Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Jul 15, 2012 19:32:31 GMT
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No I'm not on about my alcoholic grandmother. Although anyone who can live to the grand old age of 89 whilst still guzzling two bottles of Bell's a week deserves anyone's praise. No. I'm talking about this: Just a common or garden 1980 Chevy Malibu, bought off Craigslist for $2200 (that's £1413 at today's exchange rate) with just 8900 miles from new. The new owner got it home, yanked the stock 229ci V6 out, and replaced it with a built 3.8 litre V6 turdblower from a Buick Grand National. And by 'built' I mean 'built'. As in 611bhp at the rear wheels. On Methanol. More here: www.carcraft.com/featuredvehicles/ccrp_1208_1980_chevy_malibu_grandmas_cooking/index.html
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Jul 15, 2012 19:35:21 GMT
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beast
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Seth
South East
MorrisOxford TriumphMirald HillmanMinx BorgwardIsabellaCombi
Posts: 15,538
Member is Online
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Jul 15, 2012 19:42:47 GMT
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Properly good ;D
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Follow your dreams or you might as well be a vegetable.
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Jul 15, 2012 19:45:03 GMT
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Awesome! Especially love the fact it's still a V6 and not the usual crate-V8
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tigran
Club Retro Rides Member
In rust we trust. Amen.
Posts: 6,444
Club RR Member Number: 142
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Grandma's Malibu Sleepertigran
@tigran
Club Retro Rides Member 142
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Jul 15, 2012 20:02:37 GMT
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Holy cow man! That's simply mind blowingly cool.
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1964 Rover P5 i6 1987 BMW 525e - The Rusty Streak 1992 Micra K10 2001 BMW E46 316i 2002 BMW E46 330Ci 2013 BMW F31 320d 2018 BMW G31 530d
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Jul 15, 2012 20:23:07 GMT
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Approved. Particularly the Grand National mill in there
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ToolsnTrack
Posted a lot
Homebrew Raconteur
Posts: 4,121
Club RR Member Number: 134
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Grandma's Malibu SleeperToolsnTrack
@overdrive
Club Retro Rides Member 134
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Jul 15, 2012 20:54:47 GMT
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600 horses - stock rear rubber: Dictionary definition of sleeper.
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Jul 15, 2012 23:35:32 GMT
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perfect !!
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theres more to life than mpg & to much power is just enough.
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Jul 15, 2012 23:58:10 GMT
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That's magical, that is.
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andyborris
Posted a lot
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
Posts: 2,214
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The Rip Van Winkle of sleepers!
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Not from Passadena by any chance is it??
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There is some awe, right there
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1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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The stuff of dreams !!
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300ce lowrider c220 track car c280 youngtimer S320 ...vip no 4 S430 .. 2 x slk 230 500se , E36 amg E 430 E55 amg Ml 320 C43 amg
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Jul 16, 2012 10:06:13 GMT
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That's brilliant, however I tried to run my 24v Cortina on stock size rear tyres. Its fun for about 2 days and then you get fed up with spinning the wheels instead of going forwards.
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Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
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Jul 16, 2012 10:07:41 GMT
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A 600hp Buick V6 is really impressive! A 600hp LS3 would just be 'yawn, seen it before', but as DieselWeasel says, keeping it V6 just really makes the car special.
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Jul 16, 2012 12:05:10 GMT
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Awesome! Especially love the fact it's still a V6 and not the usual crate-V8 I believe the Buick V6 shares it's general block architecture with a Rover V8 - I think it'd be a cool choice for a Rover P5.
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1995 Range Rover 4.0 1995 BMW 320i Saloon 1989 BMW 325i Touring 1991 Mercedes 300TE-24 1991 Mercedes 190e 1970 Sunbeam Imp Sport
1966 Valiant 200 Custom 1964 Ford Fairlane 500 Station Wagon
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Jul 16, 2012 12:38:36 GMT
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mrabody, the 3.8 litre Buick V6 was manufactured and sold in the millions here in Australia as the Holden V6 in the Commodore. It powered the majority of Commodores from 1988 to 2004, and in so doing became very possibly the most common engine in Australia.
I have to say that based on my experience with them, they are good engines but nothing special. Certainly not worth importing from another country and transplanting into a Rover, when you have a V8 available. They make reasonable power and can be tuned up a bit, but they only have similar specific power output to a small-block V8, ie. less than 1hp per cubic inch in stock form, but can be hotted up to 1hp/cu fairly easily. In Australia at least, it is easier and cheaper to swap to a 5 litre V8 than it is to do any major work on the V6, although most young P-plater kids do the basic intake, exhaust and chip mods to the V6 for a total power output of about 200-250hp. Some also go for headwork and cams. The engine to get is the factory supercharged one, which goes about as well as the stock 5 litre V8. My mate across the road had one for a few years, which was a nice car. He was forever having to replace parts on it though. In about three years it needed a radiator, water pump, a new pair of heads and all sorts of other parts. Another mate with a 3.8 litre 1997 VT Commodore, not supercharged, also had to replace the heads on it at about 250,000km. The engines were known to do 1,000,000km or more within five years when used in taxis on lpg, but if you use them normally then I would say that they usually last anywhere between 250,000km to 500,000km.
Having said all of this, it is the fact that the builder of the Malibu in the OP started with a 200hp engine and built it up to 600hp which impresses me the most. Certainly more difficult than getting the same power out of an LS-series V8.
If you want any Buick V6 performance parts, then Australian manufacturers have 4.2 litre stroker kits, big-bore pistons, aftermarket heads, cams, roller-rockers, supercharger kits, manifolds and much more available. I'm sure the US aftermarket has some good stuff as well.
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Jul 16, 2012 19:53:58 GMT
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TA Performance in the USA do a lot of goodies for that engine including an alloy block and heads. There are "plenty" of Buick Grand Nationals running 9s in "street" trim with that V6. Lots of boost.... Yup, its basically a Buick 215 with 2 pots lopped off. Thats one reason why they kept changing firing order and things like that, trying to get them to run smooth. The factory did a 4.1 stroker - thats whats in my Buick LeSabre. I guess for some reason not a good performance configuration, or why did the GN / GNX use a 3.8 not a 4.1? Who knows... You can usually find people pretty much giving these engines away. Nobody wants them really. I concur it would be a crappy swap into a Rover. You'd be better putting one of the larger capacity Rover V8s in, or a LSn V8, or one out of a BMW 740 - or as in the one in Readers Rides a Lexus V8. I'm not sure what world LS3s are boring in... but I'll leave this one here as well www.streetlegaltv.com/news/ebay-find-of-the-day-78-malibu-wagon-ss/Quite lovely. Not quite as extreme a build though.
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Last Edit: Jul 16, 2012 19:56:08 GMT by akku
1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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