Auto'Biography

[Emc209i]

April 3rd: Evening.



Notchback first.









Figured I'd start with the sunroof. Lul.




Sun went down on me while I was cleaning the carpet.

[Emc209i]

April 4th 2010

I still need to steam clean the trunk carpet, but it looks much better than before.


I shortly realized that both 2.8's were seized... But I wasn't planning on running stock equipment long anyways. Taylor was also off of work, so we both dismantled the 2.8 at blistering speeds.


Once the notch engine was down to the longblock, we cleaned the garage. Josh had just arrived and gave us a hand.


Both front calipers were locked up, so we had to pull them before getting the car into the garage.




Later that night: Taylor had to jet after the cradle was out. Josh helped me load up the remains.




Think Marvel Mystery Oil would have saved it? I think so too... Fak'in 1986 oil, vintage.

[Emc209i]

Need a replacement engine.... Hmmmm



or

[Emc209i]

April 5th





When befarrer see's this: Cheers bud. I bet your dad will get a kick out of this part.

[Emc209i]

April 7th - 8th

[Emc209i]

When I pulled the fuel rail off of the LT3 at the yard, fuel came out in a pressurized geyser, almost as if the car had been driven onto the lot and parked. The first thing I did after bringing it home, was to conduct a leak down test on each cylinder. All four cylinders checked out with flying colors.. Why the fuck was the car in the yard then? The Grand Am didn't have any evident collision damage. There's no way someone scrapped a working '88 Turbo Grand Am... Transmission doesn't look or sounds out of whack. WTF....?

April 9th: was my "what's wrong with this picture" day.

I pulled the cam cover off.

Ohhhhhhhhhhh...... I know why.



Three of the exhaust lobes looked just like the one pictured above. "Ok, so the engine wasn't exactly running well when parked, but was obviously driven recent to being dropped off at the yard." I figured this was sound reasoning. But I pulled the pan just to get a look at the underbelly. I didn't have any plastigauge to check bearing clearances this time around, but I wiggled everything around to check for any obvious play. Everything felt and looked fine. Here's a picture for posterity.



So I took a few days off to read the Jbody forum and weight my options.

[Emc209i]

Pro tip: 92-94 2.0 MPFI N/A Sunbird's all use the more aggressive turbo camshaft, found in 89-90 MPFI Turbo engines.

April 11th

Most, if not all, of the valve train needed help.


Sooo....


New/Old cam comparison:





Scalloped lifter vs new shizzle.



The 8 valve engine is supposed to have a weak head, which is prone to cracking and causing severe heat fluctuations. Doesn't this head look beefy for an 8valve head though?



I also think its worth mentioning; I found a warranty washer glued to one of the freeze plugs on the head. It reads, "Head repair warranty void if removed". Being replacing the head is common practice for 2.0's, I can imagine the previous owner shelling out mega bucks to have a shop replace the head (which explains the killer compression and newer looking headgasket), only to use the original tappet valve train. The oil pan was pretty low on oil, and what was in it didn't look all too great - not that it looked sludgy, just not very fresh. PO replaces head, puts cheap non synthetic generic brand oil in engine, lack of ZDDP turns cam and lifters into grinding wheels, car begins to idle poorly. Owner gets fed up and sells car to yard. I walk away with the goods.

At least I hope this is what happened. :S

[Emc209i]

April 14th

Back together and timed.



Time to build some ballin' mounts.

[Emc209i]

April 19th: evening





I picked up a long chunk of 1/4" plate from Fishel Steel here in town. The guy laughed at me when I told him I was going to cut it with an angle grinder with a 6" cut off wheel mounted. I win though.





I cut off the original front engine mount perch btw.





I lulz at people who build mounts out of angle iron, and then solid mount that shit. I need at least quarter inch, with rubber isolation. Long gone are the days of stress cracked dogbones and mounts. All hail the era of enginedoesn'tmove..atall.. .

[Emc209i]

April 27th.

Shoot me.





Because recycling Fiero shit is cool.

2.8 coil heatshield:


Recall firewall pvc breather line, in place of stock LT3 heater core feed line.


April 28th

[Emc209i]

April 29th

Be-fo


Bling.




April 30th


Can't wait to get this bitch on the scale. Aiming around 2600-2700 with AC and a full tank of gas.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Can't wait to get this bitch on the scale. Aiming around 2600-2700 with AC and a full tank of gas.

If you want to knock another 100 off the tail, you can (rarely) find a Getrag 282 with that engine.

I have seen one with my own eyes.

I looked up the trans for a stickshift '89 Grand Am Turbo on www.car-parts.com and found several listings. Get on the phone and do it. They were less than $300.

[Emc209i]

Nah, I'm already romanticizing the 3speed. It's going to be a fun 3 speed auto commuter. Btw, I know of another manual transmission that bolts up (aside from the 282). Alllsoooo.... tell me what you think about this: I read something pretty "hearsay" on the Jbody forum. The dude who led me onto the turbo cam being in the later year engines, also made the statement that the block casting is different from Auto to Manual with the LT3. He said the blocks that came with the auto have one less bellhousing bolt hole. He claimed the manual block was reverse compatible with an automatic transmission, but that a block that originally came with the 3T60 will not mate with the manual. This seems entirely counter intuitive from an accountant's desk. I have plenty of pictures of both setups, and this doesn't seem to be the case, but I was curious if you had heard anything of the sort. He was right about the camshaft.. :S

May 1st

Fuel pump from the Grand Am scavenged.

Grand Am brake upgrade.

Pictures coming in a bit.

[AkursedX]

Wow, I'm loving this build. Way to bring a Fiero that was near death back to life. I did a pretty big restore once:

http://www.fiero.com/forum/Archives/Arch ... 12737.html



Although I replaced the rod bearings in it, one eventually spun. I sold it that way along with Skitime's old 2.8 and AFAIK it's still running.

I co-worker of mine has offered me a free fiero. I've been debating picking it up and seeing a build like this inspires me to do one of my own.

[Jinxmutt]

I see you mentioned the GA fuel pump. If you pick one up from PAP, or the like, look for a 92-94 4.3L blazer, Jimmy,etc. They use the same pumps the syclone, typhoon, TTA, etc. Check cross references for other fitment. I recently picked one up to replace 'another' in-tank walbro.

[Emc209i]

Wow, I'm loving this build. Way to bring a Fiero that was near death back to life. I did a pretty big restore once:

http://www.fiero.com/forum/Archives/Arch ... 12737.html



Although I replaced the rod bearings in it, one eventually spun. I sold it that way along with Skitime's old 2.8 and AFAIK it's still running.

I co-worker of mine has offered me a free fiero. I've been debating picking it up and seeing a build like this inspires me to do one of my own.

I thought you might. I had never seen the thread about the black car, thanks for sharing. Even if they paid you to take on another project, doesn't that newborn take up most of your free time?

I see you mentioned the GA fuel pump. If you pick one up from PAP, or the like, look for a 92-94 4.3L blazer, Jimmy,etc. They use the same pumps the syclone, typhoon, TTA, etc. Check cross references for other fitment. I recently picked one up to replace 'another' in-tank walbro.

I already knew about this, and even know where most are in the yard (Taylor's walbro). I had two reasons for not doing this yet;

1. I knew the G/A pump worked.
2. I didn't want to scale the fuel maps until I had a larger turbo on it.

[Emc209i]

If you pick one up from PAP, or the like, look for a 92-94 4.3L blazer, Jimmy,etc. They use the same pumps the syclone, typhoon, TTA, etc. Check cross references for other fitment. I recently picked one up to replace 'another' in-tank walbro.

It occurred to me that I need to put this here for posterity/clarification. Only the Vortech 92-94 S10 Blazer 4.3 (Vin W) uses the same fuel pump as the Turbo Trans Am, Syclone, Typhoon. Don't come back to this thread upset if you source a pump from the Vin Z truck.

[Emc209i]

May 4th-6th

For those not familiar with the Fiero:
Fiero's had two variations in fuel tank capacity. From 1984 to 1986, the Fiero was equipped with a 10.2 gallon fuel tank. In 1987, Pontiac revised the tank design, making it slightly larger. They also added an expansion tank, so that fuel vapor wouldn't compromise tank capacity due to temperature fluctuation or pressure buildup while adding fuel at the pump. The 1987 and 1988 tanks are said to be around ~11.8 gallons. The difference of 1.6 gallons could extend my Fiero's range another ~30 - 45 miles with the 2.0 Turbo and 3speed. I had a spare 11.8 gallon tank, and swapping it for the smaller tank had been at the back of my mind.

I dunno if Old Europe has a photo comparison of the two tanks, but this is mutha fuckin' RFT, so we are going to have one:

87-88 Tank on the left ----- 84-86 Tank is on the right.




Front of tanks; so the older/smaller tank is on the left.





You can see that the crease is moved lower, and the bottom "bells" out, where as the earlier tanks were more of a square shape. I had tested the pump when the tank was still nestled under the car. I wanted to pump the full tank of old gas out, rather than lower the tank and manually dump it. I would get a resistance arc to pins A and C on the fuel pump pigtail, but no whine from inside the tank. The fastback's pump is also toast.

So when I drug the tank out from under the car, some of the gasoline (can I even call it that?) sloshed out of the fill nipple. It smelled HORRIBLE. I wasn't looking forward to what was inside.



WOW..... That sender looks like its been sitting in salt water for years.



Great...









Someone left a full tank of gas sit in this car, and it ruined the tank. Fuel stabilizer is cheap enough, hell if you're too cheap to add it, I'm sure you have a garden hose to scavenge the gasoline out! Sigh... oh well. I know this was the worst of the car, and I was already torn about upgrading the tank. I guess I got a break, decision was made before I even picked up the car.

This is what the inside of the larger tank looks like:


Grand Am pump is attached to the good sending unit.


I cleaned the cobwebs out from the fuel tank tunnel. This is where the fuel tank sits, in between the two seats.


Per Will's advice, I re used the rear strap but would need to lengthen the front strap. Everything else went smoothly. I used two rivets and 20gauge steel. Josh helped me get it in.


I've got a lot of under body cleaning to do.

I also picked up a new Optima Red Top for the car. Installed it, and checked out what was still working in the interior. Seems like the radio antenna isn't plugged in, because I couldn't get any station, but the speakers crackled some when I turned on the radio.
-HVAC works great, and the blower fan spins strong and quietly.
-Rear trunk release works.
-Rear defrost works.
-Headlights, interior/dome lights, and dimmer works well (few burnt out bulbs).
-One headlight motor is out.
-I turned the engine over with the coil wire off. Sounds healthy.
-Front fan comes on with the AC request.
-All the fuses have been checked and are fine.
-SES light is on with key at ACC, and the engine harness appears to be perfect first go round.
-All gauges are working and steady, nothing twitches around.

[XII]

Hell yeah, we'll get this shit on the road in no time.

[befarrer]

As for the 2.0L turbo blocks with the auto not working with a 5-speed, my dad has a 1987 Sunbird GT convertible2.0L Turbo motor that was an automatic with a 1990 Sunbird Getrag 282 that also came from a Turbo mounted to it, seems to work fine, and all bolts lined up from what I can remember. The getrag gearing is the same as the V6 fiero gearing. His Sunbird Turbo motor is in a 1984 Fiero, been in there and runnig since the spring of 2008, or 2007, I cant remember now.