The Trueleo intake has been installed. I haven't driven it yet, so I don't have any ass-dyno (or any other performance related) opinions. It appears that the front bank of injectors is not firing. Ran out of time tonight to run that down.

Anyway. The install...

This is what I started with.

It's just a 3.4. Stock Camaro cam, 19# injectors, Darrell Morse's bored TB, Sprint manifolds, stock FPR, and a custom chip from Jeremy at the Fiero Factory.

Here's a few mock-ups of the manifold on a spare lower that I have.

OMG! A NEKKID V6!!!

I'll spare you the disassembly. It's pretty straightforward. I figure most folks here have done it at least once. If you need details, let me know.

Here's a test fitting

(Who am I kidding? I just wanted to see what it looked like, sitting in place.)

And another.

According to Troy's instructions, the fuel rail has to be installed into the manifold before tha manifold is bolted down.
I'm one of those people who read stuff like that and say "Nawwww! There's got to be an easier way!"
There isn't. Trust me. You might be able to install the fuel rail after the intake is bolted down, but you'll have to remove the thermostat housing and all of the other kwrap on that end of the engine. Doing it his way isn't so bad.
You have to turn the fuel rail on its side and wiggle it through, as pictured here.

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 02-07-2005).]

Looks pretty cool, get some dyno numbers up

Looking good!
Keep the pic's coming.

Once the fuel rail is in the intake, you're ready to bolt it down.
As mentioned in Troy's instructions (I'll post a link, later) the middle bolt on the firewall side is a motherfokker. There's no other way to sufficiently describe it. But you're used to working on Fieros. You can handle it. Right?
Once you have bolts in place, be very careful! I can't emphasize this enough.
For some reason I had to lift the intake back out, when I was trying to get everything aligned. That damned middle bolt was missing. A quick look-around showed it to be hiding securely in the #5 intake port.
Of course I pushed it all the way down into the head, while trying to grab it. I was (not) looking forward to removing the intake, and maybe the head, until I remembered my "magnet on the end of a telescopic stick", and was able to rescue it. A very close call.
Be careful.

According to Troy, the gasket is not available separately. You will probably have to buy a complete upper set.
Fortunately, I had an upper engine set left over from a previous project.

Here's the finished product.

Here's a link to the installation instructions http://www.trueleo.com/feiroinstall2.htm

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 02-07-2005).]

Overall I like the design, and I hope the numbers show some performance improvement. It is great to see new innovations for the Fiero.

The only thing that I do not like about the intake are the welds. If they were ground flush and smoothed over, the intake would look 100 times better.

topcat: buy yours uncoated and do it yourself...

Raydar: Nice job. Finally the top end hardware of the V6 isn't working against the engine. Why do you have the stock Camaro cam?

quote Originally posted by Will: Why do you have the stock Camaro cam?

The engine was a Grooms rebuild with a warranty. Changing anything internal voided the warranty.
Now that it's out of warranty and hasn't flown apart, the 1.6 rockers are going in.

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 04-15-2005).]

Thanks Raydar for the write up and pictures. To get ready for dyno day, I just removed my manifold to put the stock one back for the first dyno run and found that bolt-from-hell was even harder to get out than in. I brought a set of long-shank 'T' allens and will substitute one allen for the hex head bolt at that location. From checking on the bench, I think that will make it quite easy to install and if it does, we'll just add one more allen to the set. As for clearence with the the welds, we'll just have check for that more carefully before we ship. On my car with the long runner, I have a little over a 1/2" of deck lid clearence.

On the topic of grinding the welds smooth; I did that on TB to plenum 'S' tube of the manifold I just removed from the car. Just to do the that part took me over 2 hours! I doubt if anyone would like to pay what it would cost to smooth all those welds. If you want pretty, buy it uncoated and grind away or stay with the stock one. Our # 1 concern was making a better, higher CFM manifold that people could afford. Bang for the $$$, I think we succeeded. I think it looks cool even with the welds, looks like a race engine.

I'm trying very hard to be patient until we hear from the butt-dyno and the real dyno.

Thanks for the write up, Raydar!

Butt-dyno says...

It seems better. Pulls strongly in 1st gear to at least 5500. I suspect the limiting factor is now the stock Camaro cam. I have a set of 1.6 rockers that are going in, as soon as I get the chance.
I noticed a bit of spark rattle in 2nd and high gear at WOT, that wasn't there before. I'm guessing that it's running leaner (hotter) with the chip that was tuned for the original setup. I may throw a stock chip in it, to see what happens.

After a short test drive, I noticed that it *does* hit the bottom of the decklid. Just barely. I don't think that GTs will have the problem, since the decklid seems to be "higher" all the way to the rear of the car.
Francis also mentioned that the long runner intake provides ~1/2" clearance from his decklid (also a notchback). Perhaps the short runner version sits a bit higher? I'd like to see pictures of the two, side by side.

Anyway. I'm happy. Once I've had a chance to do some tuning and dyno time, I'll be happier.

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 02-07-2005).]

In the side-by-side photo I noticed the runner length is way more than the effective length of the stock manifold. Isn't this going to shift the torque curve way down the graph and poop out torque-wise on top end?

How many hours did the swap take from start to finish?

How're the high RPMs Raydar? 4500 and up, the 3.4 dies with the stock Fiero intake because it can't flow enough. How does it pull up there now with such better flow?

quote Originally posted by ICouldaBeenAV8: In the side-by-side photo I noticed the runner length is way more than the effective length of the stock manifold. Isn't this going to shift the torque curve way down the graph and poop out torque-wise on top end?

I don't think they are any longer. The whole package is narrower than the stocker. I'll let Troy and Francis answer regarding the technical aspects. I think 17" and 14" were given for the long and short runner versions, respectively.

quote Originally posted by hnthomps: How many hours did the swap take from start to finish?

Took the better part of the afternoon and evening. That was due to some 'massaging' I had to do (mentioned above), and time spent figuring out how to extract a bolt that decided it wanted to run and hide in the #5 intake port, including removing the valve cover to ensure that that particular intake valve was *not* open. I figured that if it hadn't dropped into the cylinder that I at least had a *chance* of not having to disassemble the top end.

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 02-08-2005).]

These manifolds are designed to add flow, especially to the upper rpm band where the stock manifold goes into starve-the-engine-mode. Thus, if the cam isen't capable of such, it will hurt. The chip will play a part in this too, and the stock chips will likeley be better then say a Hypertech as they lean it out above 4k. We hope to have our chips configuered this week at the dyno.

Francis T: Are the chips you are going to make just for the engines you are dynoing or will they be an option to go with the intake? Do you burn the chips while you are dynoing ? Do you get it right on the first try or does it take more than one try? Can you burn one with other modifications?

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85 GT 3.4
Auto 3.08
14.9 @ 90 1.9 60"

Troy would be the best one for particualrs on that, but I'm not sure if he's back in the country yet. In addition to seeing how our manifolds compare to stock, the wide-band dyno runs will tell him how to program the chips. From watching him setup monster MR2 engines, it took a few runs to see what worked best. I think, but don't hold me to this as he's the tuner/chip guy, he'll be programing the chips for mildly modified engines using our manifolds so they don't go lean with all the additional CFMs they will get. Once the dyno runs are done, I'm sure he'll do a big write up on everything. Don't know if he's planning on doing any 'special chips' for people with highly modified or turbo engines.

That thing looks awesome. You better go dyno it and see if it adds any HP.

[This message has been edited by FieroMaster88 (edited 02-08-2005).]

I think that one of the largest benefits of this intake will be when you choose to really modify the engine. Especially for people running a turbocharger, nitrous, big cams or nice heads, the stock intake is preventing them from getting the full potential out of their modifications. This intake will make a much larger difference on modified engines, but I guess that goes for almost any performance component. Just my opinion -- I'd like to see dyno comparisons of a turbo car with the stock intake then this one, as well as a N/A engine built nicely comparing the stock and truleo intake. Looks good!
--Bryson

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88 Fiero GT Quad4 Turbo =) 396 whp!

Looks nice. I hope by June to have my 3.4 ready to install in the yellow car (new 270 cam & roller tips). I would dyno it with stock setup and then got one of these and see. By then I guess we may have several dyno runs from you here

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Palm Beach Fieros
http://pbfieros.tripod.com

its good to see results from this. I think the intake looks pretty good. I hpe it performs as well as it looks. Sounds like it's doing just that.

Thanks for the write up. I am glad to see this on a car.

I think the valve covers need to be pained or powder coated to match. Or maybe the chrome edlebrok ones that I have seen.

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-Chris -
Custom Gun Metal 86 GT 4.9 V8 5spd

Build up tread or MODS w/ Pics

yeah, that and some stainless steel vacuum lines I think would really bump it up a notch looks-wise. All together a good writeup though, thx raydar! Now get those 1.6 rockers on ASAP

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96k Miles, 2nd owner

Update. The 1.6s have been installed for a while now.
The result? I'm not sure how much I picked up on the top end, but it feels like I lost a bit on the bottom end.
Anyway, it's all speculation until it's Dynoed. That will happen May 1 in Huntsville (if my transmission stays together.)

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 04-15-2005).]

well added bonus of it is you can pull the valve covers anytime you want

bump

[This message has been edited by TaurusThug (edited 04-29-2005).]

Hope to see those dyno #s soon