spring 2004 NewsLetter image Mar 15, 2004

NEWSLETTER SPRING 2004 Shake off the snow dust, spring will be here by the time of our next meeting, so bring your car. Our last meeting (2/21) was a good one. We had 13 attending, and spirits were high. We discussed the family outing - Saturday, June 13. It will be at my house in Derby. We are having a pig roast and Ron Turch will be cooking -- hummmm, I may order out from McDonalds. Party is free, ahhhh- parking however is $25! OK OK - just kidding. Subsequent to the meeting, I met a couple members of the Massachusetts Car Club. I invited them to the Family outing and our track event. I doubt they would travel that far, but- a couple may come. We discussed renting Leicester for a race day and having it paid for with club money. All indicated it was a good idea. We will discuss this further at the next meeting. We continued to collect $$ on the T/A rear end cover. We will raffle that off at the Family outing. Mike Hamilton is keeping the cover in his possession in the interim. He said something about storing it on the rear housing of his car -- huh? Got to watch him all the time. He is always weaving and bobbing. Last months article by Dave Schreiber was well done. We need to keep an eye on Dave this year - he is going to be the next to be riding an 11 second rocket. GN's for sale: George Pittas and Tom Fadaley are selling theirs. Both are low mileage "T" top cars. Both are stock. If you are seriously interested -- drop me a note, I will put you in touch with them. Norwalk - We are getting a group to travel out together. We will be leaving Friday 4/30 at 3 am. We will meet at the Angola rest stop on the Thruway. We would arrive about 10 am. Friday is Test & Tune. Saturday is the Car Show and then Sunday will be elimination's. Be prepared to discuss your involvement at the next meeting. Sat. April 24th at Athens restaurant. 6pm. At the next meeting we will have a schedule on cruises and hopefully race tracks. We can put those dates on our schedule at that time. The Nationals take place 5/18 though 5/22. We had a few who indicated they would be attending. Hopefully, there will be more interest generated at the next meeting. The raffle went well at the meeting. Nick Leonardis donated a picture of a number of GN's parked outside a restaurant. Looked pretty cool. That was won by Jill Foss-- again! She can't play anymore! We also raffled off a GN blanket - won by Ron Turch-- huh? Hey, I did not see him buy any tickets. Guys a magician! At the last meeting, I forgot to ask who would volunteer to donate the next raffle gift. Anyone wish to volunteer? Drop me a note. In regard to the Massachusetts Car Club. I was hoping we might work with them in the future on having a joint meeting and race event. Maybe here in WNY or out there. They rent Lebanon Valley race track as we do Leicester. That could turn into an annual event and a lot of fun. Maybe we could do this as early as this fall. Maybe will could have it here one year and them out there the next year. Food for thought. I am looking forward to a fun filled season. We have many guys running into the 11's and 10's this year. It is going to be exciting. We need to get out to the cruises also. In the interim I am turning this letter over to one of our well respected members -- the one and only Paul Cummings. Paul has been an active member for years now and travels all the way from Olean to attend out meetings. He is a good guy-lets see what he has to say. Take is away Paul----- SEE YA, LARRY

Article by club member Paul Cummings

Greetings from the garage of Paul Cummings; I reside in Olean, NY with my bride Lindsay and dog Holly. I'm not well known for making it to many of the on-season events, but I do seem to make it to most all the off-season meetings. It's difficult for me to make it to any weekly cruises since it's about a 1.5 hr drive each way, but I do enjoy the common interests of everyone in the club when I do get together with you. I'm not sure how I got interested in Turbo Buick's but here goes. My interest used to be in VW's but after seeing a photo of a 3.8L Turbo V6 and reading an article about what it was capable of, I knew I wanted to build one. My journey started with rebuilding a hot air motor from a front drive Toronado, this included all the good stuff, ie. forged pistons, KB cam, KB roller rockers, 30 lb injectors, balanced rotating assembly and so on. The stock turbo was redone by Limit with an external wastegate mounted on the crossover. Without a home for the engine, I built a test stand to run it on and help tune the Accel DFI system. As I searched for a rust free Regal to transplant it in I found an 86 GN in an Auto Trader that was up for bid at a bank in Ohio. Not sure of the value of these cars, I submitted what I thought was a very low bid. In May of 1992 the bank called that I had won the bid and the rest is history. I'm not one for having to do things twice so the complete car came apart from the chassis to the interior. Everything was either replaced with new parts or reused after being blasted & painted. The under body was stripped of all undercoating and then primed & painted. The interior got new carpet and gauges, a thorough cleaning, and a replacement of all the odds/ends that were damaged after 95,000 miles of driving. After removal of the stock engine (and by the looks of it needed major work) I decided to install my hot air motor. The worst part was the fabrication of the down pipe into the new KB SS exhaust system and wiring in the stand alone DFI system (without disturbing the stock wiring/computer). The transmission got a 10 vane pump and an AC shift kit with new seals and fresh fluid/filter. After 3 seasons of driving super conservative while trying to tune the DFI system to run beyond 50% throttle without knock, I decided it was time to install the original engine. In the winter of 1998 I began the rebuild of the stock motor. My intent was to use as many GM parts as feasible to retain the dependability of the stock motor. New .030 over GM pistons, stock cam, 3 angle valve job, 36 lb inj, the complete rotating assembly was balanced and so on. The stock turbo was balanced by Limit Eng. and all the electronic components that could be replaced were. Two years later, with much anticipation, I installed the new motor. It's a good thing I took photos before removal of the engine or I would probably still be asking questions on Turbobuick.com. What a rush firing it up once again and driving around for the break-in period. It was running excellent until I noticed a small decrease in oil pressure with an increase in engine temp. This saga resulted in pulling the engine for another complete cleaning/rebuild after finding the cam and main brgs wiped. This took three months to complete and even after that my oil pressure was not what it should be. I installed a KB boost plate, oil cooler fan and added a qt. of Lucas oil treatment and began driving it again only to find a small increase in oil pressure. To make a long story short (haha), I ended up pulling the engine again to fix an oil leak on the rear intake end seal. The last of the leaks were fixed and the engine was back in for the last time and running great. It ran so well I reserved myself from paying too much attention to the oil pressure gage. Finally, with my confidence level up I drove the GN to Leiscester on the last test and tune night of the season to see what it would do. This was only my second time to the track (1st was with my Toyota truck) and what a rush it was. There really is a lot to think about when approaching the line, with gages to watch, starting the computer, getting the boost up on the foot brake and then hitting the green just right. Even though I was not pushing the car to its limit I ended having starting problems in the staging lanes with the thrasher anti-theft so after 7 runs I called it quits. The drive back to Olean gave me some time to think about what work the GN would need through the winter. Besides the usual clean-up, I decided to install a DIY alcohol system with the help of Turbobuick.com. I am also working on the windows of each door to tighten them up from air leaks at highway speeds. I am ready to get the car out once again from under cover and to see what difference the alchy will make. My goal is not to break any records with it but just to have a fun, reliable and notable ride. Boost to all. Paul R.


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