Originally posted by longjonsilver: The interior panels look GREAT! you are inspiring me to do some of mine.
Thanks!
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Originally posted by R Runner: The interior panels really look good. It may not be a show car, but the high quality work shows.
Thanks! My goal is to drive the car about 10K miles per year while keeping it looking presentable!
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Originally posted by jdv: You have new aftermarket sun visors. Where did you get them as I am looking for replacements for my car. As always you do excellent work.
Thanks! I forget exactly when I got the new sun visors. It was either in 2015 when I switched to the ABS head liner or in 2016 when I did the first refresh of the dash and console areas. Either way, I am pretty sure they came from Fiero Store back then. They have held up quite well.
Should have some more pictures on Sunday. The headliner, upper console lights, 3rd brake cover plate are installed, and sun visors are installed. The driver side A, B, floor trim, and door panel is also installed. Hoping to wrap up the passenger side Sunday.
Wednesday evening I have to drive to Milwaukee for and engineering forum on Thursday. Then drive back on Thursday. It would be a great trip for the Fiero, plus I will get paid mileage to drive it the 500 miles! f I can get it back together by then.
Not completely done, but done enough to have the car running again!
Here is a picture of the DS door panel:
Passenger side is still missing the B-pillar, floor trim, and seat:
I need to take a better picture of the headliner:
This is the reason the passenger side isn't done... I still have to make this block off plate for the B-pillar speaker. This was made from aluminum and formed to fit the curvature of the B-pillar. If I had been smart, or had a larger stockpile of interior parts, I could have just used an early B-pillar panel w/o the B-pillar speakers. The cover for the seat belt is MIA... I might make up a metal slip on cover for it as a future project.
I can finish up the passenger side after work this week, but it won't keep me from driving the Fiero all this week.
Drove the Fiero to Milwaukee last Wednesday. It was a 500+ mile work trip, so I got paid about $300 to drive the Fiero, which is awesome! Drove between 80-85 mph and still pulled down about 25 to 26 mpg. Swap clocked over 5,000 miles this week.
Trip was uneventful except for 2 things: 1. Drove home after 5pm on Thursday, so the car is now splattered a gazillion bugs. 2. Was reminded how bad Fiero headlights are. Standard headlights on my Fiero are 5+ years old, so that doesn't help. When you can see your Fiero's shadow on the road ahead because the car's lights behind you are so blindingly good... it is time for an upgrade. This wasn't just 1 car with Ogre approved OEM DOT LED headlights, it was nearly every car that chose to drive faster and pass me.
I am trying to finish up the cover plate on the passenger B-pillar so the passenger side trim panels can be installed this week. Also, need to clean the bugs off the car.
Probably will be at the Gateway GTO car show in Pontiac, IL this weekend. It is about 70 miles from home and has some fun places to visit.
Show today was good. Rained off and on all day, but the Fieros were out in force and were one of the few groups to park together. I will have to plan to attend this show again as it is about 60 miles from home.
Not much going on with the Fiero but driving it. Last week I had to give a presentation in downtown Chicago, so drove the Fiero up and back.
Swapped out the rear brake pads Hawk DTC-30 to my old yellow stuff pads. This was done to reduce the brake dust on the rear wheels. The rears would build up 2x to 3x the brake dust as the fronts. The fronts on the Yellow Stuff dusted like crazy, but the rears were much, much less. This switch worked out well.
Installed a relatively cheap LED headlight upgrade, and I would rate it OK. They were as easy as replacing the standard sealed beams, and they will work for now, but I won't stop thinking about the next light upgrade. Seems to put out more light, so far no one has flashed me for blinding them, but it still isn't as bright as some of the street light output on the roads, or the super bright lights from newer cars (Fiero still casts a shadow in front even with these headlights on). https://www.hidnation.com/p...led-conversion-kit-1
I have also had enough seat time with the new gauge layout to start working on the next iteration. The stock housing with the 3 gauge pod above the instrument cluster works well, but the two gauges left in the old radio spot are hard to read. I like having the gauges above the dash, so just need to fit more gauges in that general location. I also have to make another 2DIN radio housing due to the smaller screen on the Alpine, so this is what is currently in the works. The top part is what will be cut out on the plasma. The teal colored lines are slots that will help with bending and will then be welded shut and ground smooth.
I picked up 2 more 4x8 sheets of 16ga, so I can cut this out for a test fit (and drawing tweak) sometime this week
have been very happy with this light. great pattern except the high beams seem to have a cut off as well, even though it is much higher than the low beams. hooked up the halo and "minus" light to park circuit, and the "minus" also hooks to the turns. automatically goes amber with turns.
Originally posted by ricreatr: have been very happy with this light. great pattern except the high beams seem to have a cut off as well, even though it is much higher than the low beams. hooked up the halo and "minus" light to park circuit, and the "minus" also hooks to the turns. automatically goes amber with turns.
Thanks! Call me old school (will turn 50 next year), but I prefer headlights that look like headlights. Never been a fan of the multi-LED, halos, or lights with multiple light bars and other shapes within the headlight.
More driving... I did switch out my tuning laptop several weeks back and got around to making a new stand for it. It is larger and taller than the previous one:
Originally posted by Sage: That......is NEXT LEVEL!
HAGO!
Thanks Tedd!
Doing some WOT tuning... With the light wastegate spring and the boost reference routed to the base of the diaphragm on the wastegate (not to the dome) I am getting about 5.2 psi boost above 6000 rpm. When I had the boost ref line disconnected, I saw over 14 psi, so fully closed on the manual boost knob is 5 psi and if I open it up I should be able to get 14+ psi when the time comes...
Insta-boost really describes this combo. Starting at 2025 rpm in 3rd gear, by the time the throttle is at 96% I see over 101kpa, so boost starts when the pedal hits the floor.
From 100% throttle @ 2287 rpm: 1 psi boost is 0.33 seconds and at 2403 rpm 2 psi boost is 0.82 seconds and at 2582 rpm 3 psi boost is 1.20 seconds and at 2757 rpm 4 psi boost is 5.46 seconds and at 4583 rpm (Boost averaged 3.77 psi between the last two settings - so this is likely the true wastegate setting and then boost creep kicks in. 5 psi boost is 8.82 seconds and at 6049 rpm (boost averaged 4.5 psi between the last two, so this is more uniform boost creep).
Still have some tuning on the A/F ratio to address the tip in lean spike and flatten the WOT portion. I might install an even lighter spring so I can tune the 105-120 KPA range in the upper rpms, but winter is coming. The Fiero is in the garage for the next several days as the lows will be in the 30s. Maybe next weekend I can do some more tuning runs
Not sure I believe it, but the delivered torque calculated by the ecm is 337 lb-ft at 100% throttle at 2282 rpm and peaks at 495 lb-ft at 6300 rpm. When the car was NA, RWTQ at 2000 rpm was about 268 and peaked at 335 close to 5000 rpm.
Did another 3rd gear WOT and ran it up to about 6900 rpm (120 mph).
A/F is targeting 11.2 and timing is 13.5. Boost creep in the upper rpms is keeping torque nearly flat and HP climbing. The next pull I might start increasing the base boost.
Originally posted by fieroguru: Not sure I believe it, but the delivered torque calculated by the ecm is 337 lb-ft at 100% throttle at 2282 rpm and peaks at 495 lb-ft at 6300 rpm.
Probably estimating torque/power with the mass of the car, a drag guesstimate, and acceleration would be a way to cross-check what the ECM is saying.
Car was parked for about 3 weeks while I was waiting for some nice weather.
During that time I was cleaning the garage, purging some old things, and putting more parts into labeled boxes for longer term storage. With the Fiero and Sara's Murano in the garage, my work area will be limited to the 3rd bay, and it was a disaster after a very active summer.
Over the winter, I will be switching out the 2DIN head unit and moving 2 more gauges above the instrument cluster. I doubt this is the final version, but it will be used for mockup to fine tune the final one.
While playing with the plasma, I went ahead and knocked out the Christmas gifts for Sara's co-workers at the University of Illinois (Graduate Engineering Online Programs - so she now works in a building I took engineering classes in almost 30 years ago). One of her co-workers is always making 3D printed stuff, so Sara wanted some CNC Plasma stuff for her co-workers.
We will paint these and apply some colored plastic to the back side so the I and names will stand out.
Today was above 60 degrees, so I got the car out and did about 5 WOT runs for the purpose of figuring out the manual boost knob boost settings. I was trying to find the setting for 8 psi. First test was 1/2 turn out, but made little change, so the rest were full turns out. Each one wasn't a full pull as I just wanted to see the boost increase. 4 full turns started about 5.5 psi and creeped to about 7.5 and I did run this one out (which is the graph below). The fueling is pretty much spot on now with the wideband, so I am going to start playing with the low rpm high load timing bumping it slightly while keeping the boosted timing at 14 degrees.
I plan to do a few more runs on Monday. Now that things are getting more dialed in, I might do a 1st - 3rd WOT run to see how long it takes to reach 120+ mph, and how much tire spin get in 1st and 2nd.
Originally posted by zkhennings: Holy S*** to those numbers and that flat torque curve for 4000rpms.
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Originally posted by Trinten: Nice!!
Your car is knocking on the door of 700 HP at the crank?? That's awesome!! And I agree with zkhennings, fantastic "torque plateau"!
Rock on!
Thanks guys! These are the ecm calculated numbers for flywheel torque (used in the factory torque management. They are probably +/- 15%, but are mainly used to see the power band and evaluate impact of tune changes.
Since I planned to run non-intercooled from the beginning, I switched to a better intake, had the heads CNC ported, and went with a slightly smaller duration/higher lift camshaft (Tick Stage 2 Turbo camshaft for the 4.8/5.3L engines, 219/223 .617/.595 LSA114+3). All in an effort to maximize airflow through the engine so I could make more power per psi of boost than the older setup would have. Sure I could just turn up the boost to overcome flow restrictions, but that generates more heat for a given HP level.
Yesterday I did a few more runs. The WOT run in 1st, I was trying to avoid tire spin and rolling into the throttle. Didn't get over 65% throttle, built about 2.5 psi of boost, before hitting the rev limiter... The WOT run in 2nd was better, but I still need to work on shifting.
Peak tq from yesterday was 602 ft-lbs. Peak hp from yesterday was 764 hp. Peak boost was 7.6 psi.
Head flow is almost more important for FI compared to NA, when my WRX motor blew up I got a JDM motor to replace it (from a twin turbo legacy B4), the intake port sizes were massive compared to the stock WRX intake ports. With the stock motor I was seeing loads at 19-20psi of boost around 2.25grams/revolution, I turned the boost down to 15psi when tuning the timing tables for the new motor and I was hitting 2.4g/rev with way less boost. Don't think I am going to turn the boost up as high as it used to be, and enjoy my lower intake temps, a couple extra degrees of timing, and more power.
[This message has been edited by zkhennings (edited 11-15-2024).]
I wanted to do a WOT run in 1st, 2nd and 3rd so I could compare them.
1st gear is pretty much wheel spin city. If I floor it, wheels spin, and I hit the rev limiter. Peak boost was 6 psi. 2nd gear - if I floor it at 2000 rpm, the rear tires will fight for traction but they hold - peak boost was 7.3 psi. If I floor it in the 3K to 4K range, wheel spin city. The road had a pretty good crown, so once the tires lit up, the rear started to creep to the right side. 3rd gear - hammer down, tires hold, and you rocket to 120+ mph.
Now granted, the tires are 8 years old and past their prime. It also was about 65 degrees, so cooler than the tires really would like. I am planning to buy some new tires next spring.
The E40 has a table where I can slow the opening rate by gear, but not sure it will be enough. This car really needs some kid of boost by gear and/or traction control (or awd).
Also learned that if I press the clutch right before the 7300 rpm rev limited, the engine will overshoot the 7300 rev limit.
While on the HRPT this year, I spent some time talking with a sales rep at Haltech. They impressed me with all the built in features (wideband closed loop, boost control, boost by gear, traction control, flex fuel, cruise control, etc. I picked up the Rebel LS and harness several months back, but wanted to fully vet the E40 before going aftermarket.
I recently acquired the same unit. Let me know what you figure outnas far as the VSS. They limit the number of teeth to 50. I think the pulses per mile input will still work though. I also hope you are able to set the timing offset with the LS4 timing cover. (I will be using the an LS7 cover).
I recently acquired the same unit. Let me know what you figure outnas far as the VSS. They limit the number of teeth to 50. I think the pulses per mile input will still work though. I also hope you are able to set the timing offset with the LS4 timing cover. (I will be using the an LS7 cover).
Good to hear others are taking the plunge as well.
I was planning to add a reluctor ring to one of the front wheels, so I can do the same for the rear. I wanted the front one to enable traction control, but haven't looked too deep into it to know if it will work with just 1 input from each end of the car.
I switched from the LS4 timing cover to the LS2 one with the last round of upgrades, so no concerns with that.
[This message has been edited by fieroguru (edited 11-20-2024).]
I finished up the work on Sara's Christmas ornaments for her co-workers:
Here they are after being cut out:
Here are the finished pieces: Sara will add some ribbon to the hole for hanging on the tree.
Also started on the base tune for the Haltech ecm. Spent a couple of days checking out the software while the ecm was plugged into the laptop. Started assigning the I/O for Cruise, Boost Control, Traction Control, and some of the 203/500 connections.
Of the the things I am not a fan of is the universalness of the harness, as to accomplish this, the added jumper harnesses (that can be changed based on the application), but that means there are a lot more harness connectors than there needs to be and will add unnecessary bulk to the harness. When the time comes, I will make a new harness that eliminates all the unnecessary connectors.
It was a long cold weekend so I decided to spend some time messing around with the Haltech harness.
I attached all the proper sub harnesses and then started drawing the wiring schematic for it as well as all the Fiero "integrations". Still have quite a bit more to do, but things are starting to get organized.
Here is the harness with all the sub harnesses attached and everything wire tied so I can roll it up for storage. Everything is about 2-3 times longer than it needs to be for a Fiero application, so it will be de-pinned and completely reworked in my typical fashion. This harness is anything but tidy...
Here is a mock up of the panel for the old radio location. It will have the button panel, the rotary dial, and some USB charger ports. Still working on refining the use and placement for the available buttons.
Also started pondering the front wheel speed sensor. Since I switched to 2 piece front rotors, the nuts on the backside should work as good trigger points. This will be 12 per rotation, 851 rotations per mile, 150 mph = 425 Hz switching rate. At 15 mph it will switch 42.5 times per second.
To mount a sensor to pickup the nuts, I am thinking a bracket like this one should work until my custom front knuckles and wheel bearings with ABS sensors are complete (1-2 years out).
Also, started the car up in the garage and let it run about 15 minutes to keep the battery charged.
I logged about 6,750 miles on the car this year, which is pretty good. With the temps staying below 40 degrees, I am ready to pull the drivetrain for the new harness/ecm and a few minor changes.
Before I pulled it, I wanted to get the front wheel speed sensor figured out. Here is the final setup (still need to paint the bracket). I used 88 caliper bolts for 2 of the wheel bearing bolts to allow for the threads to protrude on the backside to hold the bracket. Since the rotor hat bolts were longer than the nuts on the backside, I double nutted them with locktite and then put the rotor in the lathe to turn everything smooth.
did you not end up using the fabricated knuckles? they could be built to accommodate a WSS, or a hub with an integral WSS.
------------------ "I am not what you so glibly call to be a civilized man. I have broken with society for reasons which I alone am able to appreciate. I am therefore not subject to it's stupid laws, and I ask you to never allude to them in my presence again."
I invited Lou Dias to trash me in my own thread, he refused. sorry. if he trashes your thread going after me. I tried.
Those are backburner for now and likely will be reworked when I get the cnc mill up and running.
They only work with the power steering rack and I haven't worked through all the details for it.
I am wanting to minimize the downtime for the car and not have it off the road for another 3 years, so the simple bracket and hall effect sensor won out for now.
While I did start disconnecting stuff to prepare to drop the cradle, I ended up purchasing a load cell for my cherry picker to get some weights before and after.
From the grain elevator scale, the rear was 1660 lbs. With the load sell it is showing 1526.5 lbs. This is with the rear wheels off the ground, but the lift point is about 8" behind the rear axle. If we account for that, the rear weight on the load cell would be 1656.0, which is close enough. I will be able to use use this load cell to determine how much weight I am able to remove/add with the next round of work.
I also ran the coilover spring adjusters all the way down, lowered the cherry picker so the rear wheels were touching, left the rear springs loose, and measured the sprung rear weight. The load cell shows 1346 lbs and accounting for the lift point, it would be 1460. This means the unsprung rear weight is about 200 lbs.
Been doing a lot of searching for intercoolers, found a few that I think will fit, so I will cut up some cardboard in the shape of them for test fitting before the drivetrain comes out. I would like to commit to the intercooler, its placement, and have some temporary brackets completed before I pull everything out. I will also make some fixtures so I can locate the pass through opening in the firewall and the haltech ecm placement to speed up the process of building the new harness.
