Well I got work done on my shifter today, it is 90% done. I am using the general idea of the f23 shifter, rotated 90* left, with the new select arm support "carved" out of some stainless steel, the arm is the f23 arm, and for the present the bushing (between the select arm and the shift arm) is also stainless steel (from my brief research, stainless and iron shouldn't have any issues being a bearing surface together, and I got it to have much less play than the old plastic one, much less than my 4 speed had to) The shift arm, I cut off the part where the cable used to attach, and ground down the opposite side weight to a flat section I will be attaching the shift cable to (just have to drill the hole). I'm using the Rodney select cable from my 4 speed, and I decided the shift cable was just a little too short, no matter what I did, so I got the 5 speed shift cable from Rodney (2ish inches longer), and it's perfect. It has the cables at a pretty good angle, at least visually, I shouldn't have much if any select effect from moving the shift cable, visually the shift cable is about 90*, select isn't as good, the support is maybe a hair to tall, tilting the arm towards the cabin, making the 1/2 to 3/4 movement slightly longer, lower effort, and 3/4 to 5/R a slightly shorter distance and higher effort on the shifter in the cabin.
Originally posted by 1985 Fiero GT: It has the cables at a pretty good angle, at least visually, I shouldn't have much if any select effect from moving the shift cable
Yes, the angles look reasonably good like that. I think that the stock F23 centering springs will work for you. Do the cables pass below the throttle body?
Yes, the angles look reasonably good like that. I think that the stock F23 centering springs will work for you. Do the cables pass below the throttle body?
Your welds have a lack of fusion, it is like globs of metal sitting on top the the parts. This is not strong.
What kind of welding process are you doing?
Removing mill scale and rust before welding (to weld on clean shiny metal) is a simple thing you can do to improve weld quality.
Different kinds of sanding, flap discs, wire wheels, etc, all of that is good to clean up dirty steel before welding.
Yes, they run right over the y pipe, a little tighter than with the 4 speed, but the same direction and angle.
Yes with those welds, it was very hard, the upright piece is stainless steel, the base piece is steel, the cable mounts are iron I think, and I'm using a cheap fcaw welder, with stainless steel flux core wire. It goes on very globby or not at all, on the stainless exhaust it works pretty well, it still goes on globby, but grinding it down, there are no "seams" between the globs and the base material, but welding on those different materials is really tricky, maybe the welders bad, maybe the wire, maybe I'm bad, maybe all of the above haha!
Originally posted by 1985 Fiero GT: Yes with those welds, it was very hard, the upright piece is stainless steel, the base piece is steel, the cable mounts are iron I think, and I'm using a cheap fcaw welder, with stainless steel flux core wire. It goes on very globby or not at all, on the stainless exhaust it works pretty well, it still goes on globby, but grinding it down, there are no "seams" between the globs and the base material, but welding on those different materials is really tricky, maybe the welders bad, maybe the wire, maybe I'm bad, maybe all of the above haha!
I am running gas on my MIG, but the steel wire welds flatter than the stainless wire; it might be worth trying a different wire type.
Also check if your welder is wired with the correct polarity (if it can be switched) for what you're doing.
Part cleanliness is definitely a factor.
[This message has been edited by pmbrunelle (edited 04-10-2025).]
I am running gas on my MIG, but the steel wire welds flatter than the stainless wire; it might be worth trying a different wire type.
Also check if your welder is wired with the correct polarity (if if can be switched) for what you're doing.
Part cleanliness is definitely a factor.
Yeah, the stainless wire is pretty bad haha, and yes, the parts could definitely have been cleaned more, after the first couple fails on that shifter I started whacking it with a hammer to test the strength, once I had something that worked, I layered on more weld, the end result seems pretty strong, at least to my hammer haha
Well, today marked 2 years since my Fiero officially became my first car! Yesterday it got trailered back to my house (from winter storage, still missing the intake, that's the only real thing preventing it from being driven), so now I can clean up a bunch more stuff, get my exhaust leak free, and wrap it, and I'll probably redo that weld on the shift mechanism, I want to lower it a tad to get the cable alignment better, and that gives me a good excuse haha.
This evening I worked on the shifter mechanism, it is basically finished, I played with the cable lengths, which helped the unevenness I had when comparing the left movement to the right movement. The biggest thing I had still, was that moving from center to left was a little too loose, center to right was a little too stiff, so I used the right centering spring from the 4 speed shifter mechanism (technically a spare I had) and that made it to strong to the right, so I played with that spring, heating and bending the end a few mm to reduce the tension, and in the end it is pretty good, even pressure to move the shifter left or right, shift knob is well centered (center neutral is just a tad left and back from perfectly upright). Shift cable appears to be 90*from arm, select cable lines up well, and the lengths are just right. Tomorrow I'll finish the exhaust, and add a second support for the shift cables from elsewhere on the transmission, make sure the cable mounts are welded well, and clean up/paint the mechanism.
Didn't get as much done yesterday as I'd hoped, but it was good progress nonetheless. For heat management, I wrapped the fuel fill pipes with reflective fiberglass insulation (like what's on the shifter cables but in a roll to wrap around), because they'll be closer to the exhaust now, then installed some aluminum heat shield material on the firewall over that area, from the frame rail to an inch or so past the decklid hinge, from the top (bottom of window) to about 1.5 feet down, then I wrapped the y pipe and downpipe, and I'll have a "turbo blanket" on. With all that it shouldn't be much more heat in the engine bay than stock, and I definitely shouldn't be heating up those fuel fill pipes with 3 different layers and types of insulation between them and the exhaust. A lot of the turbo heat will be able to go straight out of the decklid vent, as it's right under it.
Oh, almost forgot, I also ported the internal wastegate, by opening up the hole, curving the sharp edge to draw exhaust into it better, and grinding under the wastegate flapper to let it open further, in a similar manner to "the white bug"
[This message has been edited by 1985 Fiero GT (edited 04-19-2025).]
Well I worked on the intake late last night, got it done all the way from the cold air intake to the recirculating blow-off valve after the intercooler. In the fender, I have the stock air filter housing upside down, with the output going under the lower frame rail by the coolant pipe, about 2" from the wrapped exhaust, and it's wrapped in the reflective fiberglass insulation tape. From there it comes up by the shift linkage and around into the turbo. Then from the turbo, it's a 90* 2"-2.5", then a 45* downwards pointing aluminum pipe, then a 135* up into the intercooler. From there, it's a 90* towards the cabin, then the piece for the 1" recirculating blow-off valve, which outputs straight into the large 135* turbo inlet pipe
The intercooler placement is such that the silicone will be running along the decklid reinforcement bump, very very close (like half a cm), and there's at least an inch and a half between the lower intake piping and the axle boot. The blow-off valve doesn't interfere with the decklid vent.
The intercooler core is supported from a tab on the shock tower using a stainless go kart tie rod, basically an adjustable threaded rod with ball ends, credit goes to pm Brunelle, who uses something like this to support the turbo (although he used actual hardware, not a go kart tie rod haha)
The intercooler water lines are both run down the fuel tank on the side opposite the heater pipes, using the clamps for the AC pipes I don't have, they are plenty high up and stiff, they won't touch the ground even if the car does. Intercooler pump is in the fender with the air filter, with the hot line (outlet) running to the top of the Intercooler along the bottom of the lower intake pipes, and the cold line (inlet) running to the bottom, going through holes in the lower frame rail to go over the axle/tie rod without interference. I haven't touched the intercooler radiator yet as my cars nose is in the ground for the rear to be high enough to easily work on, soon though.
The last picture shows where the boost controller is, it's a EGR solenoid from something or another, fastened to a tab on the front of the strut tower, already hooked up, although initially I'll leave the wastegate disconnected from the flapper, so I can make sure I ported the wastegate passage enough and don't have boost creep.
I also wired the crank VR sensor to the distributor ICM, and the ICM tach output to the megasquirt.
As of right now it is basically ready to fire, tune and go on the turbo side of things, what's stopping me is that my intake is in the mail back to me, and my starter is having issues, so a replacement is also in the mail, although that's not the most critical, I'm parked on a hill haha. I still have to install the evap canister, and PCV venting system (which will be a cheapo little catchcan with 3 ports, one to the PCV valve directly, one to manifold vacuum with a one way valve (it'll suck PCV gases when under vacuum but not boost), and the other to the air filter housing (with a one way valve so the manifold vacuum can't suck from it, but under boost any extra pressure in the PCV or slight vacuum in the filter box pre turbo will allow it to suck the PCV that way) the front valve cover vent will just be a filtered intake. I did this to have a single catchcan to cover both in vacuum and in boost crankcase ventilation. Catchcan and evap canister will be located on top of the battery (super small battery on its side in stock location, plenty of space)
Hey, quick question on this. Does the orientation of the shifter bracket... meaning how far or close from the armature, make any difference on the shifting of the transmission? I noticed you fabricated your own linkage for the original cables, and just curious how you determined how far out they should be mounted. Was it more or less just where it felt "ok" ... was there some measurement or anything you went through?
I ask because my daughter's transmission feels a bit notchy getting into first, or reverse... otherwise shifts from 1st to 2nd, and 2nd to 3rd are very smooth.
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Hey, quick question on this. Does the orientation of the shifter bracket... meaning how far or close from the armature, make any difference on the shifting of the transmission? I noticed you fabricated your own linkage for the original cables, and just curious how you determined how far out they should be mounted. Was it more or less just where it felt "ok" ... was there some measurement or anything you went through?
I ask because my daughter's transmission feels a bit notchy getting into first, or reverse... otherwise shifts from 1st to 2nd, and 2nd to 3rd are very smooth.
Thanks!
For minor distance changes, it only changes the positioning of the shift lever, say it was half an inch off on the select cable, well the shifter would operate permanently biased a little left or right, any more than a little length difference, and the lever wouldn't have enough travel (1/2 on the shift knob would be 3/4 if it was too far out, or 5/r would be 3/4, or 1/n would be n/2, etc.) for mine I just found the half way point in the total value travel, and roughly aligned that with the center neutral position on the trans, I then made a slight adjustment on the select cable using the threaded ends, but not much. I don't think that would be why AJ's car is notchy into first and reverse, is that just with the engine off, engine on, moving, stopped, all the time, etc? It would logically make sense why 1st and reverse would be notchier, the synchros aren't necessarily lined up, and the wheels aren't going to turn, so when "forcing" it into gear (going through the notch), you're turning ask the other gears and clutch side of the trans until it lines up, lower gears will turn the engine side more, so you're moving more stuff to push through a synchro that isn't perfectly lined up in a lower gear, although theoretically that scenario would be fixed when moving out the engine running (clutch down)
Got the intercooler radiator mounted up front, and hooked into the hoses and filled with 50/50 antifreeze/distilled water, got the evap canister and catchcan hooked up yesterday, the factory heat shields back on, I'm basically done now, some zip ties here and there, a little bit of wiring still (intercooler fans, interior). I ended up hooking the ICM spark bypass signal wire to the TPS 5v, so it's always controlled by the ECM, no point wasting an output on something that'll always be on anyways.
Originally posted by 1985 Fiero GT: can't start it until I have the new starter, tried bump starting it, but not enough of a hill.
Normally with a fresh ECU install I think you would need a strong battery + starter with all the engine start attempts that would be performed for tuning purposes.
However, in this case, you have a good head start with information from my tune!
Normally with a fresh ECU install I think you would need a strong battery + starter with all the engine start attempts that would be performed for tuning purposes.
However, in this case, you have a good head start with information from my tune!
Yup, ironically that didn't save my starter (although I would call that a defect, for a failure after basically 10 normal cranks and the compression testing I did) but yes, starting off with something roughly in the area is beneficial indeed!
