Very busy and productive day... that's what I tell myself, anyway. I didn't get to drop the cradle because i had to grind off one of the front cradle bolts (yea that was fun)...but everything else is disconnected. I painted the F23 silver, quite a difference. After that I cut off the existing select lever and welded on a new one...Not the best looking, but that isn't breaking off anytime soon. And if it is too long, well, I can always cut it down. But it works great, I love it. I almost want to take a video of it, because it works alot better then it looks in pictures.

After that I did a good bit of wiring...nothing special there.








Page 2 already? Wow.

Edit: I always wondered what that half-circle cutout was on the shift lever...until I saw it was so you could get a torx bit in there and remove one of the bolts that way...wow, genius! Someone actually thought ahead.

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 11-26-2011).]

It really is a well built transmission. If the Isuzu ever drops second gear behind the little turbo engine, and I don't become militant, I'm going to import one from Mexico with the correct bellhousing.

I have been getting alot of boxes lately. New stock 2.8 Getrag clutch, rubber and poly mounts, APR flywheel bolts, 3800 ECM pins, Flowtech Afterburner muffler (3" inlet, dual 2.5" outlets), and there is lots more on the way. There goes all my money. Lol. Got the flywheel turned into the machine shop today to have it resurfaced as well.

A bit of bad news, I do have to have my ECM reprogrammed for the VSS signal since it's currently set at 4000 PPM compared to the F23 which is 24216 PPM on 195/70/R14 tires. Having Ryan do it again for me. Plan to send it out soon.

Got progress done today, picked up the machined flywheel and installed it with ARP bolts torqued to 30ft-lbs and installed with lock-tight, installed stock getrag clutch on that, and finally mated the F23 to the 3800. A few things I noted after I did so, is that #1 it IS difficult to get at the fill cap with the exhaust crossover in place. Looks like you can still remove it but make sure the exhaust has cooled down completely first and I'm somewhat concerned on the cap melting, but we will see. Second possible issue, however minor, is the crossover pipe looks like it will hit the original cable mounting boss. Not really a problem though, just giving a heads up, now this gives me a reason to cut it down/off if needed, never really liked that thing sticking out in the first place.

Others have had issues with the HTOB over-extending on stock engines (2.8, 3800) so far, and after you mate the engine and F23 together there is a hole at the bottom of the transmission that you look up into the bellhousing and see if it's compressed enough or not. Well, I looked and..I couldn't see anything other then the pressure plate. Don't forget 3800 do not have threads in one of the bell-housing bolt holes with the alignment pin. So don't try to put a bolt there.

Just got your message.

Umm... Ok this is good stuff. Crossover - You're using the 3800 crossover which has the shield around it right? If you are, I wouldn't worry much about temperatures, the shield insulates pretty well. If it melts, go from there. Take a picture when you get the exhaust mounted, I'd like to see the clearance.

Original Mount Protrusion - Cut it down. Take a good picture, I'll toss it in the tutorial.

HTOB Clearance - Are you sure that the flywheel you used was cut to .840" from flywheel surface to the mounting boss on the back? If you are, this is a good thing. Turn the engine over by hand to be sure the HTOB didn't bottom out as it compressed. If it hasn't, you should have more than enough range on the shaft. Remember, I had to use a spacer to bridge the HTOB to the flywheel, but I could barely see the engagement when I looked through the hole at the bottom. If you can't, as long as the bearing hasn't bottomed out, you should be far away from the end of the HTOB range. Like I said, the math works out. Good.

I see you've already got the VSS pigtail wired. Cool. The backup light pigtail is easy to find in the yard, it's shared with a bunch of different sensors.

Everything else looks good. Good work.

Yea, I don't think it's going to actually melt, it's now just a PITA to get too when the exhaust is installed. I'll install it and take a pic when I get my bolts in the mail.

I cut it down best I could, and you won't actually see it very much with the crossover anyway.


I'm think it was, not positive though. The machine shop took 7 thousands off the surface of the flywheel to surface it. I tried to take some pictures of it, but it's hard to visualize depth in pictures compared to reality. You can see the hole on the bottom, and how the pressure plate would pretty much obstruct my view.
One thing to think about is the PP fingers were not sticking out, they were pretty flat in the PP. Again, wish I took a picture of the clutch before installing it.
BTW, I did turn the engine over a few times, and I didn't feel anything bad, but what would happen if it was bottomed out?

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 11-30-2011).]

progress is looking great! are you building a harness or having someone do it for you? i dont remember what you said, if you did haha.

quote Originally posted by americasfuture2k: progress is looking great! are you building a harness or having someone do it for you? i dont remember what you said, if you did haha.

Well you can see the harness in the pictures, but yes Tstang429 already did 85% of the wiring, I'm just finishing it and cleaning it up.

If the bearing had bottomed out and was being clamped against the base of the assembly, there would resistance to spin, and certainly audible noise. If it spins over freely and there's no noise coming from that area you're probably ok. Just use common sense really. If the transmission slid onto the clutch disk and tightened to the engine easily without resistance, and there's no noise or resistance as you spin the engine, you're fine. The only way that flywheel's going to be a problem is if enough material wasn't machined off of it. It should always be .840" flange to surface. If that were my engine, I'd pull it back apart and get a caliper on the flywheel, just so I could forget about it. I think about stuff like that all day. The fewer things on my mind bothering me, the better. But that's me, there's no reason you can't hope for the best and wing it.

I wouldn't worry about melting the cap. I had mine on there dealing the turbo and there was no issue.

Sorry I didn't see this earlier, the bracket isn't in the way.

[This message has been edited by Jncomutt (edited 12-01-2011).]

quote Originally posted by L67: If the bearing had bottomed out and was being clamped against the base of the assembly, there would resistance to spin, and certainly audible noise. If it spins over freely and there's no noise coming from that area you're probably ok. Just use common sense really. If the transmission slid onto the clutch disk and tightened to the engine easily without resistance, and there's no noise or resistance as you spin the engine, you're fine. The only way that flywheel's going to be a problem is if enough material wasn't machined off of it. It should always be .840" flange to surface. If that were my engine, I'd pull it back apart and get a caliper on the flywheel, just so I could forget about it. I think about stuff like that all day. The fewer things on my mind bothering me, the better. But that's me, there's no reason you can't hope for the best and wing it.

Alright then. It slid right on, bolted right up easily, and turns easily enough (spark plugs installed, man does that thing have good compression). But one would think that if it was an amount larger then .840" that made a difference, the PP would hit the inside case of the transmission.

quote Originally posted by mattwa: I see the bolts are sticking out of the mounting point on the end of the case, did you use that?

Yes

After that flywheel was machined down and surface ground, I took it to work with me and verified the thickness with a digital TESA HITE gauge. Still wouldn't hurt to double check for peace of mind.

On another note, I got my clutch line adapter from Rodger Thelin today, and installed it. Man was that old line connector so gummed up, made sure to clean up everything before installing the new one. I also removed the bleeder screw, to make sure it would actually come out noting how bad it looked, and cleaned it up a tad. Put everything back together (don't loose the spring inside it) and it's all good. Side note, WD-40 removes the nice black paint on the clutch adapter. :/

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 11-30-2011).]

The adapter needs to be painted if you don't want it to rust. I'd paint that bleeder too.

quote Originally posted by L67: The adapter needs to be painted if you don't want it to rust. I'd paint that bleeder too.

Done.

I also got a pin crimper, and a VSS buffer with the EVAP and back-up switch connectors I needed in the mail today, with all but the crimper coming from phonedawgz, thanks!

Man!
You do nice work. And you're quick, too.
I got your PM about the thread, and then got wrapped up in Thanksgiving stuff.
If I'd have waited until the weekend, I'd probably be watching your crank/run videos.

------------------
Raydar
88 Formula IMSA Fastback. 4.9, NVG T550

Praise the Lowered!

quote Originally posted by Raydar: Man! You do nice work. And you're quick, too. I got your PM about the thread, and then got wrapped up in Thanksgiving stuff. If I'd have waited until the weekend, I'd probably be watching your crank/run videos.

LOL! This is what happens when you're totally obsessed about a project. But not quite, sadly there is still a good amount of stuff to do before that, and the 30F weather with snow doesn't help.

I got my exhaust bolts and 3" J-pipe in the mail today.

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 12-02-2011).]

Today I installed the exhaust with new gaskets and ARP bolts, and did a bunch of wiring, nothing really note worthy there except I started using the pins and pin crimper for the first time, wow, that works so nicely. Re-pinning is the better way to do things, but unless you go crazy, you can't avoid some soldering joints, which isn't a problem with me as I can do it correctly.



I stand corrected about the F23 fill cap, it won't melt, I have more room then I thought I did.

Looking good Matt, I can't wait to do this myself in a few months

Looking good, can you do me a favor and paint that ALT black or something.
The rusted out dirty look is messing with the Purdy parts.

quote Originally posted by nosrac: Looking good, can you do me a favor and paint that ALT black or something. The rusted out dirty look is messing with the Purdy parts.

The alternator? Yea I plan on painting it silver.

I stumbled upon a Series 3 Stainless steal fuel rail for the L26 yesterday. I reached in my pocket for the quick disconnect tool but then realized the front rail had been bent pretty badly - front end collision car. Sorry buddy.

I got an s3 rail, interested?

I dropped the cradle in skye today, so I had to move things around in garage to make space and free up the rolling pallet (what I call it anyway). My mom took pictures of me dropping the cradle. This is cradle drop #8 for me. Over the 8 times I have found the easiest way to drop the cradle with the equipment I have. I used the trunk latch 7 times as well, and I have never had a problem. Normally I wouldn't post so many pictures on dropping a cradle, but what the hell.







After that I brought the cradle in the garage I started taking things apart, pulled the Duke off, put it on the engine pallet my dad made, (which it actually somewhat broke from the weight of the Duke), and I started tearing it down for the fun of it. So after I quit for the day the garage looked like this.


I also got my most of my exhaust system, so I half-assembled it on the floor and took a picture. Obviously I need to cut the J-bend down alot but hey, it looks cool. After I weld it I'm going to paint it with very high temp flat blue paint (because it's what I already have sitting on the shelf doing nothing).

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 12-04-2011).]

quote Originally posted by Jncomutt: I got an s3 rail, interested?

PM sent.

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 12-04-2011).]

That is going to be LOUD.

------------------
Turbo 3800 E85 5spd spec5
11.54@132.7

quote Originally posted by Justinbart: That is going to be LOUD.

LOL, I'm sure it'll be quiet compared to my other Fiero, this setup actually has a muffler. The exhaust on my V8 is what one would call "loud".

And it's currently my Daily Driver BTW.

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 12-04-2011).]

Among other things, I made the shift cable bracket today, all I need to do is get a 1" hole saw, drill the holes, clean it up some more and then paint it.

quote Originally posted by mattwa: Among other things, I made the shift cable bracket today, all I need to do is get a 1" hole saw, drill the holes, clean it up some more and then paint it.

Mind making a double?

PM sent..

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 12-06-2011).]

I am also interested in your bracket

Took the Duke and other parts to the scrap yard today. Afterwords I drilled the holes in the bracket and painted it. I might put a clear coat on it, but other then that, the first one is done. It's the prototype, I tweaked the design a tad, my next ones will be better. Going to add more material on the bottom, reduce the "cut out" section.
So yes I will sell these brackets at the least, the mounts is the next project I'm going to work on, and we'll see how that goes. I'm thinking I'm going to sell the cable brackets for $50 plus shipping. I'm not taking orders now though, I want to get some made first other then my own. But I'm going to guess most would want to wait until I make both mounts as well, right?

Anyway. Pictures.

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 12-06-2011).]

Looks good! I think you have more ingenuity then me.

Well today I did a bunch of wiring, had to lengthen the C203 as it was too short. Had the hardest time with the spare C500 connector, I just couldn't get the damn pins out. After that, I drained the F23 and removed the tri-pots. I installed the lower flywheel plate on the F23 next, but I had to cut a good amount of material off it to get it to fit around the 3800 block. Removed the control arms with knuckles, axles, and struts still attached, not messing with those. Then I put the 3800/F23 on the cradle...man do I have work ahead of me with the mounts. My poly engine mount I picked and the 88 WCF mount make the engine sit WAY to low. I had to use a 3/4" plywood piece to raise it up enough to get the oil pan off the pallet. Just trying to think of the best way to do the F23 mounts as well. A bit overwhelmed atm, that's all.

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 12-12-2011).]

I haven't been feeling the greatest today, so I didn't do much. I did however, figure out (thanks to phonedawgz) how to remove and add pins in the C500, so I added the pins I needed for the trunk release and back-up lights. But the main thing I did was remove all four control arm bushings. The method I use is so easy, I basically heat up the outer sleeve with a propane torch and press it out with a C-clamp, takes no effort at all. No luck on the front cradle bushings though, I need a bigger C-clamp for those. But I took the time and made two sizes, one for control arms and the other the cradle, of fixtures I put on one end and use that with the C-clamp to push the bushings out no problem after the sleeve is hot.

Went and bought two brass 90 degree elbows and 5/8" barb adapters among other things today. I have the 1/2-13 NPT tap, just need the 23/32" drill bit for the fittings. Then I actually got both front cradle bushings out today without too much trouble.