I was thinking about painting them black, and doing mostly black in the engine bay. That way, dirt and grease and oil won't really show up as much. When I take off the supercharger to paint it, I wonder if I should just spray over the original coating... I'm also going to replace the LIM gasket since I hear that can cause some nasty leaks. I really want to see if my flywheel is balanced correctly as well. I used a machined 3800 camaro flywheel, but after I had my swap done I read somewhere that the NA 3800 flywheel is balanced differently than a 3800sc flywheel. If that's the case I need to have it balanced. Another thing I need to look at is my flywheel bolts. I used Grade 8 bolts, but I hear grade 9 is the way to go. Maybe I need to look into that.
Man, good work, I got my Fiero back in 2010 as my first car too. Though mine was in terrible condition! Very jealous of all of the shop access you get, and very good job of a clean install on everything you have done.
I drove the car to my dads with the broken tranny mount, it made it ok.... the car's temp gauge is going from the first quarter then all the way up to just below the red, and the goes down again back and forth.... whats up with that?
No progress today, I am trying to find out when I'll have time to swap in my new transmission. I still need to order the Rodney parts, and the Dakota Digital SGI converter. When I have the cradle out, I plan to fix the clearance issue between the PLOG and the A/C compressor, and the engine bay cleanup from all he grinding I did on the battery box.
Question though, if I take out the factory decklid torsion bars, can I mount my coil packs back on the bracket? I want to get rid of my large extended harness, and put it back to factory.
Hey Mitch, I just read through your whole thread, nice job!! I have been thinking about doing the same swap. Did you have to fabricate much, or were you able to ind most everything you needed of the shelf? Also the tuning kinda scares me. How did you tune it? I know you bought the harness from one of the gurus on the site, but what about the final tuning once you got it all in? Thanks Van
Hey Mitch, I just read through your whole thread, nice job!! I have been thinking about doing the same swap. Did you have to fabricate much, or were you able to ind most everything you needed of the shelf? Also the tuning kinda scares me. How did you tune it? I know you bought the harness from one of the gurus on the site, but what about the final tuning once you got it all in? Thanks Van
Well, its far from over yet. As far as fab goes, the low mount setup was made from scratch. I used Lloyde's design from FastFieros (Kicked off of site so I hear). You can most definitely mount the alternator in the stock location, but you have to notch your deck lid out. If you need a guide, Paul's thread is the one I followed throughout my build. He was one of the first L32 swappers, and lives 5 miles from my house. I'd be glad to assist any way I can.
Edit to add, I haven't put a final tune on it yet... it still has the tune from Fieroflyer on it. When it comes time, I know a few guys with 3800s who said they'd love to help out.
-Mitch
[This message has been edited by mitchjl22 (edited 03-21-2014).]
I just needed to offload some info from my mind. I don't want to forget these things, so I thought I'd write them down
2004 Series III L32 GTP Motor 2003 GTP Cable Driven TB and associated sensors PCM Unknown - Fieroflyer supplied Exhaust by Ammerman's Exhaust in Garden City, warranty on everything but muffler and tips 1990 FWD Getrag from Beretta 3.1 V6 Camaro Flywheel machined to .820 (Balance unknown) Spec Stage 3 Clutch New Plugs and Wires Heat Tape on A/C compressor to help close gap with ZZP PLOG Longer Battery cables, Ground (Grounded on AC compressor bolt) is like a 45" and Power is like 58" Modified T-Stat housing without heater supply Heater supply plumbed under LIM
The night time video sounds so much better... I think I may have an exhaust leak somewhere. I'll take it down to the exhaust shop, and I'll see if they can figure out why it sounds so bad. The night video was like right after I had the exhaust done, the second video during the day was 2 days ago. I'm really not impressed with the sound now. Its ugly and nasty. I really like the sound of the exhaust in the night video. Recently also it seems WAY louder, like the neighbors come out of their houses to see what going on.
I've been in contact with Ryan from Sinister Performance. I need to get a good base tune on this car so it will run right. I put a new MAF in it and I think the PCM needs flashed to match that.. I need the PCM reprogrammed to a 24000ppm VSS. I need the Post Cat o2 deleted. I also will be sending it back to get it reflashed after my 3.5 pulley swap.
I handed the bumper over to the collision repair department
Other than that, I bought a Buick Century for my DD. I'm really getting tired of my Fiero... I just want this mess to be done.
Sorry to hear about all of the problems man...I go through those phases as well when I'm ready to just get rid of the Fiero, but give it a bit and it'll all smooth out. BTW, have you thought about putting a chin spoiler on that bumper while its off?
I'm bored. The new tune didn't really do a lot after it learned everything. I still get a MIL light for lean within 5 sec of a startup. Then if I cycle the key off and on, it goes away until I let the car sit a while (1 hour maybe).
I ordered a new coil pack harness. Mine has been cut and re soldered in a few places.
Well, I haven't updated my thread for long long time. I lowered my car, and I painted it with plastidip, twice. I finished up my swap, and got everything under wrap. I went to Fierofest 600+ miles round trip without any problems. Here are the pics.
Lots of cleaning took place in preparation for Fierofest
I ordered custom 3800sc A/C lines from a member on the forum. He and I had great communication throughout the entire order process, but somehow I forgot to tell him what compressor I had. So I ended up with what's on bottom.
My solution was to pickup a 150k mile unit form Jalopy Jungle $21
The PLOG and the compressor housing have an interference fit. I saw on Pappy's build how he ground down the compressor housing to fit under the ZZP PLOG
Morning of the drive to richland
I drove the car to Fierofest, unfortunately without A/C due to the lack of correct sealing washers on the compessor. I did get to see Justin's Monster of a fiero. Custom Norm's flipper, LS4 install, custom fiberglass dash, and Archie's hatchback were just a small few of the amazing things this car had installed.
3 of the 39 cars were dipped!
Closeup of my car dipped and lowered.
After we got back from Richland, we drove the cars to breakfast.
Is anyone still there? bmac? I haven't had this much inactivity for a while, but it seems like my thread has fallen on its face. Still not construction zone worthy? Oh well i guess that's not everything.. It would be cool though (edit: Hint hint)
-Mitch
[This message has been edited by mitchjl22 (edited 08-20-2014).]
Had some drag racing time last night.... 2 runs between 8pm and 12pm... a honda blew its whole bottom end all over the track and it took an hour to clean it up. Here is my poor driving. I wanted to get at least 100mph, I was so close.
Took the car into the exhaust shop to get a leak diagnosed. They found out pretty quickly it was the exhaust crossover, not their doing, so I have to get some air tools up and going to get that crossover tightened up, fairly soon too before the temps start dropping.
Still getting a CEL on first cold startup. One cycle of key off, key back on, and the CEL disappears. Code is still for LEAN oxygen Bank 1 Sensor 1.
Just read your entire post and all I can say is... Great job mitch! Keep up the good work. I am looking to do this same swap on my 86' GT. Im going to paint the car a yellow as well but Im going to go with a gloss yellow. How much did you spend on the swap for the 3.8SC. I've read that $3,000 is about right but im not positive.
------------------ Every fiero has a story, It's our job to keep that story alive.
On my thread I never really priced it out. I think a HUGE cost factor is whether you want to to choose auto or manual. The flywheel, clutch and slave are spendy.
Donor Car: $1200 Flywheel: $180 Clutch Set: $350 Mounts: $300 Exhaust (If you have it done) $800 Wiring Harness and PCM: $400 ZZP MOD Pulley: $100 Paint: $50 Ball Joints: $75
That total is about $3500, and I did incur quite a few more costs. An auto swap does have its downfalls, I think you have to build your own axles.
Here's some progress...
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