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This is my daily driver summer car. I drive back and forth to work every day (about 100mi round trip).
It is a Buick Regal Turbo-T. This car has the same drive train as the infamous Grand National - however this car is more rare. There were over 20,000 Grand Nationals produced in 1987 but there were only 1,700 Turbo-T Regals produced.
The car was in pretty good shape when I got it. The original paint was faded and there was a little rust on the bottoms of the doors. The transmission was slipping a little between 2nd and 3rd gear, and the radiator was hosed.
The restoration started with some of the mechanical issues. I began driving the car right away, so I started with a full service and tune up. I flushed the cooling system and replaced the radiator, belt and hoses, and installed a 160 degree thermostat. After driving for a short while, I realized that the transmission needed some serious attention. I ordered a complete rebuild kit with heavy duty clutches, a shift kit, and a 2800rpm lock-up converter. I hired an experienced transmission specialist to go through the tranny with my new parts. It made quite a difference in how the car performs. It launches much harder now and barks the tires in second gear.
The turbo had been replaced with a new GM unit about a year before I got the car. I was driving the car to work one morning when I heard a terible growling noise every time the turbo would begin to spool up. I nursed the car home, and later discovered that the thrust bering had given up. I thought this seemed unusual because the turbo was not that old and did not seem to have any oiling problems. I contemplated getting a larger turbo, but I ended up just getting a bering and seal kit for it. In the meantime, I had a friend at a muffler shop build me a looped piece of pipe to take the place of the turbo so I could still drive the car. The car is totally nutless without the turbo. I got the turbo kit from Limit Engineering for about 70 bucks. It was very complete and the turbo was a piece of cake to rebuild.
After getting the car road worthy and putting some miles on it, it was time for paint. I got a pair of mint doors from Texas and swapped the power windows and locks to them. I then removed all of the trim and took the car to the paint shop. I had it painted the original color which is a very dark red metallic. All of the weatherstrip was replaced including the T-Top weatherstrip. Ialso put some chrome wheels on it with new tires.
Now that I had the car looking good and running good, It was time for some performance modifications. I installed a stainless 2 1/2" dual exhaust from Applied Technologies. I also installed a Super Pump, adjustable regulator, and Lucas 42.5 lb/hr injectors.
The car runs strong, but not like I think It should (My G-Tech indicated 14.6 sec @ 92.6 mph) I would expect mid 13's. I created a knock sensor circuit which indicates when the knock sensor is active. I discovered that the knock sensor goes crazy above 10lbs of boost. I don't think it is detonation because I use good gas and it should not detonate at such low boost. The knock sensor light flickers once in a while when the car is idleling. Although I can'not hear any engine noise, I believe that the engine is getting loose. The next phase of my restoration is to rebuild the motor.
To be continued ...
LIMIT ENGINEERING
Bells Island
Currituck, NC 27929
919-232-3194
Poston Enterprises
206 North Main Street
Atmore, Alabama 36502
334-368-8577
Applied Technologies & Research, Inc.
17040 S. Hwy 11
Fair Play, SC 29643
864-972-3800
Turbo Regal Web Site (Excellent resource)