Beretta.net

Hi all,
I almost wanted to put this in the 'off topic' index, because it is about me saying 'hi', and I am for sure a little 'off', topic or otherwise.
I didn't see an 'introduction' index on the board, so I'll start here.

I was on the old BStuff site for some time, and when it crashed, I didn't feel like restarting in the community right away. I think I was a bit burned-out at the time anyway. Things have begun to settle down for me a little though, and I have more time at home, and wanted to reconnect with other Beretta fans. I have browsed Beretta net a few times, and it is great to see so many of the others over here, Wanako, Styluss, Berry, SuzukiGhostRider, and so many others of most honorable mention. Anyway, I wanted to say hi once again to all the old gang, and to the new one as well.

For those who don't know me, or who have been fortunate enough to have forgotten, I have a few Berettas, Including:
-1989 white/red GTU with a 3800 Series II SC and a five-speed conversion (daily driver for several years now). Custom dual exhaust, modified 3800, warm-air intake, factory digital instruments. -1990 blue/blue "T-Type" turbo five-speed car (now re-updated with a ~built 3400 block with ported LG5 top-end with 3400 roller-rockers, headers, and a new Garrett externally-waste-gated .60 A/R T-4 turbo with 2.5" piping, and a Blackstone FMIC). -1995 BRM/grey Z-26, essentially stock but for a 3400 intake, and some cosmetic mods. I traded this car off to 'GTiIndy' for his 1990 teal L47 4.0L V-8 five-speed Indy, but the Z-26 will be coming back to me again, once I can tow her to me (the car was almost destroyed, and needs more work than 'GTiIndy' wants to put into her...).
-The above mentioned 1990 Indy V-8 car. No, this isn't running any more, it had been taken apart for re-build when I got it, and I haven't had the time to put it back together yet, or fix the engine-mount problems it had, so I won't say much about this one until it is being worked on. I don't like a lot of talk with no go, so I'll shut up about this for a while.
There have been a number of additions to my family, four-wheeled and two-legged, and some subtractions, two and four-wheeled, since bstuff died, and I do not have the opportunity to spend as much time under each hood as I would like, so my projects will be stretched out a little more now.
There are many other great cars in the family, including third-gen Camaros, some imports, some classics, and even a four-cylinder DOHC turbo Z-24 that almost keeps pace with the GTU (up to 80, at least). But I'll talk about them later, too.

I do a lot of custom work and performance mods to my cars, and I like to share my experiences with those that may take interest in how it was done. I did a complete build-thread on the GTU's engine project back in the day, and some of you may remember that...

The GTU is finally wearing out the Muncie/Getrag 282 five-speed transmission I salvaged from the junk-yard (more a statement of the tranny's condition than a testimony to the 3800's destructive torque-levels or my driving habits as I have yet to replace the factory-stock CVs, and the tranny had bad synchros when I bought it), so I will be sharing my upgrade solution once that is in progress -it should be a fairly unique build.

The '90 turbo 'Retta is under the knife again to add in old-style Z-24 digital instruments (the recently completed 3.4 engine upgrade included a new Z-24-sourced Muncie/Getrag 282 five-speed to replace the one in the car, and the Z-24's VSS, or Vehicle Speed Sensor, is different and incompatible with the Berettas' speedometer, so I am taking the opportunity to add another customization to the car). I hope to do a mini-thread on this after it is completed.

Well, that's it for now. Once I get back into the community here, I hope to share in some of the projects that you guys are doing, and show some more of my own.

Cheers!

Wow...that's all I can say.

yes wow! welcome (back...even if another forum, still the same, but more tame)! i hope you have some time to spend with us, would love to hear more about your projects!

Quite an impressive list you have there.

Thanks for the welocome, it really does feel like coming home, although after the parents moved to another house, the original yard is now a parking-lot in front of a mini-mall, and Aunt Sally has moved in to the guest bed-room... But yeah, it's like coming home!

I've been reviewing the situation on my old '95 Z, and I think I'll start over... It is time to let her go (again).

I remember you from Bstuff.. welcome back!

Sent from my EVO LTE using Tapatalk 2

Thanks, it's good to be here.

No, I'm not in Ohio, or there would have been two 'Fests I could have made it to... I moved to the West-end of the country.

more pix of the cars please i was always fascinated with your builds as they are always different and always use gm parts for your builds. glad to see your back and hopefully you can give more insite on your builds also

Good to see you back.

I would LOVE to know how you put the 3800 in. Ive wanted to for a while but there is literally no info on how the swap is done. Ive always wanted a supercharged beretta. Any info you can give me would be awesome.

jking18 wrote:I would LOVE to know how you put the 3800 in. Ive wanted to for a while but there is literally no info on how the swap is done. Ive always wanted a supercharged beretta. Any info you can give me would be awesome.

Well, I documented the whole thing back on bstuff, but...
I will probably repost as much of the build (complete with pics) as I can re-construct here, once I get into the next upgrade the car is getting -I don't want to give it away, but exhaust-pipes, cylinders, and spark-plugs are not the only thing this car will have six of...

The main reasons I did the 3800 swap were;
1. I had the engine and wiring harness just sitting there,
2. It seemed like a rare thing to have done,
3. Everyone kept saying how hard and expensive it was to do it, and I just didn't believe the anti-hype. Bear in mind what I said, that the engine and relevant components had been abandoned with me after I helped a friend build it for his GA, but even after buying (and driving home) the GTU, the used 5-speed Muncie 282 and halfshaft assemblies, the necessary flywheel and clutch, all the tubing necessary to build the 1.5" headers and 2.5" dual exhaust, and little goodies like the add-on white-faced analogue gauges (tach, oil psi, air/fuel ratio, and boost), red 8mm Belden plug-wires, white Spectre air filter, Bosch platinum plugs, coolant, oil, etc, I still had under $1k sitting in front of me. It has been a good driver since then, and has only needed a new fuel pump, one injector, and the OE-style fourth-gen Camaro 3800 clutch (I went to a Stage 3 ceramic) replaced. The fuel-injector O-rings need to be replaced, and the power-steering hose is leaking and a replacement is on order, but that really has nothing to do with the swap, and has much more to do with the fact that it is a 23-year-old car with over 170k miles on it now, dito for the fuel-pump. Oh, I almost forgot that the first 3800 ICM started to die within a few months of driving the car, but that could have happened to any replacement engine I put in... Granted, the rear three spark-plugs are an even worse PITA to replace now than the 2.8's were, but the oil-filter (which is NOT a remote-mount, as some people have been saying I did) is much easier to get to than the stock 2.8's was, so it evens out.
Anyway, hopefully I can post some of that up fairly soon for anyone who is interested.

Thanks again for all the warm welcome!

I must say I am impressed with these builds. It's the creativity put into our cars like this that I really love.