When you said you smelled something burning my first thought was THE FIERO, OH NO! Glad to hear your safe and yes that material they use on them fridges is toxic.
Originally posted by Fiero2m4Fastback: I watched the last video of your problem. I'm no expert at all but that o2 reading looks way to flat. I suspect a wiring problem problem on the o2.
Noted and passed along (see below)
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Originally posted by Danyel: John asked to be put back in GFC .... more traffic here than in CZ
Yes, very true. Traffic to the thread, when I would post updates and such was almost non existent. I asked Cliff if it would be ok to put it back in general chat, and Wala!
Ok, small update today.
I have had the car covered, as you can only imagine how frustrated I have been with it. Today is the first time I have started it in a couple months. A few days ago I heard about this retired guy that is a $pecialist in diagno$ing problems He stopped by this afternoon and hooked up a scanner to the car. He was bouncing between screens on the scanner and taking some notes. When I asked him the temperature, he had to go back like 8 screens and down to find it.
When he unhooked the scanner, I popped in my Bluetooth OBDII reader, and fired up Torque on the tablet. He was impressed with the customization of being able to put different information onto a single screen and watch everything interact.
One thing he noticed immediately on the tablet, was the pulse width. It was sitting around 2.4, of which he said was a little high but very tolerable for this "beefy engine". When we would advance the throttle quickly, the pulse width would drop to around 1.4. Basically cutting the fuel flow way back, as you are trying to accelerate. EXACTLY what has been the problem I have had, just not knowing why.
He gathered up his notes, readings and such, and is going home to hit the books and research and back-trace possible reasons. What we know, is the computer controls the pulse rate, the computer is seeing SOMETHING that is telling it to drop the pulse rate. The key is finding what is giving the computer the incorrect information, and telling it that it should drop the pulse rate.
Pretty cool John ... hope the person finds the problem and resolves it.. Here is a little article that describes the issues in your thread refers to Here and the solutions or tracking the exact problem.. I asked my mechanic he will get back to me..... regards Danyel
[This message has been edited by Danyel (edited 10-11-2017).]
Is the air cleaner still attached directly to the MAF or did you get a CAI on it?
No, it is connected to the Throttle body Yea, I have not installed a CAI as of yet.
I read through that page Danyel, and passed the info on to my mechanic as well to look over.
I just posted the below info in a new thread in General Chat, as not everyone is interested and reads my build thread. I will repost the info here just to keep everything I have done / am doing in one place.
Seems that the fuel pressure regulator that I purchased, has a blown diaphragm. Allowing fuel to get sucked through the vacuum line according to a mechanic I had here.
I need to get one ordered, and delivered ASAP . I need to get it installed before he returns to continue diagnostics. The Series III is a return-less fuel system.
Now that we know the fuel pressure regulator was setup wrong, which would cause your car to see higher than normal fuel pressure while driving, and the long term fuel trims (LTFT) would try to adjust for the excess fuel.
Your off-idle pulse width issue might be related to the current stored LTFT. As you come off of the idle, the ecm will automatically adjust for the LTFT (idle LTFT is different), so if the LTFT off idle said to reduce fuel by 15%, it would do it automatically do this as you entered the appropriate range.
Once you get the fuel pressure regulator replaced and plumbed correctly, I would reset all DTCs and reset the ecm to clear all the LTFTs.
Ok, Fuel pressure and flow are now at the very top of my list. I purchased a FPR this afternoon at NAPA. I have a mechanic friend of mine scheduled to come over at 5:15 tonight. I have known him for 25 years, and he is employed with the local School Board as a mechanic for the past 30 years. From dump trucks, dozers, fleet cars, buses... he knows his stuff.
First let me say that I am so sick of this car, and working on it, I do not want to lift a finger to do anything on it any longer. Therefore I am paying others to do the work, as I just want the car DONE!
Backstory: The specialist mechanic I had over determined that the fuel pressure regulator was hooked up completely wrong, and the diaphragm in it had ruptured. I found the proper way to hook it up in another thread, with an inline tee to hook it up properly with a return, and the vacuum line going to the port directly under the SC snout.
I have noticed transmission fluid on the ground under the Fiero lately, and booked a mechanic friend to come over and have a look. He saw that someone had put a hole in the pan, to drain the fluid, and plugged it up with a rubber plug. The plug was old, and starting to dry out. I ordered a gasket ($35.00), and a new pan ($45.00) on Amazon, and 6 quarts of transmission fluid ($46.00). The mechanic came over last night and changed the pan, and helped me hook up the new fuel regulator. It is hooked up correctly this time, with a proper return. It was late when he left, and the battery on the car was dead from having sat for 3 months. I put the charger on the battery and let it charge over night.
When I got home from work today, there is a nice puddle of transmission fluid under the car again. Another problem fixed, that is not fixed.
I started the car, and the fuel pressure regulator gauge was showing around 6 psi. (Factory setting I guess) I adjusted the hex screw, and set it at 53 psi, as is the factory psi for the L32 engine. I verified the pressure by attaching a gauge to the fuel rail. Both read exactly 53 psi. With the fuel pressure regulator now fixed, I excitedly hopped in, and took it around the block.
It was popping for a bit, then slightly smoothed out for almost 30 seconds.. About a half mile from the house, it stalled, and from that point on I had to keep my foot on the gas at every stop sign just to keep it running. I restrained myself with every ounce of strength in me not to attempt to get up to at least 40mph, and just wrap it around a tree once and for all. I am serious when I say that.... 100%. I did manage to get it home, and took 5 separate times of it stalling, and restarting it just to get it up my driveway that is on a VERY easy slope (5 degrees maybe).
There it now sits in the driveway again, just as the past 8 times that it was determined what the problem was, fixed the problem, and now it will run...... yea right.............
I
[This message has been edited by JohnWPB (edited 11-08-2017).]
So the mechanic just called and will be here in about 15 minutes. He has some scanning equipment and some other stuff he wants to use to try to figure out what is wrong.
This has been an insane journey to get this car running with the 2.8 properly, which never happened. It continues with a swap that now does not want to run correctly after being installed, diagnosed, inspected and checked out over and over again by no less than 4 mechanics. It really is something that is almost impossible to believe.....
John.... My 2 cents..... you been having these different issues from the beginning.... I would suspect this is from bad wiring ...... the common denominator with both engines having issues is they are and were BOTH connected to the same wiring... without a solid foundation (the wiring) you may be pursuing issues cause by MANY wiring problemes.... ya get one problem solved then the other issues pops up !!!
Good luck my friend !!! hope ya resolve the issues
Danyel
[This message has been edited by Danyel (edited 11-19-2017).]
Well, it was NOT bad wiring, though it seems everything pointed to that..... It was the new Ignition Control Module I put on when I was rebuilding the engine. It is not something I thought could be bad, as the coils and the ICM are new.
The mechanic that has been coming over in the afternoons wanted to do the basics, and check out everything. He brought over some schematics that he had printed out from his AllData account. I can not believe people pay THOUSANDS of dollars for a subscription to their database! The images were VERY low resolution .gif files, that you could not read the wiring colors because the images are so low resolution, the letters look like globs of random pixels. It is not his printer, as the header and footer text was perfectly clear.
He was trying so hard to work from them. I ran inside and found an AMAZING TUTORIAL ONLINE on how to diagnose the ICM with a quick Google search. It is one of the best tutorials I have seen on the Internet. What you need, HIGH resolution images, and step by step for checking everything. When you check and get a result, he explains what it means.
So, all of that aside, the car is running great, but bogs down when you try to really get her to go. It is not backfiring and popping like it used to, just feels like I was towing a heavy trailer when you try to get on it.
Here is a photo I took of her tonight in a dark parking lot. I have an Axon7 cell phone from ZTE, and it can take some AMAZING night photos! I am a semi professional photographer, and have to say this camera is impressive. This thing can rival the night shots I take with my Canon DSLR camera! You can actually make out the clouds in the sky. I had to put the phone on a shopping cart, so it stays completely steady for 15 seconds to get the shot. There is VERY little low light noise in the photo. Keep in mind also, this was reduced from a 7 megabyte file at 4608 x 2592 to a 250k file at 900 x 566. That REALLY reduced the quality of the original image just to be able to post it here. Sorry about the photography rant / lesson, I just find it impressive for night shot from a cell phone.
Now that it's running good, I just need to tune it out and figure out what is causing the bogging down feeling when accelerating quickly.
[This message has been edited by JohnWPB (edited 12-04-2017).]
Thanks everybody.... has been a long road for sure, and there are still things to do to get it right.
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Originally posted by tshark: Are you using while bulbs for your tail lights and PONTIAC lights? They appear to be a bit washed out.
I am using LED's, they are about the same brightness as the stock bulbs, maybe just a tad bit brighter. I did notice it looked washed out in the photo, but it does not look that way in person. I think it is just a matter of over exposure on my poor little cell phone sensor
Maybe. I use LEDs, also, but I matched the LED color to the lens color:
I had to use my Canon DSLR to get the correct color / exposure on the tail lights. No matter what I tried, my cell phone washed out the red of the tail lights, making them look almost pink. Your photo was probably taken with average metering, and with 50% of the image being white, it brought the exposure down a bit.
This is very close to what they look like to the naked eye at dusk.
I had to hurry and take the photo, as it is drizzling and a COLD 62 degrees. Just kidding, PERFECT temperature. It is going down to the mid 40's here tonight, which is a bit chilly for this far south. I have already opened the bedroom windows, and put a box fan blowing in. First time this year I have been able to get some nice outside fresh air, and turn the A/C off.
[This message has been edited by JohnWPB (edited 12-09-2017).]
MooooHAAAAhaaahahahahahah!!!!!!!!!!! OMG! HFS! (That does NOT stand for Harbor Freight Scissors!) LOL LOL LOL!!!!! This is what I LITERALLY sounded like just a few minutes ago! and I am serious!
I just took the car out for a quick run around the neighborhood, and it was running amazingly! I took it out on the 4 lane road behind my neighborhood, I made the right onto the road.........and stepped on it. The Super Charger wined like I never heard it spool up before, and it launched like a friggin' missile pushing me back into the seat! I passed the car I had to wait for, to make the right turn on the road, in just a few seconds from almost a dead stop! I was literally laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes! A combination of excitement, and serious relief that this may be finally mechanically Ok. I did this a few times, and every time I was laughing out loud! WoW! this thing is quick! Damn! Just an FYI, I did not go past 55 MPH, as the speed limit on that street is 45. 5 years, hell its actually 6 now, with the past year being the swap, and it is running as it should. I still have a grin on my face, and my face actually hurts! LOL!
[This message has been edited by JohnWPB (edited 12-09-2017).]
That is awesome! I had finished my L32 swap in NJ only a few days before I moved to Florida in April. I barely got to drive it, let alone test it. I remember when I first got here...I took the car off the trailer and hit 441 in Wellington. . I opened the car up and just giggled. I can totally relate to your story.
MooooHAAAAhaaahahahahahah!!!!!!!!!!! OMG! HFS! (That does NOT stand for Harbor Freight Scissors!) LOL LOL LOL!!!!! This is what I LITERALLY sounded like just a few minutes ago! and I am serious!
I just took the car out for a quick run around the neighborhood, and it was running amazingly! I took it out on the 4 lane road behind my neighborhood, I made the right onto the road.........and stepped on it. The Super Charger wined like I never heard it spool up before, and it launched like a friggin' missile pushing me back into the seat! ...
Video?
Edit - Or, hell... even audio will work.
[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 12-10-2017).]
Congrats!!! and good on you for sticking it out. Now all you have to do is learn not to stomp on it when the cars with the blue and red lights on them are around.
Here is a quick video I did this afternoon. nothing special, but you can certainly hear the super charger spool up. You can also clearly hear that it kinda "boggs down" whenever I first start to go. You can then hear it clear out, and really start to go.
He stopped by this afternoon and hooked up a scanner to the car. He was bouncing between screens on the scanner and taking some notes. When I asked him the temperature, he had to go back like 8 screens and down to find it. 
