About once a generation, Buick awakens, staggers out of its crypt, and produces a kick-butt performance package that attracts living, breathing, flesh-and-blood hot rodders back into its showrooms. Unfortunately, like a groundhog that's seen its shadow, Buick inevitably shuffles sleepily back into hibernation, ushering in a new Dark Age and leaving yet another generation of Buick performance acolytes slowly twisting in the wind.
So it was with the '70 455 GS Stage I and the mid-'80s turbo Buick V-6 Grand National: great sexy performance packages, but no long-term commitment. Fortunately, guys like Mike Tomaszewski at TA Performance and Ken Duttweiler at Duttweiler Engineering exist to provide life-support. TA has long supported classic Buick V-8s, and more recently has tooled up its own aluminum V-6 blocks and heads. That's critical, because with the traditional rear-drive-style Buick V-6 long out of production and no current factory heavy-duty parts support, hard-core Buick faithful were jumping ship. Even stalwart Buick V-6 turbo-guy Duttweiler had mostly moved on to Chevys and Fords.
Now, though, hard-core Buick guys are getting ready for a little pick-me-up. Duttweiler is back building a bunch of V-6s, and TA has nearly all the parts (including internals) shown on these pages for the do-it-yourselfer. It's not cheap (the block alone will set you back $4,000), but over 700 hp is attainable on 18 pounds of boost with twin turbos. And the motor still idles at 18 inches of vacuum, enough to please even the country-club set. In other words, the basic package shown here is suitable for street driving--if you got the guts. It's a Duttweiler- built, 265ci Buick V-6 alloy stroker, that on the day we visited KD's shop made 707.8 hp at 5,700 rpm and 668.8 lb-ft of torque at 4,100 on his trick engine dyno. His setup combines a Froude absorber with AVL control and data-logging, offering the capability for truly wide-rpm-band pulls and the ability to prove the package isn't a high-strung, wind-up, bling-bling, sewing-machine import motor. Nosiree, this config makes over 400 lb-ft of torque from 2,500-2,800 rpm, over 500 lb-ft from 2,900-3,200, and over 600 lb-ft from 3,300-5,900. Power output exceeded 400 hp from 3,400-3,900 rpm, exceeded 500 hp from 4,000-4,900, and bested 600 hp from 5,000-5,600. Its peak BMEP of 380 psi and specific 2.67 hp/ci output is up there in Pro Stock territory.
These numbers are with 112-octane VP racing fuel. To accommodate the vagaries of street gas, Duttweiler recommends a less-aggressive spark curve for a daily driver, which'll set you back 100 hp (reducing output to 600 hp in the configuration shown here). However, the initial dyno runs indicated the as-installed turbos were slightly restrictive on the exhaust side, and as we go to press, new turbos were on the way that should up power by another 100 hp or so. That's 800-plus horsepower on race gas, and back to the 700hp level for the street.
Keep in mind we're not just talking about reanimating Grand Nationals. The compact Buick V-6 makes a great sand-buggy engine (that's where the one photographed here is going) and presents interesting possibilities for new-age swaps. An all-aluminum, twin-turbo Buick V-6 weighs in at under 300 pounds. Imagine what a 700hp, 295-pound package could do in a Pro Touring or handling application: Think late-'70s Firebird coupe, replacing the base 231 V-6 two-barrel with one of these monsters. The engine was set way back in those clods to maintain the same trans-crossmember position as its thoroughbred V-8 brothers, so there's ample room in the second-gen F-car's big-block- sized engine bay for the turbos, plumbing, ducting, and intercoolers up front, plus super weight-distribution with the engine's big setback. Or what about stuffing it sideways in a Fiero, shoehorning it into the backseat of an old Corvair, or building a mid-'70s Skyhawk V-6 coupe to run the dry lakes? Buick, arise.
Cylinder Block
TA Performance's aluminum block is based on original iron turbo Buick V-6 production and race blocks. Both off-center and on-center block castings are available. "Off-center" is the same as stock production and accepts original accessory brackets. The engine used in this buildup utilizes the "on-center" configuration, as first introduced on the Buick Stage 2 race blocks. With the on-center design, the cylinder bores are centered over the rod journals for less piston drag; however, stock brackets won't work because the block's front timing-cover sealing surfaces are raised 1⁄8 inch, and the heads are shifted forward.
Another thing to watch is the motor-mount pads. First-production TA blocks use the original two-bolt mount configuration, but current production blocks have a three-bolt configuration that's much beefier. Even on the two-bolt blocks, stock mounts don't work because the block's outer wall has been moved outboard. TA sells dedicated poly heavy-duty mounts for Regal and GN applications; other applications require custom mounts.
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