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The first ever Buick Allure/ Lacrosse TopSwap

W

w3tbanana

New member
As far as I know. I am the only one dumb enough to attempt this. So let me just let everyone know where I'm at.

The Car...
2005 Buick Allure with 150k km. Owned her for a few years now. As of bow ive got a transgo shift kit, zzp tune with some of my own tweaks. Wideband, HV3, front plog, 2.5 zzp exhaust with downpipe. Poly everything, zzp trailing arms and rear gmpp sway. Aluminum zzp trans pan. Shorter dog bones, and aluminum valve covers (plastic ones where cracked so why not).

So alittle over three weeks ago, I was screwing around at my local pick and pull. Saw a Gen V super and scooped it up and all the needes goodies for 350 (Canadian). After taking things apart, loks like things got toasty. The stock cast iron header on the front was cracked on the original car. Coolant passages were all gunked up with sludgy, almost rubbery coolant in the heads. The valve stems where cracked on all but one exhaust valve. But the super span good and made no noise. I ordered all the gaskets and such for the top swap. A new 2 bar sensor, zzp 1.9 rockers (wanting to maintain as much street ability and mpg). 90# valves, 60lb injectors. New (stock valves). ARP head studs. New stock l32 crankshaft pulley. I gathered some bits and pieces and ported out the lower intake and heads (basic port job and gasket matched). I need to reassemble the heads. Buy a cheap laptop for a tune. Change out the oil on the super and slap it all together.

There a few more little things im gonna do like paint thd supercharger, maybe weld those infamous coolant passages closed. I was wondering what are your guys thoughts where, and if I should do anything else while half the engine is apart. Is there anything I might be missing. Some one took the BBV and I dont think I can use the solenoid to control it if I get a new one anyway...

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Put the BBV on there; just vent it to the atmosphere. Doesn't need to be in line or anything. However while it's out; do headers. You'll probably have to make your own downpipe modifications specifically for the Lacrosse, but it shouldn't be that bad. I'd also opt for a ZZP MPS system for the blower...get a 3.6" and 3.4" pulley. The 3.4" will be plenty on that setup. A high comp. motor with the GenV, 3.4, full exhaust, and rockers should net damn near 300 crank, probably 270-280 WHP; and gobs of torque. I'd also get a scangauge unless you plan on leaving the laptop in there all the time. Everything else seems good; and if you don't want to deal with possible leaks and such just stick with stock head bolts.

The heads are a different VC pattern, so you won't be able to use the L26 covers on the L32 heads...since the N/A cars have the injectors in the LIM, and the blower cars have the injectors in the head. I'd do 103 plugs, new wires, and when rebuilding the blower be sure to use new Anaerobic sealant to seal the snout to the rotor pack. Let that sit for a few hours while you're jacking around with something else, then slide it in the blower case. If you said though that it got hot, possibly damaging things...I would get new needle bearings and re-pack that too (that's in the case). Hopefully's it's not warped. Get a ZZP green coupler for the blower, too while it's apart.
 
605s are perfect for an l26 topswap. What I'm running on my l26 with a gen v. Burn on the plugs is perfect. When I was on 104s they had a black look to them
 
Well the Buick is a w body. Uses all the modern stuff of the 2005 and up Grandprix's but utilizes the 2003 suspension like the front control arms and stuff. Im gonna leave the supercharger for now. Just change out the oil. Might do a rebuild of the supercharger in a month or so. Im not gonna do anything else until probaly next year. Id like to get headers but might end up doing a turbo and super build. Just because I can. Need to look at auto body stuff next year. I also will be looking at rebuilding a transmission next year. Ill get a bbv and out that on in 2 weeks or. Plans are in place to do the topswap over the weekend. Its a long weekend for us Kanucks. Ill take some pictures and stuff as I go. Porting is almost finished. I just to grind down the exhaust and the head area and sand everything. Will get that done over the week.

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l67ss said:
605s are perfect for an l26 topswap. What I'm running on my l26 with a gen v. Burn on the plugs is perfect. When I was on 104s they had a black look to them
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My 103's were golden brown; too.

A colder plug isn't going to change a setup that drastically. Been there; done that. Tried it on many different setups. You could run 104's on a bone stock car. Just like with colder T-stat's. It's a personal preference. Never changed how my cars ran.
 


blueguy91 said:
My 103's were golden brown; too.

A colder plug isn't going to change a setup that drastically. Been there; done that. Tried it on many different setups. You could run 104's on a bone stock car. Just like with colder T-stat's. It's a personal preference. Never changed how my cars ran.
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And what was your fuel psi and driving habits? Seem to advocate buying the wrong plugs just because "you can get away with it" a lot lol
 
This sounds awesome though, was dreaming of top swapping a lacrosse if my GP ever bit the dust

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l67ss said:
And what was your fuel psi and driving habits? Seem to advocate buying the wrong plugs just because "you can get away with it" a lot lol
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Driving habits?

It was a daily car with a fully built motor and a huge cam. Did about 17-20~ miles round trip nearly everyday. Only a mile or two would have been stop and go, the rest highway. I live in Missouri soI got every possible weather scenario known to man minus a damn sand storm. Fuel pressure I never checked because I didn't have an issue on that car (was an '03, at the time was only a few years old and low mileage, south of 50k), however the E85 GTP was a 200k+ mile crapper and I had maxed out that pump a multitude of times.

Put 22k miles on it before deciding to go another route. I've been around these cars for quite awhile and plug choice is recommended; however with as old as the 3800 technology is, you can basically run whatever plug you want and it'll work just fine. I knew since I was going to be modifying further down the road that I wasn't going to be upset with running the old 103R's. They were perfect according to this scale: http://www.defenderhelp.com/images/40-sparkplugs/sparkpCHART.jpg

Same thing in my E85 GTP that was basically otherwise stock with a downpipe and intake with a GenV. 103's lasted AT LEAST 70k~ miles before the odometer stopped working. I'm not saying you're wrong, but this is just my personal experience. Every car and situation is different. What might have worked for me, might not have worked for the next guy. In all my other cars I ran 104's. Gapped @ .050". I even ran 605's in my N/A GT with a plethora of bolt-ons with a super lean AFR/gobs of timing.
 


SaukRapids said:
Thanks. Probably need one sooner or later.
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Zzp coupler isn't a bad part. In fact I have one on my car. Eds is just better. I'd gotten one of eds couplers on a used sc thinking it was a zzp coupler(zzp ported sc) so when I bought a new coupler for another sc I bought zzp. Wish I woulda bought eds lol
 
I cant even find a place that sells labarge couplers... ive got my tune all set up. Only thing messing with me is I need to find some m6 x 1.0 Bolts to take the dampner off. The only problemis according to another thread I need 75mm long (3in) and can only find 60. As for welding 2 bolts together... always an option...

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l67ss said:
I'm also from mo. Hour outside kc
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Not sure how long you've had your car, we used to go to KCIR all the time. Since about 06/07~.

l67ss said:
Zzp coupler isn't a bad part. In fact I have one on my car. Eds is just better. I'd gotten one of eds couplers on a used sc thinking it was a zzp coupler(zzp ported sc) so when I bought a new coupler for another sc I bought zzp. Wish I woulda bought eds lol
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I couldn't find the LaBarge coupler you were talking about, either.

I was on MACEngineering's website from Austrailia; all I found...but they just had the green one that ZZP probably sells, too.
 


He usually sells through eBay. Also sells phenolic ICS and tb adapters that retain pcv. And rebuilt snouts.
 
I think he is talking about the coupler Ed LaBarge sells, which as it would turn out, is the same one that ZZP sells.
 
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