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Banning
T-Type WH1: About the car
Last
modified: 02/22/02
How it started...
I've always had a fascination for automobiles, especially
fast ones. My friends and I have been into fast cars since high
school. A few years back, a close friend of mine bought a '87
Buick Regal T-Type (see pictures directly above and bellow).
It was a mean looking car, and with only a few modifications
it was really quick. Ever since that day I got my first ride
in this car, I wanted one for myself. Now a few years later,
I finally have one of my own.
About my T-Type...
After looking in the papers, and all the classifieds,
I was lucky enough to find my '86 T-Type at a used car lot
right down the street from my house. The dealer acknowledged
that it had a bad knock coming from the bottom end, and that
he didn't want to fix it. We knew what would be involved (time
& money) to fix it. The body was straight, and everything
else seemed to be in really good condition. A definite plus
was the fact that there was over $2,000 in modifications already
done to the car. We haggled back and forth over the price,
and finally came to a settlement. To make the story short,
I drove the car off the lot for $2,000!
The week after I bought the car, it was in the garage having
it's motor pulled. Everything came out easy, and there were
no hang-ups. The following weekend, we put the engine on an
engine stand and began the tear down. From the amount of noise
that was coming from the motor, I was expecting to see a trashed
bearing or two. Nope, there wasn't any metal just the fact
that all the rod and main bearings were well worn. The pistons
and cylinder bores looked good. I also found that I have a
billet steel double roller timing chain and a Rugles 3371
210/205 camshaft. The cam and chain looked almost new.
NEW: I had the engine rebuilt,
but it wiped the cam durring break-in and sent metal through
the engine, turbo, and oil cooler! Needless to say, it was
very frustrating. I'm not very happy with the engine builder,
and am not giving him any repeat business.
I bought a second engine from someone locally. It's a 3.8
that's .40 over and has only 3,600 miles on a fresh stock
rebuild. I'm getting ready to put that in soon, but I'm keeping
my original motor. I'm planing to build that one up within
the next year or so. Once I get that done, I'll swap it with
the new one.
Where it's headed from here...
Where am I headed with this car? Well, a lot of modifications
have already been done to the car. It's got a large majority
of go fast parts already on it. The car even has a brand new
stereo system in it!
 I'd
like to keep it somewhat streetable. Not just for around town,
but I plan to take long trips with it as well. One of the
things I like about these buicks, is how well they cruise
on the highway.
So what's in the future? Right now, I just want to get a
running motor in it! Once that happens, I'm just going to
drive it for a while. I'd like to get it painted someday,
and do some work to the interior as well (carpet, seat covers,
etc.). I can see myself putting a front mount intercooler
on it, a set of aluminium heads, and a roll cage (gotta do
it if it's in the 11's).
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