Fiero Argento Signora build thread w/lots 'o' pics (Page 2/21)
RandomTask SEP 05, 10:55 AM
Can someone near VA gimme a ride in a 4.9 fiero? I wanna know what the big deal is with these tractor motors.
Fieroseverywhere SEP 05, 11:54 AM

quote
Originally posted by aaronrus:

i bought a roll of sound damping material, foil on one side and adhesive tar based stuff on the other, just liek dynamat, for like $100 for 100 sq. feet off ebay, you can get it on there all the time..the stuff was awesome, dropped the outside roadnoise by 40 dB. i used about 85 sq ft total to do the entire car..





Sound like a good deal to me. I do have one concern though. I have heard the the tar or petrolium based deadeners leave a smell behind. How did yours turn out? Does it smell like oil in the car? I would also like to do it without adding too much weight and I've heard the tar based stuff can be heavy. I'm willing to spend a little more but not quite Dynamat level.

I bought some firewall insulation last week. Only enough for the firewall. It is an insulating foam with a layer of sound deadener built in. I want to do the floor, ceiling, and door panels. I will also need something for the rest of the engine bay. Any suggestions would be great. I am taking a vacation from work later this month and should be able to get the interior done during that week. 2 1/2 weeks from now so I need to order it soon. Here is the company I have been planing to go through. They have some really good stuff and the prices are too bad also they are local to me.
http://www.cascadeaudio.com/

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 09-05-2007).]

Fieroseverywhere SEP 05, 12:00 PM

quote
Originally posted by RandomTask:

Can someone near VA gimme a ride in a 4.9 fiero? I wanna know what the big deal is with these tractor motors.



Not a high performance motor but a good all around driver that gets decent gas mileage in a light weight and compact V8 package. It fits in a fiero like it was made to be there. Even the coolant pipes are in the right place for the most part. And it can be done for about the cost of a good 2.8 rebuild. From my experiance anyways. Very quick stoplight to stoplight but starts to run out of steam around where the speed limit is on the hwy. They make great daily drivers.

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 09-05-2007).]

Fieroseverywhere SEP 10, 09:09 PM
Its that time again.

Got some work done on the car this past weekend but unfortunately did not have time to get the motor in. That will be done in a couple weeks when i can get back to it. I am taking a week off of work and should be able to spend at least three hole days (36hrs) working on this car. The new belt showed up over the weekend when I was out of town. Only thing I still need for the motor is the O2 sensors, oil cooler, and Allante starter.

I ordered my sound deadener for the interior yesterday. I got a great deal!! I ended up ordering the Dynomat extreme pack which comes with nine 18"x32" pieces. I was going to go with something cheaper but ended up finding a ~65% off deal on it through Amazon.com. While it was 300 everywhere else I got it for only 116. At that price I just couldn't say no.

I also ordered myself a small point and shoot camcorder to make the rest of the pics better. It was time. The camera phone just couldn't do what I wanted it to do anymore. Both should be here before the end of the week.


First off this last weekend I had to do some work on my truck to keep it up and running while this car is built. That took a couple hours away from build time. With that out of the way I finished up the strut towers and made everything fit right and sit flush. I appears that I didn't get any pics of them though. I will get them later to make up for it.

With the strut towers done I started on the rest of the engine bay. I finished up removing the dogbone bracket and removed the old battery tray. That is when I noticed it.



A big F%^&*ng hole right through. Well, that sucks. Good thing I can fix it. This is the reason I couldn't get the motor in. It just took too much time. I removed the inner fender wells on both sides. No rust there. Cleaned everything up and took out the water seperator.


Next I started by cutting away all of the rusty parts. The die grinder and angle grinder were my best friend that day. There was a good portion of the panel gone by the time I was done.



We had some scrap zinc coated sheet metal lying around so I made up a piece to fit in place. Dad took a break from work for a while to do some welding for me. I'm not even close to as good as he is so I just stepped back and let the pro have a go at it. While he was working on that I cut out a couple circles to plug the speaker holes. We straightened the holes back out and he tacked the circles into place also.




I will seal everything up later to make sure there aren't any air leaks. I will also primer and paint the inside parts aswell.

After he was done he headed back to work. I went back to work grinding down welds and smoothig everythign out. Then I broke out the zinc primer and semi-gloss black paint and went to work making it look good again. I think it turned out pretty good considering what it looked like before.



The end of the day was coming fast so I did a few other things in the interior to get it ready to go. I installed the 87-88 2.5 throttle cable to the pedal along with cleaning up some of the interior panels. Its got to be clean for the Dynomat.



I organized the parts as best as I could so I can really move during my vacation End result, one pile of fiero.


I shorlty realized that the 88 cradle would take different real bolts. Since we didn't have anything that would work handy I headed down to the discount auto parts store and picked up a couple. We now have enerything needed to install the cradle.

I was a little disappointed (a lot!) that the motor could not go in but it will be OK. Two weeks and it will be in and then some. More to come somewhere between 9/22-9/30.
Fieroseverywhere SEP 20, 03:58 PM
Alright, I have the actual dates set. I will be spend three days at the shop next week. 9/24-9/26. Expect an update with lots of pics with the new camera on or around 9/26. I've added a couple things to the list of mods being done an the beginning of this thread. I think you will find them interesting.

Engine will go in and probably come back out to do the exhaust on 9-24. 9-25 will be working on plumbing, ect. 9-26 will be puting the dynamat in and puting the interior back together. Cant wait to get started! More to come.

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 09-20-2007).]

Fieroseverywhere SEP 27, 03:25 PM
Got a bit done this week. I have a few pics but I dont have time right now to go into the details. I will post the pics and come back later to edit this post and add the details. More to come later.

Ok first off I walked into the shop ready to get started and found the sprint car all packed up. Seems the end of the season has come and gone. I just thought this picture turned out really good. That car just looks mean!


First off I finished preping the cradle for the install. I had some small rust spots under where the battery used to be. I used a wire brush to clean off the rust. Then I followed it up with some zinc primer. I use this stuff everywhere. Works great. For those interested it works extremely well on exhaust maniflods. Once heated it turns white and looks similar to a ceramic coating. At 8 dollars a can though it will much more affordable. I use Plasticoat Zinc loaded cold galvanizing primer in grey. I followed this up with a semi gloss black acrylic enamel. It matches the fiero black paint pretty well and is affordable and durable. Picture of both products are a couple posts up.


Next up we pulled the 4.9 off of the engine stand and started to get it ready to go. I added some lifting eyes (stock 4.9) which I removed once it was on the cradle.



I mounted the flywheel with the new flywheel bolts. I would recommend using new flywheel bolts for any type of flywheel change. It's just cheap insurance. They are torqued to 70 ft/lbs according to the caddy flexplate specs.


It was at this point that I realized that I had no bolts to mount the pressure plate. I called a couple places to see what I could findn locally. No luck. Well crap. I guess I have to remove the old motor from the cradle and harvest some parts. I was hoping to not have to do this since I am using a different cradle and tranny. We decided not to waist any time and started unbolting everything. We pulled the 250 dollar forklift over and made quick work of that job.



With the newly harvested pressure plate bolts we were able to mount the new SPEC stage 3 clutch. I have been paying attention the the recent threads about SPEC clutches and I am hopeing to avoid any problems. Everything alligned well and there looks to be plenty of clearance between the spring and pressure plate fingers. We'll see.


With the clutch out of the way we started working on the mounts. The 4.9 engine mount bracket was bolted on and the poly engine mount was bolted to it. We then bolted the 4.9 to the tranny to line everything up. We scribed the mounting holes and removed the engine again to drill the them out. Wasn't tough at all and the motor fits like a glove.



We then started work on the side mount. This is just a piece of 3/8 thick angle iron that will be welded to the cradle. The mount that bolts to the block is stock 4.9. I even used all of the support pieces that went with it. The bracket we made went to the glass beader followed by a coating of zinc primer (love this stuff). I have not painted it yet as I may still need to slot the mounting holes for adjustments. We bolted it to the rest of the mount and it actually sits there perfectly without being welded.



With the mounts done it was time to mount it to the cradle for good. It turned out pretty good but is still not fully allligned.


Next up was the first test fit into the car. Everything went pretty smooth here also.


We thought there would be some clearance issues here and trimed the decklid mount a little to compensate. We just basically cut off the rusty part you see here. It just ended up being the engine out of allignment. Once corrected there were zero fitment issues. It fit like it was made to be there. I am very pleased with how this motor fits.



I picked up the cat I am going to use from a local muffler shop. The guy at the counter said they are mainly used on Dodge and Ford pickups. It has two 2" inputs and one 2.5" output. Using this cat will eliminate the need for a "Y" pipe. It is 16" long though you cant really tell from the pics here. Very smooth flow and very low restriction. It is a little more expensive then a regular cat but the cost is made up for by not having to buy a "Y" pipe.



We pulled engine back out so we could take some measurments for the exhaust. I also took this chance to get the new engine bay insulation put in. I was very happy with the results on this also. I still need to cut out the holes for the wiring but I will do that later sinced it is the only thing sealing the interior from the outside air. I want to keep the mice and birds out as best a possible while the car is in pieces. All the seams were taped and I even taped the shorter brackets. You can hardly see them anymore.


While I was looking at the exhaust parts and trying to figure out a plan I came accross the original "Y" pipe that was on the car. The weld had broken and I think it might have been leaking a little. I took these to show how restrictive the stock "Y" pipe truely is. Not only is the "D" shape not the best for flow but that huge piece of weld in the middle cant be good for anything. We will fix this one and see how much better it will be will all restrictions removed. It will go onto either the 3.1 (fiero 2.8 block) or 3.4 (firebird/camaro 2.8 block) built up cars. These need it the most.



I mostly played around the rest of the time doing the stupid little things that this car needs. I removed the front swaybar and cleaned up the rusty parts which was everything between the center bushings. I found that someone had put in a non fiero cooling fan. Must have been the same person that did the firewall speakers. It has one bolt and 7 zip strips holding it in. Bastards. I'll need a new fan also now. I also found that one of the headlight relays is missing. Got another lyign around somewhere I'm sure. I pounded out the dents in the floor pan and removed the center brace that goes under the gas tank. I got all of the rocks (~1 lb) out of the brace and re-installed it. Guess my woman got a hold of the camera at some point and got this pic of me filthy and under the fiero. There was not one part of my clothing that wasn't completely covered in grease, dirt, oil, brake fluid, or what ever else I could find to cover myself in. We put the motor back in for safe keeping til next time. Looks pretty good in there. Cant wait to hear it run.



As always, questions, comments, and constructive critisism are welcome. I also have bigger pics of any you see in most of my threads. Need a bigger pic? Just ask. More to come as soon as time and money allow.

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 09-27-2007).]

VFR182 SEP 27, 03:59 PM
The engine rebuild looks awesome. Who did that for you? I was also told that rebuilding the 4.9 is super problematic and not worth the time?
CTFieroGT87 SEP 27, 04:04 PM
Here is that pic I was supposed to put up a loooong time ago!
Darren's 87 coupe SEP 27, 04:55 PM
Hey man, good to see the progress. I am still having to work on my house, so mine is at a stand still right now, but I did get it under the car, and the cradle bolted up for the first time. I will still need to pull it out and put it back in a few more times, but that's no big deal. In a few weeks I should be able to get back on it for a little while. I have big brake brackets on the way, and my computer chip is back and better than it was. Special thanks to Aaronrus for that.

I can't believe the hack job they did to get those speakers in there. That is sick, and I can't imagine how bad the exhaust fumes were in that car. Glad you are plugging them up. Just wanted to say hey, and glad to se your moving on it again, I will join you on the V8 path as soon as I can. Talk at you later, it's looking really good,
Darren

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Fieroseverywhere SEP 27, 06:21 PM

quote
Originally posted by VFR182:

The engine rebuild looks awesome. Who did that for you? I was also told that rebuilding the 4.9 is super problematic and not worth the time?



I did it myself with some help from my dad. There is a link to the rebuild thread in the first post of this thread. I don't think it is any harder then a 2.8 rebuild. You just have to be a little more careful during the teardown part. You want to do whatever needs to be done to not strip any of the threads out of the block. Use lots of WD40 or equivelent and heat. Take your time and make sure you check the block out very well. Dont want any cracks and all it takes with this motor is a small hit in the front. When buying a junk yard motor make sure the hood is on the car and has not been left open. If water gets into the cylinders you can have a mess on your hands. I was laughing with my dad about that. As we pressure washed the sleeves they would start to rust before we got the rest of them clean.

It cost me 200 for the motor, 400 for the gaskets, bearings and rings, and about 400 for the install parts. It may cost a little more for others, I got a pretty good discount with some of my engine building friends but, you get the idea.