Multi engine swaps and pulls.

Alright this may make the forum blow up, but this may be the single largest photo batch ever posted in one post.  I believe there are 110 pics.

Pic from my desk in my garage looking out to the cars.

Can you spot the problem, look really close, I just thought I had a bad mount, and had been meaning to replace the front mount, guess it was not the mount.

So the alternator bolt refused to come off, no matter how much I torched it, pounded different sized sockets, and found it all to hell.  I finally gave up and had Dawg weld a socket onto it, and I let the bolt have it, my impact gun will do 600+ foot pounds in reverse.  So it was going to either come off or snap.   You can see the results a few posts down.

Bracket all welded back together A HUGE Thank You to Damian aka Dawg.

Well after a quick peak at the motor, we decided out with the crank.

Bad bearings on the ground.    Although I did not get any pics of him, Watts was the one that did the bearing installs for me, so another huge thank you to him for the help.

We also found out that the timing gears and chain were shot so a new set was installed.  See further down for the nightmare in getting the crank gear off.  But it did give me a good excuse to buy a new tool.

This shot shows how much bigger the High Volume oil pump is vs the Stock Unit.  Its a much better pump, and the pickup tube is bolted on vs just pressed in.

Remember that alternator bolt, well the head sheered right off, even with me oiling and going forward backward forward backward.  I ended up throwing the entire alternator and bracket into the scrap and got a spare bracket to use with the new alternator.

New Gear Puller, Damn I love this thing.   In the pic its loose, when I was using it, I had it centered correctly.

New bearings installed, oil pump rebuilt.

Exhaust ports all cleaned up.

New Timing Chain installed

Various Stages of cleaning and painting the disgusting timing cover and water pump.

I love the Red and White Paint Scheme it just works.  (Think Canada)

My Mother took Arianna, my daughter out for the day and came back around the side of the house to say Hi.  Yes my mother drives a Fiero Too.   Arianna, loves going out cruising with her Grandma. 

 

Finally the motor is starting to come together.  Oil Pan On.

Next repair for the Dawg, can you spot the problem.  Yikes it was messed up.  I guess that's why the clutch has always felt heavy since I got the car.  I don't have any pics of the repaired finger, but he was able to build it up with his welder then shape it with my air grinder and its perfect.

Yuck Filler Neck

First Clean It up, 2nd, Torch it to burn off any oil and or antifreeze, then paint, and finally let air dry with a space heater.

The Fan switch in the old motor was busted, so I used my nearly new one from my 88GT and cleaned it up, taped it and installed it.

This was a side job, my mother said her car was having a hard time starting, and that she had to have a friend hold the battery "thingy" on to get it to start.  I have never in my life seen a battery terminal corrode this bad EVER, the threads were completely gone, the leaded threads in the battery were also eaten away.  Fortunately the battery was a dual terminal so I was able to convert that post to a top and everything is good to go.

Starting to really look like a motor.  I did take the AC Bracket back off to clean it and clear coat it.  You'll see in the lower pics.

 

The DAWG in ACTION, fixing the clutch fork.  Thank YOU SO MUCH.

 

 

Now here are a bunch of pics of a Goodyear Gatorback Alternator belt.  This is the ONLY belt that is perfectly reliable in any conditions even with bad pulleys on a Fiero, due to the cogs, as the belt wraps around a pulley it acts like teeth and bites into the pulley.  They are amazing.   From Alder Auto parts they are only 20 bucks.  So I am really happy to be able to use them again.  For the longest time I could not find a local supplier.

Dawgs Custom Ported Intake.  This was the very first one he did.   I took tons of pics so people could really look through them.  The Big thing is there is no EGR port.  I took lots of shots of both the ported and unported intakes.  Notice that in the ported one you can see down the tube almost to the middle of the intake, but in the unported one you can't, its due to the way he cuts out the section of intake around the EGR port and welds a new section in, it greatly increases flow and smooths out the airflow.  Now due to the fact that when this car goes back on the road, it will need to pass emissions testing first, I had to use my stock intake, but I'll swap back to this one later on.

As well as the Crank Underdrive pulley, I also have a 2nd Alternator Underdrive that slows the alternator down an additional 25% for a total reduction of about 48%.   Don't worry I get full charge by 1100rpms. But I do have to watch it, when I have a lot of stuff turned on and the rad fan comes on at night.

 

Ok so I could not leave well enough alone, seeing as I could not use Dawg's intake, but I was using his 55mm throttle body, I decided to take the stock 52mm intake and port the hell out of it.  I managed to get it opened up a LOT.  It should flow much better than stock, and with the ported exhaust manifolds and fuel pressure bumped up a bit, should provide at least a few extra ponys.

Final Pictures of the night, that is how she sits currently.

I'll post more a when we get further on with the project.  I hope to be installing it by this weekend.

 

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857GT Part 85GT Part 87GT Part Caddy, 93 Eldorado 4.9, 5spd Dual O2 Custom Chip, Custom Exhaust.  MSD Everything Now with Nitrous. Capt Fiero --- My Over View Cadero Pics     Yellow 88GT 5spd Full Poly Suspension, Lowered 1/2" in front, Corner Carver.
 

Well no pics from yesterday as frankly nothing really looks different, as I ended up in roughly the same look as I started.

       I cleaned up around the engine and hoist, hooked a chain to the motor, lifted it off the engine stand and unbolted the stand.  Installed the rear main seal, yes Dr.Fiero I used sealant on the outside of the main and greased the inside ring of the main, am a little worried that I installed it too deep, but we will see how it goes when I start spinning it over for compression checks.

    Once the main was installed, I installed the flywheel.  I used a great deal of red loctite on all the flywheel bolts.  I put a bit extra so that even the shank of the bolt will grab and lock to the flywheel.  Once the flywheel was installed, I put the engine back on the stand and bolted it back into place.   Today I plan to use my jumper box on the starter while the motor is on the stand to do a compression check on all the cylinders to make sure that everything is good before final install into the car.     

Good big splash of ATF in each hole - let soak - usually brings 'em right back to life.

Well something is Fuc*ed up.  I have started pulling the cradle again.   I am dead exhausted, and calling it quits for the night.  Anyone that wants to come and help tomorrow.  The plan is to start on it at around 10am and pull the entire dam thing out, find out what the issue is and put it back in.  With any luck it can be out and back in by tomorrow night.  I have the cradle half out now, just the 2 front bolts left then use Clynts hoist to lift the car off of the cradle.

Well I almost threw my 5lb sledge hammer threw a wall today.

I pulled the entire engine trans cradle and everything back out, split the engine off of the trans, and inspected everything. I found the throw out bearing was a bit off center and slightly bound up. I thought Ok that might have been the problem, had forum member Dawg over and spent nearly 2hrs straight fighting to get the trans to mate to the engine, don't know what it didn't want to go, but eventually it went. I grabbed a large wrench and tested the clutch release and it moved just fine. Spent the better part of the day putting the entire thing back in the car.

Hooked up the slave and had Dawg press the pedal, LOCKED UP SOLID. Oh I WAS MAD, but not as mad as I was when I found out what the problem was. When I removed and re-installed the slave I would put the push rod in, and push it onto the studs, then torque it down, I would see what I thought was the slave sucking the push rod in as I bolted it down. That was not the case, the slave was pushing the push rod all the way over and locking up the clutch. During the tear down of the engine the car say outside, water had gotten into the bore of the slave and froze the piston up. I would have sworn that the piston was free. However it was not, I pulled the slave off, took a large hammer to the piston via the rod sticking out and after a few bangs the piston broke free, I reinstalled it, and had Dawg press the pedal while I watched the clutch and everything is fine.

So in short, I just did a full cradle / engine pull separated the engine and put it all back, because of a bad slave cylinder.

Well there is no sense in being mad over it, it happened, its back together. Its 9pm and I am calling it a night. Most of the stuff is put back together, tomorrow I just have to put all the water hoses on, fill and burp the system and test fire the motor. I am still annoyed at myself over it all, but $hit happens and ya deal with it.

Frustrated but Happy.

Ok just another text update.  I know you are are picture whores but hey my main computer is dead and its a pain posting pics from my laptop.

        Ok got it to really fire up.  This time let me rev up and down fine.  We set the dist in with #1 at TDC, and for whatever reason I must have been out a few degrees when it finally settled into position. I had to move all the plug wires over one spot, because with Dawgs Module cooler installed it does not allow enough rotation on the dist shaft to correct that far.  I got it setup at roughly 14 degrees BTDC its running a bit rough, but for an engine that has sat for over 4 years in a storage shed, I am cutting it a bit of slack.  I think once the car hits the ground and I can put some load on it, she should free up a bit.

      So that moved me on to hydraulics.  I picked up Crackers Power Bleeder and hooked it up.  My biggest worry, (and you Fiero mechanic guru's can relate) was the bleeder screws on the rear calipers.  I had never removed them in the 6 years I had owned the car.  Which meant it was little worse odds than 50/50 that they would snap rather than come out.  So I drenched them in Moovit, then used my impact gun to tap and nudge them and Yippe, both came out clean. I started the power bleeder and waited for fluid to come out the passenger side rear, then closed it and waited for fluid to come out the drivers side rear and closed it.  Rear brakes are now all blead out.  I hooked up the clutch adapter and let it run until no more air was coming out, and tested the pedal, its works.  Its not perfect as in my bit of range and anger, I really pushed that damn pedal hard, hard enough to bend the pedal when it was seized up.  So I did loose a bit of throw, but I have the Isuzu Slave swap on this Getrag so all I really need is 1/2 the throw to get full release. 

      Oh and back to the engine fire up.  Turnes out the EGR is Pipe is busted.  Another thing I did in frustration, I was angry put a strap over the engine to yank it to the trans and caught it on the EGR pipe.  I was hoping it was not damaged, but it was, so I pulled the pipe, I don't have a spare, so I am going to cap it off for the time being.  Will deal with it later.

             Well thats it for today.

Oh one last note, I was over at Dr. Fiero's and saw Dawgs new motor, WOW O WOW, that thing is Pretty.  Pretty Damn tempting to sneak it off and put it in my car.  If we had an award for best looking motor at shows, he would win 1st and 2nd place with it. 

The 88 failed Aircare today, I am going to go and buy 3 months of insurance for it tomorrow and do some work to it. I ran it over to Chris's shop today, and we did some work to it, fixed the E-Brake which is totally different on an 88 vs an early car. Replaced the fuel filter which was really plugged up. Car has a couple issues, like its not Pre-Priming the fuel system when the key is turned on, and brakes are a bit spongy. I am going to need the brakes in top order as I am taking the trailer with me to Oregon.

The good news is the soft clutch that I had when I first put the motor back together has firmed up a lot.