'92 Series I 3800SC into manual Formula - basic questions (Page 2/2)
statue4 JUL 06, 07:23 PM
The car runs and drives now, but still no exhaust. My (admittedly non-well-thought-out) plan was to just drive to the local muffler shop and have him whip something up. The guy there just said there's no room to do anything, not even a straight pipe. It looks like I'll be able to use the flange from the Bonneville and at least get half a foot of downpipe from it.

EDIT: photos

[This message has been edited by statue4 (edited 07-06-2021).]

statue4 FEB 09, 01:33 PM
I did end up getting the car to be drivable (enough). I took the Fiero to one exhaust shop and he said he couldn't do anything without getting rid of the trunk. So the next day I went to a different exhaust shop and the guy there figured something out for me. Totally not what I would have preferred, but I was in a time crunch to get the car moving. He routed the exhaust from the previously pictured manifold flange location on the rear of the engine, down and back to where the original cat was, put a muffler where the cat was, then a pipe out to the back the car. I'll get a picture when I can. It is weird, but it works for now. I was in such a rush to get the car moving because I was changing jobs and needed to get moved out. I packed up as much stuff as could fit in the Fiero (had to get rid of alot, haha) and drove it to Colorado to leave at my parents' house while I took a job out in the Mariana Islands. The drive back was horrible. The normally 16 hour drive from Long Beach to Denver took a grueling 36 hours - I slept during 3 of those hours. Severe heat advisory along almost the whole route. At night, many hours after dark, it was still over 100 F. The first breakdown was the Cajon Pass out of the LA basin into the desert. First of many. Everything from overheating to IGN fuse blowing a handful of times (injector wire short circuit) to a fire or two to a fuel line leak. Admittedly, the overheating issue was mostly because I *thought* the coolant system was properly burped, but it really was not. I used the 3800's thermostat housing instead of modifying a Fiero one. I would pull the hose and add coolant from the engine until it came out of the radiator, like normal, but forgot that the normal Fiero method involves removing the thermostat. I was just adding coolant into the hose to the radiator. Oops. When I finally figured that part out I was past most of the desert portion of the drive (spent lots of time on the side of the highway waiting for the car to cool down), but luckily before climbing over the Rockies on I-70. About 100 miles out from Denver, almost to the end, my oil pressure dropped to zero. A nice cherry-on-top to an already awful trip. I got out and checked everything out and determined that it was just the sender/sensor/whatever. Less than 24 hours after parking the car in Denver I was on the long airplane ride to Saipan.
Anyways, now I'm back and want to get the Fiero running well. My M.O. has changed from "whatever it takes to get this car kinda drivable" to "I would like the car to be drivable, but with longevity in mind." Still not going for a show car or anything, after all it is just a Series I engine. I half-assedly mounted the alternator in the 3800's original location on top of the engine and it buzz-saws the frame/spring-mount area any time the engine is low RPM. I need to decide how I am going to low-mount it. I am considering West Coast Fiero's and FieroRog's options. What I want to figure out before ordering is how they will work with belt routing. Both of theirs are intended for Series II engines, but the Series I has the supercharger driven by the back, rather than front pulley. My current belt setup has the water pump, alternator and supercharger.
statue4 FEB 18, 11:20 AM
Concerning the S.E.S./C.E.L. codes:
I hadn't properly done the bypassed the tranmission PCM circuits. I made a whole new thread with some questions about it here: https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/145881.html
Regarding the code 56 for quad driver, I suspect it may be becuase I do not have a purge solenoid installed or wired up. I wonder if I can put a 194 bulb in place of the solenoid, just like the transmission shift solenoid bypass. On another thread cmechmann mentioned that the quad driver error can come from the following: TCC PWM solenoid circuit, temp light, purge solenoid, and perhaps others. I do not have a temp light circuit on my PCM and I can't find a TCC PWM Solenoid circuit, either.
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/...HTML/134285.html#p12