I am going to be turbocharging the 300" BUICK v8 in my '65 Special Wagon. The 300 is essentially the venerable Buick 3.8 with two more cylinders; same deck height, stroke, only 3.75 bore, but can be safely bored .100+. So I can use off the shelf forged 3.8 pistons with a safe overbore if I want to go that route.

For now I am going to run the stock 300 until I hurt it. I have another block that will be stroked and bored to 350"+ with NASCAR takeout rods, custom pistons, TA Buick/Rover heads, and a roller cam, but that's a long way down the road.


The car has no AC, no power steering, manual windows and locks. The only power option the car originally came with was a power rear gate window, which I find a bit strange. She weighs 3720lbs with 180lbs of me and 3/4 tank of fuel. I imagine she will weigh about the same with the lighter parts combined with the extra parts associated with the turbo.

The car will be used as a sunny weather driver, grocery/baby hauler, street/strip, and maybe even road coarse car.

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Most of the welding and sheetmetal work is not my own. A friend of mine I went to high school with owns an automotive and fabrication shop up here. He has the sheetmetal brake, TIG welder, drop shear, and plasma cutter. I have the mill, lathe, and bandsaw. He does most of the sheetmetal and welding work, I do the machining.

We're making this come together, combining our abilities and resources. I come over to the shop and cut and sand bits, offer my vision, generally annoy and disrupt his day, he cuts and bends more bits, and welds it all together.

I traded him a car for his portion of the work on this and more; He's going to be making me an aluminum core support, and help in the turbo exhaust plumbing on as well. We'll see where the tab is after that

We are building a sheetmetal intake as there really aren't any EFI oriented intakes for the small block buick family.

Here's the evolution of the intake so far:

Grainy spy photos

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I made a form out of steel channel to press the ends of a round tube tapering into a rectangular shape. Did 8 runners, but was not happy with the size (should have used 2" OD tube instead of 2.25"), perhaps they'll work for a future Buick 350 intake.

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So, the new runners were formed out of sheet aluminum with a taper built into them.


I also decided that the 4.5" ID aluminum tube was not going to cut it for the plenum, so was to be made out of a sheet aluminum also...

Runners and bolt spacers:beer

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For now the transmission will stay the stock 2-speed Switch Pitch 300 (NOT a powerglide!!). Once it keels over I have a BOP cased TH350 that will be built and get a gearvendors unit behind it.

The rear will stay the stock BOP 8.25 (or 8.5"?) rearend with the current *I think* 3.23 gears, for now of course with a possible "lincoln locker" in the future. Upgrading to a dana60 or ford 9" in the (hopefully) distant future.

 

subscribing

 

Installed home modified double-adjustable upper rear control arms, Hotchkiss boxed lower rear control arms, SSBC front disc brake kit, line lock, global west tubular upper and lower front control arms, new "Cargo" rear springs, and the original stock front springs...

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Love the "off the beatin' path" type of builds! The forming of the intake tubes was a really cool idea...simple, but appeared to work great. Keep us posted. Thanks for sharing, Lorne

 

I'll be watching...love the custom fab work...stay at it

 

To justify the existence of this thread...

Currently has a .81 A/R exhaust housing on it... I also have a .96 housing for when I step up the displacement.

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Well, I like Buicks and U-Boats and your work so far! Keep rockin' bud!

 

Sorry about the crummy pictures

Thanks for the kind words so far guys.. I have lurked on here for quite a while, gleaning info and ideas from many...

Hauln- Thanks. That method would have worked out okay if I hadn't miss-calculated the circumference of the runner... Ordered, cut, and squished almost 4 feet before deciding it was going to be a pain to make work... They should be just the right size for a Buick 350 port if I decide to build one in the future. At least with the new runners the two siamesed runners aren't as much of an issue.

Anthony- I was obsessed with subs and u-boats as a kid. My favorite movie to watch was "Destination Tokyo." I would plug "leaks" with the shower head running in the bathtub and fall all over the place from "depth charges" LOL...

Engine management will be Accel Gen7 DFI, to arrive in the mail any day now. Triggered by an Accel dual sync distributor.

Intercooler, for now, will be an el-cheapo 3x12x31" unit... Thing is quite heavy BTY with the cast end tanks

Radiator is a nice aluminium unit with -16 fittings for inlet and outlet.

Still need to piece together the fuel system, scouring the classifieds here and elsewhere.

The car has a perfect horribly faded maaco paintjob (pictures are misleading) which is perfect for what I'm looking to accomplish. I have a full set of chrome window moldings, a sweet roof rack to throw on top, stock interior panels to replace the horrible "custom" ones.. Exhaust will be as toned down as possible, fitting the largest nonrestrictive muffler that fits (have a 4" diesel muffler that I left off my diesel Ramcharger that might work...)

Car will look and sound like just a tired old wagon that was picked up from someone's widow.

 

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Crummy job I did cutting out the front bulkhead (hard to plasma cut with a hand in a cast)
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Just got my Accel Gen7 setup in the mail Along with over 18" of snow, so no install progress on that for at least a few days...

 

Wow great start, I love the fact that your building the intake from scratch. Great fab work.

 

Thanks for the kind words turbo70camaro, your build thread blows this one out of the water though....

Top of the plenum formed
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Just need in to weld in the injector bungs and figure out a thermostat scheme... I'm thinking a remote thermostat "unit" plumbed from the crossover area with -12AN fittings, then -16AN to the radiator...

 

Nice.
I like the step by step build of the intake.

 

hell yeah incredible intake build!

 

your giving hogan intakes a run for their money! great job/ cool build

 

Thanks guys.. I couldn't justify paying $3000+ on an intake that can be built at home with some help from a friend

Any suggestions on sources for exhaust flex couplings?

FUK I hate how this forum kicks me form a thread when I submit a post.

 

What is the general consensus on these BOV's?: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-OBX-B...Parts_Accessories&hash=item231b7ce2fe&vxp=mtr

 

Great build..love the turbo wagon.

 

Intake turned out great.

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http://www.spdexhaust.com/