Started pulling apart the bone stock duke in my 88 today. Shes been burning oil and smoking sense I bought her. I have finally got to a point at my job where I can afford to give my sad little fiero the proper care it needs. While I was pulling the intake and exhaust off, I found the the stock head gasket was in good shape. The stock exhaust header had the normal cracks on both sides. What I did not expect was was for one side to fall off in my hand.
The cylinder walls look and feel great. the bad thing is that I could shave in the refection. Got a new glaze braker for that. Heres the other pics before I start cleaning. Still need to pull the rest of the block, but I'm trying to take my time. This is not my first engine, but I still want to make sure I take my time and do things right. Going with sealled power pistons and moly rings.
------------------ 1988 Fiero 2.5
[This message has been edited by Zeak (edited 10-26-2014).]
On a related note. (did not want to start another thread) Dose the exhaust haft to be this long? The hoop on the trans side seems like it would contribute to alot of extra under hood heat. My pipe and Cat need to be replaced anyway. I was thinking it could come out of the header and head right under the cradle wile reusing the stock flex points. Maybe have a small, high flow cat under the engine with the proper heat shielding. (photo credit to IFLYR22)
[This message has been edited by Zeak (edited 10-26-2014).]
Originally posted by Zeak: On a related note. (did not want to start another thread) Dose the exhaust haft to be this long? The hoop on the trans side seems like it would contribute to alot of extra under hood heat. My pipe and Cat need to be replaced anyway. I was thinking it could come out of the header and head right under the cradle wile reusing the stock flex points. Maybe have a small, high flow cat under the engine with the proper heat shielding.
Picture shows 88 OE exhaust is to stop breaking exhaust manifold. Second joint to right in above picture and pipe hanger to trans is 88 fix to isolate cat weight from crap manifold design.
You want 88 pipe.
Many think heat is a problem but cheap shield etc solve that. Heat really does not matter when the car is moving. That picture shows OE shield on the pipe. Many have rusted. I made starter shield... www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/133868.html#p13 Stops heat soak by pipe and cat.
------------------ Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. (Jurassic Park)
Thanks for the info! Got some more progress made. Pulling the 2.5 from the top was not to bad after I removed the intake, exhaust, and the head. Going to soak her in gunk and then pressure wash everything thats external.
Broke the darn crank sensor on the back of the coil packs. Guess it was time for a new one. My serpentine belt tensioner had a new pulley on it but I guess it was a little loose as it was grinding on the plastic that covers the spring. Can that be rebuilt or do I haft to buy the hole thing? Did the pressure washing this afternoon after I got off work and am going to take apart the internals and wire-wheel the block and head.
the belt arm worn then replace tension assm. RockA etc have them.
Should have metal "spring" and you move it to new tensioner but many are missing. I Think just make noise when pulley/tensioner are bad. Arm is pointing to where the spring mounting point. Not covered in cave...
Your defiantly right about the shield missing. Looking into getting one from my local pick and pull. As for the pulley, I'm just going to use an adjustment bar and run it like the 84 2.5. Thanks for all the great info in the cave.
[This message has been edited by Zeak (edited 10-30-2014).]
down grade for V belts? is bad move. V belts can't use harmonic balancer and w/o that can kill timing gear and balancer/pump. Is part of why timing gears die. just use new tensioner and harmonic balancer.
I'm not down grading to v-belts. Just going to find the same belt that I have now only shorter. I'll use the stock tensioner without the pulley to cap off the hole in the block. I'm not trying to build a racecar here. I just want to be able to drive to work and not haft to replace the tensioner in another 80k.
Since you no doubt need new valves and re-conditioned seats, have a machine shop check the head for cracks. Mine had a small one when I rebuilt my 88 duke, so I got a later model head (better flowing). See this thread for more on my rebuild.
Originally posted by Jims88: Good luck with your engine build; how many miles were on the old Duke?
Thanks. It just rolled over to 180k.
quote
Originally posted by TopNotch: Since you no doubt need new valves and re-conditioned seats, have a machine shop check the head for cracks. Mine had a small one when I rebuilt my 88 duke, so I got a later model head (better flowing). See this thread for more on my rebuild.
I plan on doing that. Just haft to get all the gunk off first. lol
Tried to clean up my old valves. All 4 of the exhaust ones are shot. New ones will be in within 4 days.... The head was checked over and aside from LOTS of carbon buildup. Its in good shape. Still trying to source a proper shield for the coil assembly.
I think that's just some sort of coating they put on the valve. The more narrow point measures the same as the top and bottom of where the keepers go on the other end. I'll compare them to the new ones when they come in.
Went to the parts store and paid $2.99 for a small exhaust connector. It's 18 gauge galvanized steel. Made a paper tracing of the pim and them cleaned it up and traced it onto the connector. Going to cut it down the back side and unroll it and then cut the holes. (It's hard to find galvanized steel for cheap around here) On the orange rubbers that seal the coils. I only have one per side. How thick should they be? There only as thick as a nickel at the moment. Thoughts?
[This message has been edited by Zeak (edited 11-09-2014).]
Got the shield cut out, but I'm not happy with it. It looked great until I tryed to do the more detailed cuts for the coils to connect to. I'm thinking I need a dremel, not a hand drill and chainsaw file. lol In other news, My new valves came in. There soooo nice looking.
[This message has been edited by Zeak (edited 11-10-2014).]
Doing some more cleaning. Wanted to show what the result of putting too thick of a bead of rtv on the oil pan. It did not fully cure and leaked alot. I was also very surprised at how much dirt, dust, and rocks came out of my alternator. Still produced a charge....
[This message has been edited by Zeak (edited 11-17-2014).]
Getting the last 2 pistons installed and I have been slowly moving the crank assembly to insure nothing was binding. Now that the bottom end is all together. It seems stiff. Nothings grinding that I can tell. I used a plasta gauge on the crank and con rods and all was well within spec. Thoughts?
So this might work. Got a belt thats just over 48'' long. Made the hole on the tip of the old tensioner wider so It has a bit of adjustment. If it dose work great. If not then I'm only out the price of the shorter belt and I haft to buy a new tensioner anyway. Going to install the oil pan in the morning and let the rtv set up for a few days before it sees any oil.
[This message has been edited by Zeak (edited 11-27-2014).]
-Jims88- Thanks! To answer your question from way before when we where talking about broken vises. The od claims 179k. The only thing the other owners did to her was the timing gear.
-Squidhyxout- Chevy orange from VHT Engine Enamel. Also highly recommend there primer. Good stuff.
Heres a side by side of my new gear reduction starter next to what I can only assume is the factory starter. (still worked, certainly had enough lube from my bad oil pan seal.)
Got most of the wiring back on. the dog-bone went on without much hassel and I reran the new battery cables so there not touching anything that gets hot or moves.
[This message has been edited by Zeak (edited 12-15-2014).]
Why not? It's out from under the deck lid vent, so that will have much better airflow out. (remember that air comes up from the bottom of the car, not in.) It's also not exposed to the snow and ice during the winter. I'm not building a track car. A 96hp iron duke will see to that. I'm 6'2'' and 240 pounds. I think the battery in the rear trunk will not make too much of a difference.
Wanted to ask what this connections point is.... The plastic bit with 2 bolt studs needs to be replaced as they both spin when you try to put the nuts on.
