More work done!

went to the yard for a few items.

I thought I saw that the 4cyl throttle dropps in nicely. mine is cracked and stiff, so this should be nice to have. Do I cut one of the do-dads off?


Heat sheild, range switch, a few bellhousing covers


had a campfire on a cold day and boiled out my fiero harness pass through. for whatever reason, it came apart much easier than the caddy passthrough.


Dipstick. Who knew that there are two different tubes? one style boolts to the dogbone mount. the other mounts directly to the head. I have no bone bracket there anymore so the direct mount one is perfect, and I don't have to craft a bracket.


My trans range switch had some damage from the yard, so I pulled another.

I have a problem.
the wiring is different on this than my origional wiring see?


notice the position of the large yellow wire and its lack of existance on the one plug.
I grabbed the correct? pigtail I think. The one with the big yellow reminds me more of the fiero's wiring, hopefully the right one?

Well, I'm 95% done with the wiring. I have yet to add cruise and a/c. maybe I'll be done before the weekend?
The annoying part of the wiring so far stems mostly from not having enough time. I get around 1/2 to 2 hrs a day to screw around. I spend about half of that time double checking yesterdays work before preceding on to the next. As it turns out, I screw up alot and the double check is a requirement. I had a tough time with the fuel pump circuit along with the mat/tps/cts/egr mess where they are all holding hands. I've got it now though. There is no mess of fiero harness, no mess of cadillac harness. Just a nice combo of them both. Its a nice thing to see finally. My piles of diagrams are slowly thinning and I no longer feel overwhelmed. yay.

well, I think I'm done for now. after its in I expect I'll have to shorten some stuff, but it may be close enough.
If I was to do this again I think I'd start with the fuel pump circuit, then the 5v sensors, then everything else. Thats not how I did this and there was a lot of double triple quadruple checks that revealed a few mistakes that were fixed.

I ran most of the sensor wires between the dist. and tb.
the trans,o2,vss come up to meet it.


somewhere near the firewall it should split and run to c500 one direction, fuel pump the other and off in to the cabin the last.


fuel/ac relays


I have this aldl port that I had grabbed, but have noticed it has some jumper in it. I used the fiero aldl pinned for the caddy instead.
whats up with this thing?


Now, although I can tolerate the cold just fine my project does not. Tape does not stick, insulation and plastic are brittle. Any further wiring or looming must wait.

I did run to the yard this weekend and saw a red Fastback GT in the lot. anyone here?
I found the tach connector I needed, and the dogbone I need but did not bring the right tools to remove it, so I get to go back sometime soon

Thanks to Reallybig, phonedawgs, and mickeymoose and the forum in general for providing the info to get the wiring this far. I would have done many things wrong if the info was not out there.

Do the prongs in the ALDL cap fit into L and M ports? If so I think that will keep your PCM computer happy. I still get the PCM/BCM communication error code.
I found a link to a Reatta site addressing the cap issue.
http://forums.aaca.org/f116...lem-help-292122.html

[This message has been edited by SERGE144 (edited 01-23-2013).]

quote Originally posted by SERGE144: Do the prongs in the ALDL cap fit into L and M ports? If so I think that will keep your PCM computer happy. I still get the PCM/BCM communication error code.

It would in fact jump pin L and M
I was under the impression that the cap is not used on the 4.9 swap, but I'm sure I pulled the connector from a caddy, but it may have been a tbi.
I thought the pcm/bcm code had to be programmed out no matter what unless the bcm is used.

so I wonder if I need to use this cap or not?
seems like not... I dont have a pin in "L" just "M" so it would jumper M to nothing.

[This message has been edited by gen2muchwork (edited 01-23-2013).]

Cold, snow.

now its 60 degrees. weird.

Had a monday snow day, so I got to leave around 6:30am. I could not think of any reason not to go to the junkyard besides the ice and snow... so off I went.

Found this 90 Maxima and stole its rear link suspension for the dogbone.


It came out so easy I spent some time looking through some of the newer arrivals and came across a 95? Aurora that had not seen to much action. I grabbed it's positive battery cable for my front mount battery, which I have deemed necessary after looking at the pics of just how close the battery tray is.

That was really easy to pull too and its really quite long. I paid $4 for it

Thats it for now.

this bolt is why I figured the dogbone would take forever to remove. Luckly it was totally free. Can you imagine this thing seized up?!

I'm using it to cut a couple of bushings for the dogbone since the bolt to the head is considerably smaller than the diameter of the hole in the bone. Burned up my 3/8 bit last night though


OH, did you notice I lost my wedding ring

[This message has been edited by gen2muchwork (edited 01-30-2013).]

4.9 + 3.33 gears? you be needen tires from the yard !

quote Originally posted by FFIEROFRED: 4.9 + 3.33 gears? you be needen tires from the yard !

I expect it to be fun

Really though, by rule almost everything in my life I buy is used. Tires are one thing I buy new, unless I get them already mounted on rims. I've had too much bad luck with used tires shifting belts. Now if I had a tire machine, that might be a different story. Id probably be swapping tires monthly

I'm bumping this hoping that it motivates me.

I've been struck by Gout. It sucks way worse than it sounds. I'm walking around mostly normal for now, but It was bad for almost a week. My birthday is tomorrow and I've taken thurs and fri off, so I hope to get my fuel lines done, and my battery tray removed over the weekend to continue the progress of getting the cradle back in. If I end up being lazy, I may just hit the yard again in search of an appropriate oil cooler. A buddy of mine has a hemi ram, and the cooler looks like it will be perfect, so maybe I can find one out there.

I hobbled to the yard this weekend to find a few harness tie downs and came across a factory sub fiero. I grabbed the sub box, and I'm happy that I located one. I have not seen any come through the yard before this one, so for me its a nice rare score. Gotta go back and get the pass. mirror. Somehow I broke mine, I suspect it had been repaired before, but I bumped it so its my fault

Grab the heater core housing cover from the subwoofer donor car, the bracket on it is specific to the subwoofer option. Just change the cover rather than replacing the bracket.

The battery can be rotated 90° and an S-10 battery tray can be cut down if you want to keep it in the engine compartment.

Happy birthday!

quote Originally posted by olejoedad: Grab the heater core housing cover from the subwoofer donor car, the bracket on it is specific to the subwoofer option. Just change the cover rather than replacing the bracket. The battery can be rotated 90° and an S-10 battery tray can be cut down if you want to keep it in the engine compartment. Happy birthday!

Thanks Joe!

i did in fact have a great birthday. I can't say I made any progress, but I did watch a few movies with my feet up which I rarely have time for anymore. Everybody got eaten by wolves in one, and everyone got eaten by sharks in another.


I am going to research the s10 tray, its an interesting option that I had not heard of. I do think its a nice spot for a battery tray, just not the stock one. I dont want any more of a hassle than is necessary servicing the belt or front of the engine.

quote Originally posted by olejoedad: The battery can be rotated 90° and an S-10 battery tray can be cut down if you want to keep it in the engine compartment. Happy birthday!

Keeping the battery in the engine bay would have saved me a couple of weeks work between cutting out the old tray, cleaning up the area, painting, designing and building the battery box, powder coating it, trimming the spare tire tub and fitting it, searching for battery leads in the wreckers, routing and shortening leads, etc. Looking at the engine bay now I will say that I am glad I spent the time and energy (money) moving it up front. There is just so much more room for working in an already tight engine bay. But that's just me. I think even if I did the smaller quad four swap like I was originally planning, I'd still move the battery up front. Now that being said, I can't seem to find a way to fit the spare in....

Edited to add a Happy Birthday!

[This message has been edited by Reallybig (edited 02-25-2013).]

weird night, but it was just warm enough to paint my dogbone. I ment to grab black, but for whatever reason, I accidentalIy grabbed a bronze that I had used on some wheels, and sprayed. I kind of like it enough to keep it.



and I finished the bushing for Its bolt to the head. Jerk spun in my vice on the drill press, but at least it didn't break the bit off in it.



It's not impressive progress, but better than nothing

Well, I'm not using the stock tray for sure now, I'm still on the fence but leaning towards the front mount. I have enough cable to do it, but I'm going to hit the yard to see how this s10 tray works first though.

I used my harbor freight gift card and a few super coupons for a super cheap angle grinder. It works nice for what I needed it for.




Then I accidentally cut my heater tube. 'Doh! the good news is its not a bad place for the hose to start anyways.

I wish it would warm up so I can clean up the bay without turning my garage into an ice rink. this weekend shoud be nice for that.

This is the point where I'm amazed at the guys who can swap in a few days or less, I feel like this is taking a long time to make small progress.

What a nice weekend! spring temps have me excited.

I managed to get my under the battery tray area cleaned up and got a nice start on some fuel lines. I'm using the stock 4.9, 5/16 stainless hard lines with quick connect (rebent) onto braded quick connect 5/16 transport lines. the return simply will compression fitting to my new hard line from the tank, the feed is 3/8-5/16. to address this this my tank hard line compressions to a 3/8 plastic quick connect that has a 5/16 nylon barb at the end. this barb connects a short 5/16 nylon hose to the barb on the transport braided line.
I believe the connector is from a ford. Its the easiest way for me to adapt the 3/8 to 5/16. It happens to be cheap as well.

the lines from tank will be much shorter than they are in the pic, the extra lenth is for error while I fit the braided line.

These should work I think?
I still need to pick up a dorman 800-055 that connects 3/8 steel quick to 5/16 nylon barb to complete the section.

[This message has been edited by gen2muchwork (edited 03-12-2013).]

Dorman 800-055 is the connector I used. The 3/8 steel quick connect end was off of a tbi caddy, maybe a 4.1 or .9?



boil boil....

push!







then Hannah Helped me prime the oil pump.
Good dog.

I screwed up bending some of my engine side fuel line last night. I'm considering running them a little different, under the frame rail, but I was planning to run the 4cyl heater line there so I'm not sure if I'm going to fit that all there... Gotta hit the yard this weekend.

Run the cooling line in the stock location and the two fuel lines along the inner face of the lower frame rail. There is plenty of room and the inner frame rail face routing will protect the fuel lines.

quote Originally posted by olejoedad: Run the cooling line in the stock location and the two fuel lines along the inner face of the lower frame rail. There is plenty of room and the inner frame rail face routing will protect the fuel lines.

I had accidentally cut the stock heater hose but it seemed to be going the wrong way for me its an 87 v6. I've sliced the tube off now in the straight where it is coming up between the cradle ears. I was thinking the 4cyl setup looked more workable

I have not set the engine in the car yet, but it seemed like it would be a really close call on the inner face. Are you saying its not as tight as I'm visualizing?

quote Originally posted by gen2muchwork: I had accidentally cut the stock heater hose but it seemed to be going the wrong way for me its an 87 v6. I've sliced the tube off now in the straight where it is coming up between the cradle ears. I was thinking the 4cyl setup looked more workable I have not set the engine in the car yet, but it seemed like it would be a really close call on the inner face. Are you saying its not as tight as I'm visualizing?

88 4cyl passengers side hose plugs right into the water pump without mods. Drivers side is close to reaching 4.9 thermostat.

EDIT: Radiator coolant hoses. Didn't realize you were talking about the heater hose.

[This message has been edited by arte444 (edited 03-15-2013).]

If it helps you to visualize, run strings on the cradle and on the spaceframe, front mount to rear mount on each side.

More like it?

There ya go!

quote Originally posted by olejoedad: There ya go!

Thanks again Joe! You have been helping me along since before I had even purchased this car, I appreciate it and hopefully soon enough I can drive this thing out to you to buy you a lunch or a beer or something.

I got out to the yard and found this very special turbo fiero. It was so fast the turbo must have fallen off because it looked like a old used up n/a duke.
thanks for the coolant tube turbo fiero...




so now I have the 4cyl tube that runs along the top of that frame rail.

On a side note, This fiero gave me a gift of vicegrips. If somehow the owner of those reads this, I'll give them back, just tell me where on the car you left them so I know they are yours.

I also grabbed an almost complete set of the fiero and body by fisher tags for the door sills, they are the tan ones so I have no use for them, but they seem to be difficult to locate, so I saved them. If anyone needs them, pm me. I have 1 fiero the other was broke, 2 body by fisher all in tan.

[This message has been edited by gen2muchwork (edited 03-18-2013).]

have I done anything new? not really... I did get my throttle cable in since my last post but springtime chores are eating my time, and my side work has picked up a bit. Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be able to say I got somewhere, Ideally I'd like to have this engine in the car in 3 weeks. Lets see if I can meet that goal.

What in the world have I been up to?

My buddy who was supposed to do my welding has injured himself out of helping, so I took some time to get familiar with my buzzbox and practice my welding. I have never used a stick welder before, and it has been years since I used a mig at an exhaust shop daily. Needless to say, it took a while to get acceptable welds. I have a fully mounted engine and I can say I did it myself.













and I had to get some big bits for that bone mount...

Zapped up a shift arm last night. I was pleased that I could fill a large gap from a less than perfect cut.





from the best I can tell without the engine in the car this flattened cable bracket will fit just fine, and my cable should adjust to it.

Its been slow progress lately. I've run skinny in the wallet over the summer, I guess those 4 10 hr. days make me spend more on the 3 day weekend. Anyways, I've been tinkering around with some exhaust ideas on the cheap.

this thing looked useful enough off of 02 cadillac. I have not spent more than $5 so far...

Yes, I am taking way too long to get this done. Yes, I'm still working on it

Finally put together an exhaust. It will be loud, but I could make it myself and ultimately the car will drive, which is the point of all this. Hopefully I can carry some momentum through to get the engine in before my next daughter is born.



I'm thinking I can shorten this a bit still.

Hope everyone is doing good out there.

[This message has been edited by gen2muchwork (edited 10-07-2014).]

Momentum still going.
cut a hole for the battery. I'm committed to a front battery now.


I dont remember reading how friggin itchy that plastic is. lots of fibers in there. also found a beer bottle hiding under the car. unfortunately it was empty

cut some pieces for a battery tray.


layed out triangles, maybe ill get it cut and tacked tonight?

no matter what it was nice to pull the cover off for the first time in a while.

[This message has been edited by gen2muchwork (edited 10-09-2014).]

Great to see you back at it! Looking forward to following your work!

quote Originally posted by Neils88: Great to see you back at it! Looking forward to following your work!

yeah man, how's things? projects get sidelined, but its good to see you back on task!

Thanks guys, I've learned a lot from you. Also, I'm glad you are still around Stickpony. I had this awful thought that by the time I was done you would be retired in Barbados not doing chips anymore.

I got a bit more done. Stayed up too late and got this tacked up. Looks like it will work. A little less deep than I had planned, so I screwed something up somewhere, but im not sure it will matter. I have more metal if needed.

quote Originally posted by gen2muchwork: Thanks guys, I've learned a lot from you. Also, I'm glad you are still around Stickpony. I had this awful thought that by the time I was done you would be retired in Barbados not doing chips anymore. I got a bit more done. Stayed up too late and got this tacked up. Looks like it will work. A little less deep than I had planned, so I screwed something up somewhere, but im not sure it will matter. I have more metal if needed.

hahaha, that's actually a LOVELY thought, but no retirement here, i am still around, cranking out chips...you ready to proactively get her done? email me privately at stickpony@gmail.com and we can start talking about your setup

Well, this feels good, I've still got a lot more to do but it sure feels good to have the cradle back home. Fit like a glove. Really, way more room than I had envisioned. I felt like body was lower than when I pulled the 2.8 out.





battery box fit




Aaron, it looks like I will be emailing you in the next couple of weeks.

[This message has been edited by gen2muchwork (edited 10-13-2014).]

I see the fitting in a picture at the top of this page.
Just plug it off.....