I got a few minutes today to try to figure out what it wrong with the motor in the car. I noticed the other day when I pulled it out of the shop to work in there that it left a little trail of fuel all the way from where it was parked to where it stopped. It looks like it is on the passenger side around the area of the pulleys or the battery somewhat. I tried to look in there today and start it up but the darn car was actually on empty and I had not noticed it when we arrived here at my home with the car. Therefore I could not just start it and watch to see where the fuel was coming from. Anyone got any suggestions on what might be leaking fuel in that area? Tomorrow I am gonna try to pick up some gas in my fuel can and put some in there and see if I can get it to leak again. The first time I pulled it out and back in I did not notice the fuel leaking but that does not mean that it was not leaking. I really am not too happy about this but the good news is that it might be what it wrong with the car if it is getting low fuel pressure. Who knows right. Anyways, I also did some cleaning up under the hood vacuuming out quite a few leaves and junk from under the spare tire and other stuff in there. I only had about an hour to work on it today after I worked on this Stainless Steel Tig welding job all day so I am hoping for more time to play with it this weekend.

I also was looking at pictures of other Notchback Fieros online and on pennocks and have found some other ideas I may want to incorporate into this car. I had seen Bruce's fiero in the mall and that car is absolutely gorgeous. I usually do not like the Archie Rockers on the fiero's but for some reason they really look nice on that car. I am wondering if they would look good with what I plan to do to my car in the photoshop. I had planned to use some side scoops anyways and the archie rockers would take care of that as well as make the car appear lower. Here is a link to that thread. Sure is a nice car.... Peace

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum4/HTML/053810.html

Pete

[This message has been edited by Pete Matos (edited 05-03-2012).]

The area of the fuel line you described sounds like the hard lines around the fuel filter, those tend to rust out so check there, and check the filter while your down there as well. It actually wouldn't hurt to replace it.

That's kinda what I was thinking gonna check into it tomorrow when I am off work here. There may be rust on the lines but honestly this is about as rust free a fiero as I have ever seen... I know someone replaced the fuel pump recently so I am thinking that it may just be a loose connection or something like that. Thanks for the ideas...peace

Pete

Spent a little more time cleaning up the front compartment on the new fiero today. It is starting to look a lot better but the areas under the headlight motors are pretty dirty. I still have yet to order the gears to rebuild the motors so I still have to do that. I hope to get the front compartment cleaned up and I want to have a looksee inside the heat and air ducting to make sure there are no nests or tree debris surprises. I tried to clean up the stainless exhaust tips but they are pretty gunked up. I may need to remove them to thoroughly clean them but I may actually just get some of the vette tips if I can swing it. Lots of little stuff needed for the car but luckily it is not too bad. One nice thing is that the car already has brand new dew wipes on both sides which is apparently a real PIA to install so that is one nice thing anyways.

I have a fellow coming tomorrow to purchase one of my machines. He drove a considerable distance and I sincerely hope he buys it so I can upgrade to a larger machine. SO tomorrow I will be demonstrating it to him most of the morning and if he does buy it I will probably be spending most of the afternoon loading it up for him. I hope things go well. I am also about finished with a large stainless tig welding project I have been working on for about two weeks now so I should be done with that and getting it to the customer probably monday. I hope you folks don't mind me rambling on about things but I am trying to make more time for restoring and customizing this little car of mine. It sure is pretty decent already. Anyways I am gonna take off the plastic cover in front of the windshield because I think there are a lot more pine needles and garbage underneath it. Dunno what you call it but you have to remove the windshield wipers to get it off. Hope you guys are doing well and that you are enjoying driving and tinkering on your fiero's this weekend. Peace

Pete

I am slowly working on the Fiero trying to get the stock engine running smoothly. It has some kinda miss in it. I did a compression check on all cylinders and it seems to have good numbers from about 147 low to 151 high. I did a basic tuneup and replaced cap, rotor, wires, plugs, etc .... It helped but it is still not happy. I just pulled off the UIM in hopes of finding a problem under there. I did find a vacuum line that should have gone to the fuel pressure regulator unhooked. I popped it back in but not sure how that will affect it. I am going to be cleaning it up under there and will probably remove the fuel injectors and clean or replace them. I am going to seriously look at fabricating my own version of Dawg's intake mods. I can certainly machine the throttle body and make a new aperture plate and I think I have some of the aluminum tubing here that I can tig weld in to make the neck larger on the intake. I noticed on mine the EGR input goes in there in that area so I will have to look at what I can do. I do not intend to keep this motor in the car for terribly long as it will eventually get the 3800 turbo I want in there but I may actuallly install some roller rockers and port out the exhaust logs and open up this intake a bit just to experiment a little. Since the car is an auto it will need all the help it can get I think. Still up in the air about the manual swap.

I am going to be removing the wing so that I can maybe sell it or trade it up/down for the Saleen convertible wing I want on the car. I am also looking for the better dashboard and the AUX gauge cluster so I can work on the interior. All of this will be secondary to getting the stock engine running good so I can take a ride in the car when I want to while I am building it. I am also researching some wheels for the car. I gotta admit I really loved the full polished chrome ones I had on my last GT. They really sparkled and I got lots of compliments on them. I may go with that again but this time with a slightly different style of wheel.

Anyone know a good way to clean and check the fuel injectors? Can ya just take them to the auto parts store and have them checked out? Peace

Pete

Little update here guys. Spent some time over the father's day weekend working on my fiero project. Took apart the drivers side door to check out the hinges and the inside door latch problem. I managed to install the new bushings and pins in the door and now I am gonna machine a new roller for the spring loaded keeper and the door really seems to close and swing nice and smooth now and everything lines up good with the body. Unfortunately the interior door handle is broken at the wrist. I think I hqve made arrangements to get another one in a trade deal so hopefully I can get that done soon too. Gonna work on greasing up the locks and window tracks to make my power features work the way they should and do the other side door the same way this weekend I hope. It really is simple to do the door pins at least the way I did it.

Finally got my cnc machining center moved over to the shop the other day and now I gotta wire it all up and get familiarized with the new control. Gonna be sweet to have that is for sure....

Unfortunately I woke up Wednesday morning with a lot of pain in my lower right side and wound up in the hospital with an appendicitis ... went into surgery yesterday morning and now I am sitting here in a hospital bed texting this posting from my cell eating jello......sucks but oh well coulda been a lot worse I guess. They tell me I gotta take it real easy for a few weeks or I can tear it and wind up with a hernia or something. Good news is the pain is gone now but the incision areas are kinda sore..... hoping to be able to go home today and eat some reql food again and sleep in my wonderful huge kingsize bed that happens to have my wife in it. Oh well I am sure I will be tinkering with the fiero while I am home recuperating....it will give me something to do.....hehehe peace

Pete

I've been reading when I can, but you do tend to post a lot at once, ya know

I actually started my 85 today, and drove it around the neighborhood for a while. I really miss driving a Fiero every day, so I need something to give me a good kick in the rear so I can get it restored and legal again. So much to do, so very little time, and not enough tools or space to work with.

Really.....I was actually thinking I was not posting much as I still have tons to do on this project. I have the opposite situation tho, I have space enough to do basically whatever I want and I fortunately have all the tools a man could want to do it with but I have had a lot of stupid stuff pop up on me lately like this appendicitis and some other things that have taken either my spare time up or made it difficult for me to get out there and work on my car.

I am really pleased with the way the drivers side door opens now. I can't tell you how annoying it is to me when the door creaks and drags open. Now it is like a new car door and it is much more satisfying to get into the car. If I can figure out what is wrong with the motor and get this thing running soon I will rewlly be able to enjoy driving it a lot more while I try to restore it and mod it to my liking. Gonna try to work on it soke more today. Also gotta get a new garage door installed too. Always something.....hehe peace

Pete

Lovely.

At this point, I'm tempted to see how much Dean would want to get the thing overhauled. It isn't like he's starved for work, but I've got a lot of stuff rolling around in my head and just getting it done would be a small victory, I think.

Also, this thread needs more pics, I think.

Yeah I know I do need to take some pics but right now I am just doint simple stuff like door pins and not much too see really yet. I promise I will take some pics soon tho.....peace

Pete

Well I got some great news guys.... I have been slowly trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with my fiero's stock engine so I can drive it while I work on it. So far I had not had much luck at all. Well I was out in the shop working on my new VMC install and found that I needed to move the car outside to be able to do what I needed to do on the machine. I put the key in the ignition to be able to put it in neutral so I can push it outside and when I went to start pushing it I noticed a heavy fuel smell. I know I had a leak but had since not been able to find it. Well I asked my lovely wife to sit in the car and cycle the key on and off to pressurize the system. I had just bought one of those Harbor Freight Fuel pressure tester rigs and I had actually put it on there the other day and got like 48 lbs. Well I grabbed a flashlight and looked down into the engine bay while she popped the key on and off and noticed that there was a wet spot that looked pretty fresh on the cradle on the right side under the battery. I kept looking and still found nothing so I had her keep popping the key on and off and I shoved my head under the rear wheel and peered up into that area and was rewarded with a nice high pressure spray of fuel in my face that was coming out of the bottom crimped area at the bottom of one of the two rubber fuel lines going to the intake area. It looks like there is a hairline crack and is making it a real highly atomized spray that was difficult to see. Quite honestly this could have been REALLY bad if I drove the car too much as it was spraying not too far from the exhaust area. So the good news is that I FINALLY found a real problem that may contribute to the bad running conditions and also can hopefully get a new one in there and maybe replace both of them while I am at it. They both look worse for the wear. Anyone got a good source for these lines or is it just better to make some custom ones? They only appear to be around a foot and a half in length. I am quite anxious to find a replacement so that hopefully the car will run good now. I have tested everything else I think. Other than that vacuum line I found loose going to the fuel pressure regulator there is not much that has not been replaced by myself or the previous owner. Gonna go call O-reilley auto parts now and see what the damage is. Peace

Pete

I love that you like my old Notchie. Tomorrow I hope to take some pics of my fastback converted to a notchie it looks the same as the old one but Red so close to what your color is. It has 18" 6 spoke wheels and the my lower body kit. I will make about 5 of the lower door and rear bumper winglets kits at this time.

I have not updated this thread in quite some time here but this project is STILL in the works. I have some running issues with the stock engine that I finally attributed to some leaky fuel lines. Thanks to John on here I was able to get a set of factory lines in good shape real cheap. Well I received them this past week and I am hoping to get them installed this week. With any luck this will fix my poor running problems and I can finally drive this baby around a bit. I also still have a bunch of parts I traded for that need replaced on the car such as some better tail lights and interior parts. The car is still here and in decent shape so I am trying to get the parts I need to get things rolling here.

I talked to my neighbor across the street today and he is a used car dealer. He wished me Merry Christmas and we started chatting about things. He told me he might have something that I would be interested in here and proceeded to tell me about a car he sold to a fellow and that he saw it sitting on the side of the road in town here. Well apparently it sat there for a couple days so he called the customer who still owes money on the car and asked him what is up with it. Apparently he said the engine blew and he did not have the money to fix it so he told him to just repossess it. Well he did and when he got it back apparently the interior was thrashed and the engine blew a head gasket. I was like well that sucks man I am sorry you got taken advantage of. Then he tells me that the car is a Pontiac Grand Prix GTP!! Suddenly the story got a lot more interesting. I asked him how many miles are on it and he said he thought it was like 140k or so. He asked me if I was interested in the drivetrain as he was planning on crushing the car. I said sure but I am pretty broke right now and he said well I need some welding done on a car at my shop so if you can fix that car you can have the drivetrain and anything else you need from the Grand Prix.. I was like hell yeah that sounds like a deal man. He is supposed to get it moved to the back of their lot where I can pull the drivetrain or he may be able to bring it over to my shop so I can do it and then he will call the yards to buy the carcass. I dunno the condition of the engine other than it blew the head gasket and there is the milky oil as he said so it may be smoked it may be just a simple upper end redo. He said the auto tranny was in good shape the guy said tho. I THINK this would be the 4t65E HD model in the GTP I hope. With any luck I might be able to get a drivetrain I can use in the Fiero here in trade for just a little work. Not getting my hopes up too much right now but we shall see.

Have not heard from Kurtmylar about the new car he was building in the last post. I hope to see what he has here soon. I am still looking to trade the factory spoiler on my car for that sweet Mustang Saleen Convertible one. If this engine is any good I will be looking to get another cradle to install the motor on while I can drive the car. Wish me luck guys...LOL. Peace

Pete

Hope you're felling better and no more issues come up!

One of the (many) ideas I have is the notchie's sail panel is too flat. If you curve it in like a 575M Maranello SuperAmerica it will bring it into this century.

[This message has been edited by Gokart Mozart (edited 12-21-2012).]

Thanks man.....I've been feeling a lot better lately. Still have a lot of funny pains but nothing serious. Would love to be able to get this car fixed up and running. Those Ferrari lines are amazing for sure. Not sure how you could recreate them really. I love the Kurt Mylar look actually. Hoping to get there with this baby someday. Peace

Pete

That body style with some big nasty slicks

http://www.flickr.com/photo...9633@N00/4143190683/

Really? I never thought of this body style I am going with as being a drag car look. Or a Nascar look for that matter but hey to each his own. The car actually is in my shop RIGHT NOW getting worked on. I am gonna try to get the new fuel lines installed this weekend and put the intake all back together and see if it will run better. It always has run but it has a miss or something. The compression test showed good healthy numbers for a used motor so it is just either a fuel delivery problem that I found or some kinda sensor problem. I also found a little vacuum leak under the intake manifold. Sure would be a great Christmas present if it would run like it should and I can cruise around in it on the Christmas break.

This little car has just so much damn potential. I can see it someday looking kinda like a cross between Kurtmylars and Little Devils cars. It is Gonna be a real fun car hopefully as long as I can keep working on it. Hopefully with all the off time during the Holidays I can catch up some on it. Peace

Pete

"favorited"

Either way, I kinda get a racer feel from it.

LOL thanks man.... I hope at some point it will be RACE worthy but that may take awhile....Peace

Pete

GRRRRRrrrr.. Well I am kinda bummed out here. Yesterday I spent quite some time installing my newly refurbished and nicely painted black fuel supply and return lines into my Fiero. I got everything hooked up nice and bolted down where they are supposed to be. I also managed to find all the parts for my intake and throttle body that I had taken apart awhile back trying to figure out what is wrong with this motor. Well after several hours of tinkering with it it was time to TRY to crank it up. When I tried to fire it up of course the battery was dead from not being in the car and not doing anything for quite awhile. SO I took it and hooked it up to my charger for about an hour and then went back out into the shop to try to start the car. I turned the key and did not hear anything at first then I heard the fuel pump kick on and prime up which was good, I got out and looked under the car for any obvious leaks or anything stupid and all seemed good so I gave the key a twist. The car had not run in quite awhile but it fired up after a turn or two and ran, UNFORTUNATELY it still runs like crap, it sounds like it is missing or something and I was pretty upset about it. I took it around the block HOPING it would clear out and that maybe it was from sitting but to no avail. I pulled it into the driveway and turned off the key. That is when I realized that I had removed the door handle on the drivers side to install the new unbroken one I got from a forum member here in a trade. So I could not open the door from the inside. I then tried to use the power window button to open the window so I could open the door from the outside and found that the battery had given up whatever charge it had starting the car so the power windows did not work. SO basically I was trapped inside my own car unless I wanted to crawl across the center console and open and exit the drivers side door. After the engine STILL ran so crappy I was not in a mood for this and I ALMOST Broke the damn window so I could get out of the friggin' car I was so upset. Honestly it took a little while for me to calm down enough to NOT post the thing on craigslist for a Dollar.

Anyways, I have a friend's Ford Ranger Extra cab in the shop doing some welding work on his exhaust today so the fiero is sitting outside where it died on me. Not sure what the hell I am going to do with it now. My only thoughts right now are to spray some water on the headers while it is running so I can see if each cylinder is getting fired or not. Again I already did a full compression check on it and everything seemed fine so this is puzzling. I have also replaced almost all of the ignition components. It runs and drives but it has NO power and sounds like **** missing or something. I guess I need to calm down here and step back and put on my mechanic hat and figure out what is going on. It sure would have been nice to be able to drive the damn thing. The engine sounds like it really wants to run but something is keeping it from running. Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated. Again I have replaced the cap/rotor/wires/plugs/even rebuilt the distributor as I recall and still nothing. The tranny seems to shift into gear pretty hard as well gonna have to look into that soon too. Or hell maybe I will just tear out the old drivetrain and start over I dunno.... Sorry for the venting post but I am kinda pissed at my beloved fiero right now. Gonna have to take a chill pill here and do the same thing I do when my wife and I get into an arguement, STAY AWAY FOR AWHILE....LOL Or not.... Peace

Pete

Just some ideas:
Did you check the timing? Some people try and set the timing without jumping the pins in the ALDL connector to put the computer in diagnostic mode. Or I think you said it was worked on by the previous owner? Maybe they don't have the timing advanced enough.
If it's missing pull one plug wire at a time until you find the misfiring cylinder. Maybe a bad plug wire or plug.
Hope you find the problem!

Toonman,
actually I THINK it is timed right but honestly it would not hurt to check it again. I was aware of the pinning the connector tho. The previous owner had paid someone in North Carolina to work on this car and SUPPOSEDLY the heads were rebuilt as was the entire top end of the motor but honestly it is not a sure thing. The engine in the car IS in really great shape for the year tho and if I could get it running well it would really be a nice car to pop the lid on at a local car show. The battery tray as typical is pretty rusty but the rest of the bay is in good shape overall and only needs some subtle detailing and some gas shocks for the decklid. If I could get it going I would be pretty pleased with the car and could of course get on with making the rest of the car look as good as the engine does LOL...

I MIGHT be building a sweet rollcage in a Jeep Rubicon TJ for a neighbor here in the shop soon so I would like to get the fiero repaired enough to drive before I get that rig in here. We shall see what gives as I hope to be able to work on it some more tomorrow. I still need to finish the door hinge replacement I started by replacing the door hold open roller ( dunno what you call it technically actually) and then I can put the new door handles in there I got after I pick up some LARGE rivets to replace the ones in there I will need to drill out to replace it. Lots of little things to do on the car but it is not terrible actually. Lots of potential IMHO. Peace

Pete

Hey guys....still trying to get this thing running over here today. I got it all buttoned back up and found that the fuel lines I installed are NOT leaking anymore YAY!! So I buttoned up the intake and tried to run it some more and it STILL sounds like crap. Well I got out there for some time today to try to sort it out and found a huge vacuum leak from a large diameter rubber hose that goes under the throttle body on the rear of the intake area. I cannot figure out where it goes to and it dies when I plug it up. I am wondering if I am missing a part of the engine intake or something here. Anyone know where this goes to? I am hoping this will fix the poor running issue here so any help would be appreciated. I THOUGHT there was a metal tube that went along the back side of the head along the firewall that was some kind of intake system but I cannot remember from my last 86GT and I THINK I used a hose to replace it with as the guy I bought the car from has installed a CAI on the car are just plugged it into the intake. If that is what it is I will have to find some other way using some tubing unless I can find that metal tube. Any ideas guys what that tube is? Peace


P.S. Oh and I also found out that the passenger side engine mount right under the crank pulley on my car is smoked. Anyone got one in decent shape they could send me for cheap? Possibly some of you engine swap guys here LOL....PRETTY PLEASE!!


Pete

[This message has been edited by Pete Matos (edited 12-30-2012).]

Pete,

That tube is for the idle air. Should ba an L-shaped rubber tube that goes from the back of the throttle body, down to the fitting on the lower intake, right near the cold start injector. ~3/8 inch in diameter.

As for the misfire... If you have good spark plugs, and good wires to all cylinders, I'm guessing you have a clogged injector. Not really that uncommon.
The good compression readings pretty much eliminate a mechanical problem.

Doh!! You called it man, I guess when I had the whole intake apart and was jerking around with the throttle body cleaning it I managed to dislodge it and for a couple minutes this morning I got it confused with a tube on my old car that ran along the back of the engine. I popped it back in and re-adjusted the static timing and it runs a whole lot smoother now. It is unfortunately not running perfect tho but I was able to take it for a cruise around the block and down the main street near my house. There is definitely a miss or a clogged injector as it occasionally would clean out and run good and actually felt pretty nice and then it would kinda start to run shitty again. I am thinking I am onto something here as the engine feels like it sure wants to run. When I first pulled out into the street it ran pretty good for a second or two then it was back to that kinda staccato missy feeling. DAMN was it nice to drive a FIERO again!! Honestly I was pretty concerned it would be kind of a dog with the auto tranny but that couple times it cleaned out and ran it was actually pulling pretty good!! I think if I can get this thing to run smooth here it will be a lot of fun to drive and I can start working on making the rest of the car look nice. I cannot wait to get it lowered and get my Saleen wing on the back of it LOL.... I sprayed some carb and choke cleaner across the intake and throttle body area while it was idling and there was no change so it may be some kinda electronic issue. My last Fiero had an annoying miss that caused me to think there was something internal with the engine bad but I had rebuilt the distributor and replaced everything as I have done with this car and found it was a bad distributor cap causing an occasional miss... peace


Pete

It's odd that it's coming and going like that. THAT doesn't sound like an injector, unless it's a bad connection.
Look for a plug wire shorting out on something, or even crossfiring to another wire.

If you start the engine in the dark, and move plug wires around while its running, you might see some arcing.
If not, mist a little bit of water onto the running engine, using a sprayer like a windex bottle.
Try not to get shocked.

Well......that MIGHT be your problem!! Guess I am going to the auto parts store for some new plug wires. These are almost brand new....pieces of crap!! Peace

Pete

Hey Pete nice little project car. This may be a shot in the dark but check your injector fuses. The first GT I had would miss something aweful and I did like you checking everything under the sun and found out that one of the injector fuses had blown. Car would start and idle fine and even rev up in the driveway but as soon as I started to drive it would miss. It had a lack of power too. Simple fix that may have gotten overlooked.

Donnie,
Hey thanks man I like the car and it actually looks decent in the pictures but it needs a ton of little things to be where I want it to be. Never even knew there were fuel injector fuses, gonna have to look that up. The car really feels to me like it wants to run but something is holding it back. If I could get the damn factory engine to run decent I would be pretty happy and I could concentrate on acquiring and building this 3800 monster engine of my dreams in the shop while I enjoy driving the car occasionally. The rest of the car overall is in decent shape but the roof panel is pretty hosed out. There are lots of little cracks and splits in the fiberglass that need repaired. The interior is only so so with the dash corners being the worst part. I dunno if I can even use those dash corner repair panels. I am enjoying working on the car and just driving it around even running crappy yesterday gave me a big smile on my face so like I said if it would run decent I would be pretty damn pleased with the car. It certainly has a lot of potential. I am going to spend some more time today and tomorrow trying to figure out what the hell is going on with the engine and hopefully I will figure it out. I USUALLY can get things running with all kinds of cars and have been inside many an engine in my time but I got this car from a member here and he had paid someone in North Carolina to fix it for him. That fellow who I do not know at all apparently had the heads off and tried to get it running for quite awhile and then my friend had to go pick it up from him as it took a LONG time to get fixed. Then he sold/traded it to me for work on HIS 87GT. The car actually drove to my house but it had that massive fuel leak and we are lucky it did not burst into flames and add to the Fiero fire lore LOL..... Right now the fuel leak is fixed and the majority of the electronics ignition components are brand new (not that it guarantees anything LOL) and I still cannot get it to smooth out. Since the previous owner had the heads off and other stuff apart I wonder if he had the cam out and possibly got the crank/cam chain off by one tooth.

The reason that I say it may be off one tooth is because years ago I had a good friend (still do) who owned a used car lot. He used to bring me cars to fix that needed small simple repairs so I could make some cash on the side. Well we started to get good at this and he mentioned that often at the auction there are good deals on cars that have blown engines and whatnot. Well I told him that is pretty easy to replace most engines and where to buy used engines. The next thing I know he bought a limited edition 5.0 mustang convertible that had a blown engine. The car was beautiful but the engine was toast. He got it real cheap so we found a yard in south Florida who specialized in mustangs and bought a used 5.0 complete engine. We swapped it out inside of a weekend and he made some good money on it. That started this chain of similar jobs swapping engines until one day he bought another 5.0 mustang limited edition something or other. Well this time I went with him and we selected a nice 5.0 from a wrecked mustang in the yIard. Unfortunately this car had a custom cam shaft in it. The guy said if we wanted the stock engine he would swap the cam for free and sell us the engine as it came from the factory. It ran good and we bought it. I picked it up a couple days later and we spent another weekend installing it into the car. Well this time everything did NOT go so well. No matter what I did to it the engine would not run for crap. I tried everything and my friend began to doubt my work on the install and said it might be my fault. We got into an argument and after about a week and a half of messing with it I told him I am sure it is the engine that is the problem not my install. He finally agreed to get ANOTHER engine and sure enough it went in and ran fine on first startup. It was not until I pulled the first engine and they took it apart that they realized that the camshaft was off a tooth. They actually apologized and gave my friend some money for our trouble and he was happier. I did not tear into the camshaft area while it was in the car because my friend ASSURED me that the engine was good and he actually had me doubting my installation and we were checking every sensor under the sun. It actually got kinda heated between me and my friend and we stopped doing the side work for quite awhile until we both calmed down enough to be good friends again. It sure sucked and was very stressful but I KNEW I did not mess up the install. I mean there is not that much to a 5.0 install anyways....

To make a long story short that car ran but it ran like **** and sounded a lot like my 2.8 does right now. Anyone here ever have their camshaft off a tooth on the 2.8? Does it run at all or run like crap like mine is right now? Being that the motor is a six cylinder it may not run at all that way but I dunno... I am kinda new to the 2.8 LOL

I will check into those fuses and if anyone else has any suggestions they would be most appreciated. My last Fiero GT I got and it was not running good at all and after some searching turned out to be the distributor electronics were bad.. After I swapped them out the car ran great and I am hoping for a similar experience here LOL Peace

Pete

The fuses are right next to each other in the fuse fuse block under the dash. Both are 5amp. Might not be your problem but it is sure something I overlooked for a long time and felt like kicking myself when I found it lol.

Boy do I know how that feels.... Never had this particular style of DOH!! but I have had many other flavors of DOH!!! Many many times LOL....thanks for the tip man. Peace

Pete

Pete,

Just wanted to say hello and let you know that I've not completely dropped off the face of the planet. That 85' GT you're working on sure looks a lot nicer today than it did the very first time I laid eyes on it. Believe it or not, I looked at that care briefly a month or two before I got my 88 CJB car. If I hadn't already known where you had picked it up from, there is no way you could have convinced me it was the same car! You're doing a great job on it so keep up the good work! Hopefully you can get the bugs worked out of it soon...

Robert

Robert,
Hey man thanks for the kind words, honestly I have not really been able to do much to it since I got it but try to figure out what the hell is wrong with the motor. It RUNS but it sounds like a truck and the exhaust will choke you out pretty quick. The rest of the car is only in decent shape for the year. There are LOTS of little issues that need fixing and it is NOWHERE NEAR as nice as your 88GT which is pretty much a damn new car in my view LOL... I checked those fuel injection fuses that were mentioned and they both checked good. There is a 10amp fuse below that which is not blown but also does not turn on my test light for some reason. Have not had a chance to look into it yet. I would LOVE to get this baby running so we can have another Fiero only cruise up into the mountains again. That was lots of fun. I may wind up having to tear into the engine and see what gives here.

Yesterday I got tired of messing with the engine and had a look at the battery area. The tray for the battery is just like my last 86GT TOTALLY HOSED!! It is so rusted and shitty looking I could not help myself but grab my ziss wheel and cut that ***** out of the car. You will never believe what I found UNDERNEATH the tray...... a used racing Go-kart rim!! I could not believe it but there it was stuck under the tray. After I pulled the go kart rim out I was displeased to find a rather large rust hole underneath that thing that will need to be patched. I cut away the brackets from the firewall and the side of the engine bay and stuck my hand up inside the upper frame rail area and thankfully the rust did not make it up that far. It appears that like my last car the rust is just around the battery area from ******* previous owners who do not know how to take proper care of their cars battery. The good news is that it is repairable and I intend to wire wheel the rust away and shoot some black paint on it for now until I drop the engine cradle for the 3800 swap at which time I will be able to get in there with my Tig welder easier and do a proper repair. I have not decided what to do with the battery yet, I may build my own tray up front or possibly put the thing in the rear trunk inside a proper battery box or fabricate a new tray in the stock position.

Like the last fiero I had also the supports for the decklid were weak and messed up so while I was in there with the ziss wheel I got real happy and cut those bastards out too... I intend to use the dual shock setup here on it soon anyways and if I need to get healthier shocks and make custom mounts then that is what I will do. I never cared for the factory torsion bar setup on the decklid and it is just another thing to make changing my plugs more of a ***** . Also the bolts that held the prop rod linkage to the decklid were frozen in place so I could not remove them when I wanted to which pissed me off again so this was the logical conclusion LOL... I was able to get the bolt out after I cut the rods out a lot easier.

The drivers door handle is broken on the inside and I got a new one here now so I will be swapping that out. You can probably see in the pictures that the drivers door panel is out of the car right now, it has been since I fixed the broken door hinge pin bushings. I replaced all of them except the passenger side upper now and that will be next. Trying to find the large rivets for the door handle mounting so I can drill them out and replace them with the new ones. Tons of little stuff to do like that in this car but I got the car so cheap in a trade deal for some work on another fiero that I cannot complain. If I can get it running and driving I will be so damn happy to be back in a fiero again it will take a good while to wipe the grin off my face LOL....

How's your son's GT progressing? I remember he got that maroon one that looked pretty nice. We gotta get together again and chat Fiero's sometime soon. I got NOBODY around here that is into them and my wife gets REAL TIRED of hearing me blab about the car all the time. Hell I'll buy pizza and soda just to have a Fiero buddy again. Even my pal Fyrehazard got rid of his fiero and got a damn 300ZX..... The fiero club around here is DEAD too now so I feel like the only fish in the barrel....peace


Pete

Well guys....

I have been working on the fiero some today, I managed to finally get the drivers side door handle replaced with the better used one. The old one was broken and did not work anymore. I drilled out the sole rivet on the bracket and then found a large self tapping screw to replace it with temporarily as I still have a lot of work to do with the drivers side door. It is pretty messed up as far as the window travel and everything. I am going to try to adjust it here probably tomorrow. I have STILL not been able to figure out what is wrong with the engine. I drove it again today and while it runs and drives it sounds like crap and feels kinda gutless. The tranny seems to shift okay and the passing gear is pretty sweet but the engine is just not happy. I have tried everything I know how to do with it and I am kinda getting frustrated with it. I got it timed exactly right, it cranks right up but it sounds almost like it has a miss and the idle is kinda crummy. Basically it sounds like a cylinder is missing but I pulled the plugs last time and they all seemed to be fine. I saw a post about the cold start injector causing issues, never had that particular problem but I am now wondering if it is possibly flooding the engine out. Briefly looked at the cold start injector delet kit from TLG and watched the video. Nice stuff but $100.00 is pretty steep for a simple cover and a fitting or two. When it is running especially when you first start it up it will choke you out with a heavy exhaust smell when you rev it up and it puts out kinda black smoke a tad when you gun it. That is what makes me thing it is a rich condition or it is just a miss somewhere. The plugs are new, the wires are new, the cap and rotor are new, the ICM is new, the coil pick up on the disty is new and the disty has been cleaned and reinstalled. I just dunno what the heck is wrong here and it is really annoying because the thing seems to fire RIGHT up immediately and holds idle, I am about to just jerk the whole drivetrain out of the damn car and start over. The only other thing I can think of it being is a bad injector on the intake, checked into buying some of those and boy are they expensive!! I REALLY want to be able to drive this thing while I work on the 3800SC swap here and the car is at least okay looking. I am not sure what to do now....


The corners of the dash are the typical bashed with a knee look and I was considering what to do with them today while I was in there working on the doors. The drivers door panel carpet has seen better days too so I am looking into paneling it with some vinyl with some cool stitching or something, maybe my wife can take care of me with the brand new sewing machine I bought here recently LOL... The wheels and tires area also gonna need some work and I was thinking of breaking out my bead blaster cabinet and shoving a wheel in there at a time.... Oh well just some rambling thoughts on this project. Damn I love this car but I wish I could just figure out what the heck is wrong with the motor!! Peace

Pete

[This message has been edited by Pete Matos (edited 01-05-2013).]

Pete have you checked the O2 sensor. It could be telling the car that you are running lean and allowing it to dump excess fuel thus making it run really rich to the point the exhaust burns your eyes.