Okay, everything is wired up and works, the problem is, the tensioner. The belt simply isn't tight enough. I got my tensioner at a junkyard for $11 and it came off of the supercharger side of another 3800. It has the square nub on the back that is supposed to prevent it from rotating, but the tensioner is rotated too loose, if i were to add some more material under the nub, it would effectively tighten the belt (So I believe). I'll try to get this squared away tomorrow, but so far everything is A+.
The throttle cable mounted right up, with a little widening of the slot.
I check this thread very frequently! I love what your doing. I had heard that the 3800sc sounded bad, but that doesn't seem to be the case with yours. Sounds awesome!
Thanks guys! A little encouragement goes a long way! ^^^
I simply couldn't wait anymore, It was eating away at me inside, the suspense was too much to bear, I went over and installed rodney's slave, it took about 30 min, bleeding by myself with a syringe took about 10 minutes, the car was ready for me (almost). It literally has no exhaust, and its missing the post cat 02 sensor. I thought a quick jog around the block wouldn't do much, but make me extremely happy, so I moved my Jeep out of the driveway, started the beast, and pulled out, so far so good. I got about 100 meters down the street, a CEL came one, but no matter, I'm 100M from home. I turned left, and stomped it (on the main road).... I truly wasn't expecting the power from behind me, before I knew it, the tach was reading 6000, shift, stomped it again, the car swung out sideways, I let off. I stopped at a stop sign, proceeded left toward home and gave it another quick stomp before turning left into my neighborhood. Everything is still running smooth..... wait, no its missing, no power, all the gauges still read good, I have oil, electricity, coolant, fuel (5 gallons of 92 octane)... hmmmmm, maybe my fuel pressure regulator from the junkyard is bad.... maybe the ECM went into open/closed, I can never remember which, and started reading the sensor info.... anyway, no time to fuss with it now.... I parked it, and left for home.
Boy oh boy, I can't wait to have it FULLY completed...
First time I've popped in... Great job, Mitch. The only concern I'd have and it's probably nothing is the location of the coil pack. It seems to me that it might see some road abuse. Everything else looks great.
Took the car to Ammerman's Custom Exhaust in Garden City. They have nice people there. I got to take a look in the shop, and snap a couple pictures of what the new exhaust is going to look like.
Freakin' sexyyyyy!! Sounds amazing. Is that an LED license plate light from TLG? Man your car has come a long way. What are you planning to do next? Keep up the good work. Brian
Thanks! That is not a tlg license plate. I got the bulbs from eBay for like 20 for $10. Next is paint. I'm going with yellow because Yellowstones car inspires me. I'm going to use hummer h3 competition yellow. I also need to finish up a few loose ends with the swap... I need to fix the dog bone, and figure out why my car starts missing under higher rpm load.
Have you considered any exterior body mods? Side scoops, chin spoiler, hood/deck scoops ext... It certainly doesn't need any but If you were going to do it you'd definitely want to before you painted it yellow. I bought a chin spoiler for mine but haven't had time to mount it. Im thinking of keeping it gold but adding a bit more black accenting to it. Anyways just picking your brain.
Yes, I think I want a chin spoiler and some side scoops. I know I need to get the side scoops on if I am going to have the car painted, hopefully after I firgure out the engine bugs, that will be next on my to-do list.
Right now I'm having some pretty bad running issues.
When I got the car back from the exhaust shop, it ran good. I topped off the coolant, and drove it home. I did a few what i thought were "Hard Pulls" where I started at a stand still, and really romped it. The motor doesn't really need any "breaking in" since it was pulled from a 105,000 mile car. It pulled good, with consistent boost up to 6k rpm. After some pulls like that, I started getting mis-fires at WOT around 4k rpm. I thought initially, my Junkyard Fuel pressure regulator could be the culprit, but upon further investigation, the codes read High MAF and Low MAF, and engine Misfire on 2 coil packs.
I put the car up on the lift, and immediately found out why I was having misfires.
In order to prevent the wiring loom from rubbing on the belts, I stupidly pulled the loom tight against the supercharger, instead of routing that wiring on the firewall. This caused the loom to pull tight directly against the exposed end of the PLOG. After cutting out the burned up sections of wires, re-soldering, heat shrinking, taping, and wrapping, the loom was routed and ZIP TIED to the firewall to prevent any further issues.
To address the MAF, I hooked up the scanner, and sure enough, the MAF was at 22,200hz (supposed to be between 2500-11,500) I ordered a new replacement from eBay. The new one was $40 and looked reasonable, with good feedback and good reviews. Upon further investigation my stumblings at WOT above 4k rpm could be one of many related issues.
The car needs new spark plugs (which i forgot to change out when the cradle was dropped. stupid I know)
The car needs new plug wires
The car needs a real intake tube, (Not a filter directly off the TB)
The car needs the ECM reset
The car needs tuned (Has the tune from FieroFlyer)
The car needs a new MAF
I installed this new MAF, and started the car and took it for a test drive. Stumbling still, and this time a new code P0171 Oxygen sensor lean bank 1 sensor 1
What this means to me, is not to replace the sensor, but to check for Vacuum leaks. So, I got out the ole smoke machine, and hooked it up to the line for the Boost Bypass valve on the Tree on top of the supercharger. I got a couple of pretty good leaks right off the bat.
The TPS was leaking (no gasket, easyish fix) - Fixed
The vacuum tree was leaking (New O-Ring) - Fixed
The Throttle body was leaking, (Pulled it off, and check mating surface, re-polished, and re-installed) - Fixed
Now, I ordered an new intake tube, an inline heater core adapter, and a new battery hold down (mine is shot).
Stay tuned for more interesting and annoying engine faults.
Let us know if those purchases solve your issues. Those fried wires are pretty crazy/scary man! I'm glad your getting things sorted out. Also, I'd love to hear more of your opinion on the 3800sc once you get it running well.
Are you referring to the size of the electrode? What exactly gives that indication? I think white is preignition right (pinging)?
You are right, it could be preignition, or a lean condition. They can often have a similar effect on a spark plug. If you aren't getting a code for lean, then you are probably right that it is knocking.
Neils88, you're right. the code was lean. Do you think it was because the plugs were bad, those don't look very good to me. They were the tapered kind to begin with, I replaced them with autolite 104s gapped to .055" . I also got my 3/4" npt tap today. That is what I read is the right size for the passage under the SC snout.
Neils88, you're right. the code was lean. Do you think it was because the plugs were bad, those don't look very good to me. They were the tapered kind to begin with, I replaced them with autolite 104s gapped to .055" . I also got my 3/4" npt tap today. That is what I read is the right size for the passage under the SC snout.
Unlikely that the spark plugs caused the lean condition, usually just a symptom. Lean conditions can be a pain to track down. Often caused by vacuum leaks, dirty sensors, faulty or stuck PCV valves, faulty oxygen sensors, faulty or plugged fuel injectors, low fuel pressure, dirty fuel filters, exhaust leaks before O2 sensor.
You've already changed the plugs, so the easiest place to start would be to do a check for vacuum leaks, change the fuel filter if it's old and use a bottle of injector cleaner to start with, then see if the code comes back.
EDIT: Just scanned up a bit in the posts to refresh myself on where you were...I see you mentioned vacuum leaks and a maybe needing a new MAF...good chance you've already solved whatever was causing the lean condition
[This message has been edited by Neils88 (edited 01-30-2014).]
Wow, what a great build. Don't know why Cliff hasn't moved this to the construction zone yet... I just found this thread and am really impressed. I think you're really going to have a gem once your done. Continue the good work. I am now subscribed so I can follow your progress.
Thanks! Someday I hope I get there, (the cz that is) I'm really excited about paint. The old faded gold does really doesn't do the car justice. People always look inside and say, wow this is nice, but of course I don't get any comments on the exterior. Nobody gets to see the engine either, which is a big bulk of the money in the car. I like going to car shows, because I like showing my work off, people outside of the fiero crowd don't give my car a chance because of the exterior it seems.
Thanks for the suggestion, here's roughly what it would look like, Notice the lip reflection is silver still...
The best thing about plastidip, is I can get them in chrome, and paint them black, when I get tired of it, off it comes, and I have chrome wheels again!
-Mitch
Edit: Forgot image
[This message has been edited by mitchjl22 (edited 02-06-2014).]
All my questions have been answered! I drove my car today with new MAF and O2 as well as new intake tube and spark plugs fixed all my running problems! I drove the car today and it was nothing short of great! Can't wait to slap on that new 3.5 mod pulley.
Scanner showed everything running great, and 0, ZERO Kr.
So I've made a choice to not like you. Lol cause I was all about a V8 and after reading this I'm starting to like this much better. Great job on what is turning out to be an awesome car. Keep the post coming.
So I've made a choice to not like you. Lol cause I was all about a V8 and after reading this I'm starting to like this much better. Great job on what is turning out to be an awesome car. Keep the post coming.
Thanks! I got a new tranny this last week, I'll be cleaning it up for the install in the next few weeks. Progress is going to slow down a little since I just got a new job. I'm not done yet! I can't wait to get him painted!
May want to take care of that...
