was sitting around thinking today looking at the car and i thought about what it would run like with a Grandnational engine in it. the 1986 and 1987 Grandnational (or T-Type they have the same drivetrain without the Darth Vader looks). had a 3.8 turbo V6, fuel injected, and intercooled making 245hp (thats a laugh it was more than that). since i owned a Grandnational in 1986 i know a little about them. the stock V6 was running some where around 15-18 pounds of boost and there are guys today pumping over 20psi out of that little engine. in stock trim the Grandnational with skinny tires and a very heavy G-Body would run 13.9 in the quarters. with just a set of sticky tires, a computer chip change and no cat mine ran 13.0 in the quarters. today some of the guys are running high 11's to low 12's and thats not even with nitrous and still street drivable. some of them are even running the bigger 4.1 V6. there is a lot of aftermarket parts for the 3.8.
if a LS7 can be shoe horned into the little solstice why not a turbo V6. the V6 would probably put less weight on the front end (probably not much less) so it wouldnt upset the handling, they can be built easliy from anywhere from 400-500hp. probably with a stock step up with a 1000lbs less weight than what the grandnational weighed the car would run in the 12.9 range.
the reason i thought about the Grandnational drivetrain and not the turbo or supercharged Grand Prix is the Buick is rearwheel drive where the Grand Prix is frontwheel drive. the 3.8 is almost industructable.
i know i will never have the money or the expertise to do it but just thought it might make for a very fun ride. love to see one done. just a thought.
IMO that is old tech. It may be an option for 2.4L base models, but the 2.0 GXP will do more with less once the ECM is fully cracked. Crack that ECM!!
A turbo V6 is an intriguing option. From what I've read here is that people will wait for a modern gen V6 from GM that is capable of serious HP, then use that as a base mod for the solstice. It may be a little while, but with new CAFE it will be coming.
Location: Huntersville, NC formerly South Bend, IN
I've thought about it too.
You could use a 3800 Series II from a V6 Camaro, pop a GT35ish turbo on there, call HP Tuners and have a newer lighter very torque happy motor. You might end up with so many wire splices you'll be lucky to not burn up the car though .
What about putting a turbo on the 3.6L V6 VVT motor from the G8? It makes 256 hp from the factory and is already setup for RWD. I would guess that 350 whp is easily achievable on less than 10 psi.
__________________ The Festas!
2007 Pontiac Solstice GXP & 2006 BMW K 1200 R
that would be very interesting. i forgot all about the V6 in the G8. wonder if anyone has suggested it to GM. they love using off the shelf pieces. that is how the GTO was born in 1964. DeLorne and a bunch of engineers standing around looking at the new Lemans and saying the big car engine would fit right in. Delorne said do it and the rest is history.
The idea of a V6 sounds intriguing to me on paper, but it would have to be one heck of a V6. One problem, if it weighs considerably more than the turbo 4, it throws the weight balance off, and negatively affects handling. Also, an OHC design 6 could have a center of gravity disadvantage which could negatively affect handling too. I wouldn't want to see that. If I wanted a nose heavy muscle car, I could easily buy a Mustang. Also, it would have to have a decent power advantage. Torque could be a big advantage, but not sure I would want a V6 with less power than the SIDI 4 either, and not too many V6's have more.
I guess what I am trying to say is... if it were the right engine, had a high amount of power, and didn't negatively hurt the handling, I would be all for it. Otherwise...
I'd love a direct-injection/VVT 300HP V6. I think the Cadillac CTS has a 3.6L V6 capable of that now (LLT?).
That's what i've been saying since day one! It would rock so hard but I guess it all comes down to which components the general chooses to use. I know our heads are a bottleneck (and as BTF pointed out, even stock honda b-series flow more) but if all the numbers fall into place, i'd love to start the project.
wonder how much you need to get the TT6 from the new GTR
I guess what I am trying to say is... if it were the right engine, had a high amount of power, and didn't negatively hurt the handling, I would be all for it. Otherwise...
Well, I would hope they would address the issues your suggesting and not just pop the
V6 in and say here ya go.
A small turbo TT 3.4 DI would be sweet. The fix for the wieght issue is the use of the corvette style transaxle. Perhaps with a smaller transmission.
Im all for stacked planetarys w/clutchless shift. (like lenco's) They can be made very small in dia and lend themselfs kindly to a torque tube/transaxle layout.
Brutally strong, they can be used across the family line in anything that can fit a 6" dia tube thru. E-servo's or pwm controlled hydraulic pistons can control shift pressure.
I would suspect a 600ft/lb rating (@100% duty cycle) would be easily attainable from a 4.5" 4 pinion planetary set.
Since the final drive would likely be 2:1 (after 6 plantaried of reduction) the ring and pinion can be made to be very strong and compact, with a heavy-case helical stlye diff.
Also it doesnt matter what planetary is shifted as far as order goes, So it would be possible to have the computer select different ratio's for different gears to change the Rpm drop for differnt tracks.
I'd love a direct-injection/VVT 300HP V6. I think the Cadillac CTS has a 3.6L V6 capable of that now (LLT?).
Yes you are right except I don't think the DI V6 has VVT. The two Cadillac options are:
3.6L V6 VVT: 263 hp at 6200 rpm and 253 lb-ft of torque at 3100 rpm
3.6L Direct Injection V6: 304 hp at 6400 rpm and 273 lb-ft of torque at 5200 rpm
So I guess it is more of a question when do you want the powerband to kick in. But if we are adding a turbo to these cars I would say go with the DI V6. I would be nice if they could combine both technologies like they did on the 2.0. Imagine a 3.6L SIDI VVT? Then add a twin turbo setup to that? I think the solstice would be all over the place.
As for the weight question everyone worries about. Remember we can always throw the battery in the trunk like GM does on the other models for weight solution. And I'm sure adding extra suspension in the rear to increase weight and stability could help balance it out. I think this is a very viable solution.
The only thing that comes to mind was when Chevrolet was looking at making a Kappa car they where planning on going V6. And they found that a V6 VVT left the valve cover to high to fit under the hood (not quite sure if that was true or not, or if they meant DOHC was too high as well since VVT doesn't increase the valve cover height much at all if any). But hey the way I see it is if we can shoe horn a V8 under the hood I'm sure a V6 option would not be that hard to engineer. Would probably be even easier to engineer than balancing a V8. And I can easily imagine a V6 SIDI VVT Turbo motor putting out 400 hp. (LS3 replacement solution anyone?)
__________________ The Festas!
2007 Pontiac Solstice GXP & 2006 BMW K 1200 R
was sitting around thinking today looking at the car and i thought about what it would run like with a Grandnational engine in it. the 1986 and 1987 Grandnational (or T-Type they have the same drivetrain without the Darth Vader looks). had a 3.8 turbo V6, fuel injected, and intercooled making 245hp (thats a laugh it was more than that). since i owned a Grandnational in 1986 i know a little about them. the stock V6 was running some where around 15-18 pounds of boost and there are guys today pumping over 20psi out of that little engine. in stock trim the Grandnational with skinny tires and a very heavy G-Body would run 13.9 in the quarters. with just a set of sticky tires, a computer chip change and no cat mine ran 13.0 in the quarters. today some of the guys are running high 11's to low 12's and thats not even with nitrous and still street drivable. some of them are even running the bigger 4.1 V6. there is a lot of aftermarket parts for the 3.8.
if a LS7 can be shoe horned into the little solstice why not a turbo V6. the V6 would probably put less weight on the front end (probably not much less) so it wouldnt upset the handling, they can be built easliy from anywhere from 400-500hp. probably with a stock step up with a 1000lbs less weight than what the grandnational weighed the car would run in the 12.9 range.
the reason i thought about the Grandnational drivetrain and not the turbo or supercharged Grand Prix is the Buick is rearwheel drive where the Grand Prix is frontwheel drive. the 3.8 is almost industructable.
i know i will never have the money or the expertise to do it but just thought it might make for a very fun ride. love to see one done. just a thought.
The turbo 6 is iron. The LSx engines are aluminum. I'll let you figure out which weighs less.
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