1985 Fiero build

[SuperBuickGuy]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaand now i want costco rotisserie chickens. thanks, superbuick.

my evil plan has worked.

[ejs262]

nice weld, pipe welding is tough because, unless you have a rotisserie, you have to constantly start/stop

Thanks, I've been practicing alot. I think I could do better it I had a better welding table, but I'll make do with what I have for now.

The powertrain side of the mounts is pretty much done, I'm going to add some bracing to the front transmission mount, but it would function as is. I did re work the front transmission mount, I got the sleeve lower and closer to coaxial to the other mount. hindsight being 20:20, I could have made them coaxial, but I'm not going to cut a 3rd one to make it happen. I also got the rear chassis side of the mounts done, I was going to power through and get the fronts done, but it's gonna wait, hopefully tomorrow I can nail them down after work.

I'm pretty excited because the new front mount is so much more well designed, I'll be able to route the exhaust under the engine, similar to the stock fiero routing, even @ 3"+ diameter, which should allow for more options for turbo location and orientation, I'm hoping I can package the turbo kit way better than what I had.

I'm pretty much settled on a 6266, I think it's the best for what I'm looking for. once I get my 0% interest loan payment from the government, I'll probably pick one up.

[ejs262]

Paint and maybe a little bit more contour work with the grinder is all that's left for the engine side of the mounts. the cradle has tabs welded on for the mounts, but they will need a little bit of work still before they're done, mainly radiusing some corners.

the new mounts are smaller, lighter, and probably almost definitely stronger than the old mounts

the new engine mount tucks much higher in the chassis, as well as leaves room under the oil pan for the exhaust. realistically, there's no reason I couldn't cram a 3.5" exhaust under here, but I think a single 3" is in store for the car.





the rear transmission mount was the only mount of the old ones that I wouldn't have minded keeping, but the new transmission doesn't have the same bolt bosses, so it had to go. again, new is much smaller, and probably stronger.





here is what I'm happiest with at the moment, the front transmission mount, it's WAY smaller, and I am certain that it's substantially stronger, between this and the new front mount, I have so much more room for routing the exhaust, and coolant lines from the engine. I am very happy with the result. the idea behind the old front mount, was that it would double as a "scattershield" in the event of catastrophic failure of the clutch or flywheel... I don't think it would have offered any read protection from anything.

[ejs262]

I didn't get as much done as I wanted to, I painted the engine mounts, and started work on fabricating the new decklid hinges, sorry, no pictures of that stuff...

in other news...

Why sleep when you can design your own custom intake manifold?

[ejs262]

Chassis side mounts ain't pretty, but they should be strong enough, hopefully I can get the cradle painted and the engine back on it this week. Maybe even in the car...









In other news, I started work on the FieroGuru hinge mod. several years ago my intake didn't clear the decklid, so I cut it to pieces, and then I cut the hing boxes out... and now, I want them all back, thankfully someone FieroGuru's solution should work fine for me. details here:

http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/085829.html

[ejs262]

a nice update, my header flanges arrived. I have some changes to make to the design before the DWG goes public.

I have some pictures to compare mine to the "off the shelf" flanges. Noteworthy points, the strap holding the port flanges together can cause interference with the spark plugs. The Stainless headers(SH) flange has really poor spark plug clearance, the British Car Conversions (BCC) flange is much better, and my flange offers the most clearance, but admittedly, the difference in clearance between mine and the BCC isn't enough to make a significant difference.



Here's some close ups of the ports. if you want an off the shelf flange, the BCC is by far the way to go, the SH flange if junk IMO. I have a few simple changes to make to my flange, that aren't anything really even visible here, the tolerance of the laser, and the tolerance in my drawing results in the bolts being a little bit too tight. I also want to change some of the contours ever so slightly. I'll also draw it for 1.5" OD tube, 1.625" OD tube, and 1.75" OD tube, as well as a die for forming the tubes. once I have them drawn, I'll post a link for downloads.

Here are examples of each port's shape compared to the port shape. you can see the SH port is all over the place, even overlapping at points, total garbage. the BCC flange is way better, but only available in mild steel...

1st port:







2nd Port







3rd port







big picture:



I'm going to focus the rest of today on getting the decklid hinges completed, then I'll start one of the manifolds. I started one of them last night, but got a little heavy handed with the grinder and will need to get more material before I can complete both. I put a ton of orders in for material and parts over the last week, to include a new turbo, this one, a precision 6266 CEA gen 1, and a Turbosmart comp gate 40mm wastegate I also ordered the pipe for the remainder of the hotside. Hopefully next week shows some real progress once that parts all roll in.

[ejs262]

Big day today, the car FINALLY has a decklid again. big thanks to Fieroguru for posting his hinge box delete instructions,on fiero.nl. (he has a wicked LS4 6 speed Fiero BTW... http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum3/HTML/000123.html ) if I hadn't cut my hinge boxes out like an idiot I wouldn't have needed something like it, but it came in clutch, and was probably easier than installing a "new" set of boxes.

the old decklid, note that there aren't any supports on the front end where the hinges are supposed to bolt to...



The "new" hotness! at some point, someone tried breaking the lock cylinder out of it. realistically, I'll probably find another lid in better shape, but beggars can't be choosers...

[SuperBuickGuy]

looks excellent

[ejs262]

looks excellent

Thanks, it was a bunch of work, but so worth it. The old intake I had on the car hit the underside supports, so i had to cut them out to fit it on, so for a while (~8 years...) anytime I wanted to work on it, I had to lift it off... I do need to make a prop rod for it, and install a small spring so that when I push the button to open it, it pops off the latch.

[ejs262]

I decided not to work on the manifold until I had the parts in to do both of them, instead, I started work on the wiring and plumbing.

I reinstalled the fuel rail I had on the car originally, I don't have time to mess with the other rail, and I know this one works.



or does it... :-o

the rail fittings were hitting the throttle, this makes it a total no-go...





I pulled the plenum back off and realized I hadn't seated the fuel rail in the manifold :crazy:



I gave the snugged down the rail and gained just enough clearance, there's also no gasket, so I have a smidgen more left to gain.



I then turned my attention to the regulator and flex fuel sensor, after a while of playing with fittings and lots of trial and error, I came up with this:



and then I remembered the flex sensor is bidirectional, so I flipped it around and now it tucks under the throttle much deeper, and way further out of the way. I'm going to make a small bracket that catches the two lower bolts of the throttle body to hold the sensor in place. I plan to make the feed and return lines out of stainless tube vice the hose pictured, the tube has a smaller OD for a comparable ID, and can fit tighter. there will be a section of hose to allow for some flexibility.



I also made a subharness for the injectors, I need to find a 7 pin connector I can put on the end to allow for the injectors to be changed to a different type without having to cut the harness.



Other than that, I started terminating the wires into the connectors for the MS3 pro, and made a decision on mounting for the MS3, the MS3 will be mounted under the center console, where the "glovebox" is. this mounting position will require me to no longer have the box, but I don't think I have ever put anything in it anyways, it's kinda awkwardly shaped and positioned.

[ejs262]

good news, I got parts in today, bad news, they weren't any of the ones I need to get the big fab work done...

I'm really bad at time management, when there's two dozen other things I can work on, I do something like redesign my intake again. The runners are a bit longer, with an overall length from valveseat to mouth of about 11" not including gasket thickness (about 3/32") I also added in a rear crossover, I'll draw up a tube to connect it to the front, and then a recirculation pipe as well.

[ejs262]

if the intake design wasn't last priority yesterday, it is today! got some toys in!



and these:



(wow that picture looks like crap...)

Precision 6266 CEA (gen 1), and a Turbosmart Compgate 40, along with a bunch of weld els, and some V bands. not pictured, I have a bellows that I plan to install in the hotside from on the pipe that will come from the rear bank, to the turbo. I made a bunch of progress on the front manifold, some of the fitup is pretty rough, and some of the welds are... well they suck, but they're better than my last set of manifolds. I started with the front manifold so that when when I make the rear, which will be way more visible, I can incorporate lessons learned with the front manifold and have one of them looking great. I didn't take any pictures yet, I'll get some tomorrow when I finish it and start the rear...

[DanStokes]

Looks like same wastegate I have for Mutt's new turbo - nice piece.

Dan

[ejs262]

Looks like same wastegate I have for Mutt's new turbo - nice piece.

Dan

The wastegate is WAY nicer than the Tial knockoff I had before, it's way more compact, and lighter. I'm very confident it will perform great too!

Got a ton of work done on the manifolds today, at this point, I'd say I'm about 75% done, I still need to weld the tops of the runners, and a couple of other joints. I started by making the front log, which would be mostly out of sight, that way if I could learn how not to do it for the one that would be visible.

I also ordered a set of long shank carbide burrs, I left the inside of the logs slightly small, as it's easier to grind them out from the inside, than to fill a huge gap with weld.

There were a couple of spot where I let the heat get away from me, but overall I think they're OK. I'm going to finish the welding up in the morning, and then I'll figure out where I'm going to put the turbo, and I'll start tacking pipe together and working on the rest of the hotside. I have the basic idea of what I want to do for the hotside, unfortunately, I don't have the pipe yet, hopefully it gets here soon.

[Captain]

Your welding looks GREAT !!
I don't have much experience with thin wall tubing. Had a whole BUNCH of Knowledge Knocks welding the body of the Indy Racer Project.