Drache Rott Posted February 16, 2003 Report Share Posted February 16, 2003 As you all may know I am in the middle of turboing my 89 olds cutlass... now here is my facts..... I have the WHOLE motor out of an 89 turbo grand prix ..every thing cept the cpu... hell I even got the radiator and intercooler and hoses... now for my question.. I went to the dealer and matched all the parts..and part for part the throttlebody heads block and starter , and igniton module are the same... but I forgot to ask is the crank and pistons were the same.... what I am trying to find out is this.....are the crank ,rods and pistons forged on the tgp motor or should I just yank that turbo manifold off that motor and put it on the original motor?... I know that is ignoring that my motor has 178K miles..but I dont know how many miles are on the tgp motor.... the old owner was claiming 5k on fresh rebuild and 1k on the turbo....it's supposed to be a garrett t3/t4 hybrid meshed up to the .80 ar housing on the motor.... but other then pulling it apart I have no way of knowing...... I got the whole kit and cabootal for $600 + shipping so I couldn't pass it up...the turbo alone is worth that much...god I love ebay at times... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse5302 Posted February 16, 2003 Report Share Posted February 16, 2003 Did you get the trans too? None of parts in the TGP engine are forged from the factory. The crank is different. The crank is hardened, has rolled fillets, and is a much cleaner casting. All of the remaining casting flashings are cleaned off. Bascially it has lots of stuff done to it to make it stronger. But it's not like you'd actually break a NA crank anyhow. The rods are the same, and are actually very strong. In fact, the GMPerformance book says that there is no need to upgrade the rods for a performance 3.1...they are that good. Of course there are better ones available, but I think you won't be needing them. The pistons I think are different. I've never had a NA 3.1 apart, but the turbo pistons have a steel ring inside the piston that apparently the NA pistons don't have. They also have slightly lower compression to support boost. Lots of people have just bolted a turbo to their NA engine, and it worked fine. How long will it last? Who knows. But I don't suspect a NA engine with 178k will last too long. You can usually tell if the TGP engine was rebuilt recently by looking at the gaskets and checking for leaks and such. If there is oil caked on the engine, and the gaskets look pretty old, chances it wasn't rebuilt recently. Your best bet it to use the TGP engine. Especially if it's been rebuilt. You will need to use the TGP injectors (they are bigger). And you need the extra oil fittings (feed and return) and the coolant fittings. All of that stuff you will have to switch over to your NA engine if you don't use the TGP engine. A lot of work. Unnecessary work if you've already got a good TGP engine... Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drache Rott Posted February 16, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2003 ummm no tranny.....if I' have asked they might have given it to me as well..but shipping would have been more...and the car was an auto anyway....your right I'll prob just use the tgp motor....it's not like I have to get much to finish it...verything is there...including the injectors...the car was was totaled and they just CUT the car from around it and shipped it to me...I had the wild idea of just going ahead and boring and stroking it...there are kits avaible... one of the first things I'm gona do is get the billet dog bones....I'ed hate to think what this motor will do to the stock ones...at least the cutlass has 2 dog bones instead of 1 like some of the other gm's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse5302 Posted February 17, 2003 Report Share Posted February 17, 2003 Thats too bad about the trans. I'm looking for an auto...I've already got a manual with a TGP engine in my Cutlass, and I personally like the auto better. I want to find another to rebuild and put in my Cutlass. Oh well Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drache Rott Posted February 17, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2003 you know the truly sad thing was that untill I joined this site... I thought I was going to be the only nimrod that actuly bothered to turbo a cutlass... I figured every one wasn't wasting thier time with these cars... I did searches all over the web for oldsmodile sites and never found this place...it wasn't untill I did a search for 3.1 v6 that I found ben's site and the link to here..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eclipse5302 Posted February 17, 2003 Report Share Posted February 17, 2003 I guess I should use some meta keywords for "cutlass supreme" in my html. Then you probably could have found my site. Have you checked it out yet? I took pictures and did lots of writing about my turbo/5 speed swap. http://www.turboste.com Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drache Rott Posted February 18, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 I think I saw the banner but I had not been there... pretty interesting...I dont recall seeing a steering wheel like that before.. you make that one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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