Turbo Nailhead Parts.......... Looking at the photos of the factory nailhead turbo, there are some interesting differences in the year application of the parts. Water Manifold-1966 Generator-last used by Buick in 1962 Fuel Filter-1959 Valve Covers-1964 to 1966 Were there more than one verison of the turbo engine? Maybe development began in the early sixties and finalized by 1966? Does anyone have a photo of the casting numbers on the heads? Remember Buick's Silver Arrow I (Riviera) evolved over time. Thank you, Marty
Was it Hot Rod? back in the 60's that did the story on Buick engine development-this engine was part of that story-probably covered in V8Buick before-the '66 Buick driver's side valve cover had a 'cut corner'-to clear the Calif air pump
Hi Guys, Interesting thread! :3gears: I wonder if twin turbo's wouldn't eleiviate some of the back pressure and "cooked" exhaust valve concerns expressed above? Turbochargers do seem to have some scavenging effect on the exhaust, but this could still be a problem given the exhaust port design of the nailhead. If I were to wade into this, I would make sure that I set it up with an electronic control system that would allow me to monitor detenation, exhaust temp and air/fuel requirements to keep everything from melting down. Lapham3 is absolutely correct on the 3.8 Turbo motor's, nothing special inside from the factory! I don't think that the engine would be in much danger as long as everything was monitored and adjusted electronically, would make a neat set up and would really haul the mail! Tim
Twins would definately help the spool issue by allowing you to run a set of smaller turbos that each have less mass to spin up, but you still have to contend with the horrible exhauste port design of the nailhead. The coking problem in turbos is generally attributed to too high of turbine speed, ie overspooling, inproper maintanence causeing the oil to start breaking down, and improper shutdown proceedures that allow for "cool" oil to cool the turbo out of load after engine shutdown. The bigger worry I'd have is the valves on the nailhead, the exhuaste valve is the cause of I think roughly 45% of detonation in motors and the nailhead port design means a lot of heat is ditched in the valves. I'd worry about them burning up so you'd better run some huge seats to get the heat out and thermal barrier coat the entire exhauste track from valve to port. Honestly I'd love to build a fenderless ride with a pair of turbos perched on the "intake" ports which is now the exhuaste ports and then a log style manifold made from header flanges and a piece of 3" pipe run about 4" past the last port for a plenum and injectors opposite the ports in the plenum. Put a GN throttle body on the ends of each of the pipes and run a pair of liquid-to-air intercoolers infront of the engine. I'd love to run LS1 electronics but that might be beyound the tuneability of that computer. The new FAST XFI box is amazing in the amount of data streams it can handle and the controlability of it. One of the turbo gurus, Cal Hartline, Kenny D, Nick Micale... those guys could probably get you all set up and running on one. The big thing for me is I hate speed density EFI, there for I either adapt factory stuff or go Motec. Right now I've got a modded LC2 computer for my turbo 6 though I am looking for a way to use the L67 OBDII supercharged 3800 Series II computer since its level of control and data inputs is much superiour. just more mad ramblings,
mad ramblings are where we all get our great ideas.that log style intake sounds pretty neat. :3gears:
Hi Guys Im new here and I can't resist a good turbo discusson. I thought about going with a turbo on my 66 Rivi for years. I had built the 425 in it and had the heads ported, installed a mild cam ,match ported the intake and exhaust manifolds and rejetted the carb. The car ran 15.40s at the drags if I left right with 3.22 gears. I figured I could do better with a posi and better tires but I wanted it to go lots faster so I thought about doing a turbo set up. I to started thinking about intercoolers and F.I. and all kinds of high tech stuff but then I saw that picture of the Factory experimental Turbo Nailhead and it was a suck thru carb deal that pushed 800Ft LBs of torque!! So I backed up and thought well the off road buggy guys use suck thru carb turbo set ups and so do the VW Bug guys and they pull 400HP out of an air cooled Turbo drag motor. So why not go with a "Low tech " :laugh: suck thru turbo like the factory did? I mean its not gunna make as much power but really how much power do ya need? A properly sized turbo on a suck thru system with an 850 to 1100 cfm carb could make 750+hp and just as much torque I would think. And it would look more "Period correct" If you care about those things. The cool part about suck thru turbo systems is that they need only a waste gate for the exhaust and no pop off valve for the intake. The basic parts are a (sealed) turbo , a big 4bbl carb, a waste gate, and manifolding for exhaust and intake. You'll also need a big fuel pump that can handle much more than the HP you will be making (these setups run rich on boost) and a good ingition. Take a look at how simple that factory turbo Nail head set up looks and imagine it with a better turbo and a nice 4 bbl. I know it can work, It works great on other motors. You would deffinately have to have a fresh motor tho and I agree the exhaust port is messed up on a Nailhead motor but with some good porting and the right cam I think it would work great. I wouldn't use the thing for land speed racing but cruisin around town and some blasts down the drag strip would be fine I think. Anyway just my three sence worth, Id go for it
