Well I am waiting on a new headliner and at a stand still with the cage. Ray was finishing up some welds underneath and it got to hot and burnt the headliner. In order to get a new headliner in there we have to raise the body one more time so I can't finish the door bars till that's done. I am also going to start sanding and painting at least the top of the cage before I lower the body.
In the meantime I decided to jump back on putting the motor back together. I've had the short block done for awhile but needed to finish the top end assembly and figure out the accessory drive and custom crank trigger. I also need to do some more fab work to the headers for the new turbo which I probably won't do till it is back in the car.
Like the rest of this project very little is a bolt on or plug-n-play and the motor is no exception. When I was racing this car back in 2009-10 it was the fastest GN Buick V6 with production Stage 1 heads and planned to run pretty much the same motor program. It dawned on me that the only thing remaining in this build from the previous build is the block lol!
Now for some good Buick Engine ****!
I run a Buick Motorsport (BMS) Stage 2 on-center block. The factory "109" block that the GN came with simply wont live at the power level I am making with this motor which was over 1400hp in 2009 and I am planning on 1600 with the new set up.
A little background on all the different Buick blocks which can be confusing. Buick had a very successful race program through the 80's and well into 90s. The Grand National itself was made as a testament to the success of the Buick V6 in the NASCAR Busch Grand National series which it dominated for a long time. In addition they ran successfully in Indy Cart, ASA and Indy Lights programs among other programs.
As result Buick made a ton of high performance parts, 4 bolt main high nickel content blocks with 14 head bolts, forged crankshafts and host of other cool stuff. They also made a symmetrical port Stage 2 cylinder head which is really bad *** and almost all the really fast Buick guys run, except me of course lol!
The Buick V6 originally was an odd fire motor where two rods shared a common crank pin and the Odd cyl fired at 90 degrees and the evens at 150 degrees. Needless to say this wasnt the smoothest motor so Buick made it an even fire by splitting the common rod journal on the crank and firing even and odd cylinders evenly at every 120 degrees. When they split the rod journal it added an 1/8" of material between the rods so Buick off set the rod to the crank pin instead of designing a new block. Most all production Buick V6s are off center motors including the one in the Grand National. The original Stage 1 and 2 blocks made by BMS were also off-center but they eventually went to on-center. The on-center blocks are a stronger block with less side load and wear on pistons and bearings but the odd bank of cylinders is now an 1/8" off from a production block. While factory heads will bolt right up the factory intake will not since it is now an 1/8" off. Everything else will still work with some tweaking and spacing and it is no longer just a simple bolt in for a stockish Turbo Buick. Most on-center blocks are also dry sump with no wet sump pick up provisions so they require an external oil pump or one of the "Duttwieler" pumps that uses a factory front cover and pump housing.
The early off-center Stage blocks are highly desirable to the Turbo Buick guys since they also have wet sump provisions and can easily be dropped in a Grand National with all the stock parts bolting back on the motor including the intake and accessories. The original motor in my Ttype was a girdled 109 block with stroker crank. I ended up with an offcenter S2 block that I built for the car.
Here is a pick of a Girdled 109 block which I had in my Ttype originally.
I sold this motor and built a 3.8 012 off-center Stage 2 block for the Ttype which when installed looked identical to the motor that was in the car. While the Ttype is a legit 800hp motor it was within the capable limits of the 109 block pictured above but S2 can handle significantly more power. The biggest difference is the steel four bolt mains and 14 head bolts as opposed to 8 for the factory 109 block. Here are pics of my Ttype S2 short block notice were the wet sump pick up is compared to the 109 above.
Like I mentioned the on-center blocks were stronger and BMS made a bunch of them the early ones were like the off centers and actually had wet sump provisions a place for an oil dip stick, then they started cross bolting the front and main rear caps and were totally a dry sump block with no dip stick provisions.
Here is a pic of a S2 oncenter with x-bolted front and rear main caps. This is actually the short block I ran in 2009. It also had roller cam bearings in it which is what the oil line in the valley was for.
Now the short block I am going to run has 6 bolt center caps. The crank is a new 3.625 billet Crower, rods are 6.300 Crower billet, the pistons are 4.025" Race Tech with about 10.5:1 CR at about 278ci. And yes I will run 40 psi of boost with that CR lol!
In the meantime I decided to jump back on putting the motor back together. I've had the short block done for awhile but needed to finish the top end assembly and figure out the accessory drive and custom crank trigger. I also need to do some more fab work to the headers for the new turbo which I probably won't do till it is back in the car.
Like the rest of this project very little is a bolt on or plug-n-play and the motor is no exception. When I was racing this car back in 2009-10 it was the fastest GN Buick V6 with production Stage 1 heads and planned to run pretty much the same motor program. It dawned on me that the only thing remaining in this build from the previous build is the block lol!
Now for some good Buick Engine ****!
I run a Buick Motorsport (BMS) Stage 2 on-center block. The factory "109" block that the GN came with simply wont live at the power level I am making with this motor which was over 1400hp in 2009 and I am planning on 1600 with the new set up.
A little background on all the different Buick blocks which can be confusing. Buick had a very successful race program through the 80's and well into 90s. The Grand National itself was made as a testament to the success of the Buick V6 in the NASCAR Busch Grand National series which it dominated for a long time. In addition they ran successfully in Indy Cart, ASA and Indy Lights programs among other programs.
As result Buick made a ton of high performance parts, 4 bolt main high nickel content blocks with 14 head bolts, forged crankshafts and host of other cool stuff. They also made a symmetrical port Stage 2 cylinder head which is really bad *** and almost all the really fast Buick guys run, except me of course lol!
The Buick V6 originally was an odd fire motor where two rods shared a common crank pin and the Odd cyl fired at 90 degrees and the evens at 150 degrees. Needless to say this wasnt the smoothest motor so Buick made it an even fire by splitting the common rod journal on the crank and firing even and odd cylinders evenly at every 120 degrees. When they split the rod journal it added an 1/8" of material between the rods so Buick off set the rod to the crank pin instead of designing a new block. Most all production Buick V6s are off center motors including the one in the Grand National. The original Stage 1 and 2 blocks made by BMS were also off-center but they eventually went to on-center. The on-center blocks are a stronger block with less side load and wear on pistons and bearings but the odd bank of cylinders is now an 1/8" off from a production block. While factory heads will bolt right up the factory intake will not since it is now an 1/8" off. Everything else will still work with some tweaking and spacing and it is no longer just a simple bolt in for a stockish Turbo Buick. Most on-center blocks are also dry sump with no wet sump pick up provisions so they require an external oil pump or one of the "Duttwieler" pumps that uses a factory front cover and pump housing.
The early off-center Stage blocks are highly desirable to the Turbo Buick guys since they also have wet sump provisions and can easily be dropped in a Grand National with all the stock parts bolting back on the motor including the intake and accessories. The original motor in my Ttype was a girdled 109 block with stroker crank. I ended up with an offcenter S2 block that I built for the car.
Here is a pick of a Girdled 109 block which I had in my Ttype originally.
I sold this motor and built a 3.8 012 off-center Stage 2 block for the Ttype which when installed looked identical to the motor that was in the car. While the Ttype is a legit 800hp motor it was within the capable limits of the 109 block pictured above but S2 can handle significantly more power. The biggest difference is the steel four bolt mains and 14 head bolts as opposed to 8 for the factory 109 block. Here are pics of my Ttype S2 short block notice were the wet sump pick up is compared to the 109 above.
Like I mentioned the on-center blocks were stronger and BMS made a bunch of them the early ones were like the off centers and actually had wet sump provisions a place for an oil dip stick, then they started cross bolting the front and main rear caps and were totally a dry sump block with no dip stick provisions.
Here is a pic of a S2 oncenter with x-bolted front and rear main caps. This is actually the short block I ran in 2009. It also had roller cam bearings in it which is what the oil line in the valley was for.
Now the short block I am going to run has 6 bolt center caps. The crank is a new 3.625 billet Crower, rods are 6.300 Crower billet, the pistons are 4.025" Race Tech with about 10.5:1 CR at about 278ci. And yes I will run 40 psi of boost with that CR lol!
