used it as his daily beat up car. I am on a very tight budget, but I bought it. I have allways wanted a GN. I have total respect for those cars.

My questions are:

1. I want to get it back on the road, but the motor is blown. I need a good core to start with. new and used turbo 3.8 are expensive. can I use a none turbo 3.8 and modify it with the turbo motor parts? ie, FI, turbo, heads etc...

2. If so, when I go looking for a 3.8 V6 out of a regal or something, what should I look for? any particular year? Block? car? What do I look for in a good core. I will then ugrade all parts for turbocharging. such as: crank, rods, pistons, cam etc...

3. what does "rolled fillets mean" for the crank

Thanks

[BUICKGNMAN87]

I did as much research as I could, but I ended up with more questions. It seems that the 109 block is the way to go. Whether turbo or not. BUT what is this stage I and II motor stuff?? Are they aftermarket only??? Can I just stick with a good aftermarket NT 109?

[kenmosher]

109 is basically the stock turbo block ... it also was used in most normally aspirated 3.8 RWD cars in the 86-87 timeframe.

Why not pull the current motor and have it looked at? If the block can be cleaned up with a hone, or even if you have it bored and new pistions, it might be cheaper in the long run than trying to start over.

If things look good in the current motor, it might just need some refurbishing and machine work, which will probably end up being a better bang for the buck.

Rolled fillets are the edges of the crank rod throws and mains ... the part where the journal meets the throw is pressed in a hydraulic press and the edge is "rolled" and compressed for extra strength. Not something that can be done outside of the factory ...

There are pictures in the Photo Guides....

[Keller]

the motor is blown


3. what does "rolled fillets mean" for the crank

Thanks

What is "blown"?

First "blown" around car guys usually means supercharged or turbocharged. So, yes, all of these cars are "blown"! :D But seriously...is a headgasket (or two) blown? A piston cracked? Something else outside the engine entirely? A motor just isn't "blown". If its down on power, there is a reason. And it may be easily (and fairly economicaly) fixable. Certainly more than replacing/rebuilding the motor.

Note that despite being a Buick V6, it doesn't have that much in common with other Buick V6's. You didn't mention what year this car is. That is somewhat key.

Turbo cars have:

- rolled fillet cranks
- "two dot" rods
- different pistons
- different oil pans
- different cams

...etc, etc. In short, dropping a normally aspirated Buick V6 in and bolting up the outer parts won't cut it. See http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/photoguideindex.html for some pics of the pieces, as well as http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/engine/enginepage.html and http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/pictureguides/cranks/crankguide.html , http://www.gnttype.org/general/v6hist.html and...well, the whole site and last dozen years of mailing list archives.

Owning one of these can be a lot of work, a lot of money...and a BLAST! Just feel free to ask questioins, but read up on what;'s on this site, as its probably been answered already.