'78 Buick Regal Sport Coupe

[CTX-SLPR]

It's a draw through carb'd turbo system, unofficially know as B4B for Before Black since the Hot Air and the black Grand National both came out in '84, the '82 Grand National was not black. Like SBG points out a Hot Air Turbo6 is an EFI motor with no intercooler (major difference, there are others).

At least it's the 4bbl version vs. the 2bbl draw through. Being a '78 it could use some fairly simple upgrades off of '79+ cars but you'd need to swap the intake to match the heads. I did a fairly complete Turbo6 upgrade on SBG's thread. Big downside is an extremely limited turbo selection, both how it hooks up to the intake and carb pad, and that being a wet turbo you need specific seals to keep the fuel out of the bearings. They are also laggy compared to other systems, at this point Buick was trying to get V6 fuel economy with a bit more spunk vs. the later EFI motors which were quite a bit more performance oriented.

Putting the fuel through the turbo isn't a bad thing, it increases turbo efficiency by sealing the compressor to housing gap and the latent heat of vaporization will do a pretty good job pulling heat out of the intake tract. It also messes with the mass flow through the turbo allowing you to play with turbo mapping but that's quite a bit beyond what you're going to be messing with here.

[STINEY]

Right, right. Although the question remains, what is it called?

If Hot Air is the vernacular for sequential injection with manifold mounted turbo, and Inter cooled is, well, Intercooled - what shall we use for vernacular for Will’s beast.

(and we prefer “over 50% more power than the naturally aspirated 231ci”. Not 1/2 the power of the Grand National. Please, give the kid a break here, he’s mowed for years to afford this, lol.)

[SuperBuickGuy]

Okay, fixed it.

But it’s not inter-cooled, and inter-cooling won’’’t really work on a draw-thru turbo carbed setup without ““”unmixing””” the air/fuel mixture. If that’s not hot-air, what is it?

hot air doesn't have gasoline in the mixture before you send it through the turbo (which then pulls the gas out of the air via centrifugal effect)

hot air cars are GN motors - crank fired ignition, injector per cylinder, but no intercooler and dang difficult to put in place (thus my stated thought of using nitros). look again at my 64 Buick build page... that's hot air.

Your motor has a quadrajet that is hung above the passenger manifold....

that said, it still makes turbo noises and is very entertaining to drive.... but about 1/2 the hp....

[Russell]

The temp drops some going through the carb, switch it to e85. Guy told me a roots blower on gas went from too hot to touch to cool after e85

[STINEY]

G-Body! When is the LS swap? Don't forget the turbo good looking car, kidding about the turbo ls, stockish is probably better for a new driver.

New driver indeed. LS swap potential just gives room to grow......unlike a Camry or some such nonsense.

[STINEY]

not hot-air, draw-through. it has a carb.

Okay, fixed it.

But it’s not inter-cooled, and inter-cooling won’’’t really work on a draw-thru turbo carbed setup without ““”unmixing””” the air/fuel mixture. If that’s not hot-air, what is it?

[Russell]

you, sir, can go away now. Buick in a Buick, none of this LS stuff, that's for Mustangs.

It's not a buick, it's a GM. If you want a Buick motor get a 5.3 out of a Rainier.

If I ever make more power than the stock block can handle I will figure out which is cheaper LS swap or 5.8 swap. Have not done the math but betting it comes down to which transtransmission you want to run.

[SuperBuickGuy]

G-Body! When is the LS swap? Don't forget the turbo good looking car, kidding about the turbo ls, stockish is probably better for a new driver.

you, sir, can go away now. Buick in a Buick, none of this LS stuff, that's for Mustangs.

[Russell]

G-Body! When is the LS swap? Don't forget the turbo good looking car, kidding about the turbo ls, stockish is probably better for a new driver.

[SuperBuickGuy]

not hot-air, draw-through. it has a carb.

[STINEY]

Did I share this here yet? I can't find it with the search function, thought I posted it up though.

Oldest sons' first car, he bought it last winter. 1978 Buick Regal Sport Coupe with draw-thru turbo 3.8 V6