Still at it lol, got the brake lights working. Fuse missing Got some of the dash indicator lights wired up correctly, wired up the headlights and turn signals. Still poking at the front spoiler, almost finished.
Fixed that big wop in the front end. Got a sweet shift knob and new steering wheel. Should be able to get the rear wing welded up at the shop this week. Got a big list o shop stuff, rear wing and side vents. Foiled on 3 attempts to go by past few weeks, nobody there. Got a sweet tow hook for the front, still working on mounting idears.
I very recently found that picture of the 3 ferraris I posted above. Never seen that before. I noticed the hood scoop has vents. I like those vents. Boy I like those vents. Theyre in my head eating at me ever since I saw the picture. Cant fight it any longer, gotta have vents in the vent. Played around w some packing foam sheets to get a feel Going to need 5-6 vents spaced 3" apart. Question is how to attach them. I could knock off the paint and weld them on, that would look best. Filling and sanding would be a nightmare tho. Im thinking 2 runners w the flaps welded to them, and bolt down thru the runners. Painted black. Did a buncha other details I cant remember.
Got a pig for last weekends fiesta, always wanted to try that. I had a red apple ready for the mouth like in the cartoons! Was a lot smaller than I was expecting, but we didnt have that many people over. It was open rotisserie( wow I speled it write lol) and covered in whatever they put on chinese roast duck. Wow it was stupid silly good and devoured quick! Came just as pictured in a box propped up on party cups in a thin sheet of foil. Got it at the asian market, gotta order 2 weeks in advance. Was about 60lbs cooked and still hot when it got home. Came out to about $4/lb, not bad at all! Definitely recommend getting one -lechon or luzon something like that
Old buddy passed on the udder day. Sad to see it go, been with me mosta this journey. Motor burned up, brushes still good. And my pom sander never resurfaced, maybe it was in my big truck when it got stolen
New mercs recruited at hd
got some hours in this
compressor madness
Master shutoff installed
Shot the red on the front and sides, touched up some spots in the back. Took the opportunity(like I wont have more lol) to get the divide line very crispy
Got the metal for the hood vent vents and some angle for the front tow hook. Hafta make some apparatus to allow the hook to swing when the hood opens
Shot the black and installed the supports, still needs some luv. I used plumbers tape to get the screw spacing equals
Got a new steering wheel, dunno if I like it, Got headlights on order, gonna be awhile. 4" inner light and twin vertcal projectors offa motorbike for each side. Got the side vent frames all setup for my buddy to weld. Polished the back window so good I can see thru it, trunk windows a goner. Good to practice on. Found a box of window seals yabba dabba doo!
Not a bad idea, itd protect my $18 investment lol. Glassed the fins on the vents straight Good but could be gooder, me thinks the fins need to taper back. Back to work
Thanks man, yeah the vents will look schweet for sure. Just gotta figure out what and how to do it. Takes me awhile Also planning around how to help my welding buddy. Hes got a really bum arm and neck so he moves pretty slow. So the vents and spoiler will take lots of time to finish, or I have to whip up some tig skills quick. PLayed around w making some jigs to hold the vents for welding, need a router and table. As usual wound up eyeballing it w a skilsaw lol
Made it to the machine shop saturday and helped my buddy a bit, did some dumpster diving for alum scraps. Jeff was there too, welded one end of the spoiler inserts. Got lotsa cleaning to do. Made up some brackets to hold the dual headlights. Got a 4" bulb to go next to it but it looks too small to me. Gonna get the 5.75
Havent touched the car in ages it seems. Too busy day trading now, thats my new hobby. Even have a discord set up w some heavy hitters, 150 heads poached from another service lol. Having a birthday party today for the wifey and I, made some time to work on the car. I did make a trip to the shop for some welding, got the side fin shells together,and main section of the wing welded. Cut the glassed fin tops off and cut some scrap alum to have em welded on, shaped, and mostly curved. Cut too much off one dag nab it. Finished up the front lip spoiler, came out good.
Happy new year from I never work on my car anymore land! Its rare that I have any free time now, mom needs eyes on her all the time now. I have been poking at the car lil by lil. Pretty funny I went to pull it in after working on it till dark, It always starts on the second revolution. This time it didnt, it ran outta gas lol. Had to run to the closest gas station, super ghetto but no crackheads this time! Yay! Car started right back up. Working on lotsa little details. Got my aluminium parts ready for my welding buddy, so hopefully the fins and wing and vents will be done this year lol.
Had a helluva time getting the rear hatch actuators in, there wasnt enough room to get the actuators w enuf upward angle to lift the lid. I was using the "stock" attachment points. Heres the ones glass into the underside of the vents on the top. Piece o 1/2" box tube
Heres the brackets that I cut off and welded on as far back and as low as possible, fail The studs on the brackets were too short, so I used some 5/16 bolts from hd w locknuts, still failed. Even w the actuator on the tire, still not enuf angle. Actuators almost ripped the hatch off. Made some spacers for the rear struts outta some umbrella stand tubing to raise the car 2". Then made some lowering brackets outta alum. Hogged out the bottom of the vent to give me as much angle as possible. Got maybe 3/16" of fb outta the way. Bottomed out the actuators, then welded on an extension piece to the vent support tubing. Success! Finally it works! The actuators were advertised as being matched in speed, but the pass side one runs 2-3 seconds longer so that side sits a wee bit higher. Good enuf for me, I can mess w that later.
I needed something to fill the gap between the seats, got a nice slim depth sub w red trim. Made a box and wrapped it in leftover pleather. Looks schweet!
Played around w window switch fittin in the center console aka leftover piece of laminate from moms old floor, but the sub looks good!
Years ago I bought some edging for the windows. Somehow it survived the move, and somehow I found it quickly in the garage. I randomly had the idea to go find it and try it on the back window. Its too small thats why I never used it, but it stretched out enuf to kinda grip the back windows and gives it a nice finished look.
Then there was some low spots where the back window sits, filled those today. Mostly done, mostly.
And then where the back wing sits there was a gap at one corner. Taped it off and funneled chopped fb into the gap, and filled it up Almost done, just some subatomic particle holes to fill smooth.
Totally forgot I bought it till it showed up, but I took a chance on a cheapo fauxrarri horn button. The sticker on the current ones super faded and has a section missing. Holy cannoli it fits!
Polished off the overspray from the custom exhaust!
Its weird the car looks a little short to me now, maybe cuz its parked next to the stang in the garage and I see the wheelbase difference. The fieros 2.5" shorter than the f40, but I think it needs 4:ish. And im seriously considering making molds to make copies when the times right. Also for my fandangled "make my own taillight lenses" idear, that I didnt do because of the cost of the pressure pot and vacuum pump. My cus has those I can borrow he told me today. So that may happen sometime in the future. Thats pretty much it, played w the headlights but not sure about what to do. Dont worry, itll randomly come to me when the times right! Take care!
shem
[This message has been edited by shemdogg (edited 01-09-2022).]
------------------ Thank You Thomas NIFE Activity Director 1997 Mitsu 3000GT 1987 Fiero GT T-Top 1988 Fiero Formula 2020 Forte GT Turbo 2005 Chevy Avalabche
Thanks Dobie and Tom for the nice reply! I got the missing brake caliper bolt and some lower door trim pieces from handyman pat in the mall. Awesome! Wrote back right away and shipped the parts quickly, and at a good price, call him if u need anything! Car is driveable now!
Got smore done on the car yesterday, down to finicky details now. One was the drivers door, if you line up the body line, the top of the door is too low. The inner door edge was a bit short as well booglie booglie Snot applied Much better! Damn that car looks good!
Uber bummed about bozzies car, cant get it outta my head that cars gone. All that work and time. Burned thru that build thread again, found a great idear. I put a ton of turtle wax on a cabinet top, and made a fb sheet outta 2 layers of mat. I got this crazy idear the the car needs wings lol. Nothing huge, but something to match the hood vent fins, and match the lil wings at the ends of the front spoiler/air dam thingamabobbie jobber. Did a few trial shapes to see what looked good to me. The ones under the door hafta be really small to look ok.
Might glass em up today, I dunno. Got a lil cold, feel like chit. More to come later. Hopefully the hood vents will be done by the end of the month, the door vents may not happen. Need a shop w good tools to cut the fins to shape one by one, and preferably the car there also. Gonna be running power and repairing my welding buddys old garage, hopefully we can get some machines set up there. The buildings leaning and needs a roof, lotsa the framing and rafters are damaged but its doable lol.
Was definitley thinking about copying the front shape, but want something that transitions to flat. Still playing w it, and from the looks of it- prolly will be for some time! Been poking around here n nyah. Made a mini scoop for the vents on the scoop. Aka wrapped a big burrito in foil and put it on the hood Came out good but too tall., blocks my view from the drivers seat. Not good, chopped the height in half. Reglassed it, came out wopped. Into the trash it went. Made another, coming out ok. Thinking of glassing this all together as one unit. How? Not there yet
Onto the back window, thats things never gonna polish out. Spent about $200 on the last one, w prices nowadays I dont even wanna look. Always liked the louvers on the 80's cars, hit hd for something reasonably priced. Been looking for my jigsaw for ages now, it was in the truck when it got stolen dag nab it. Playing around w shapes, took some idears from one of my kids toy cars. Nothing set in stone yet, getting some feelers
Went to my local tap plastics for some fb cloth and mat, big sign on the front window. "will be closing sept 2020". Whoops, im a lil late. Got a few yards of each from the one in san jose. Prices have more than doubled, but still way cheaper than getting the lil bits of sheet at hd.
shem
[This message has been edited by shemdogg (edited 04-03-2022).]
Making some progress on the back louvers. Car ran outta gas again lol, was late so pushed it back in the garage w help. Hit tap for more cloth and mat, well into fb can #18. lotsa areas to make stronger/thicker, making good progress on the front scoop vent vents too. Looks like it gonna rain today. More to come
One more belt sander down! Well into can #18 or 19 of fb. Burned thru another can o filler. Wound up cutting the top louver to match the rest not the roof shape. Glassed the front fins all together. Looking good, Looking really good. Very happy w how its turning out Although it was a huge failure last time(this time too, but glassed it strong now) I put vents in the in the hood scoops hood scoop
So glad I did these fins, got a ton of time into em but well werf it
Anybody see the roadkill episode w the wide widebody camaro? It had a gauge cluster from an airplane w a buncha switches and gauges for twin turbos that were not present. Looked awesome and sounds tright up my alley. So, a new dash will be fabbed up next after this hood vent. rear window louver fiasco. Yay!
Wow aircraft gauges are expensive! lol Things happen for a reason and the search for those led the voices to tell me the final look of the car, crazy wing shapes and paint scheme. For now anyways. These will be the last time the car will be red. Wifeys car was outta the driveway so time for some last minute beauty shots in red
Holy Crow Shem I can’t believe how low your car is! I I can’t remember do you have air ride in it? For the air dames My recommendation would be to take a piece of aluminum and bend to the shape you want and lay 3 layers of glass on it Then cut the shape you want to produce the air dames will look cool.
Yeah buddy bagged it and tagged it all around lol. The lowest points of the rear and front sit about 1/2", the area in front of the rear wheels touches the ground barely. Making some progress w the new paint scheme and was glassing up the wings when I spotted a 5" piece of 1x4. Automatically I went to the car and this is what was drawn right away, giving me the idear of what to do next. Gonna look schweet, but of course hard to shape and sand. Story of my life w this ride lmao. Thats pretty much it for flat sections, but there is a roof scoop in the werks somewhere sometime. Got the idea of how I want the exhaust to look, gonna order another exhaust tip. Dunno how this paint schemes gonna turn out. Like I told the wife, its either gonna look really really good, or its gonna look really really bad. Either way, I was gonna repaint it anyways. At this stage, whats one more paint job lol.
If you took the Saleen front vent though, that would give you a very big rocker panel "lip" to step over when getting in and out of the car, requiring the doors to open further to clear everything easily (or risk scuffing up the interior or 'kicking' the rocker panel). My preference on anything wide-body-ish is to use the "hourglass" style that you see on a lot of older Porsches. You could still do similar vents then, off the back of the flared front quarter panels.
Hey Trinten I really appreciate the kind words! Im putting that saleen vent on the front lower side of the hood. The car already has a monster rocker to step over when getting in n out. Its a contortion act to get into the car, especially in the garage. Did a few experimentations w the front vents, experimentation #4 was a success. Hey sharkey sharkey friggen love it. Cut out some shapes for the roof scoop, gonna need a few tries on that too. Mostly looks like the cars sporting a mohawk or a spartan/ marvin the martian helmet. But I can run it all the way back without the trunk hitting it when opening. So the paint scheme im trying out is from the f14 jolly roger/ vf1s, dunno how im liking it. Moved things around a few times, still kinda ehhh lol. Always sounds great in your head but when you start laying it out it kinda goes bleh. The onset of general malaise, maybe that should be my screen name. Anywho- yeah- still werkin on it
Made lotsa progress today. Almost done with the shark teef up front, went and made a roof scoop. Dunno how I like it, def looks like a mohawk. A punk rock car, a 300 reject, I dunno. Ill work on other things and let that marinate for a bit. Could always toss it. About 25% into fb gallon #20, and im outta bondo oh nooooooo!
At random times the voices/aka creative inspirations will tell me what to. Sometime last week the idear for the exhaust popped into my head. 6 thrust vectoring nozzles across the back! Lol just kidding, two's enuf. Turns out I had 75% of the parts already. Got a decent head cold and was gonna call it a day, when the mailman showed up w my part. The current exhaust hangs to the left (like me lol), so I hadta figure out a way to get it centered. No time for love dr jones, I did what I did last time I hadta move the exhaust around. 6' digging bar and a sledgehammer. Stuffed the bar in the center exhaust, a few good whacks, and about 20 seconds later it was centered. Then I pulled the back lower piece off and cut off the strap that was holding the pipes together. The drivers side pipe is loose at one of the connections so its just hanging now. Cut a big ol hole in the back bumper and bam, I got a sick effin exhaust Shemdawg happy
Pretty much finished up w the roof scoop, gonna integrate a rear view camera in there somehow later on. Added some air brakes to the roof, still playing w the paint scheme. Kinda liking it more n more. Car died on me and wouldnt start again, thought it was outta gas. Threw 5 gallons in, still wont fire. Primed the hell outta the fuel pump w a jumper, still same fire n die. Found an old thread on here about the fp relay, found it, switched it w the one next to it, car runs. Kinda taking a break from the sanding for a bit
Got my welding buddys garage all dialed in w the 220. Will be moving back to san jose in a few months so he will be close. Instead of cash I asked for his dad who owns some junkyards to get me a ls4 and f40. So thatll show up sometime. Was browsing the pick n pull website n saw they had a buncha 3800sc cars. Told the wife when they have a 50%off sale, ima get one. The next morning was memorial day, I clicked their specials page and theyre having a 50% off sale that ends that day. I went n got me a 3800sc Its an oily mess, intake manifold gaskets were dunn wrong, bottom end looks good. Gonna have the heads checked and change all the gaskets while I accumulate swap parts.
Been reading every 3800 swap thread I can find and accumulating parts to finish the swap. Ordered the flywheel from fierorog, got the right fuel pump, and some generic ls motor mounts. Redid the intake manifold gaskets and cleaned and painted the block. Got a full gasket kit but decided not to pull the heads, just going to get it running. Still playing w the belt routing, I put the alternator where the AC was and flipped the water pump pulley backwards so I only need 1 belt. Been going to town on the harness, what a chore. Removed tons of wire from the harness, there was a bunch of unused connectors and all the auto trans stuff I wont be using. Decided to keep the egr and evap, and delete the cruise control. While I was standing over the motor, I noticed the right side cylinders stick out further than the other side. So Im prolly gonna move the alternator where the ps was. Almost ready to power the harness and attempt tuning, but I still have some wires that dont match up to any pcm pinouts im finding. Heres some progress pics
Its nice taking a break from the fb work, havent touched sand paper in a while now. Swapped the alternator to the other side of the motor using a long stud and the upper mount bracket, and welded it together to make my bracket. Waiting on the belt to show up. Thinking ahead about what to do for exhaust, and reading all the other threads about what people have done, I started looking at exhaust pieces. Then I remembered I had a 45ish piece of stainless 3" that I had on a jetski exhaust. One of the big ol tips was attached to this piece of pipe. Cut the bracket off what was left of the cars exhaust and cleaned it up. This will give me a tight angle down to the muff. So all Ill need after this is prolly one 3" elbow w some meat on the ends, and ill have enough to attach the exhaust to the fiero exhaust. $50 exhaust lol. King of cheap here. Boldly going where no shemdogg has gone before, I got my pcm wired correctly. The pinouts most 3800 swap threads show didnt match up 100% to my pcm. My motors outta a 03 park ave (ultra -oooooooh!) Did a ton of searching and I found this ultra top secret link (please keep it that way )to an auto library for mechanics. Has everything for every year and model go to post #31 https://buickforums.com/for...-manual.50632/page-2 I found the exact pinout for my pcm there. Got it powered up and connected but I need a seed key to unlock it to pull the bin file. Kinda stuck but will keep at it. Waiting on my flywheel, and hunting for a 3/4" pipe tap to start the heater lines from the intake mani and water pump.
Well the flywheel finally showed up tuesday, really thought I was getting stiffed. After 2 weeks with no email replies from the seller, I put a post on here asking for his number. Sent a message and the flywheel was shipped. Havent really done much else, I did get the belt routing and sizing done, and drilled out the heater lines to 3/4 npt and got stainless fittings for them. Will find out today if we are moving or not, if we do move then the swap wont be started for a while. Also have a cast on my left hand from cutting a tendon on my left thumb. Thinkin I might as well get a new clutch, dunno how the stock fiero clutch would hold up even tho I plan to baby everything since these manual trans dont hold much torque. A buddy came back from outta country, hasnt seen the car in months. Absolutely loves the mods and paint scheme, went nuts when he saw it in the garage. Hes a pilot and recognized/ loved everything I did. Ill post again when I have things taken apart, and will take the obligatory engine out pic
Looks awesome Shem. One of the things that I was looking at and I don't know if you addressed was the air tank and compressor. Since you like to work with metals, get a generic stainless steel muffler like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Vibr...d_i=B000E3ZMSI&psc=1
You can also find them cheaper and you'll probably have to measure for the correct sizing.
Take the muffler and cut out about 1/4 of the height right before the pipes.
Then use this to cover up the tank and maybe even the compressors on either side. Then you can either take it to a shop and weld on 2 90 degree pipes on either end or use stainless clamps to clamp on the 90 ends which are simply for looks.
The Modena uses an exhaust similar to what I describe:
In the end, you will cover the tank and I think the polished stainless would look awesome behind the black mesh grille.
[This message has been edited by IMSA GT (edited 07-30-2022).]
Hey Adam thanks for checking in and providing some ideas. I see where youre going and I did think about mounting the exhaust up there or even running the exhaust pipes back there vertically like the f40, even faux exhaust. Worried about the heat near the fiberglass, seen so many videos of supercars catching fire from the exhaust. Id have a hard time cutting up a brand new muffler for looks too. I like the placement of the tank and compressors, just one more thing to catch peoples eyes. They always ask but drift off before I give a response, busy looking at other details. I might start saying some thing crazy like" Oh thats the doughmaster system, but hey check out these trunk latches. They turn!" lol. I have the exhaust all planned out already. That 45 degree exhaust piece will come out from the back of the motor at a 45 degree angle southeast or west- towards whichever side the muff inlet is on, then to a 45, then to a 90 to a reducer to the muff inlet. The exhaust pipes already go into the 2 big tips. Ill have to cut the tips shorter and get reducers to whatever the exhaust pipe size is. Simple but its gonna be a lotta welding, im getting better at it tho. And I definitely wouldnt say I enjoy metal working, nor do I like sanding fiberglass for 5 years lol, but I climb whatever mountains life throws at me. Win or learn, im always in class.
Ordered my flywheel to crank hub bolts today. Read so many threads on this with no definitive "use this", so went my own route. Mcmaster carr grade 8 high strength mil spec bolts. Those seem to be the best of the bunch. Couldnt find a grade 9 or 10, fastenal was outta stock, so was grainger. Think I have a tunerlocked pcm and need another to program. For what the boneyards here charge for one $80, I found spots online thatll supply one for under $150. Think ill just go that route, initially I got quotes as high as $600- thats almost as much as hp tuners. The last issue is the clutch. Seen so many threads on this w conflicting info. Spec clutch, fiero clutch, s10 clutch, camaro, or cavalier. I have no idea, some say the pp hits the bellhousing. Some say you need a TO bearing spacer. The spec is the most recommended but pricey. Im not going to beat on this or mod the motor to 1000hp. Any idears lemme know pwetty pwease. Not moving back to san jose so once the clutch is in ill start digging in. Only thing im unsure of at this point is the rear motor mount but I got some idears, have to get the motor attached to the trans to see where the axles will live. The usual feel my way around in the dark approach lol
Went at it the other day finally, pulled the car out, revved the motor for the last time, and shut it off. Started pulling everything, had it out in about 6 hours over 2 days. Things came apart pretty easy but doing it w one hand wasnt. Left hand still in a cast. I cut 60% of the cast off when I got home from the hospital. Its there to immobilize my thumb, so theres no reason it needs to extend to my elbow. Anywho...
I shortened the lifting arm of the jack to the 1000lb setting cuz I was worried about the weight of the car while lifting. That made the legs of the crane touch my little jetski dolly so it wasnt able to move back any. I wound up pulling the right quarter panel off enuf to make room. Had the back of the cradle on this lil jetski dolly, and the front on the floor jack. Then I didnt have the oomph w one arm to pull the whole thing outta the car. Outta nowhere one of my buddies shows up( one of the ones who thinks im crazy), and sees the back of the car way up in the air, and the whole engine sitting disconnected. The look of shock on his face was priceless, "john what are you doing man?" lmao it was so funny. He helped me pull the thing out. It was crazy dusty w tons and I mean tons of fiberglass dust everywhere and stuck to all the oily bits. Hit it w the powerwasher n it cleaned up pretty damn good. Still had about an hour to pick up the youngster from school, and I was already filthy, so I decided to pull the motor from the trans. Kept finding more and more bolts holding it on, it didnt wanna separate. I also noticed the trans was moving on the cradle, and also lifting away. Upon closer inspection-one trans mount totally mia, and the other has about 40% left and is barely hanging on. I never checked em as I rarely drove the car. When I bought it the dogbone wasnt connected and the bracket was bent so far back I didnt think they connected. This motor/trans has been bouncing around for a loooong time lol. Got the trans cleaned up really good and wanted to install the engine today. I put on the flywheel and clutch, then noticed the throwout bearing they sent me was different. Dag nab it jimb! I ordered a 5 speed kit, just saw fiero v6 in the ad and went for it lol. Looking again on ebay, there is no 4 spd kit. So I ordered one today from rock auto and got the trans mounts from fiero store coming soon. My cousins mom passed away (cousins on the right lol) , the get together I saw one of my cousins from virginia, and she had her boyfriend with her. He was all alone w no one talking to him so we started chatting and he tells and shows me pics of his vintage landcruiser that was mint. Then asks what im working on and I showed him a pic of the car. His eyes lit up and he instantly tried to expand the picture on my phone, then took it outta my hands to get a better look. And what comes outta his mouth a second later, "thats an f-14 paint job!". I was blown away and asked how he knew. He said just retired from the marines and flew a buncha stuff, what I can remember was the f-18 hornet(my udder fave), cobras, and some attack chopper. He was so stoked to see that and I was feeling pretty good about it, still do
Shem
[This message has been edited by shemdogg (edited 08-12-2022).]
Whew that was a long 2 weeks. Ordered the trans mounts from the fiero store on a saturday, they were at my door 2pm monday. Ordered the TO bearing from rock auto at the same time. It took till last saturday to show up. N guess what? They sent me a 5spd bearing! %$#@^&*((!)&*&%*$^&&* Even tho the description says 4 spd, and shows the right picture, and shows a different part number than the 5spd bearings they sell.WTF! I planned so good getting all the parts together and reading every 3800 swap thread, I just knew Id have this thing in n out in a day or two tops lol. Ordered one from fiero store 5 mins after the wrong one showed. Just showed up yesterday afternoon. I was itchin to get it together even tho it was getting dark, I got the engine onto the trans. Mostly, something was hitting. WTF! Shift cable bracket is stopping the last 3/4" of distance between motor and trans. Bracket is hitting the crossover pipe. Called it a day. Got up this morning and cut it off w a sawzall, motor slid right on. Whats next, motor mounts. Huge bonus, the LS motor mount holes are 1/8" off on one side so it was quick n easy to get them bolted to the motor. Had a chunk of 5/16 angle I used for the rear mount. Still gotta box the cradle there. Ugly af but strong lol Front mount was hitting the axle shaft, so I cut it off and made it sit closer to the bracket. Now it can go all the way forward without hitting. Then I found some supports for the rear bar of my toyotas lumber rack I saved when I narrowed it to the shape of the cab. A short while later... Still needs a gusset, but the cradles holding the engine. Crude but serves the purpose. Shoulda made em removeable lol. Had a nightmare of a time getting it back under the car. Uneven driveway, POS jetski cart broke twice lol. Got it in after some serious effort. Even broke out the skateboard lol. Cast if off but im supposed to take it easy. I am, I waited 2 weeks for 1 part lol. Got the front cradle bolts in, wanted to get the rears in but the evap can is in the way of the motor coming up. Always something man! It was getting really dark so I called it a day. Very happy w todays progress. My lower back is killin me tho! Get the thing bolted up and start plumbing is next. Onto the next hurdle! Hopefully tomorrow but I may be painting my buddys truck.
Almost forgot, I took the obligatory engine bay pic! yay! LMAO almost forgot to post it Even remembered to make a cocktail! Been ages! Havent used that costume in decades. Id wear it at the lake and ride the wetbike around and scare people lol.
Monster jam was in town, got tickets and pit passes. It was kind of a joke the stadium was waaay to small for the trucks. $18 for a cup of beer! Glad I dont like beer, everyone had a great time. It was cool to see the trucks up close,
Been poking at it here n nyah, bouncing from one area to the next. Rigged up the fuel and coolant lines(fuel lines leave much to be desired but good enuf for testing), and started on the wiring connections. Went thru the lists posted on here for wiring swaps and wired what I could. Since the TO bearing fiasco, all my markings on the wires faded. So Im having to go back thru one by one and play the whos who game. Fuel systems not leaking, and everything pcm related was wired up according to the charts. Still some of the gauge wires to hook up. I have wire nuts on the connections for now till I get everything dialed in. Still gotta wire in the fuel pump relay. I read in some thread that vats will only let the motor run for a second or two before killing the ignition. Well that was good enuf for me, so for chits n giggles I jumped the fuel pump and turned the key. BWWWAAOOORBLUH! Fired up on the first crank, scared the hell outta me so I instanly turned it off and let the moment sink in. That was about a solid 2 seconds before I was back in the car and let it run, It only runs for about 1.5-2 seconds before vats kills it. But I was very happy. Ecm is going out for programming tomorrow, should have it back in a week. Thatll gimme time to clean up a few things. Ordered mosta my exhaust stuff today, flexi braid coupling, some reducers, and the muff. And I gotta get on the shifter bracket job. Heres some picks of handy homely homeboys homemade hackery
You’re in for a pile of hair pulling and frustration Shem. If I can give you any advice it’s get a Power Probe ECM 3000 a great tool for tracing those wires. It’s always great when you turn that key and it comes to life good luck on the conversion.
Wayne buddy that motors running before I can let off the key, starts instantly every time. I was crazy happy to not hear any noise from the inside of the motor. I checked everything as best I could when I pulled the oil pan and lower intake. That mess of wires in the picture above is all auto trans wiring. I didnt touch the factory wiring from the motor to pcm, just deleted the extra accessory and trans wires, all I had to hook up was 4 power wires and a ground. 2 wires for the obd 2 sensor and gauge wires and thats it. Definitely hair pulling and frustration tho, waiting on parts lol. Havent really touched it much since the last post because of that. Ordered some 6an fuel lines and quick disconnects, and the fuel line kit disappeared. Had to order another one, got the fuel line adapters to start the 6an lines from the fuel filter and tank. Wiring is almost done, need to run the vss and coolant gauge. Motor has a 2 pin sensor and I need a 3 so I went and got one. Then I see its 30-70$ for a pigtail wtf lol. Went digging around all the wiring harness leftovers, found the plug I need- score! Shifter brackets made up and works, just needs to be welded up. Got all my goodies for the exhaust ( or so i thought) so I went at it last saturday. Had that ss 3" elbow I planned to use, 3" flex braid, 3 to 2" adapter, 4 180 bends in 2.5", 2 4 to 2.5" reducers, and the muff. Man that there is a tight area to do plumbing. There was no way to mount the muffler unless I got some tighter u bends or left half the muff hanging below the cradle. Neither was happening so I looked at cutting the trunk. I know many cut the bottom out and make a plate to retain some trunk. I really like the trunk, super against cutting it out. Had an idea, went for it. Theres a seam in the middle across of the back of the trunk, I cut that whole line, then continues around the sides, and theres a small angled area I continued cut into also. I pushed the sides of the lower area in a wee bit, and rotated the whole bottom of the trunk into the upper area by hand the metals so thin. Fits like a friggin glove wow. So I really only lost about 3-4 inches of trunk depth, and was able to mount the muff at an angle and be well above the cradle. That was good so I boogered it all together. Next I was hoping to just 180 to 90 from the muff to my center exhaust but those tips are touching the muffler when flush w the bumper, waaaay too long. Also the 180 bends coming straight outta the muff didnt leave me more than 3" to the bumper exit. I went to autozone and kragen and bought 4 45 bends to snake the 180s away from the bumper, but the 45s made everything too wide. So they too got cut up. Heres the driver side routing tacked up The muff is offset to the passenger side so I had to rout it in reverse of the udder side Got everything as far away from the body and close to muff and tacked it. Now I had about 6" to cram a 18" tip, 1 reducer, 1 coupling, and 1 90 into lol. I cut the tips and made them adjustable depth, and cut 1 stop coupling into 2 slip couplings and trimmed down the male end of the reducer to half its length Adjusted everything and tacked together, the tips/90 will be held onto the exhaust with clamps. Then pulled it back out for final welding, ran outta mig wire and hadta switch to flux. Yuck thats some nasty stuff, yes I switched polarity New computers here, mosta the fuel line stuffs here, cupla more wires (vss and temp), and should be wrapping it up. Found the crank sensor plug was damaged so a new pigtails en route. Ill get to it one o these days
Just a note for you, I run a custom exhaust that runs under my trunk. (It's cut) the issue is the heat build up in the trunk. When I started working with it the trunk floor was 190 degrees. I had to wrap the muffler and put a heat shield in as well. With as close as you have it you are going to have issues. Easier to deal with it now if you ask me. Still loving the transformation of this car. Get her done and take it to the 40th show.
Nice work and nice idea with the trunk, I was planning to chop the bottom few inches off my trunk just because I do not like seeing the trunk below the rear bumper (85 base model styling) but I may copy your idea and get the extra room for exhaust!
Easy8- I planned on wrapping the exhaust, even have the wrap for it! Just wanted to heat cycle the exhaust a few times to check for leaks. Def going to make some heat shields.
Zkhennings and ace5514- Yes i did cut the trunk and it came out way better than expected. Heres how to do "shemdoggs trunk mod" Cut the seam holding the top and bottom halves together when looking at it from the rear all the way across, and cut the sides level so only the forward facing side is still connected. Then cut about 1.25" lower from the long rear cut along the seam, this time make the side cuts at an angle upwards to meet the end of the top cut( cut to zero). Then the lower half will easily roate into the top half as much as you like. The rear and side seams will be almost perfect. Sheet metal screws and whatever goop the factory used there will seal it all up. I did it in 15 mins on my first try, it was super easy, but I didnt have all the "fiero" stuff in the way. So pulling the tailligh assy and the rear bumper may be needed, I dunno. I open my trunk hatch and everythings exposed.
So I said I wasnt gonna make another post till this thing ran and drove. I havent touched it in ages lol. last time I threw a few hours at it was 10/16. The parts acquisition process turned out to be a nightmare and a half. Thats where all the time went. Pretty much every single package had an issue, and took forever to arrive. Parts disappear halfway to me, parts are marked as delivered and are not, parts are shipped early and sit sit at the DC till the estimated delivery date. Ordered fuel fitting from florida, florida gets hit by a hurricane. No joke I just dont even care anymore lol. Then work came in like a tsunami, a monster job and lots of medium sized jobs. Then it rains yay! Damn cars been sitting outside so long the car cover is literally in shreds. Theres a feral cat living in it too lol. Anywho all the stuffs have showed and today was the day it drove back into the garage under its own power. Where do I start? How about where I left off...
Cuz welded the shift bracket for me. I had a chunk of 3/16 I used to slide the cable holders over and marked the positions w screws so it didnt move while welding. Jeez that was ages ago
So then there was that pesky issue of having a coolant fill point above the motor. I got a coolant expansion tank and some o dat rubber edging I had on the old back window. Gorilla glued it into that thar opening to run my tubing thru Fabbed a quick mounting bracket, hung the tank And bought stock in a hose clamp company Heres the shifter cables n bracket set up. Need to do some mods for the select cable but works. Kinda Bought a whole buncha wire looming and wound up using the factory loom, did sumatha motor Had so much down time I put the kit car wheels on the toyota for shits n giggles, thatmade an opening so I started moving things around in the garage and made meselfs a workbench! Awesome I needed it so bad lol Painted my buddys truck, at least the first time. He masked the emblems off so bad theres gaps lol First pcm was a bust, injectors wouldnt fire. In the down time I took apart the fuel system to change it to the braided lines. Wound up needed tons of fittings so lotsa downtime there before it got finished. Got the new pump, fuel filter, and all the trimmins to convert to 6an style. Wile I had the tank down I wanted to see why my float was stuck, and when I pulled it- it wasnt stuck. Looks like the arm was loose and the connector arm wasnt making good contact w the circular coil thingie, so I bent some metal around to not let it swing out and stay in contact. Verified it w the ohmage before reinstalling. Filled it up w gas, still doent work. Dag nabit jimb! Fuel pump does tho and doesnt leak yay Got a new pcm and its firing the injectors, motor runs for more than 2 seconds now. Idles around 900rpm but only running it for 10-15 seconds a few times. When I got it running w the new pcm, my oil gauge pegged to the right. So I dunno If I got oil pressure Finally gave up on the gauge, threw 2 extra quarts in it. Pulled the oil filter, it was full, I didnt fill it. Still getting no pressure on the gauge. Jacked the drivers side waaaay the hell up and left the car for a few days. Cranked, no oil pressure. I have the rear valve cover off and expect to see the oil launching from my pushrods. Went to home depot and got an air compressor gauge and piped it into the sensor port expecting it to not work or just not read pressure. In 1.5 seconds I had 60 psi cranking. Fired it up, 70psi running, no oil coming out the rockers. Shut it down. Super worried the oils not up top but read many threads on the same issue, car had to be driven for oil to get up there, makes no sense to me. 70psi is a lot. Got the brakes bled, clutch bleeding fought me till I found I had a bolt missing from the slave bracket. Bled it again and it was good. Put the back hatch on and hooked up the actuators, fixed their wiring, and installed the hatch cover. Put all the parts back on, started it up and backed it into the garage. Runs good. Loud Af tho! Neighbor across the street came over after I fired it up for testing a few times after I finished the exhaust. "Yo when you gonna put that exhaust system on johnny?" I dont think the exhaust made any difference soundwise versus open manifolds. It just sounds like the noise is just directed out the back. Still a good size list of details top go thru, cooling system isnt fully connected, 2nd and 4th gear are unreachable at the moment, brakes are spongy, stock heater hose too close to the front exhaust manifold, a whole buncha stuff. But, I got my driveway spot back and thats whats important! I wouldnt call it a success, but it is together.
So whadja spend altogether?
Motor/harness/pcm $300 Amigo to go under the car and get the resta the bolts I didnt pull, cut the exhaust, pull the motor $100 Gasket set $140 Flywheel $290 Mounts $40 Fuel lines/ fittings $90 Pcm programming $125 Fuel pump $60 Starter $60 Belts/plugs/oil $60 Exhaust $220 Trans mounts $40 TO bearing $70 Clutch $100 Hoses/clamps $60 Injectors $40 Coolant sensor $20
Total $1760 Not too shabby pricewise but took waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long, even the wife said something. My fist motor "swap" was in the 66 mustang I put a newer 5.0efi into. The motor fit right into the stock motor mounts, I made a custom trans support, the original driveshaft fit, I got a swap harness and radiator. Spun the oil pump w my drill and it was done in a few hours. This one brought my average down considerably.
Got some of the dash indicator lights wired up correctly, wired up the headlights and turn signals. Still poking at the front spoiler, almost finished. 
