While those looking to make a serious bid as top dog in the Turbo Buick community scour the earth for the last of the Stage II blocks, some have been finding out they can make a splash of their own with a Stage I. Ervin R. Turner Jr. (or Junior, as his friends call him) chose this particular powerplant for his '86 T-type, taking advantage of its added strength and clamping capacity. Its forgotten nature made the Stage I block an appropriate accomplice for Turner's bench seat, column shift-equipped Rosewood T-type.
To prove his t is not your grandmother's regal, Junior had Cotton's performance in Agawam, Massachusetts, outfit the Buick with the fresh Stage I motor and turbo setup. Cotton's builder, RPE, machined the block to Jack Cotton's specs, going .020 over bore before balancing a 3.40-inch stroke eagle-forged crank with a rotating assembly that consists of Oliver rods and diamond-forged pistons. The short-block was secured by a girdle and a custom RJC oil pan, that is fed by a Duttweiler external oil pump. Junior had Crane Cams grind up a custom-spec billet hydraulic roller for the motor with 222/216 degrees of duration and .542/.532-inch lift on a 112 lobe separation angle. Champion racing GN1 aluminum race-ported heads were the natural choice for the Stage I motor to take advantage of the extra head bolts, drop a few pounds off the nose, and increase flow with the help of 1.94 intake and 1.60 exhaust valves. T&D 1.65-ratio rockers and Manley hardened pushrods enact those big valves, reducing deflection with up to 26 pounds of boost from a four-bolt Turbonetics GT-K 76. Compression is kept near stock at 8.5:1, though Cotton's newest 4.5-inch-thick Stage ii air-to-air intercooler sits just behind the grille to stave away detonation. The turbo uses TA performance stainless steel headers to spool, followed by Cotton's custom 4-inch downpipe and a 2.75-inch custom dual exhaust with Magnaflow mufflers that exit in the stock location behind the 8.5-inch 10-bolt.
A Champion GN1 upper and lower intake was port-matched to the heads, eliminating any restriction using an Accufab 70mm throttle body at its opening. Delphi 96 pound injectors are supplied by Cotton's custom fuel lines and an Aeromotive pro-Series fuel pump, a setup that accommodates up to 1,400 hp. despite its stout components, a few bugs still need to be worked out of the fuel system-thankfully, Junior's FAST XFI box's data-logging feature has been very helpful in isolating the problem.
Once Cotton has finished tuning the t for C16, Junior hopes to also establish an 18-psi street tune to run on a mix of pump gas and methanol. "I want to drive it on the street as much as humanly possible. that's why I kept the A/C and all the creature comforts. I'm about to put in some big subwoofers and speakers, too." the interior is kept completely intact to that end, keeping the Gbody at an unflattering 3,750 pounds thanks to the stock wheels, body, and eight-point rollcage. all-season Firestones up front and Mickey Thompson drag radials in the rear have proven a good combo for street driving in Georgia when the weather is favorable.
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Cotton's Performance equipped Junior's T-type with a Stage I motor with Champion aluminum heads and intake, custom billet roller cam, front-mount air-to-air intercooler, and Turbonetics hardware. Originally a four-bolt T76 was the weapon of choice, but it was recently upgraded with the quicker-spooling GT-K 76. |  |