Real Fiero Tech

this thread is riddled with missing pictures and content, I'm working on developing a table of contents for it, as well as uploading some of the pictures back.

pages 1-9 include most of the 1st iteration of the build
pages 10-16 cover the second-ish iteration
page 16-20 covers the initial MS3 install, and my move to washington state
pages 20-45 covers the MS3 pro upgrade and iteration 3, 37 first fire of iteration 3 page 45 is the death of iteration 3 by spun rod bearing.
pages 45-51 covers iteration 4, a no prep junkyard engine with a cam, and the intercooler installation. page 51-52 shows discovery of metal in the oil again, but from a completely unknown source.
pages 51-66 covers discussion on tuning, oil control, custom lifters, and engine options for iteration 5.

the car is a 1985 SE, originally a V6 slushbox.



it was slow (car 262) Fastest 1/8 mile pass was a 10.64



and then I started what should be regarded as the most complicated 60 degree V6 swap into a car that already had a 60V6

The first revision of the swap was a "built" LX9, with an F23 5 speed, and a crappy ebay turbo. the alternator stuck up in the decklid, and everything was poorly fabricated and "engineered". lots of ok ideas, with very poor execution.



here's the OG hotside I made, mostly in mockup



here's a shot of the fuel system and trans shift linkage, the original linkage was designed around Isuzu 5 speed cables, and functioned ok.





it drove like that very briefly, using several combinations of stock PCM tuned with a DHP powertuner.

next round brought new engine mounts, that were way overbuilt, but also a better design, along with an 88 cradle swap, and a low mounted alternator.







Eventually, I started swapping in a MS3 to replace the stock PCM, it was a mess, but lead to what the car would eventually become.



I ended up moving to Washington state when they navy told me to, and when I got there, I pulled the engine, and redid almost all the things, including installing an MS3 Pro Ultimate to control everything.





eventually, I made a pass at 12.749 ET at 109 MPH, so it's still slow.



Here's a somewhat recent picture of the disaster as it currently sits.

I found a neat ICM adapter in the junkyard.





I find it's alot easier to drill 3 big holes accurately, then 6 little holes...

I re-installed the mock up engine today. so I could get the harness, fuel lines done, and the coolant lines done. the harness sits now at about 75% complete.

the main battery positive cable is done, the ground still needs to be terminated at the rear of the car on the engine block.

I'm going to try to do a systems check tomorrow afternoon/night. if all goes according to plan, my car will have electrical power for the first time in about 2 years tomorrow.

Hit my first snag on the coldside, I expected it though.

My BOV flange pipe is too long, the problem is that the only direction I have to go in is down, and with that long of a straightaway, it hits the trans mounts.




the plan right now, is to cut the pipe the width of a T bolt clamp past the flange, and cut the silicone much shorter too. The resulting assembly should be about the width of the two peices of silicone butted directly together as pictured below.



I still need to do a real test fit of the new layout to make sure it will fit as planned, but I think it should work fine.

Edit:

feeling around in the dark tells me it'll be really close, may need to clearance the transmission mount a little bit. it can be pretty close though, because the whole coldside will move with the engine

When I clicked on the thread I thought you were building a quad.

Not sold on the e-bay turbo but will be interesting for a budget build.

crzyone wrote:When I clicked on the thread I thought you were building a quad.

Not sold on the e-bay turbo but will be interesting for a budget build.

yeah I'm hoping the ebay turbo is more of a temporary thing, not to hard to swap out, just 8 bolts, 2 oil lines, and a couple of T bolts.

for anyone interested in swapping to a 3x00, TCE sells adapters to adapt the stock fuel rail to AN fittings.

http://britishcarconversions.com/compon ... gory_id=26

and for the rest of you, Nook and Tranny sells AN fitting adapter that should work for the body side lines.

http://www.nookandtranny.com/mm5/mercha ... ode=HOS-AN

I've got a set on order, we'll know 100% when they get here.

When I did my first turbo swap around 6-7 years ago, I used those fittings in the second link to adapt the stock metal fuel lines to some braided -6 line which went to the fuel rail. So I can say first hand those fittings will work

Shaun41178(2) wrote:When I did my first turbo swap around 6-7 years ago, I used those fittings in the second link to adapt the stock metal fuel lines to some braided -6 line which went to the fuel rail. So I can say first hand those fittings will work

awesome, thanks!

Pressure-rated fuel hose, double clamped on the supply side, will be fine. AN fittings are not necessary unless you want the bling.

The Dark Side of Will wrote:Pressure-rated fuel hose, double clamped on the supply side, will be fine. AN fittings are not necessary unless you want the bling.

while this is true, on fuel, I prefer to limit clamped connections where-ever possible. one less possible failure point is always a good thing.

"finished" the wiring harness again, not to happy with the looks of it, oh well, I'll remake it later when I have more time to throw at it. tomorrow morning I'm going to do a systems check and make sure everything opperates as it should. hopefully I won't be changing a bunch of fuses...

not sure why, but every time I had made a harness, I had started at the sensors and worked my way to the PCM, it hit me as I was working on the harness last night, I'd be way better off doing the opposite. It's much easier to make 3-4 wires even and neat in one spot then it is to do 60+.

I got the material for my downpipe in, I got it about 30% complete,



I should be getting a whole heap of parts in on wednesday to finish up the exhaust.

!!!!


Houston, we have POWER!

so far, everything is looking good, the harness is installed, the PCM is communicating with my tuner, and the junkyard SPL. headlight motors work!

ok, so far I've only had a few little speedbumps. but now, I've got a good one, key on engine off, I don't have a CEL, and the charge failure light doesn't stay on either.

grounding pin C on the C203 gets a bright CEL, so the bulb is good, that means the issue is somewhere between the C203 and the PCM. I'll have it fixed tonight.

issue turned out to be with the PCM power, the PCM I am using needed two IGN+, I only had one. now everything works as prescribed.

I got a bunch of parts in today, including some of the drain fittings for the turbo...



Damn they're huge! lol...

I also got a little bit more work on the downpipe done but it keeps raining outside where the car is, so progress has been slow...

Stopped raining long enough for me to get a little bit of work done on the downpipe.



routing wise, the downpipe is done. I'm going to add a flex pipe in the straight section right before the muffler, and a V band at the muffler inlet.

to finish the downpipe, I still need to:

1. fully weld each seam(tacked now)
2. weld in the o2 sensor bungs
3. obtain and weld in the flex pipe
4. integrate the wastegate dump.

I also have everything to finish the fuel system now, except for the TCE rail fittings, and the line itself.

ericjon262 wrote:to finish the downpipe, I still need to:

1. fully weld each seam(tacked now)

Weld the V-band flanges to the pipe LAST. I learned this the hard way. If everything is tacked and fits perfectly, it will move enough as it's welded that the tacks holding the V-band flanges to the pipes will need to be cut and re-tacked to get the flanges to line back up.

that makes sense, heat has a way of doing things like that.

took a break on the exhaust and got started on the catch can today.



still need to add fittings, and it's pretty big though, I might cut it down about 25% to make packaging a little easier.

got my AN fittings in for the fuel rails, so tomorrow I'll try to get the fuel system finished up. I'm glad they aren't red like int he picture on Marc's website, they appear to be clear anodized.

mostly complete can, made almost entirely of scrap:



I also got the downpipe welded up, and the WG bump integrated. all that's left in the exhaust is the slashcut, Vband on the muffler, and the tailpipe. some of the welds look like crap, the fitup was less then ideal, but it's sealed, and strong, and won't be visable an



I also got the fuel system pretty much done, just needs to be tied back.

well... today was a bust. ended up spending the day re-doing the intercooler bracket because it was making it a bitch to run the oil drain from the turbo to the pan. now instead of coming off the side of the block inbetween the a/c compressor and the starter, it's in front of the a/c compressor. I'll try to get pics of how I mounted it tomorrow.