Did some bondo work and paint over the fiberglass patch. First time using bondo and fiberglass and I actually really enjoyed it. It looks like its really wavy after i sanded it on the corner but thats just the discoloration an you can tell its straight on the pictures after i painted it. The paint isn't going to look consistent but neither is the paint anywhere else on the car and it looks a lot better than the huge hole. I'm not sure i will like the black deck lid with white car but I want to see what it looks like.

Installed the spoiler with a little bit of finagling because of my "custom" spoiler mounts.



Removed the a-pillar and riveted on the gauge pod. Drilled holes for the wires to the wideband. Not sure what I will put in the second pod down the road if anything but can drill the rivets out if needed. Looks good enough for me! Just need to route the wires back to the engine compartment and wire it to a switched power and a ground. Might hook out the outputs to the unused pins on the obd2 port for data logging while tuning etc.

Finally got the seal in the mail and installed it. The trans is finally back together and hopefully correctly. Made sure it shifted in the all the gears and spun the input shaft to which was pretty hard to turn but hopefully ok. Going to try and get the everything back in the engine bay and start working on fabricating the exhaust this weekend. Planning on sending my ECU out to intense with my mods list to get a tune since I can't find anyone around here that wants to tune anything other than hot boy cars made in the last 10 years.

[This message has been edited by BadNewsBrendan (edited 06-01-2021).]

Started the car and bled the coolant and everything seems to be running OK. I welded up an exhaust with a muffler and resonator and need to finish the outlet but I started the car to see what it sounds like. Now that it's quiet I can hear a rattle from the trans. I used a board to press the clutch to make sure it's not just clutch noise. It rattles in neutral and first. Is normal and I've never heard it because of the exhaust or did I screw up something on the trans rebuild?

[This message has been edited by BadNewsBrendan (edited 06-30-2021).]

Welds could use some work but considering it's the 100 dollar harbor freight welder I think it will work. The muffler is a little closer to the ground than I hoped it would be but should be ok.

Just went thru this whole thread, well done man. Rebuilt plenty of smaller engines myself but never a car engine or trans. I started w a pos hf welder too, yours look better than mine! Keep up the great work!

shem

Thanks for the kind words shem. I have been following Operation Turd Polish and checking your thread every few weeks since I bought my fiero. Amazing work and much more skilled than rebuilding an engine or trans

I drove it for the first time with all the mods yesterday without any issues so far. Love the way it sounds with the new exhaust and can hear the supercharger whine so loud but doesn't annoy the whole neighborhood with the annoying raspy exhaust I had before.

Think I found why the oil pressure is low... looks like too much metal to be from the new cam. Unless it's copper spray from the headgasket i think it's f'd. Not sure what i could have done to cause it to spin a bearing without touching the bottom end and why I didn't seen any metal before I pulled the engine...



Oh also trans is still leaking

[This message has been edited by BadNewsBrendan (edited 07-06-2021).]

I probably should have listened to the people that said bottom end rebuilds on these don't last. I am starting to wonder though if the flywheel is balanced incorrectly or something since that is the one common component on all 3 engines that have spun rod bearings. if that was the case though i would think it would take longer than a few thousand miles to ruin the bearings?

If I decide to keep trying i think i am going to find a junkyard motor with a warranty on it and just do the LIM gaskets and not touch anything else since me changing things seems to ruin these supposedly reliable engines. Then i can beat the **** out of it for the warranty month and see if it happens again and get my money back. At least then i can enjoy this car for the first time in the 3 years ive had it for a bit before it starts snowing again.

Engine 4 is in hahaaaaaa. Junkyard motor with 110000 miles. Refreshed gaskets and seals and got it in and running in 3 weeks.

Man sorry to hear about your last engine apparently eating itself so quickly! And congrats and sourcing and swapping in another engine so quick by yourself! I'd be still be trying to get everything disconnected...

Looking good man! Has Intense flashed your ECU already?

Thanks! It was a few very late nights and a lot of sweat.

Intense didn't reply to my questions so I got one from ZZP. Ran great on the other engine but I didn't want to take the time to do the whole cam swap and then it would be winter by the time I had it in the car so currently running stock cam, pulley and stickecu back in it.

Incredible documentation, loved reading it.

A bit late to the party, but GM recommends mechanics (and by extension us home-gamer types) use crimped connections instead of soldering, due to the fickle nature of soldered connections. Crimped connections are by far easier to ensure they are done properly and have good conductivity.

I am on team crimp when I have the right tools, but soldering is smaller, and lighter for tight spaces and can be cheaper if you only need the one or two connections. As you mentioned, often vibration is the enemy of soldered connections. The reason vibration causes failures in soldered connections is because it causes flexing of the joint. This leads to strain hardening of the copper and the (usually tin) solder itself. Armed with this knowledge, you can give yourself some insurance with good application of heatshrink, some strain relief in the harness, and most importantly properly securing the harness. At work we require a firm mounting every 6" of a signal harness. If you can conduit the harness, even better.

Big note that I don't usually see discussed is that you should never use soldered connections in a high temp environment, not only could it re-melt the solder if hot enough, but it can also embrittle the solder and lead to premature failure. With both high heat and lots of vibration, the engine compartment is better avoided when using solder.

-simon

Thanks for the input Simon!

Some pictures of the latest engine swap out.








I bought some RW Upholstery seats second hand that hadn't been used. The color doesn't fit the rest of the interior but its a huge improvement from the probably 15 year old seat covers that were on it. Honestly it feels like a completely different car to ride in.

those seats look cleeeaaannnn

Thanks Simon!

I replaced the leaking heater core. Only took about 45 minutes. Not a tough job.



Original radiator started leaking after I made a homemade fan shroud. Replaced it with a spare I had and then put a hole in that one with a cone at an autocross. Got a third from a pick n pull. While I was bleeding the cooling system for the heater core the 3rd replacement radiator started dumping coolant. It looks like the crappy plastic ends that are adhered to the aluminum can't handle the shroud I made pushing on it. Probably should have added some rubber or something between. Guess the car will be garaged until I can figure out if Champion is going to ever restock their all aluminum rads. I tried to buy an offbrand one on ebay but they canceled cause they didn't have it in stock. Let me know if any of you know of another option.

Went ahead and ordered this https://www.ebay.com/itm/324716056086
It was $170 when i bought it but just saw the marked it up by $2000 after i bought it. Looks like other aftermarket radiators on ebay are doing the same by at least $200. I purchased one from CHR Racing a few months back and they canceled the order, claimed the last one they had was defective, and now have it marked up by $200 for shipping now. Must be a shortage or something. I hope mine actually shows up and is the correct size and not leaking.....

Forgot to also mention, I got a response from Champion that they don't have any eta for when they will have them back in stock.

Fun little project while I wait for the radiator to come in.

New radiator came in a while back and soon after Champion radiators came back in stock..... The ebay one i bought was not an exact replacement like it said. Ended up having to chop and reweld the top mount bracket and also cut some of the rubber mounts to get it to fit. Huge pain in the ass. Hasn't leaked in the 2 drives ive taken it on so thats a start.




Hood vent is partially mounted, going to be removeable. Going to need to do some fiberglassing to fill some of the holes around it where i cut too big but i think it doesn't look bad. will be painting the hood white. Let me know what you think.

[This message has been edited by BadNewsBrendan (edited 02-01-2022).]

Mostly finished the hood. Rolled on 6 coats of rustoleum. Needs a sanding and buffing on the final layer but looks better than the rest of the car without it. Front end feels noticeably less floaty at highway speeds and no more headlights lids popping up.

[This message has been edited by BadNewsBrendan (edited 04-27-2022).]

The only tuner I trust is Ryan Gick at Sinister Performance.

He has done several tunes for me over the years with absolutely no issues.

quote Originally posted by olejoedad: The only tuner I trust is Ryan Gick at Sinister Performance. He has done several tunes for me over the years with absolutely no issues.

I'll second that!

Thanks for the tips on the tuning, if I ever get the Cam back in the engine will have to look into that.

Thanks solotwo its from a Cadilac ATS-V

My fiero was chosen to be the Gridlife Touring Cup Pace car a couple weekends ago. I changed the oil the night before and there were metal shavings in it again. Oil pressure was fine so I drove it anyway and made it the 4.5 hour round trip.

Just checked the oil again and already a ton of metal shavings. These engines are only getting harder to find with less than 150k miles and more expensive. I am just starting to not believe the people that say these engines are reliable and hard to kill. This is engine 4 thats going to be dead soon. Not really sure where to go from here. Just want a reliable engine so I can get to drive it more than like 1k miles a year and autocross/track every once in a while.

Trying to weigh my options.
1. Try and find a lower mileage junkyard L67, maybe 5th time will be the charm. Trans is still leaking and hard to find a low miles one, didn't have luck rebuilding it with new bearings to stop leak.
2. Pay an engine shop about $1500 to rebuild, buy new rods, put my NIC cam in and my 125# valve springs, double roller, etc. Still have the trans issue.
3. LS4 swap. Fairly expensive, probably won't be driving it again for 2 years.
4. Eco-tec, same issues as above.
5. K-swap, even more difficult and time consuming. Lots of aftermarket support for engine/turbo.
6. SR20DE, cheap but would be basically blazing new trails here. Good aftermarket, can maybe make 300hp with small turbo, injectors, intercooler and tune. Cool factor.
7. Throw a junkyard motor in it and sell it, hopefully the new owner has better luck than me. Find a new car project/track car. Or find a new hobby.

Open to other options if yall have any suggestions or opinions.

Probably I would set aside the Fiero for a while (not sell or do anything fast while still pissed off / annoyed), and then maybe get a nearly bone stock car as a toy you can drive.

The more you modify things, the more variables you introduce that can go wrong.

Yeah not gonna make any rash decisions without thinking about it for a while.

Decided to finally take apart the engine I built to see what went wrong and this is what the main journals looked like. Doesn't look great and the rod bearings are about the same but not sure if this is enough to cause the sudden oil pressure drop to 20psi.

Those surfaces don't too too bad. I would plasti-gauge them just to see what the clearance is.

About potential causes of oil starvation, you have been on the track... so maybe g-force has been pushing oil away from the pickup.

Check what Frenchrafe did to the oil pan on his 3800:
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/100048.html

[This message has been edited by pmbrunelle (edited 06-19-2022).]

Fieroguru I plastguaged when I built it to begin with but if I end up putting it back together will check again.

That pan is deep, will have to watch his videos to see how he did it. Would think an autocross wouldn't be enough sustained g's for oil starvation but could be wrong? Pace car was on current engine and thats the only time it's been on a track. Previous engine in pictures above I think I autocrossed twice and pressure dropped to 20 psi at idle