Great to hear it started!!! It will be a blast to drive. This is the motor the car should have had right from day one. It would have beat up on a lot of car out there. Have you got the charcoal canister hooked up? If you have it purging at idle it will be fighting with the idle speed control. If you are using the fiero unit it must be controlled with a electric valve, if you just have it hooked directly to the throttle body the engine will idle about 250 to 300 rpm too high, Hot idle should be about 750 rpm. The high idle will give you a error code. I solved the high idle by controlling the canister with another electric valve identical to and wired parallel into the circuit to the supercharger by-pass control. The by-pass control receives a signal that, when the engine is at idle, opens the by-pass. This signal can be used by the second valve to cut off the purge vacuum to the canister. When the engine is above idle the signal stops which closes the by-pass and opens the vacuum to purge the canister.
Dan did my harness and I had him delete the EGR, EVAP, and BBV so I am not sure what to do with the charcoal canister. One of the things I have to figure out.
I have drivin the car a couple times yesterday and today everything seems to be going good. I had a couple coolant leaks but they have sealed them selfs up.
I only have two issues 1 the idle starts to jump around while decelerating or coasting down hill. Not all the time just randomly. 2 the temp gauge climbed up to about 240 just before i pulled over it dropped to 140 range were it stayed the rest of the drive. Wondering if that was the thermostat opening up.
The car is a blast to drive and i have not even gone WOT yet waiting to make sure there are no bugs first. I realy need to get the exhaust finished cause it is horribly loud in the cab.
I have about 100 miles on the car now. The crank seal is leaking so I will have to get that replaced soon. My gas mileage sucks only getting 14 MPG any ideas on what would cause this? I think most 3800sc swaps are getting 20-23 MPG.
I should be replacing my front crank seal this weekend but I got lazy not sure if I will need to drop the engine to do it or not. So I decided to play around with the exhaust . My headers come back really far and are angled downward so not the best place to start but I have no intention of trying to modify the headers. You will be able to see the exhaust from under the car but I will live with it for now. Couple of pics of what I am going to do.
Going 3" all the way with mandrel bends. I have not picked out exhaust tips yet. my budget for the car is maxed so I am going to look for some cheap ones that I like or no tips for now. My welding skill leave something to be desired so I will use clamps on everything I can and that way it will be easier to modify down the road.
Where exactly do I tap in the LIM and with what size fitting to run the heater lines? I'm going to use the wind star bracket/tensioner setup and I'm not fully understanding how to plug the heater lines and tap others. Pictures would help a lot. Thanks Just rating to get the 3800sc motor ready by taking off power steering pump and putting no fierorog's lower alternator bracket and using the wind star dog bone setup with tensioner. All info is appreciated, the motor is a 1996.
Where exactly do I tap in the LIM and with what size fitting to run the heater lines? I'm going to use the wind star bracket/tensioner setup and I'm not fully understanding how to plug the heater lines and tap others. Pictures would help a lot. Thanks Just rating to get the 3800sc motor ready by taking off power steering pump and putting no fierorog's lower alternator bracket and using the wind star dog bone setup with tensioner. All info is appreciated, the motor is a 1996.
The last picture on page 1 shows the fitting installed in the LIM. It was a 3/4 tap and fitting but use a 90 degree one not a straight one like mine. I ran that line to the hose on right back coner. I used a modified thermostat housing to connect to the other heater line on the firewall. I do not have my interior put back together so I can't test my heater to make sure it works. Ill take some pictures in a few minutes and post them for you. If you have an 88 fiero its a different set up.
Pictures are hard to get with the engine installed but this is the best I could get. You can see the 3/4 fitting with the heater hose attached just below the snout of the charger and in the far left of the picture you can see the freeze plug (with some red sealer around it) I used for the water pump housing.
Then I just ran the hose to the stock location by the trunk going under the dogbone. I will change this latter and go to the firewall for a cleaner look.
like I said I have not tried the heater yet so I am not sure this will work.
The last picture on page 1 shows the fitting installed in the LIM. It was a 3/4 tap and fitting but use a 90 degree one not a straight one like mine. I ran that line to the hose on right back coner. I used a modified thermostat housing to connect to the other heater line on the firewall. I do not have my interior put back together so I can't test my heater to make sure it works. Ill take some pictures in a few minutes and post them for you. If you have an 88 fiero its a different set up.
This was bad information I connected my heater wrong here is the correct way from Darth Fiero
You mentioned a modified T-stat housing. Are you using a modified Fiero 2.8 T-stat housing on your 3800? If so, how do you have the heater core hoses connected to the engine?
What do you have connected to the LIM (lower intake manifold) heater hose port?
Being an 86 Fiero, it should have two heater core hoses that need to be connected to the engine. One of the two hard lines that go under the car should have insulation on it and this is the feed line to the heater core from the engine. This you will want to connect the hose attaching to this to EITHER the modified Fiero t-stat housing heater hose outlet OR the LIM heater hose port. Whichever of these two ports on the engine you do not use needs to be plugged off.
The other hard line under the car coming from the heater core should NOT have insulation on it. This is the RETURN line FROM the heater core. The hose that connects to this hard line needs to be connected either to a T-fitting that allows it to dump into the lower radiator hose connecting to the water pump on the 3800 or to the heater hose port on the 3800 that is part of the water pump housing.
If you have one heater hose connected to the Fiero t-stat housing and the other heater hose connected to the port exiting the LIM, then that is a PROBLEM. Both of these ports are OUTLETS. If you have driven the car like this, it is likely you have bent up your thermostat now since the water pump dead-headed due to there being lack of any bypass (which the heater core acts as when using a modified Fiero t-stat housing).
I still have my 3800 on the engine stand in my boathouse. (No garage-all driveway work to swap engine) I plugged the water pump hole and tapped the lim for the fitting. Dan told me about the t hose for the return line to the water pump. Dan is awesome! My car is an 85 so it should have the two heater core lines. I've been using the car to drive to work but soon ill be removing any pays of the harness can needs to make my swap harness. So I still have the stock 3800 t stat housing on the engine. I still have to replace the oil pan gasket and the front and rear main seals before the engine is ready to put in. Thinking of cutting the supercharger on the bottom to allow for more air to flow. Is like to remove the BBV but Dan advised to keep it. I was going by automarshal's thread for the lim tap and water pump block off. I bought the egr block off plates from zzp . I'm hesitating doing the main seals because there is supposedly a special tool needed to install them. My oil pan is all bent and banged up, I don't know if I should replace the pan. If anyone has one for sale I may be interested.
------------------ ===Always trying to find time to work on cars=== Louis Duet Baldwin, Long Island, NY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Blue" <= '85 Fiero GT Stock V6---Stock everything. Trying to keep it 'mostly' that way. But I just got the 3800sc to swap into it! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Boo" <= '81 Delorean DMC-12 VIN #5835 "Don't hate ... Carburate!" Stock PRV engine Robertson Equipped Neiland/Delman Engineered Peugot 604 Intake manifold Exhaust headers Anti-3rd brake light
Hope the swap goes good for you once you start. If your dropping the oil pan its easy to straighten out the dents from the inside mine had a couple big ones just hammerd them out.
have not done much to the car in a while. It has been running great since the swap. I am installing some vertical door hinges and playing around with making a center console. I did buy a second fiero for parts. 86 gt auto 2.8. Going to try my hand at some fiberglass work soon so wanted some extra body panels.
I really don't know what I am doing but I am going to make this happen.
You made it happen and your work looks nice. As for your quote that started this post, what makes you think that you are any different that the rest of us here? I picked up on the driveability issues that you mentioned earlier with regard to coasting and return to idle. These can usually be adjusted in the PCM program.
------------------ " THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, custom ZZP /Frozen Boost Intercooler setup, 3.4" Pulley, Northstar TB, LS1 MAF, 3" Spintech/Hedman Exhaust, Autolite 104's, MSD wires, Custom CAI, 4T65eHD w. custom axles, HP Tuners VCM Suite. "THE COLUSSUS" 87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H " ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "
Here's two ways to address the heater connection on the 3800sc I have a 88 so the return line was not an issue and I plugged the two outlets at the water pump First I tried a modified 2.8 thermostat fitting to fit the 3800.(picture attached) It fits as long as you NOT use the vacuum actuator for the by-pass which I still wanted so Strike one. Buy the way it's for sale (90.00) my cost to get the welding done. The second I found a picture of A fitting for a V-8 (attached) Unfortunately it will not fit the 3800 A machinist friend made one to size and it was installed with the stock 3800 thermostat and has a 3/4" nipple to fit the heater supply line.
I also included a picture of the exhaust I built using a Camero muffler (2.5" in and two 2..25" out. It fits in the same spot as the stock 2.8. Hope this helps someone
