Making do with what I have!

[1/2 Cup]

Great pics Sean

 

[sean Buick 76]

Yup!!!!

 

[BBChevro]

Hey Sean, have you lost count of how many pickups you've bought yet - I have. [emoji1]

Sent from my SM-G950F using The Garage Journal mobile app

 

[jon72vega]

Yup!!!!

Looks good!
That is coming together fast.

 

[sean Buick 76]

My custom cylinder heads are almost dome!

 

[jbmatth]

Wow, very nice looking, but you can't leave us with that, give us some details on them.

JB

 

[sean Buick 76]

Ok JB! These are custom Buick 350 cylinder heads that TA Performance had been developing for the past 5 years. The factory iron heads we had been using were the only option as there was no aftermarket head available. I was using turbochargers to raise the power production because of the lack of airflow of the cylinder heads. We did extensive porting, oversized valves etc however we were still limited to about 500 HP without power adders. Adding boost helped immensely. We ran into issues with cracking the heads on the extreme ported heads so we had to go more conservative but lost power. These new heads will be better than the ported heads right out of the box and have much more room for improvement. TA has a 1/4 mile racer doing the prototype testing and that is complete and successful so they are going into production phase now and of course I get the first set sold to the public because I am the biggest Buick 350 advocate in the world. I have a publishing deal for a book about Buick engines that I will release once my track and dyno testing is complete.

I built the most bad assed Buick 350 ever in preparation tion for these heads...
Every single part is custom except the block which is modified. Custom block girdle to hold the mains secure, billet crank (first one ever for a Buick 350), custom rods, custom pistons etc etc. The final assembly and dyno test will be done by my head porting expert who is going to massage the heads into perfection and then dyno test it without boost. I will then put the engine in the car and test it onnthe chassus dyno and track and then de tune it for street use and car shows... I can only go 10.00 in the quarter as I would need a ton of work done to pass tech under 10 seconds. The car has done a best of 10.15 in the quarter already.

 

[sean Buick 76]

9 foot ceilings in the basement, and main floor. Top floor is 8 except the tray ceiling in the master is 9.

 

[thetastelingers]

9 foot ceilings in the basement, and main floor. Top floor is 8 except the tray ceiling in the master is 9.

We did 8 foot ceilings in our house except for the living room. I just didn't want to heat space that I wasn't going to use.

I wasn't aware that there were no heads for a Buick 350. Nice progress!

 

[rixtrix1]

Knowing the development work Mike did on the 455 heads, those 350 heads should be great! Hope you get the home closed in before winter arrives too hard! When is your scheduled move-in?

 

[sean Buick 76]

Thanks Ric yes it is closed in now and locked up... still waiting for garage doors but otherwise the exterior is sealed up. We don’t move in till late May so lots of time... we didn’t want to move during winter.

 

[jbmatth]

Great explanation about the heads, I knew most of that about your car, engine, book, etc. and am happy they are going to get the heads to you shortly. Will you try to get it all assembled before the move in date? Also is the crank a production part now?

JB

 

[sean Buick 76]

Great explanation about the heads, I knew most of that about your car, engine, book, etc. and am happy they are going to get the heads to you shortly. Will you try to get it all assembled before the move in date? Also is the crank a production part now?

JB

I am thinking the engine will be done right around the move in date, it is exciting. The crank can now be ordered by anyone, and they can just do the CNC work based on the design that I had paid them to do... Plus people could change the design easily if they wanted, and it would be super easy to just type in different specs for the stroke, rod pin diameters etc. It took a lot of research and development to get it all done but now they can re produce them if someone orders one. We couldn’t use a forged crank because the tooling costs are through the roof for a one off product so that is why we went CNC. The crank is actually cryo treated to -300 degrees to align the molecules, they do that twice then finish machine it to 0.0001 specs. My bob Weight for my rods and pistons was known so they built the crank to that internal balance spec (no holes drilled to balance) TA is copying my block girdle design and offering that as a part of thier catalogue.

 

[Bob Heine]

My kind of jewelry!

 

[jbmatth]

That is great, I don't have anything I could use it in but I'm sure there are plenty of people out there very happy you helped to get this work done.

JB

 

[1/2 Cup]

Sean nice, real nice

 

[sean Buick 76]

Nice weather, nice work location.. office with a view!

 

[jon72vega]

Nice weather, nice work location.. office with a view!

Sean,
Very nice picture!

 

[sean Buick 76]

More nice images from today:

 

[jbmatth]

Great sunrise photos, it looks like a very peaceful place.

JB

 

[sean Buick 76]

Coming along...

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Looking good, it's really taking shape?

You may have mentioned it, but are you going to be selling off your old place?

 

[sean Buick 76]

Yes we are sellling the current house. We are putting it up for sale in January

 

[sean Buick 76]

Getting ready for Christmas!!! Headers, remflex gaskets, etc for my new truck, should sound festive! New trans for my Buick, tough to find these 2 WD 4L80E overdrive autos around here for a good price!

 

[sean Buick 76]

Sad day! Selling old black! The guy picks it up in a few days! It never stalled or left me stranded other than that time a wheel bearing locked up without warning... It runs better now than the day I got it... smokes the tires and goes anywhere.

 

[jbmatth]

Your old truck was very nice, but I think you will really enjoy the added capability of the 2500. You will have to post a video of the exhaust sound when you get all of that installed and I'd be interested in your opinion on how it tows for a gasser.

JB

 

[sean Buick 76]

All is well! Busy with the boys getting the house ready to sell!

 

[sean Buick 76]

Mikes custom exhaust shop did a fantastic job on my truck today unlocking some horsepower! They installed the long tube stainless headers, performance wires, new iridium plugs, and dual 3” exhaust with Magnaflow mufflers. I picked nice long case mufflers to keep the idle and mid RPM noise respectable. Remflex gaskets keep the headers sealed with out the need to re-tighten them constantly. 4 inch tips out the back, looks good. The catalytic converters are deleted and then computer was re-calibrated ahead of time so it’s all good. I think it was smart to go the custom route vs buying a kit, the fit and finish is superior to the magnaflow kit I did on the other truck. Plus it’s all welded vs clamps that may leak.

The fuel mileage is improved, better low rpm power, and it sounds great at 6000 rpms.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Sean, sounds great..

 

[jbmatth]

That does sound pretty good, nice and mellow until you stand on it.

JB

 

[jon72vega]

Sean,
Sounds Healthy!

 

[sean Buick 76]

Happy holidays to you all! I appreciate the motivation and suppprt from my Garage Journal Family! I hope your holiday season goes smoothly with lots of time with friends and family!!!

 

[rixtrix1]

Wishing a safe, Merry Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and yours, Sean! We'll have Trudi's family in town for 2 weeks starting in about an hour and it looks like I'll be around home for a good part of that to enjoy their company.

 

[sean Buick 76]

New toy... 2000 Chevy tracker with the 2.0 gas engine, 5 speed manual and manual locking warn hubs. This this goes really good on and off road, and can be flat towed (stay tuned).

We are really happy with our 2017 Kia Sedona, it’s a year old and it’s been flawless. I drove it about 800 miles or 1300 kms each way for a trip and it was great. Loaded down with about 800 pounds of stuff it still got great fuel mileage. The 3.3 direct injection gas engine was plenty powerful for the long mountain ascents and the manual shifter mode was perfect for rowing through all 6 gears when needed. If someone told me 20 years ago I would be driving a Kia I would have laughed.

The little guy is getting in on all the fun these days too!

Nothing new with the house just picking trims and paint etc. And almost ready to list our current house for sale...

 

[sean Buick 76]

Hi guys, today was the first real test of the 2012 GMC 2500HD with gasoline powered 6.0. I rented this trailer so I only had to pull
It one way instead of two it was a 600 km or 400 mile each way trip two days after a 1.5 foot snowfall. The truck was flawless, the mods I did payed off. The free flowing exhaust and custom computer tune resulted in very good performance. I know the trailer and vehicle weighed about 5000 pounds and the truck pulled it like nothing. It would even gear up to 6th on the flats without lugging. This is with 3.73 gears and 35 inch AT tires with the spedo corrected. I was going 68 mph or 110 km/h most of the drive and it would rev 1800 rpm on the flats in 6th gear. Any slight grade it would run 2300 rpm in 5th, and up the hills it was 3100 rpm in 4th (1:1 ratio). At 80 mph or 128 km/h it was 2500 rpm in 5th and it crawled up all the hills without excessive revs. And it Sounds so good out the dual 4” tips.

I’m really happy with the little 3000 pound 2000 Tracker it drives great and it’s good on fuel.

 

[sean Buick 76]

A few cool family photos... The new toy in the bush, just needs a small lift, tires And a winch.

 

[rixtrix1]

A few cool family photos... The new toy in the bush, just needs a small lift, tires And a winch.

Very nice pics, Sean. You have a nice, happy looking family!

 

[wasfast]

When do you move in to the new house?

 

[drivesitfar]

Sean: sorry I haven't made time to stop by sooner and check in on your thread. I love members that also include their kids in pictures along with all their cool stuff and work so I'M SUBSCRIBED NOW and hopefully i'll learn a thing or two from you and help if I can.

here's to a great 2019!!

 

[sean Buick 76]

Thanks guys for the best wishes! We move into the house sometime between March 1st and June 1st depending on how quick our current house sells.