Be patient, once we know the head specs it will be really easy to plan from there... Due to the fact that TA is actually re working the head design it will take some time before they can tell us the specs.... Maybe find another 350 and do a re ring job on it and you can use that while you slowly build your good engine.
Have a friend who just did a single turbo budget LS swap in his Chevelle. He spent minimal money, bought cheap parts where he could and it makes some decent power. It got me thinking about taking the motor in my car and just rebuilding the heads, some mls headgaskets and do a nice turbo grind cam and hope it lives on 5-8psi. The shortblock is still healthy, no compression or blow-by issues. I already have the trans and fuel system to support this and my hardest choices would be twin or single turbo and blow thru carb or EFI. I plan on this being a sort of testbed until a more purpose built shortblock happens down the road. So without burton machines what are my best options for manifolds? what are some off the shelf cams that would be good to start with to get some grind ideas? I need to replace valve springs, call up about head gaskets being made and I have to see what my options are for blow through carbs and efi systems. Budget right now is around $4000. I am not afraid to use a cheap turbo, wastegate, intercooler, blowoff valve. All those things can be upgraded down the road as money becomes available. If I go for the best of everything it will take too much time and money for me to make this happen.
Here is a set of gaskets that will handle 20 psi and I believe that is the for a set of 2 price; http://www.buyracingparts.com/gaskets/buick-350-severe-duty-head-gaskets.html How are your fabrication skills? You can buy sbc turbo headers cut off the sbc mounting flange and weld on a sbb flange to the sbc turbo header and down the road. You'll need the engine in the car to get the angle of the flange right, can probably bolt the new flange to the engine and adjust the angle of the header when its where you want it tack weld it together, remove finish welding them. If you have a un-attached cylinder head it would be a good idea to bolt the header to the head when it gets welded and don't take it off until it cools to room temp naturally without helping it cool. Here's a quick evilbay search of some turbo headers; http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&ghostText=&_sacat=0&_nkw=sbc+turbo+headers&_sop=15 Maybe a style you might want to adapt from there? This should be a good start to get you thinking. GL Derek
Awesome Derek thank you, My friend who built the turbo LS insists I should go single turbo for my first shot at this but I think I won't run into many issues with a twin setup clearance wise. Still not sure what to do about EFI, its $1000 more than a blowthrough carb and while it would be ideal to have a car I can drive year round, I live in New York and I have a daily driver so I dont have intentions of driving the car from late fall to early spring. I am thinking that going with a roller valvetrain is out of the question budget wise. So between the EFI and roller valvetrain that's $2000 I can save for other things. First step is getting a set of heads ready and picking a cam. My stock valvetrain isn't up to the task of spinning to 5200rpm, so getting the top end done would make a big difference even N/A
I have seen a setup for a single that used stock manifolds and just pipe the exhaust under engine up to right front of engine,
Im about to get started on single setup, and will be very budget minded, I chose the CX Racing T78 and will doing custom hotside from scratch but on the blowthru vs efi ive got a 750dp that I will be doing the hanger18 mods to ,to get up and going and then will drop the coin for a pro built unit after the bugs are sorted,...im going for 16/18lbs have a front mount and will squirt some meth also, cam will come from Bullet they know turbo grinds very well.
Oh but you can go with a roller cam and lifters for a lot less than that. The cam from TA and a set of sbc lifters; http://www.ebay.com/itm/361073671394?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT Or if you want hyd lifters; http://www.ebay.com/itm/360911515470?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT The trick to making these lifters work is with a little bit of pencil grinder or a dremel work to make the slot longer so the lifters can go closer together to each other because the sbc lifter spacing is a bit wider than the sbb spacing just under and 1/8" of an inch. When the weather gets better I will be working on a sbb bolt on roller rocker conversion for Andy's engine and might offer those after Andy's are done? Was thinking of making rockers like these work; http://www.ebay.com/itm/171569356414?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT And maybe $150 for the adapters to make them a bolt on for a sbb head? $400 for roller rockers $151 to $192.10 for lifters And the cost of buying the cam and new push rods maybe now you can go roller? TA is making the new heads so that sbc stud rockers or sbb shaft rockers will both work so the rocker conversion set could maybe be transferred to the aluminum heads if stock rockers will work on the new heads? There's always a way around doing something for less so don't write off using the roller stuff just yet. Derek
I am sure a full roller motor could be done fairly cheap but I have to remind myself this a project I hope to get done fairly early on in this season. The intention is to take the stock motor, make sure its healthy, bring the valvetrain up to the task of spinning to higher rpm and then I can start with a basic setup and optimize it. I want to save the finer details for the motor I have on the stand. I want to take my knocks and learn how to tune a turbo motor with a stock cheap shortblock. Once I feel like I know what I am doing I can swap in a built motor and make some real power. So the first thing I have to do is go through the heads which I plan to do this weekend. I need to decide on what springs to go with and what cam. Once the heads and cam are done then I can start buying parts. Those SBC headers look like they will work perfectly. I know the spacing for the primaries is dead on, but port shape is different. I would assume the best way to tackle that is to taper back from the Buick flange to fit the SBC primaries. Then I can start thinking about the rest of the build
Not blowing off your idea, when its time to build a motor I know roller will be the way to go. Guess I just want to be like all the LS guys and say I can build a junkyard turbo motor too:laugh: I plan on being the test dummy here. I'm not afraid to crank it up until I break something. How many of us can say we know the failing point of these engines? If it will live on 10psi+ on a stock 72 and older bottom end it shows just how great of a forced induction platform we have.
I yryed the SBC header to SBB conversion. The bends have to be very tight as the SBB port faces down directly at frame/control arm. You will also need to put an angle on them to make the pipe point in direction needed as the SBC has a horizontal exit port vs SBB angled port. Spacing is close. Center pipes need to be spread slightly. Any pipes off # 1,2 and 5,6 need to come up over header or they will run into motor mounts. Its not straight forward cut are add Buick flange. . then add square flange of Buick and round flags of Chevy. It will take some planning depending on chassis. In a gbody. I would say forget it. Make a log type header.
Call crower cam and aske them for the cam they sold twice, custom ground turbo buick 350 application...
Oh I see, good to know. With them upside down and forward facing, obstacles like the brake booster and A/C firewall box and hood clearance have to be taken in consideration(I wouldn't suggest using upside down long tube headers, LOL Unless you want the ex. to come through the hood.). The ex. down pipe can be fabricated to route around those other lower obstacles fairly easily. Have to remember that a sbb has a deck height 1.162" taller than a sbc that makes it wider as well because the taller the deck height the wider the V gets. Plus the extended ex port style of the sbb doesn't help either, so you'll need to measure and make sure there is room where they need to go. GL Derek
I am pretty confident I can make the headers work, I feel it would cost much more than $140 to piece together and fabricate a manifold as opposed to modifying one. Before I get to fabrication though I need to get the topend of the motor ironed out. Sean, I know you mention the Crower cam grind do you happen to know the specs on it? If I can order a cam, head gaskets and valve springs before this weekend it would be awesome. I would like to order everything from TA to keep things simple and support a vendor here. I need to rebuild the oil pump in my replacement timing cover, I'd like to run a new timing set, and water pump as well as order a set of sweet TA valve covers. If I don't find a member with an intake Ill order a stage 1 intake as well being that the SP3 is still in work. Once all that is done and I am happy with how the car drives I can take the front clip off and start working on the turbo setup
Just finished ordering some parts through summit, ordered some autometer gauges to replace my second hand missmatch gauges I've run for years. I also went with an msd pro billet distributor, Programmable 6 AL2 box and some other odds and ends to make things easier down the road. Lots of money spent on the ignition system but it should support anything I can throw at it just like my stealth fuel system. So next up is Crower cams and TA performance. I called crower for a turbo cam suggestion. Dave Crower called back giving me a description of the cam and ask for a few specs of the motor and build. He said he could provide a timing set as well as springs and lifters but the spring spec sheet he provided in the email seems a little overkill and I don't know many of the dimensions asked for. This was a week ago though, I still have no cam specs, no email response and a lot of the parts that were mentioned available for my build are not available for a Buick 350 engine. Not talking down on Crower I know its a busy time of year. It has given me time to reconsider my prior choice to avoid a roller build. If I hold off on some non essential dress up parts from TA like the stage 1 intake and aluminum valve covers I can justify doing a full roller setup. I will call TA tomorrow but I would like to know what parts I will need for the Roller setup. I know I need a cam button, cam, lifters and rockers. Some also say that I will need dual groove cam bearings and will definitely need to change pushrods. Those 2 factors add a decent amount to the cost as well as factoring in the challenge of changing cam bearings with the engine in the car and make it harder to make the jump to a roller motor. Plus I would have to come up with what roller profile will be best for a mild turbo motor. I am hoping you guys talk me into doing the roller build because it is definitely the right thing to do.
I can try to find you the cam card info for the crower turbo cam and will post it here… It would be as simple as giving them the cam number and they could make the same cam without any hold up or issues… Its proven to work well, and will cost about 1/3 the cost of a roller cam. I would just get the cam only from them and the TA stage 1 valve springs, timing set, and lifters. Keep in mind that with a roller cam you may have to clearance the crankshaft as it may hit the roller cam, we have heard of that happening on a previous 350 roller cam install. And this is what the cam sounds like in my car. Idles pretty smooth at 700 RPM, pulls 15 inches of vacuum, has a nice lope in the exhaust: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivXylF70RN4
Hold out for the single plane intake, it will not be too much longer, I am sure it ail be a HUGE upgrade over the dual plane especially for a turbo car! You can hide the roller rockers under the stock valve covers if you just double up the gaskets I have rollers under my stock covers.
