Buick Grand National
Buick Grand National questions and answers
Find a new or used Buick Grand National for sale at Car Forums Classifieds.
Q: Why is the Buick Grand National so expensive?
I have found and immaculate 1987 model Grand National for sale in my town. The Kelley Blue Book states the private resale value of the car as $24,000, which is also the asking price of the owner. What makes these cars so special to be valued at such a high price?
A: Because they are a collectors item ! Limited production, having one in "immaculate condition" is like having money in the bank they are race or show cars right off the street and have a large following can run with Corvettes and still get decent mileage .
Q: Is it true that the Buick Grand National was the fastest car built on the assembly line?
If I remember correctly, there was only a certain number of them built between 1985 and 1987 - is that correct as well?
A: You are right for the years but the 87 model was the quickest out of all the years it was built! But v6 turbo engines were put in regals and t-types from 1979 they are very rare cars but the 87 was the quickest, it was quicker then the 87 corvette not bad for a full frame grocery getter car!!! They also made the GNX which is quicker then all of them and only a few were made! If you have one of them they are worth a large coin!!!
Q: HELP Find a Brake Booster 85 BUick Grand National?
I have a 85 buick grand national, but i need the brake booster for it, does anyone know where i can find one around the Los Angeles area? Its a hard to find part.
A: www.car-part.com
enter your info and you will have the price and delivery to your door.
good luck
Q: how do you change the digital dash display on the 1984 Buick Grand National from metric to english?
The only button on the cluster just resets the odometer(trip) when in start up, the cluster cycles in eng and metric, so i know it can be done.
A: There should be a Metric/MPH button to reset, my Buick does.
Q: What's so good about a buick grand national?
I know they have turbos and have like 300hp but that isnt that much.
A: Back in the 80s 300 hp was a lot thanks to the 70's emissions laws. That was a very fast car for the time.
Q: What did you think when the Buick Grand National came out?
I'm just curious what some of you muscle car guys thought when the least likely company (Buick) came out with a car faster than a Corvette in 1984. Were you like "oh my god, are you serious?"
A: It was one sweet vehicle to say the least and I still have one customer that has one in storage that has about 3000 miles on it, guess he is just waiting for someone with some serious bucks.....
Q: Does anyone make a body/ground effect kit for a 1986 Buick grand national?
I'd like to find a body kit similar to the dub city car kit for a real car.
A: I would recommend against adding a ground kit. I have a '87 GN and can tell you that it is better to keep the factory look. You will always get respect keeping the body stock. You can trick it out with other options, but messing with the look will just cheapen it.
It will never look "Formula 1 Car" fast. Hello - no aerodynamics!! Strictly from an aesthetic standpoint, adding ground effects to an '86 GN is like putting a spoiler on a cinder block.
Q: where can I find a store that just has parts for a buick grand national?
It is a popular car but kind of rare it was mad in the mid 80's and i would like to find an online store that just has parts for that car.
A: Here it is check it out ...
http://www.gnttype.org/
Q: I have an 82 Buick Grand National to sell what's the best way to sell this rare vehicle?
This car is one of 215 made the first year they made the Grand National - it's a T-Type with less then 60,000 original miles - everything is original except the battery - It's very rare as there are only about 100 still owned. Unfortunately my husband doesn't know enough to give it the love it needs. Would like to sell it to a collector or someone that restores them but don't know how to find someone that would know what they are buying... if anyone has any suggestions they would be welcome... Thanks
A: Hot August Nights is coming up in Reno NV. All sorts of car buffs will be in town, and they hold auctions for selling and buying vehicles!
Q: What is a Plenum On A Buick Grand National?
I hear people talking about a plenum and i have no idea wtf it is, does anybody know what it is? and can give me a decent description of what it is and what it does?
Thank You
A: Technically a Grand national doesnt have one unless you consider the intake manifold itself. The Grand national has an alloy intake manifold with the throttle bore bolted on top. A good example of a engine with a seperate plenum would be a Vortec 350. Usually called the upper and lower intake, the plenum is the upper part that is bolted to the metal intake manifold on the bottom. Combined, they create the intake chamber where fuel and air are combined and sent to individual cylinders for combustion (basic definition). The plenum usually has additional ports for the map sensor and other items. Gasoline must have the correct ratio of air to properly combust. If i remember correctly, its something like 1 part fuel to 14 parts air but dont hold me to that one.
Definition from wikipedia: Plenum chamber a pressurised housing containing a fluid, usually air, at greater than ambient pressure. Such chambers are used within supercharging of internal combustion engines, hovercraft and sometimes steam engines. One function of the plenum is to equalise pressure from a single, perhaps pulsating, source to distribute it evenly between cylinders or over time.
I hope this helps.
ps, for a quick photo of one, go to ebay motors and type in plenum. many for sale for all application. also,type in intake manifold grand national and there are photo of those for sale too. Good Luck!
Q: 85 Buick grand national, 87 ford thunder bird turbo coupe or 88 Chevy Monte Carlo SS?
I couldnt choose one as my favorite, can you?
A: GRAND NATIONAL its worth the most by enthuses and highly respected by the Muscle Car World next would be the
Monte Carlo SS its still a street king today and very respected. The T-Bird I remember those they are hard to find.
My choice will be the Grand National
Q: how can you tell if it's a real Buick Grand National?
84 is the year.
A: Grand National and GNX
T-Type Regal coupes, aimed at the performance market, appeared at this time, but the real news came in 1982, when the Regal Grand National appeared. Named for the NASCAR Grand National racing series, this car incorporated a 4.1 L V6 with 125 hp or an optional 180 hp turbocharged 3.8 L V6. There was no Grand National in 1983, but it returned in 1984 wrapped in its familiar all black paint. The turbocharged 3.8 became standard and would continue to be refined with fuel injection and intercooling. In 1987 it reached 245 hp (182 kW).
1987 also offered a lightweight WE4 (Turbo T) option which is extremely rare today. Only 1,547 of this variant were produced. They were painted black and treated to the same blackout package as the Grand National, including bumpers, grille, headlight and taillight trim. The differences between a WE4 and the base Grand National were the interior trim package, wheels, exterior badging, aluminum bumper supports, and aluminum rear brake drums as opposed to the Grand National's cast iron. The rear spoiler was only available as a dealer installed option.
By 1985, the Grand National was acquiring a reputation as a modern muscle car, but the days of the G-body were numbered. For the final year, 1987, Buick introduced the GNX at a US$11,000 premium. Produced by McLaren/ASC, Buick underrated the GNX at 275 hp and a very substantial 360 lb-ft (488 N·m) of torque which gave this car a 0-60 time of 4.7 seconds. This was created so as to be "Grand National to end all Grand Nationals," as the next model year converted the chassis to front-wheel drive, which, Buick engineers admitted, simply wouldn't be able to put down that much power. Changes made included a special Garrett ceramic-impeller turbocharger connected by a ceramic-coated pipe to a better intercooler. A special computer chip, low-restriction exhaust, and reprogrammed Turbo Hydramatic 200-4R transmission with a custom torque converter and transmission fluid cooler completed the drivetrain modifications. Exterior styling changes include vents located on each front fender, 16 inch black mesh style wheels with VR-speed rated tires, and deletion of the hood and fender emblems. The interior changes of the GNX included a serial number on the dash plaque and a revised instrument cluster providing analog Stewart-Warner gauges, including an analog turbo boost gauge.
The acceleration performance of the GNX outpaced the factory's power claims: 0-60 mph (97 km/h) took just 4.7 s with a 13.4 s/104 mph (167 km/h) quarter-mile. According to contemporary sources, these numbers made the GNX the fastest production sedan ever built. This claim is somewhat controversial—the car had two doors but its interior volume and structure made it a sedan rather than a coupe, and just 547 examples were built. GNX #001 is currently owned by Buick and sometimes makes appearances at car shows around the US. Although many quicker cars have been built, including a number of quicker modern sedans, its performance was truly impressive for the time. A contemporary Porsche 930 hit 60 mph in 5.0 seconds and ran the quarter mile in 13.6 seconds, roughly equivalent to the GNX, which cost much less and could out-accelerate the naturally-aspirated 911 of the day. Ironically, many believe that these performance numbers were the reason the GNX was axed. GM didn't want one of its own cars outperforming its flagship, the Corvette, and pulled the plug on the Buick program. The muscle cars of the 1960s had the power to beat the GNX, but the tires of the time could not transform this into speed, not to mention the numerous techniques employed in the GNX allowed the car to transfer all the power to the ground, such as a ladder bar that ran from the mid-section of the car to the rear axle, so as to increase traction. This is also the reason why a GNX will actually lift the rear end up when the car is about to launch heavily. The GNX never made much of a road-track competitor to cars like the 911, but it could certainly hold its own on a drag strip.
Another amazing aspect of the Buick Grand National and GNX is the ease of upgrading performance. As electronic technology increased in automobiles over the years, with the implementation of air force-feeders (such as turbochargers and superchargers) and chips controlling the many aspects of the car, increasing performance became that much easier. Simply by spending under a hundred dollars on a race chip and increasing the boost could drop the Grand National’s quarter-mile time from its stock fourteen second range into the high twelve-second range. This alone makes the Grand National a very formidable opponent on the drag strip. Other easy upgrades include installing a larger turbocharger or purchasing larger fuel-injectors capable of supplying the engine with more fuel. The affordability and effectiveness of these upgrades made the Grand National a very popular car for drag-racing. In recent times with stock Corvettes producing quarter-mile times in the eleven second range, Grand Nationals provide an easy way to overcome the current “bad-boy” muscle cars. One can purchase a Grand National and upgrade it for far less money than buying a modern high-performance car and easily produce much quicker quarter-mile times.
1987 Buick Regal Grand NationalThe 1986 and 1987 Buick Grand Nationals and GNXs are now being sought by collectors throughout the United States and abroad. For those enthusiasts who care to maintain these cars as stock, parts are becoming increasingly difficult to come by, as they are drying up quickly. There are a number of vendors still out there with parts for these cars, but some of them are aftermarket. Only a handful of vendors actually stock the authentic NOS parts. Those collectors who wish to maintain mint condition cars will generally only use genuine GM or ACDelco parts from one of the few reputable vendors.
Famously painted in all black, the Grand National and GNX were ferocious drag strip competitors and are highly collectible today. The stealthy appearance coupled with the fact that the Grand National was initially released during the height of Star Wars fever earned it the title Darth Vader Car (Car and Driver covered the model's introduction with the headline "Darth Vader, your car is ready"). The Grand National returned briefly to the headlines in 2003, when actor Sean Penn's car was stolen with several guns inside. Also, actress Carmen Electra bought her then rock star husband Dave Navarro a 1987 Grand National as a present.[1]
Q: Is there a such thing as a WHITE 1985 Buick Grand National?
A: you could order any color you wanted as long as it was black . Seriously ,anything other than black is a repaint,a clone or none of the above.
Q: I want to swap out the 267 out of my 1987 Cutlass Supreme for a Buick Grand National 3.8l is it possible?
Just wondering what all would be involved in doin this.
its a 231 actually, 6 cylinder
the 231 currently in it is a Buick 3.8l same as the Grand National 3.8 without the Turbo and intercooler and 3:23 rearend, instrument cluster is interchangeable, will need all new wiring and computer, this is all know as of now. Thank You for replys.
A: you,d have to change the transmission,and everything on it,you also need the computer for it,there's a lot of changing to do exhaust wise,but it can be done,if you have access to all the parts to do this with it wouldn't be too bad,usually finding all the parts to work with it the hardest part of it,good luck on it.
Q: Buick grand national won't start. 36 psi fuel pressure. Good spark, computer reports a 12. Ideas?
My father-in-law was driving down the freeway and the check engine light came on. About a mile down the road the car stopped. It has not started since. I have good fuel pressure and volume. I have spark, checked twice. The car had overheated and needed coolant, but seems ok now. The coolant sensor tests good. Any ideas?
A: Well, 12 is the "no-trouble" trouble code, so the computer isn't seeing anything that set a hard code. Wouldn't hurt to check all the underhood wiring and vacuum hose to a MAP/BARO sensor and such. Maybe the Oil level and sender. If you have Ported Injection, you could buy a "noid light" cheap, to make sure the injectors are being pulsed, or if it's TBI, you could just check it visually of course. The "one injector being shorted" thing would apply if it's not Sequential FI.