Great stuff Joe!! Keep it going!! It is looking very nice...in fact it looks awesome!

Jeff

HOLY smokes! My first page "ownage" as Aaron would ays!

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[This message has been edited by Dogcreek (edited 01-27-2011).]

Thanks, that sig of yours is pretty much where I wanted to go with the paint before deciding on the orange.

Its been a while since we have been able to do anything paint wise. Hopefully this week we can get a little closer and get some pics of the parts up soon. Should I continue taking pictures of the trans as I take the shafts/gears/synchros apart or is it uninteresting?

-Joe

Well i'm interested. I like to know every detail. Keep up the good work.

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86 2.8 gt

Paint thread is here, I didnt want to clog up this thread too much with paint pics but I will put some on here as we get more painted. Got some more parts ordered, Im feeling the time crunch for Daytona, its only about a month and a half away.

-Joe

[This message has been edited by joesfiero (edited 02-04-2011).]

Great progress being made, its getting ever so close to Daytona time and I want to have the car back together a couple weeks or so before then just in case there is a problem I could have a chance to fix it.

The trans is back together, I pulled the cradle today and got the motor and trans mounted together and onto the cradle. I have some small things to take care of in the engine bay before getting them back in, otherwise they are ready to be reinstalled. The body panels are coming along, but I am trying to leave some of them off that may get damaged in the meantime like the front and rear bumpers. I also need to get my fuel filler mount sheetmetal fabricated and route my intake setup before I get the left quarter scoop on, which also prevents me from putting on the rocker cover. I am taking some measurements tomorrow for the fuel tank area to see how much room I have for the custom tank, then I should be getting to my buddy's shop on Thursday to get that made. He should be able to knock it out in a couple days.

For now the order of operations is to get the tank out, take my measurements, keep working on some of the body stuff that I can do for now like the doors and ground effects, finish up my engine bay, then get the cradle with motor and trans back in as well as the new fuel tank. Once that is done I need to finish my brake upgrade and bleed all 4 corners, then I should be able to start the car up and move it around to make the body panel installation easier. Finally once everything is back together I need to get that new paint cut and buffed and work on tuning the PCM for the new upgrades.
Some pics from today

Another very productive day. I got my firewall insulation finished and finally got the engine, trans and cradle package installed back into the car. As a tip for anyone in the future doing this swap, I left the blower and some of the bracketry off of the motor and that made it 10 times easier to button up things like wiring, coolant hoses, and such. In my pictures I have some of them back on but basically I just left off the brackets that bolt to both heads at the belt side of the engine. I also had my front header installed before putting the motor in because it was a pain to get on last time.

Not quite a "standing in the engine bay photo" but close enough. This is me working on the firewall insulation, my wife came out to find me and saw me sitting in my hole, with the decklid on and all.




Think you can make me a sammich?


This was today after the engine went in and I started hooking things back up. You can still see how much room there is to work.






Tomorrow I will keep working on the engine, should be pretty complete by the end of the day as well as some more wet sanding on the body and working on buttoning up the T-tops some more. After Wednesday or so I should be almost to the point were I can fire it up whenever the gas tank gets finished. Still need to finish up some of the brake work and get the rest of the body panels fully mounted. Once its back on the ground I will work on the fuel filler placement and get the air filter routed by the scoop so I can be completely done with mounting panels.

Will post more pics as I progress.

-Joe

Joe can we get some info on how you ran your coolant lines with the tensioner dogbone setup you made.

The heater hoses? The ports on the tensioner are capped off and I dont have any heater hoses hooked up. Basically if I ever want heat I will have to connect the two ports on the tensioner setup to the two ports on the firewall somehow, it would be difficult to do it pretty so you dont just have rubber hoses cluttering up the engine bay.

-Joe

The car is getting ever so close to being done. I have heard it running and it seems to run well. I have a couple small issues to fix before I run it too much longer but I think I have things set up right, for the little time I drove it it seems to have much more power than the last time and it isnt stuttering like last time. The reason its not stuttering now? The new aluminum tank I had my buddy make me. We have it finished, its in the car and snug, but I had a few issues to overcome to get it in.





I have a full write up of the new tank here

Also if you remember, I eliminated my fuel filler door on the rear clip. To fill the tank up, I moved the filler just inside the rear clip under the decklid vent. I just formed a piece of sheet metal to fit so everything looks neat and holds the filler in place.







It has since been painted black.

Latest pics of the car still in progress.







assall for now.

-Joe

Looks great Joe! I must admit though that this would scare the **** outta me...


The slightest little splash of fuel on that pipe and boom!

REELAXXX. I have splashed raw fuel on plenty of hot things, exhaust included and it never went boom. Besides, the fuel will be going down, not out. And its farther away than it looks, they arent right next to each other the exhaust is much lower than the filler. When I was filling it up with my gas can I did spill some fuel and just ran down the sheet metal on to the ground.

-Joe

quote Originally posted by joesfiero: The car is getting ever so close to being done. I have heard it running and it seems to run well. I have a couple small issues to fix before I run it too much longer but I think I have things set up right, for the little time I drove it it seems to have much more power than the last time and it isnt stuttering like last time. The reason its not stuttering now? The new aluminum tank I had my buddy make me. We have it finished, its in the car and snug, but I had a few issues to overcome to get it in. I have a full write up of the new tank here Also if you remember, I eliminated my fuel filler door on the rear clip. To fill the tank up, I moved the filler just inside the rear clip under the decklid vent. I just formed a piece of sheet metal to fit so everything looks neat and holds the filler in place. It has since been painted black. Latest pics of the car still in progress. assall for now. -Joe

Wow, Joe, I'm really impressed! With your car, and with you and your excellent hard work and dedication. That engine is really something else, and I love that beautiful two-tone color! What color of silver is the top? A silver-pearl would really go nice with that soft orange. I'm anxious to see it all completed and how you place at your first show! Jimmy's side scoops sure look good on your car. I'm really anxious to get mine installed!!! You ought to do well placing at your first show, even if you're competing against Randy E. and Jimmy S. I'd like to see a picture of all three of your cars together, at an angle, so you get a good view of the side scoops, and with each of you standing beside your car. It would make Jimmy a good advertisement picture too. Your car is beautiful, even unfinished and undetailed!

A couple of questions: Did you get your 3800 with the computer and harness? How much did you have to pay to take it home? How much extra did it cost for all those nice component part, including exhaust? How much did the whole project cost you, (not counting the original car price)?

quote Originally posted by hypo327: You ought to do well placing at your first show, even if you're competing against Randy E. and Jimmy S. I'd like to see a picture of all three of your cars together, at an angle, so you get a good view of the side scoops, and with each of you standing beside your car. It would make Jimmy a good advertisement picture too.

Unfortunatly Randye & I will not be at Daytona this year for Joe's first showing but I agree that the 3 of our cars together would make a great pic.

Thanks for the kind words. I really do have a lot of hard work into this car, everything that has been done to this car has been done by me. The exhaust and paint work I had help with but still had a hand in them.

The silver is a 2009 Land Rover color, no pearl in it just base clear.

I dont know if there will be judging at the Daytona show or not this year, really I built the car to my own standards for my enjoyment and dont have much interest in it being judged. I want to bring it to the show so people can enjoy my hard work and craftsmanship, if they like it they like it if not then Im not going to be hurt. Jimmy and Randy's cars are superb but my car was not built to compete with them, different people have different tastes I know most people like the fastback look but it just isnt for me. If the majority doesnt like a certain aspect of my car, but I do Im going to do it my way because that is whats important for me.

One day a picture with our three cars would be outsanding, we live close enough so it is possible its just a matter of scheduling.

I got my engine with the stock riviera harness. I made my own harness from that and the Fiero one. I cant say how much I paid for the components because I didnt keep track. The original build included some parts that I ended up selling like the GenIII blower and stuff to buy parts for the new build. With buying and selling parts I really didnt spend that much on the car, certainly less than most people spend on this swap. Doing all my own work really saved cost too. The work that I had people help me with was mostly barter work so it didnt cost me labor.

-Joe

JOE !! nice paint combo, i have toyed around with the idea for many years a 2 tone fastback no wing but its tuff with our cars to make a good colour combo very nice job been following your thread for some time now keep it up !

Joe any way you can post or send me some pics of your dog bone mount before you reinstall it. I Love that setup and am working on copying it.

quote Originally posted by joesfiero: Thanks for the kind words. I really do have a lot of hard work into this car, everything that has been done to this car has been done by me. The exhaust and paint work I had help with but still had a hand in them. The silver is a 2009 Land Rover color, no pearl in it just base clear. I dont know if there will be judging at the Daytona show or not this year, really I built the car to my own standards for my enjoyment and dont have much interest in it being judged. I want to bring it to the show so people can enjoy my hard work and craftsmanship, if they like it they like it if not then Im not going to be hurt. Jimmy and Randy's cars are superb but my car was not built to compete with them, different people have different tastes I know most people like the fastback look but it just isnt for me. If the majority doesnt like a certain aspect of my car, but I do Im going to do it my way because that is whats important for me. One day a picture with our three cars would be outsanding, we live close enough so it is possible its just a matter of scheduling. I got my engine with the stock riviera harness. I made my own harness from that and the Fiero one. I cant say how much I paid for the components because I didnt keep track. The original build included some parts that I ended up selling like the GenIII blower and stuff to buy parts for the new build. With buying and selling parts I really didnt spend that much on the car, certainly less than most people spend on this swap. Doing all my own work really saved cost too. The work that I had people help me with was mostly barter work so it didnt cost me labor. -Joe

I'm really looking forward to seeing more pictures of your car after it's all done, plus more pictures at the Daytona show too. I always enjoy the pictures Steve and Jimmy take at the show each year. maybe you guys can arrange to line-up together when you cruise the track, etc. Your car is definitely in the same class of spectacular as theirs. I'd sure like to see them in real life! You all three built your cars with the same philosophy, and it shows.

Say Joe, did you do a step-by-step thread on rebuilding your Getrag? I had mine apart but only replaced the input and output shaft bearings, without doing anything else, because we didn't have the tool for the press, and it was so shiny and clean, showing no evidence of wear. But after I got it back in my car, I still have to baby it into 5th. You mentioned the block shims, or washers or something, that I never heard of. When I get back into it the next time, I'm going to put all the synchros and those block things you were talking about, but I want a step-by-step guide to do it.

my mechanic gave me an '88Getrag out of a Formula (that he just swapped for an Isusu 5-speed for a guy), because he owed me some money, and it only has 91K on it. I thinks I will put it in my car, then go through my old one again, and take my time, putting all new synchromesh gears and those block things you were talking about; but I want some good step-by-step instructions this time.

Michael

quote Originally posted by Tstang429: Joe any way you can post or send me some pics of your dog bone mount before you reinstall it. I Love that setup and am working on copying it.

Unfortunately the mount has been back on the car long before you posted this. I will remove it and take a pic if you want, though it was really easy to make. I just took a round bushing, mine was half of a TFS ultimate dogbone, bolted it into place on the car, took some cardboard to get the right shape and size for the top piece and cut that out of 1/4" steel plate. Then you will notice once the alt. is on you will have one bolt hole that goes up to the piece you just made, and one that is a couple inches lower. I took some steel hollow tubing and cut it the proper length and welded it on the bottom side of the steel plate so it sits flat, then bolted that on the motor and welded the plate to the bushing attached to the car. 3 pieces and its done.

-Joe

Looks awesome! Waiting for a video to see how that exhaust sounds...

I have a couple videos but one is from when my balancer was knocking like crazy so thats all you can hear. The other one or two are on my phone and Im not sure how to get them onto youtube.

-Joe

I have been pleased with the performance of the car even untuned, though I dont go much over half throttle yet. I did have a random misfire that got worse especially when the car warmed up. I started digging and found a coil that looked like it had gotten hot. Replaced it and the car ran better for a couple trips, then it started doing it again. This time I replaced all the coils and IM ( had them laying around) but it didnt change anything so now I was really confused. The fact that replacing the one coil fixed the misfire for a while had me baffled, I removed and ohmed all plug wires which all turned out fine. I did find a plug boot with a crack in it but no trace of carbon tracking but I replaced the boot anyway. I also found on one of the wires the retainer that holds it to the spark plug was broken so the wire was just kind of touching the plug. I replaced that lead as well. Finally the misfire was gone for good.

I took the car to a local show last night and won a trophy that says award of excellence on it.





Now that the car is back together I still have some work to do as I enjoy driving it around. There are still some finishing touches needed like windshield trim, clean and repaint the side molding, get my intake routed to behind the scoop, make my fuel filler door in the engine grille and a get the wideband done and tune the car.

My next portion of the build though is the interior. Hopefully after this build is *complete* I can move on to that.

-Joe

quote Originally posted by joesfiero:

NICE !

LOL, I have my alt polished and my supercharger is painted black, but I rather have the supercharger polished.

Is that a modifed dogbone in the stock location or is it just for aesthetic purposes.

When are you taking her to the track?

I would like to grab another alt. and start polishing it, maybe in the near future. The dogbone is a poly bushing welded to a bracket that I made out of 1/4" steel plate and a little bit of tubing. It is extremely strong up to this point, with that and the poly lower mount I made this motor doesnt move even a hair, I took it for a spin the other day with the decklid off and did some pretty strong pulls and the motor didnt budge. My theory is the further away the mount is from the centerline of the crank, the more leverage it will have to hold the motor. This is pretty much as far away from the centerline of the crank you can get and it holds well.

When am I taking it to the track? Thats a hard one to answer.

I am still running the stock getrag, even though I rebuilt it I need to put lots of miles and hard pulls on it before I trust it at the track. It may never even make it to that point if I try to launch it hard one day.

Also, I need to tune the motor for the NIC cam and other mods, I have a wideband and a tuner so that is a start, just need to get to doing it.

I assume once the car is tuned, I can semi-trust the trans, and everything is buttoned up (like moving the intake to the fenderwell) then I might give it a shot to see what I will run.

Did you ever break into the 11s? I saw you were darn close. Would love to get there with the setup I have, we will see.

-Joe

Nice work ! One thing I noticed is the rear trim section of your T-Top is missing the roof panel ? does the glass fit tight ? I'm just curious what's going on there and I've considered making the rear left and right outer trim pieces from an extra roof panel. They have the same contours without a leading edge, but that could be added with some fiberglass work.

Actually thats exactly what's there. For some reason the car in the junkyard I got my T-top section from had a cut roof section and a very professional looking trim piece covering the cut side. When I got it from the yard I had not seen a T-top car in person and thought that was how they came, it took tons of research for me to realize they never came like that.

So all I did was cut off part of my old roof section since it was a hardtop there was enough room there, it turned out to be exactly 2", a sunroof car doesnt have that much behind the glass. I will admit the stupid thing doesnt quite sit right, it took lots of trimming and some rigging to make it look halfway decent. Ill see if I can snap a pic of the trim piece for you.

-Joe

quote Originally posted by joesfiero: I would like to grab another alt. and start polishing it, maybe in the near future. The dogbone is a poly bushing welded to a bracket that I made out of 1/4" steel plate and a little bit of tubing. It is extremely strong up to this point, with that and the poly lower mount I made this motor doesnt move even a hair. Did you ever break into the 11s? I saw you were darn close. Would love to get there with the setup I have, we will see. -Joe

I have to finish my dogbone mount like that but I heard that it may crack the alt under heavy acceleration?

I have not been back to the track since my 12.01 but when I do I plan on beating that z06 that kicked my butt and ran a 11.5.....BET THAT....

Oh, and I will do it on street tires. It's all in the tune baby

I have to finish my dogbone mount like that but I heard that it may crack the alt under heavy acceleration?

I have not been back to the track since my 12.01 but when I do I plan on beating that z06 that kicked my butt and ran a 11.5.....BET THAT....

Oh, and I will do it on street tires. It's all in the tune baby

Cool, cant wait to see you break 11s.

I dont know about the dogbone mount cracking anything, theres no stress on the alternator itself so I dont see it cracking an alternator case. I only personally know of two cars with this dogbone setup, mine and JimmyS's but there may be more out there. Time will tell if anything breaks or not.

-Joe

yaa looks good 3800sc are the besttt thats what me and all my budss got....

heres a video for now, until I figure out how to correct it.



-Joe

[This message has been edited by joesfiero (edited 05-27-2011).]

Still havent tuned the car, I can smell it running rich so I guess thats better than running lean. I have been running it hard though, the car pulls like crazy. Looking forward to getting back to working on it though, seems I miss being under the hood as much fun as it is driving it, I still enjoy working on cars for some reason. I have a few small issues that need to be addressed, need to get a new fuel line from the junkyard soon, and plan on getting Rodney's ball joints all around because I have those cheap eBay ones now and I know Im running on borrowed time with them.

I will try to document the little things here and there I do to the car, but the next build portion should be on the interior, whenever that happens.

-Joe

Do you have any driving/wot videos? I can't really copy your true dual setup I went with a turbo. But I am interested in what your higher rpm's note sounds like.

Just moved down to Patrick AFB a few months ago. Haven't see too many car events, aside from the Hot Rod Power Tour at the Cape a little while back. If you are around Cocoa or Melbourne, I'd be glad to stop by and check out the Fiero.

I had a blast doing some work on "sabooo's" orange 86GT during the couple weeks I had it at my shop in NY. Anyway, I've always been a fan of the platform, having occassional impulses to do my own many times, just never pulling the trigger.

I'll go back and read your updates in more detail, but if you want some help with tuning in a lumpy cam on a manual tranny, let me know.

- Dave

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'98 Daytona GTP - MP112 & ZZP I/C (warming up before a RWD 3800SC build)
back in '06 - 333.5whpSAE - 12.73 @ 111mph (street tires) GenV, XP, 9.4:1, stock heads, non-I/C
Admin of CNY3800
http://geocities.com/dezldave961/

No wot videos yet maybe I'll get someone to follow me in a chase car. I'm on the other coast from Melbourne, the gulf coast. The daytona event is in the spring and there's a show down by me in punta gorda just can't remember when.

I dont see why you couldnt do a true dual setup with a turbo, its not about copying a design its about showing that a little creativity goes a long way, people get stuck in a rut and think that 3800 exhaust can only be done one way and any deviation will require cutting the trunk, not allow you to run a manual, be too loud, sound like ass, etc. This exhaust was done by me and a professional but really it only took about 4 hours of cutting, bending, test fitting and welding. There was no trick to it just move the pipes to where they needed to be to create the final product I wanted. As you well know there is a ton of room in the engine bay of a Fiero especially with a manual, anywhere people are mounting turbos with traditional exhaust Im sure could be done with true duals, its just a matter of not merging the pipes together and using two smaller mufflers instead of one big one.

-Joe

Havent updated this thread in a while, but I havent really done anything with the car except drive it either until now. I bit the bullet and replaced those nasty old seats with Mr. Mikes and new headrest speakers in the meantime. I also have some nice clean door panels to replace my junky old ones and have been looking for a reasonable deal on a dash.









Dont have a pic of them in the car yet but I drove it for the first time yesterday and not only do they look good but they are really comfortable. It also helps to have speakers that work so I can actually hear the radio too. I guess once the interior is done I may do something about the transmission. 1st and 2nd gear feel tight like the rings dont want to spin on the shaft very easily not sure what happened but it shifts fine, no grinding and all other gears shift like butter. I really would like to go F40 6 spd so that may be next if time and money permit.

-Joe

Love them Mr Mikes seats!

Hey last year when I sat in your car I think I lost a quarter, have you seen it?

[This message has been edited by Pappy (edited 03-03-2012).]

It was on the drivers seat in that first pic. I think I lost it though when I did the swap. I have two dimes and a nickle I can give you instead.

If you come down for the tech day Ill give it to you.

-Joe

I'm tryin to get that kitchen pass moved over to the accepted box now

quote Originally posted by Pappy: I'm tryin to get that kitchen pass moved over to the accepted box now

Im starting to gather parts for my 3800 swap. My question about the true dual exhaust is what did you do for the O2 sensor? I know in the stock setup you only use one but with the true dual dont you need a second for the other bank? If so how did you go about that sensor? Also do you have any vids of it driving? Really wanna hear how it sounds and see if that is the rout i wanna go