Bye Bye Birdie

What we have here is a great powerhouse of a motor looking for a nice place to live--Tony Assenza, May 1987 Car and Driver

We may be preaching to the choir here, but your hard-driving amigos at GMHTP love turbo Buicks. The majority of staffers who have passed through our hallowed hallways have owned at least one, and we are presently abusing two of these torque-meisters. But we don't cast a blind eye toward objectivity, either: although they are blessed with some of the fiercest 0-60 times on the planet, turbo Regals can be evil mistresses. If you've ever walked away from a high-zoot sports car only to have the smirk wiped off your face by a "15 mph turn" sign, you know what we mean. Since they were based on the aging G-body chassis, with no frame reinforcement and missing body bushings, there was much to be desired in the ride and handling department. And head-to-head braking comparos revealed that throwing our feet out the door stopped the car quicker than the reviled Powermaster brake unit could. A GNX article in the May 1987 Car and Driver praised the Buick's engine, with the C/D staff "Doing a little mourning ourselves--not so much for the car as for the engine that powers it. If we were Buick, we'd set the hyperactive V6 on a stand and build a car of comparable talents around it. This is one orphan that cries out for adoption."

We couldn't agree more. And although Pontiac did adopt the mighty mill for its 20th anniversary Trans Am (producing a beautiful marriage of blessed acceleration and deft handling), they only made a handful of the cars in 1989.

But thanks to Pennsylvanian Steve Kaminski, a few more of these hypersonic hybrids have now hit the streets. Steve has always been a Trans Am man, but he still remembers the day in 1987 when a GN shook down his 1985 T/A.

"Back then I was driving a Trans Am with the 305," he explains. "And I really thought it was hot. Then a GN came along and absolutely kicked my ass--it was unbelievable. I wondered how that little motor made enough power to whip a V8 until I took a ride in one. Now, I owned all kinds of big-cube cars years ago, but nothing ran like this Grand National."

Steve loved the power potential and neck-snapping torque of the little motor, but he preferred the sportier all-around performance of the F-bodies.

"Don't get me wrong, the Buicks were great, talk about mean-looking. But the Firebird handled so much better. And if you want to go real fast, running a GN up to 140-150 is really pressing your luck. The only way you know you're speeding in an F-body is by looking at the speedometer."

So Steve became a turbophile; He picked up a GN motor in 1989 and dropped it into the T/A's engine bay--and as a result, he staked claim to the first 12-, 11-, 10-, and then 9-second turbocharged Trans Am.

"That first swap took me a month. Then when my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, wanted it done also, it only took me a weekend. Since then, I've put turbo V6s into anything from Corvettes to El Caminos."

And when good friend Ed Narkin detonated a piston in his nitroused 1993 Formula, transplanting in a supersonic V6 was the obvious choice.

"I owned a Turbo Trans Am before I got this car," the owner of the Aston, Pa. Sunoco says. "When it was stolen, I picked up the new body style in 1993. It went 13.75 with factory 3.23s, but it never planted me in the seat like the Turbo T/A did. I had always talked to Steve about doing a conversion, and after I blew a piston going high 11s, the motor was out anyway."

Staying true to the TR mantra that says huge power can be made with the stock bottom end, the Dan Smith-built 0.30-over block retained the factory turbo crankshaft. Speed-Pro moly rings keep blow-by from happening around the TRW forged pistons, with stock connecting rods pushing them to a 9.5 to 1 compression ratio. A custom-ground Precision Turbo and Engine camshaft replaces the mild factory piece--a good thing, since Steve bolted up a set of ported Turbo Trans Am heads with 1.77 intake and 1.50 exhaust valves for deeper breathing. A stock intake manifold and throttle body were also ported to contribute to the cause, because a Precision PT-70 turbocharger makes for some serious air compression. For those times when the hairdryer gets a little overzealous, a Richard Lee wastegate was added to keep the boost peaked at 20 lbs., and a P.T.E. front-mounted intercooler with custom-bent tubes drops the intake charge to a reasonable level. Steve and Ed were looking for impeccable street manners along with scorching quarter-mile times, so ACCEL's wonderfully flexible DFI system was called upon to bark orders to the 75-lb. injectors.

Speaking of the fuel system, Kaminski knew that keeping up with those injectors could be a tall order, so he played it safe with a Bosch external fuel pump pulling Sunoco in tandem with the in-tank Walbro 340. Along with the dual 3/8-inch fuel lines, these components ensure that this six-banger's thirst is always quenched.

Once the fuel gets converted to energy, it escapes through modified TTA manifolds to a homemade 3-inch stainless steel downpipe. Steve reused the factory front and tail pipes, which are bisected with a Flowmaster muffler.

A Firebird-spec TH-700R4 sits behind the turbo 231, with a lock-up 10-inch torque converter making the most of the engine's twist. The stock driveshaft and rear end really let the 245mm street rubber have it; the Goodyears used for street duty are fighting a losing battle.

Now, you would expect a guy who's been building these motors for over ten years to get some real power out of them. You wouldn't expect low 10-second runs at 130 miles per hour out of a stock block. And this motor will run that number without the added strength of a girdle. That's because Steve prefers to get more air into the engine without the dipstick-blowing boost pressures.

"By porting and smoothing what you have got, you can flow a ton of air. Right now, the only area where the engine's getting marginal is the stock heads--we'll probably put a set of M&As on next. Yes, there are guys who like to run a ton of boost. But I guarantee you they don't do it for very long. This motor has been together for three years, and it powers a real street car. In street trim with 18 lbs., this thing's a killer. Floor it at 50 mph and the tires just light up."

One such case of this traction-deficit disorder occurred on one of Mr. Narkin's trips to Philadelphia.

"Ed likes to go down to Philly for cheese steaks," Steve reveals. "Some guys on the internet were shooting their mouths off about how fast their cars were, and when he got down there, he picked the fastest guy, a Mustang, and beat him by five lengths--the tires smoking all the way!"

"There are times when I line up looking for a race and no one pulls up to me all night," Ed seconds. "But the best part is surprising people who are looking to smoke another F-body. The car looks stock and is so quiet, but when someone nails it and I get into the throttle, the wastegate sounds like a jet taking off! When they catch up, they always ask 'What the hell do you have in that car?'"

Just a V6 that feels right at home.

Curious about the logistics involved with dropping a 3.8L turbo V6 into a Fourth-Gen Firebird? So were we--check out www.gmhightechperformance.com for the skinny on this swap.