I've been pulling my hair out for a week now and have not come to a decision yet. My friends all say yes. My fiancée even says yes. So here it is.

My GN made 602rwhp on a mostly stock engine. The obvious problem is reliability. It's been at this level for nearly 6 years (which should go 9s in this car but it hasn't been to the track since it had the factory stock bottom end and heads and intake). It's going to blow up one day, the stock bottom uses 2 bolt mains with a cast crank and rods and the typical failure when making too much power is crank flex which leads to pushing the crank out of the block complete with torque converter attached so your trans gets ruined in the process too. I also want to make more power but I'm already pushing the stock stuff too hard. It's never been beaten on the street, it even clowned a ZR1 but cars are getting quicker and quicker and I don't want there to be anything you can buy off the showroom floor that can beat it.

So onto my dilemma. The car has over 300,000 miles. I've owned it since my junior year in high school in '94 and my dead grandmother bought it for me so it has tremendous sentimental value. While I won't get rid of it, it's pretty much been abused and cut on and modded in ways where it will never go back to stock so it's a perfect donor for the engine I'm thinking about putting in it. It will require a cage for this engine so I don't crack the body more than I already have. I guess the windows will be getting tinted, a cage ruins the street car image.

I found for an unbelievable price a virgin block and virgin heads (read lots of machine work required) and intake from the old Buick Indy turbo program. No one has touched this stuff because no one can build it but I've been lightly involved in an older Buick Indy build and I have an engineer friend that was a major part of that old program who happens to build only very high end engines today. Buick took the "stock" approach to Indy meaning the block is surprisingly similar to the production blocks that came in the GNs and even regular Regals meaning most of the stuff I already own is a bolt up and very little fab work will have to be done except for the starter which apparently Indy did not use traditional starters lol.

So the hp potential is for all intents unlimited. I couldn't hurt it if I tried, at least not from too much power. With the crank that comes with it, it will be a hair over 4.5L which means better street manners for a given output. I'll probably sell off the Indy heads and go with a much smaller cam, it has to pass for a street car, but it can be detuned to 1,000whp and run on low boost and behave well on the street and the engine will be very lowly stressed at that level. Plus it will be nice to shift at 8k rpm vs 5,500 I'm currently limited to.

So basically should I go with an old Indy block and possibly head setup in my GN? It HAS to be a street car first and foremost. I don't care about trailer queens. I'm sure before I'm done I'll be able to pass it off to most people as a stock longblock setup. The biggest plus for me is the reliability that comes with it and the ability to turn up the wick and significantly surpass the 1,000hp mark. I mostly have the twin turbo LSx engines in mind with that last statement.

The reason I'm so hesitant is my father had the perfect bottom 10 second production engine in his that already had more hp than traction on the street. It sounded stock and it blew a lot of minds that it ran like it did while sounding like your grandmothers Regal and that's what I'm all about. Then he decides to do a Stage II build (Buick's Motorsport parts) complete with huge solid cam and 5,500 stall converter. It now sounds like a pure race car. It's lost a lot of its street manners and definitely the element of surprise plus it won't hook even on slicks at any legal speed. It literally has less than 50 miles on the "new" engine which is now 5 years old. He admits he screwed up putting that engine in that car. I'm thinking as long as I have the bad ass Indy bottom end and keep a mild hydraulic cam I can keep it sounding nearly stock.

Sorry for making this long winded but I'm worried about taking my mild build that I can drive cross country if I wanted to and replacing it with a monster that's barely streetable. At the price I'm getting it for, just the block alone is worth double what I'm paying for everything so financially I don't think I could lose should I not like it.

 

Only thing that stands out on why I wouldnt do it is the sentimental value.

What does your dad say about it? Assuming it was his mother who bought the car for you.

 

It's going to be the same car, the original engine and transmission are in storage anyway. I have no contact with my parents so no worries there. I could buy a roller for $2k to put the engine in but I can't get rid of this one and I do t have room for 4 cars so that would mean a $150 a month storage unit for one of them. My friends are already preparing for a road trip to Texas to pick it up so I'll probably give in to the pressure.

 

Well shit son, then do it!

 

Go for it. If it doesn't work out to your liking, sell it and go back to a stock block but build it out.

 

Cliffs?

 

For the love, do EEEEEEEt!

 

I put a deposit down. Besides the performance it will be neat to own an old part of Indy car history.

 

Do it! Why are you wasting time asking us when you know what we're going to say.

Just make sure you post your build thread here.

 

Well, I just sold my turbo and heads so I'm sort of committed. The GN no longer runs. Ironically I had a knock at the door with some random guy passing by asking if it was for sale today. I'm stressed. I liked bragging that I was on a mostly stock engine with under $3,500 total invested. That's going to quadruple with just the engine not to mention the cage and chassis work that will have to be done. Oh well, I'm committed now.

Looking at the numbers it should make 800-900hp on 91 octane without methanol and near double that on meth. Time will tell.

 

Good luck. Looking forward to following the build. And don't worry, once it's done (well, done with how you initially set it up ) and you drive it the first time, all of that stress will go away.

 

Congrats on the commitment.

Share pictures of this beast.

 

Sounds like you'll have one of the most unique GNs out there, and you'll be running it on the street, which is even radder. Keep us informed on the progress. But as far as the street sleeper status of it, come on, no one who is even half interested in cars would think a GN is a sleeper. I nearly wet my pants every time I see one driving around because I wonder how fast it is lol.

 

DO IT!!

 

My TL will beat your GN easily with a 3/16 mile head start in a quarter mile racetrack OK, probably even then you'd still beat me

 

Lol. It will right now for sure.

I pulled the trigger. I talked to an engineer that was a part of that program and as I thought it won't make power till after 6,000rpm with those heads. I can either under turbo it or use stage II heads that will start making power below 3k. Both have made 2,500hp before so I'm thinking the smaller heads will only help. Plus, with the Indy heads, the intake manifold and headers have to be custom made (I would have the intake sticking 1' above the hood if I used the Indy intake manifold) and I don't think the accessories will bolt up.

Ironically, the "production" based aluminum ported heads that most people use for 600-1,000hp don't flow as well as the TLs heads do stock.

I found a stock block engine with forged internals for a good price too. It can be pushed to 800hp before the block gives up. I'm thinking of buying it for a backup. The car is only 3,000lbs so even 800 hp will go a long way.

I found a shop that will do an NHRA legal cage for $700. I haven't made up my mind if I want it to be legal more or the convenience of swing out bars (without the pin) more.

 

Giggitty.