Caliber vs Regal

[black86glhs]

Hey, would that cold air kit work on an N/A 3.8? I wouldn't mind hearing my Intrigue when I get on it.

[wowzer]

looks great. another free mod that can be done is to rotate the wishbone motor mounts to stiffen up the engine support. you're at a tough point now. the next steps get to be very expensive, - cam, heads, pulleys, springs/rockers, transmission upgrade (the stock one won't take much abuse). one nice thing about hptuners, tho it's really spendy, is that you can reduce alot of the transmission torque management to give yourself a little more go power. obviously, downside is it's hard on the tranny!! and as mentioned before, adjusting for knock is critical. you may want to consider a header if you can't get the knock under control when u get the smaller pulley on.

[capev86]

The Caliber has a Hyundai turd under the hood.....that is more of an insult than a Mitsu 2.6 in a K car!<br><br>I used to run an 89 Lesabre Limited 4dr as my daily driver for a few years so I got into the T type and 3800 engine for awhile.&nbsp; I did a bunch of junkyard hop ups on the car.....T type sway bars, 93 Lesabre 11" front brakes, 15" rims with 205-70's instead of 205/75-14's, strut brace, etc.&nbsp; I even installed a custom fit class 3 hitch and plug in flat 4 trailer harness I found on ebay.&nbsp; I liked the square styling, comfy ride with big cushy seats, flip forward hood and the car ran great.&nbsp; I might build a 2 door or T type some day.&nbsp; My car rusted out but was still running beautiful when I junked it.&nbsp; I kept all my improvements and would only build up a newer gen engine (roller cam, better intake, etc), preferably with a supercharger. &nbsp;&nbsp; <br><br>Did you know that a company makes stroker kits to make a 4.2L out of the 3.8?&nbsp; (I would spend the $$$ on this when doing my aforementioned build)&nbsp; They have conversion kits for both old school 3.8's and the fwd 3800 variants and offer compression ratio combos for hi-po n/a and forced induction setups.&nbsp; The other trick option is the rare 6 speed manual out of the Pontiac G6 as the bell housing pattern is identical to the 3800.&nbsp; I heard one engine mount would need to be modified/fabricated to bolt into my old H body, but that might not be an issue for a newer gen car.&nbsp; Another route is a 300hp Northstar, but the stroker v6 makes more sense if you want to maximize low end torque and fuel economy economy (smaller/less cylinders = better mpg).<br><br>I really like the new Regal GS with the turbo 4 banger, especially in this time of insanely high gas prices.&nbsp; But GM needs to shave 500 pounds (my big Lesabre was much lighter) and either re-tune the turbo for more low end (like a lot of those tiny import cars do with basement level torque) or stroke it out to get the same effect.&nbsp; <br><br><br><br>

[iTurbo]

Well it is a GEMA 'world' engine. A joint venture between Chrysler, Mitsubishi, and Hyundai. Initial design of block and head done by Hyundai, with the three manufactures taking it from there to design/build there own to suit essentially. The manifolds/turbo setup and just about everything short of the longblock is Chrysler, and it was built in Dundee, Michigan. The car was built at the same plant they built the Dodge Omnis at in Belvidere, Illinois. So it's not cut-and-dry or a rebadged Hyundai POS as you've eluded to in most of the threads in this forum. But you are entitled to your opinion.

I guess you could say the Lancer Evo X is running a Hyundai engine too.

[iTurbo]

Here are some headers I was looking at for the Regal GS. $215 shipped!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BUICK-REGAL-...ht_2556wt_1326

Seems like the guys at RegalGS.org like them for the price. I like the collector design and V-band downpipe connection better than the Pacesetter headers. I suppose I could just sell my new ZZP downpipe since the eBay knockoff headers come with their own.

[wowzer]

they look nice, and for the price hard to beat! i bought a set of cheap stainless divorced turbo downpipes for my 300zx a number of years ago off of ebay. other than a minor fitment issue they have lasted very well and were actually built quite well. a number of the "major" vendors that were selling similar items for 2 or 3 times the price said they were junk. they were wrong!

[Spraynlog]

I like my wife's '96 Regal 3800 pretty well. That body style of Regal is quite the sleeper...more so than the Pontiac GTP models. It's fun to see what you are doing with the Buick, I have thought of getting a Gen3 supercharged Buick of Pontiac to replace my ageing TM. Keep us posted on how it runs!

[ShadowFromHell]

What kind of fuel mileage are you getting? Ive been shopping for a new car and have always been interested in these.

[wowzer]

when i first got mine i had NO trouble getting 30 mpg at 75 ish. its a beautiful road car - luxurious, comfortable, looks good, and reasonably fast. my son (21) drives it now and loves it - i doubt he gets 30 mpg with it tho!! i'll probably buy another when my current commuting car (also a 3800 w/ 290k miles!) dies.

[black86glhs]

What kind of fuel mileage are you getting? Ive been shopping for a new car and have always been interested in these.

I can get 27-29 mpg on trips and get 22-23 mixed driving in my Intrigue with the NA 3800 V6. Same body as the Prix and Regal(W-body) but not the supercharged engine. The SC3800 cars usually get about the same MPG if you stay out of the go pedal.

[wowzer]

had a terrible start to the morning today. my son calls up at 4:30 am and says his car (the regal) is on fire. by the time i got to his place the firetruck and cops were already there. he had a fire extinguisher and was able to put it out. basically the front interior is gone. looks like it started either in/under the drivers seat orein the console area. doors were locked but his sunroof was open just a little so perhaps somebody could have thrown something in there. he's not a smoker so thinking it must have been some type of electrical short!? with the key off not quite sure how that would have happened unless his heated seat relay could have shorted out somehow! we were standing there watching with the hood open for about 30 minutes and some stupid fireman walks up to the car with a big wire clippers and starts trying to cut the battery cable. i called him an idiot and said just go get a wrench. duh!

oh well, i'll take a look at it when i get home from work and see what can be salvaged. he only had liability on it. poor kid. i loaned him a car until we figure out what to do :-( anybody know of a good 02 dark gray leather interior for a 02 buick regal gs?!!!

[sl3196]

Wierd usually the fires start under the hood haha. I was getting 30mpg with my old modded gtp.

[wowzer]

looks like it was set purposefully. his ipod, wallet, billfold were stolen and then something was poured on the drivers seat and ignited !!!

[RoadWarrior222]

Fuggin' douchebag(s)

Hope I never find someone doing that to my car, would end up on assault charges most likely.... when I stubbed it out with his face.

[iTurbo]

Wow that sucks. I was recently at a junkyard in Douglas, WY looking for an instrument cluster for my '98 Regal GS and they didn't have ----. They used to have a pretty good selection of later model cars and would sell things stupid cheap. The price of scrap metal must be up because most of their yard was gone and there were crushed/cubed cars strewn about everywhere.

I'm hoping to hit Nordstroms over near Garretson, SD here in about two weeks and will keep an eye out for you.

I recently had some vandalism to one of my cars as well. About two days ago, I walked downstairs to the parking lot to go to work and noticed that the rear window of my Shelby Lancer was shattered. It had a BB hole in it but I think the only thing holding the window up was the tint. I called the police and they said they have been responding to calls all over town about vehicles and businesses getting hit over one night. ---- luck I guess. Wouldn't you know it I happen to have a hatch door from another Shelby Lancer with good glass and no hail damage in my garage waiting to go on but it still sucks.

[wowzer]

looks like we'll end up putting it on a salvage yard auction or parting it out. the interior is completely worthless. the heat and smoke ruined everything. police department is completely unconcerned. kid finally had saved up about 4000 to put towards college this fall. guess it'll be going to a different car.

[iTurbo]

Damn that sucks. I have not heard back from the officer I talked to about my window being shot out either. They even have a Crime Stoppers $1k reward for the person that shot out all the windows around town but nothing yet.

I hate to say it, but if you do end up parting it out, I would be very interested in the instrument cluster. I have had a hell of a time locating one. What does your Regal have for performance mods?

[wowzer]

the interior (and glass, dash cluster) is shot from the intense heat, even tho nothing really burned other then the drivers seat and console. we will probably pull the engine (and mods) and look for a donar body with a bad engine.

[iTurbo]

Done more work to the Regal lately. I finally got a replacement instrument cluster from Nordstroms. The cluster still wouldn't light up (backlighting), so I ordered a new headlight switch from Rock Auto and finally that fixed it. Now that I have a working cluster, I find that I had about four dummy lights lit up (Anti-lock, Service Vehicle Soon, Brake, and Trac off) and found it to be a broken wire at the front passenger side wheel speed sensor. Thankfully that was an easy fix and all the dummy lights went away. I also finally learned how to use DashCommand app with the Kiwi Wifi but I still cannot for the life of me figure out how to monitor for KR. There does not seem to be a PID for it. Closest thing I can see is the amount of timing advance on cylinder #1 but that's it.

Next up I'm going to change the trans fluid out for some Dexron VI and install the new filter and pan gasket. Then I gotta install a new ZZP S/C coupler and the ZZP modular pulley. Probably just going to rebuild the S/C snout while I'm at it. If I do any more mods I will most likely get a set of headers on eBay.

So far even with the stock S/C pulley on there, the car is a lot of fun to drive! Drives like a new car and has wonderful 'right now' torque. You can really hear the S/C with the JMB intake on there. A bit noisy though as it really needs the new coupler.

[iTurbo]

Got more stuff on the Regal GS today.

Finally got the trans switched over to Dex VI fluid. I replaced the badly dented transmission pan with the cast aluminum one from ZZP. It has a drain plug and a bunch of 1/2" deep cooling fins along the bottom. I powder coated it wrinkle black and installed it along with a new filter and gasket. Seems to be doing great so far.

Then I replaced the worn out original S/C coupler with the green one that ZZP sells. No more S/C pulley slop! I haven't driven it yet but I imagine it will be a little more responsive now and hopefully the 'box-o-rocks' sounds at idle will be gone. I resealed the snout using Loctite 518, which is an anaerobic sealant that is OK for use on aluminum. You wouldn't believe how AWFUL that old fluid smelled. Nastiest stuff ever, and I had to suck it out with a clear vinyl tube from my fish tank air pump. Yuk.

Since that wasn't too hard, I decided to install the ZZP modular S/C hub and a 3.4" pulley. I used the pulley puller from ZZP and it made it a breeze to pull the original pulley (3.8") and install the modular hub. Now all I have to do to change pullies is remove five allen screws. I may end up getting the 3.6" modular pulley on my next order as I'm not sure if the car will like the 3.4" pulley yet with the mods I've done so far.

Here is current list of mods:
ZZP 3" downpipe (cat delete)
ZZP modular pulley system with 3.4" pulley
ZZP green S/C coupler
ZZP 1.0 PCM
ZZP transmission oil pan
JMB 4" fender well intake
Racetronix fuel pump rewire
Delphi fuel pump module
polyurethane dogbone engine mounts
Dex VI trans fluid w/new filter
larger front brakes from '04 Impala SS

Next I just need some sort of scan gauge to see how the knock retard is with the current setup and I will be racing the Caliber soon.