Long time reader first time writer here. Writer is a stretch im just plagiarizing from all of your amazing work mostly Matt and the rest of sloppy mechanics. Any who I bought a 1978 buick regal sport coup, it was originally a turbo 3.8, making about 170 hp. Well time for some 2020 updates and shes getting a gen 4 4.8 turbo and a 7875. Ill be learning how to weld on this project, also doing all of the work in my garage! Ill upload my pictures tomorrow. Engine is already in. Ill be updating here hopefully regularly, cash flow permitting

 

can't beat the sloppy mechanics don't BS ME combo.

 

Here she is in all her absolute rust free glory.

Took the engine apart and gapped the rings, put in the summit stage 2 turbo cam and did some valvesprings and upgraded pushrods too


obligatory turbo on top of the engine pictrure and here we are today with the accesories on minus the power steering pully. hope to start hotside fab this weekend.

 

please tell me you're leaving the daytons on!!!!!!!

 

truckdoug your a big Inspiration of mine me and my girl watch all your videos to her chagrin haha. We’ll see about the spokes I can’t foresee them putting any amount of power to the ground

 

No, but it'd be a one-wheel peeling machine with those and that open rear, lol. Definitely a fun way to destroy some tires and that rear end! Digging the unusual build.

 

if you swap to an 8.8" rear holler at ryan aka Badass68 he's got some nice upper control arm axle side ears for sale that make life 10x easier than my swap went

 

Im in for the spokes as well.

 

This is an interesting build. Thank you for purchasing the Summit Pro LS stage 2 turbo cam. We think you'll be pleased with your purchase. We will go ahead and 3rd keeping the Daytons for the "cool" factor!

 

truckdoug can probably do his magic on those wheels to fit a 275 pro radial. In for results.

 

Well looks like the spokes have to stay now Im mocking up my hotside and im planing to use monkeyfab 2.25 t4 collector/up pipe. I want to use all 2.25 and I want to verify that the single 2.25 into the turbo is sufficient or should i use his duel 2.25 and use two wastegates? i think it would be easier for my novice fab skills to use a single inlet to the turbo and just merge the banks a few inches downstream and fit a wastegate in there aswell. any advice would be appreciated iv dont a lot of searching and i think its fine but what the heck do i know Im just making it up as i go along

 

So I got my Terminator xmax in the mail, ordered hopefully all of my fuel system minus injectors, ordered a 31x12x4 ebay special intercooler with piping aswell. I have 80% of the hotside done, and I mounted the transmission at 3 degrees down and engine is at 5 degrees down. From all my internet wisdom I think those are all good numbers. This is my first welding project and im also a budget baller so I built things with a mix of old and new exhaust most of it is 2.25 with a little 2.5 thrown in the middle and hammered down around the 2.25! The monkeyfab collector was a dope purchase as well, would recommend. Also heads up if you buy metaltek swap mounts make sure you put them on correctly because mine arrived to me labeled incorrectly so i had a hell of a time fitting my ps pump on untill we solved that problem . You can see im very very tight to the steering shaft but i got a few mm, should be good i think

 

you can swap to a jeep cherokee intermediate steering shaft and ditch the rag joint and the lower shaft is a little smaller in diameter

 

Got the fuel tank sumped and a picture of the stock th30 trans member modifications. also got the wastegate mounted and the hotside is fully welded and finally done!

 

Few pictures of the hotside getting finished and the intercooler. Intercooler is mounted and the plumbing is all good to minus a 4inch to 3 inch 90 silicone bend i need to get. Hopefully my welds are going to hold up they sure are ugly but im doing my best . Still need to figure out how to connect the column shift to the 4l80, thats giving me a rough time. Need to order some snake eater 1000's and a drive shaft, probably some 4g welding cable so I can rear mount the battery also. Heres the pics let me know what yall think, or any welding advice

 

Alrighty boys now that the fab work is done I figured I should start throwing the termx harness and stuff in the car. SO i have most of the engine harness in on but im looking to see what from the factory i should keep. I thinned most of the harness except for a bunch of red wires and some orange.
On this bad boy if I remember these boys are the fusable link and they will connect to the hot side of the starter and then the loose wire is for the solenoid or however its labeled.
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Now these bad boys went to the alternator and then the loose wire slapped on the back of the alt case. Im thinking I dont need these wires anymore since im going to be using the sloppy mechanics flex/alt harness.
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Lastly I have what I remember as the wire that went to my hei distributor and i believe thats what i wire to the termx. but this wire with a nut on it i have no clue it obviously wasn't hooked up to anything.

Being as i dont have a battery in the car yet im just looking too see if anyone else whos done this can shed any light on these things for me. Appreciate it

 

theres 3 main ones on g bodies and square body trucks

purple is your starter wire

pink is alt and power distribution

orange is key on 12v+ (usually the one went to the HEI coil)

usually they're really faded so you have to tone them out with a VOM anyways

also a couple stragglers that were 12v+ to the choke or electronic carb or misc crap. also the gauges/idiot lights on the dash

best practice is to get a diagram for your year/make/model/drivetrain and tone each one out.

you never know what some DPO did

 

This will be a interesting build 👍

 

I have pdf wiring diagram. Not sure how to attach. If interested, I can email.

 

for a 78 regal? I would kill for that can you pm it to me?