A buddy of mine was asking me about buick motors the other night.


Now I have the turbo 3.8 in my GTA, he asked me if the oil systems was set up the same in my turbo motor as a series II buick 3.8

Does anyone know? The oiling system in the turbo motor BLOWS GOAT NUTS...

Any help would be appreciated

I doubt that they are. I don't think that I've heard of any kind of oil problems on the Series II engines either..

You have to remember that the 3800 had gone through a couple major redesigns. The oiling system is quite intricate. Even on the NA Series1 L27, which is the only one I've seen even partially torn down, it'* obvious that alot of design work went into it. I have yet to hear of a single oil-related breakdown in an L27, L36, or L67.

Another thing to remember is that in a turbo car the turbo uses the same oil as the engine. Most supercharged cars have a seperate oiling system for the supercharger. That turbo probably spins at nearly 50,000 rpms when your motor is near readline. That is a lot of heat and friction for a motor oil to deal with which is why you should always use synthetic in turbo cars.

I have rebuilt the oil pump on my series 1 89 bonne and it is a very intersting system indeed. Looks very solid but also very different with where the oil pump is positioned because there is no distributor.

there is much debate over regular vs synthetic oil. I know people that have wiped cams with sythetic, then switched to regular and had no problems. To each their own, friends of mine that have 11 second turbo buicks that use regular oil with no problems, other use synthetic with no problems

Oh sure you can use conventional oil but the turbo won't last as long and you will be missing out on free HP.

There is no substantial debate on synthetic oil. All of the arguments but one are based on mistruths, missonceptions, ignorance and falsehoods from synthetics early history.

The only real argument against synthetics is that they are 5-7 times more expensive then regular oil but you still save money in the long run for a variety of reasons.

Car Craft a couple of years ago did a dyno test involving a 86 or 86 Grand National. They measured the HP at the wheels to get a baseline and then replaced all the fluids(engine oil, Tranny fluid, rear and oil) with synthetic. The car made nearly 50 more hp at the wheels with the synthetic then without. I have engine dyno graphs at my shop showing between a 5 and 15 hp increase at the crank using just synthetic engine oil.

50HP from using synthetics BWHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHH Car Craft was smoking some major crack then, cause thats 100% BS, some other mods like cam swaps and head porting doesn't yeild those kind of gains yet just switching some fluid does? You might want to go back and reread that article, or maybe it was a misprint,or a typo on your part because no way you're gonna gain 50 horsies to the rear wheels with that...

You sheets saying 5-15 at the crank is about right , 50 is just histerical...

As for the turbo lasting longer with conventional, i'm not buying it, i've seen many turbos last 100K+ wtih regular oil without a single problem

Now I'm not saying synthetic is garbage, when my motor goes back in next spring i'll run it, but there is nothing wrong with regular oil...

I can try and find the article but I forget the exact issue it was in.

I don't know how old the oil that was in the motor origional was either. That was never mentioned in the article. Old nasty engine oil, tranny fluid and gear oil are massive power robbers because of the loss of the anti-foam agents.


Thats the only chassis dyno record that I have for synthetic but I do have a couple of other measurments to do with synthetics that involove the tranny and rear end. I have a couple of people at my shop who run RV'* with tranny temp sensors and they have reported 100 plus degree drops in tranny temp after switching from conventional to synthetic.

I also have a few reports of people that have switched the rear end oil to synthetic and gotten increased mpg. The averages are between 6 and 9 percent more mpg.

i'm not denying the benefits of synthetics but i'm just saying there is NO way you're gaining 50HP that'* all

Conventional isn't all the bad, hell i know of 4 11-second turbobuicks that run regular that have over 100K on the clock

Typically if you have a manual drive performance car, and you switch out ALL the fluids (motor oil, tranny, rear end) with Synthetic and you usually gain about 5-10HP on the wheels depending on the size of the engine, how much power it makes and a few other factors. I have seen the Car Craft issue where they switch them all out on a Big Block Chevy and gained 10HP to the wheels.