All,
Neal & I helped Brian pull the motor yesterday and all reports from the subsequent teardown that took place today are that everything save for the passenger side HG looked great (mileage is over 125,000). The HG blew inward on Cylinder #4 and appeared to have had signs of scarring (please bear in mind that Brian is the 4th owner of this car, two of which we can account for.) The cross hatching on the cylinder walls looks good, the lifters are perfect,the cam is great...can't argue there.
Having driven Brian's car quite a bit, it was a very strong runner prior to the HG letting go. If this was a full-blown build-- and it isn't-- we would have pointed Brian in a direction that would have included such items as a stock stroke steel crank (I have two), steel rods, TRW or J&E forged pistons, bigger cam (probably a 218/218 so it would still pass smog), steel main caps, ported heads & intake, ARP head studs & fasteners everywhere, .020 or .030 overbore, and all that other fun stuff. However, that would have blown through a conscientious college student's budget in no time, and he has to eat & graduate. The HGs Brian will be using will be fine; they can take a lot of boost, and given Brian's ultimate goal (11.7s at 116 or so) he won't have to run a ton of boost to get there given the replacement turbo he has in mind. The 12" 2800 stall Pat's converter he's opted for is a great choice and is one that I'll be putting in my sleeper '87 Turbo Buick when it comes time to pull its tranny.
With regard to reducing compression, a stock turbo Buick V6 runs 8.0:1 compression; lowering it would result in the car not being able to spool a turbo very much at all even with a small A/R exhaust housing, plus it would be an Uber-Pig on the street. If anything, in a gonzo build it's not uncommon to use a stroker crank and
up the CR to about 9.0:1 so that you don't have to run as much boost to go as fast.
Oh, and hi, I'm new to this site!
Cheers,
Morgan