1987 Buick Turbo Turbocharger Install - Power Trip

The housing is cleaned up and the turbo is reassembled; Junior goes over to the car and bolts the turbo's oil return line to the engine.

The return line is attached to the turbo; with a new TA gasket placed, he then mounts the turbo and tightens down its three bolts. The TA Performance 3-bolt carbon graphite core gasket has a 1,400-degree copper grommet-it keeps heat off of the carbon graphite material and creates a better seal. PN TAV1709 is $6 and will work with stock manifolds or any header. The turbo/wastegate/wastegate solenoid vacuum lines are then attached.

As I've had good luck with stock-location units in the past, I jumped at the chance to test Precision Turbo's Stock Location Intercooler....

...This 19-row cooler features efficient bar-and-plate design and a 3-inch inlet and outlet with smooth bends for maximum flow. It has a 750 hp rating, which is more than enough for my current goals.

The PTE intercooler installs by using an existing water pump bolt and the existing V-bracket on the driver side, along with an included bolt, spacer, and aluminum bracket. Here, Junior mounts the bracket on the passenger side. This install was a bit easier for us, as the factory fan setup was already off the car.

With the bracket on and the driver-side V-bracket lined up, the turbo and up-pipes, hoses and clamps are installed. A clearance check is made and everything looks OK, so all of the bracket bolts are tightened and the aluminum shroud is installed with the 10 included screws.

With the intercooler in, all that's left is for Junior to install the two side plates over the sway bar holes to maximize flow into the cooler-this is left up to the buyer as sway bar clearance can vary from car to car.

I needed a new induction setup for two reasons: the '67's larger inlet, and XFI's elimination of the MAF. After some research I found Mark Hueffman and Turbo Regal Custom Parts. I discussed this project with him, and Mark was cool enough to ship me a system ASAP. I ordered his 4-inch Inlet Pipe system, a three-section kit of massive tubing that eliminates the MAF and relocates the filter from the engine bay to just behind the driver-side airdam for fresh, cool air. I started with the Big Mouth Lite kit, aluminum with no filter, for $80, and added the silver powdercoat option for $30. The K&N filter is a 9-inch/4-inch inlet cone type purchased separately, but TR Custom Parts has many different ordering options regarding MAF/no MAF, aluminum, polished, chrome, powdercoated, with or without filter, etc.

Here's the mounted K&N filter in front of the radiator support, behind the airdam. Note that I asked TR Custom Parts not to cut a hole for the air temp sensor; it will be relocated for tuning purposes later on.