Today, I put the finishing touches on the suspension install. Then I drove the car around for a bit. Wow, the new suspension is nice! And it has soooo much adjustability now.
I stopped in a parking lot to snap a couple photos:
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to install the Wilwood calipers yet. They use a different type of hose fitting, so the banjo bolts from the Caddy calipers wouldn't fit. So I put the Caddy calipers back on, and ordered some fittings.
The main reason for getting the Wilwood calipers was to correct the brake balance. With standard GM Metric calipers in front (2.5" bore) and stock '88 Fiero calipers in back (1.9" bore?), the brake bias was WAY too front-heavy. The rear brakes were barely doing anything.
I found some Wilwood calipers that are drop-in replacements for the GM Metric ones, with a 2" bore size. That should help with the brake bias. Plus the Wilwood aluminum calipers weigh less than the GM Metric ones. That's what I call a win-win.
[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 10-20-2017).]
I got a new video camera, and some mounting hardware. So I thought I'd hang the camera off the car and go for a spin. Unfortunately, most of the video that I took was garbage. But here's a quick clip that isn't too bad...
Man, gotta do something about that wind noise!
[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 10-20-2017).]
I am running Wilwood 120-11872-RD calipers on the front of my Fiero. These are 1.62" diam dual piston aluminum calipers with a total of 4.12 square inches piston area. By themselves on my car they are not enough to prevent the right front tire to lock up under hard braking . I am running a stock rear brake system(1986 GT) but the lock up happened when I had 2.5" piston rear calipers as well. I disabled the stock proportioning valve and added a wilwood adjustable proportioning valve to the front brake system and adjusted the brakes to get the rear brakes to take enough load to prevent the fronts from locking up. It works great on the street and on the track it is also great. I can stand on the brakes and stop in a straight line without lockup.I was thinking you might have the same front calipers as me.
I went with the single 2" piston, because it's the "easy button" solution to the brake bias problem. I also don't want to install a prop valve on the front brake circuit.
I just looked that caliper up on Wilwoods website and it was not available when I ordered my latest calipers. The caliper i went with has more area than I wanted but it was the only one close to what I wanted at the time.
I went with the single 2" piston, because it's the "easy button" solution to the brake bias problem. I also don't want to install a prop valve on the front brake circuit.
This is what I did to solve that problem. The car stops much faster with more rear bias but if you are not an experience driver you 'll poop on your pants. Like Mario Andretti said, "Brakes are not only to slow that car down, you know?"
I haven't posted anything lately, because I haven't done much with the Fiero (aside from driving it). With the holiday season, the cold weather, etc, the Fiero got put on the back burner.
One hurdle I had to overcome was the wiring for the fuel pump relay. The GM method of activating the fuel pump relay is to have the ECM send power to the relay coil. But the MegaSquirt grounds the relay coil. So I had to convert the relay's ground wire to a 12-Volt ignition wire. I chose switched ignition instead of a direct battery connection, to reduce the risk of a "run-away" fuel pump.
The MegaSquirt is installed now, but still needs some configuration. I started going through the basic configuration, but ran out of time. Such is life...
Side note on MegaSquirt with GM DIS: the DIS module has a built-in delay for the spark signal. The delay is 60 degrees of crankshaft rotation. So you need to add 60 degrees to the trigger angle/offset value to account for it. So for example, if you want 10° of base timing advance, you need to set the trigger angle to 70°.
[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 01-16-2018).]
It definitely needs tuning, though. Now I start the laborious process of copying data from one tuning format to the other. Yay, and stuff...
Edit to add: If you're wondering why the 7730 ECM is still in there, it's being used as a speedometer converter. The MegaSquirt doesn't do that. And I can't hook up the VSS directly to the speedometer. My transmission has a magnetic VSS, and my wheels are a different diameter from stock. The 7730 ECM can convert the VSS signal into something the speedometer can understand. Plus it can calibrate the speedometer for wheel size changes. Why buy a speedometer converter, when I already have one?
[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 01-18-2018).]
I drove the car around a bit today, and it seems to work pretty well. It needs some fine tuning, but that can wait until after the engine mods are completed. Speaking of which, I should be dropping the cradle soon for the engine overhaul.
The engine has low miles and is in good condition, so it shouldn't need a full rebuild. But I'll be installing some go-fast goodies... that camshaft you gave to me with solid lifters, double-roller timing chain, ported heads, full-roller rockers, the Falconer intake, etc.
Maybe the term "make-over" would be more appropriate than "overhaul"?
That's the "Le Mans" camshaft from Rei Moloon (aka La Fiera), with solid lifters and a Cloyes double-roller timing set. The Lifters (and camshaft lube) were from Schneider Racing. Each lifter has a tiny oiling hole in the face, to provide direct oiling to the cam/lifter interface. That's a high lift camshaft, and I'll be using pretty stiff valve springs. Plus, the engine oil is kinda thin (5w20). So I want to make sure there's oil going directly onto those cam lobes.
Here we have the lifters taking a bath:
Below, you see the crankshaft snout chillin' with an ice pack.
I also baked the crankshaft gear in a toaster oven. With the gear nice and hot and the crank snout nice and cold, the gear slipped on pretty easily. It just took a couple taps with a mallet to get it fully seated.
And last but not least, here's a shot of the parts installed:
I forgot to mention something I noticed about the original timing chain. Keep in mind I bought the 3.4 V6 as a new crate engine. It came with a stock style timing chain. I've only put about 15k miles on the engine, but the timing chain was already starting to stretch. I was able to wiggle the old timing chain about 1/8" in either direction. And I could see the chain going slack on one side when I turned the engine by hand. So apparently, even a moderate performance camshaft with medium stiffness valve springs can stretch out a stock style timing chain pretty quickly. That was disappointing.
Long story short, I'm glad I got the double-roller. Because this new valvetrain setup will wreck a stock style timing chain in no time.
I forgot to mention something I noticed about the original timing chain. Keep in mind I bought the 3.4 V6 as a new crate engine. It came with a stock style timing chain. I've only put about 15k miles on the engine, but the timing chain was already starting to stretch. I was able to wiggle the old timing chain about 1/8" in either direction. And I could see the chain going slack on one side when I turned the engine by hand. So apparently, even a moderate performance camshaft with medium stiffness valve springs can stretch out a stock style timing chain pretty quickly. That was disappointing.
Long story short, I'm glad I got the double-roller. Because this new valvetrain setup will wreck a stock style timing chain in no time.
Yep,the stock chain on my 2.8 did the same thing at 5k.
It's a windage tray from a 3.4 TDC, with matching main cap bolts. The Fiero main cap bolts don't have the little threaded studs on the ends.
Some slight modification was required to install it. The oil dipstick interfered with the windage tray, so I cut a notch to make clearance. See photos below.
And here's a shot of the windage tray installed:
I rotated the engine by hand a couple times, to make sure there are no clearance issues. Everything checks out. So now, it's on to the next engine mod. See you next time.
I pulled the heads, so I can start the head work. The cylinder bores look good. The piston tops look good. I checked the piston-to-deck clearance, also. The pistons are supposed to be 0.010" below the deck, and I already ordered 0.030" thick head gaskets (to get that magical 0.040" quench height). Thankfully, the piston-to-deck clearance was right on. So my Cometic MLS head gaskets are good to go.
Also, I noticed something odd in the lower intake.
One of these ports is not like the others. One of these ports is doing its own thing...
The intake port for cylinder #3 is noticeably dirtier than the rest. I looked into the upper intake, and the "skid mark" continues up into the plenum. I guess for some reason, the PCV gases must have decided to go down that particular intake port.
That's it for today. See ya next time.
[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 01-31-2018).]
I think I figured out what's going on with that one intake port. I filled the ports in the heads with water, to see if any of the intake valves are leaking. Two of them were leaking very slightly, and one was leaking noticeably. Guess which one!
Yeah, that's the intake valve for cylinder #3. So apparently, some of the combustion gases were back-feeding up the intake. It wasn't enough to make the engine run bad, but enough to dirty up an intake port.
After that, I measured the combustion chamber volume. I might decide to unshroud the valves. So I think it's a good idea to have before and after data. Plus this will help me decide how much to shave off the heads.
The port work on the heads is finished. I dropped them off at the machine shop yesterday. They'll be getting a valve job and a shave.
The holes in the mounting flanges on the Trueleo headers are sized to match the stock exhaust ports in the heads. But my exhaust ports aren't stock sized anymore. Since the primary pipes are larger diameter than those holes, that gives me room to enlarge the holes. Below you see a hole that's been enlarged compared to one that hasn't.
I was able to gasket match all the holes, and still have a little room between the edge of the hole and the inside of the pipe.
The headers are cleaned up and repainted. I started wrapping them, and realized that I greatly underestimated the amount of wrap that was needed. Oops! Time to order some more.
Also, here's a quick comparo shot of a new valve spring and an old one. The new spring and retainer are on the left.
That's no trick of the camera; the new valve springs are taller. And the retainers are dished, to compensate for it. The new spring and retainer combo can handle about 0.550" valve lift.
Here's another comparo shot: the Falconer lower intake (on the right) vs the Fiero lower intake. Notice any differences?
Since I'm waiting on the machine shop and the big brown Fiero parts truck, I decided to tackle something else today. The firewall heat shield was starting to get a little worse for wear. And since the drivetrain is out, this is a good time to give it some TLC.
