Ok so my 88GT has bad rings slipping clutch and an alternator that refused to come out.  I had been putting off swapping in my spare 2.8 for months.   Then Dawg needed the 3.4 pulled from his Fiero so he could send it out to get it rebuilt.

        We struck a deal that we would help each other out.   We would yard his motor out and get it off to the shop, then pull the 88 motor from my car and swap in my spare, then once his motor is back from the rebuild we would install it back into his car.

This is day one.  May 25th 2012

His 87 GT.

My spare motor from storage.

Borrowed engine hoist and spare 88 Exhaust

My Yellow 88GT

My 4.9 and Fiero Chicks 85

His car up in the air.

Clynt's engine hoist.  (Thank You Clynt)

Up in the Air, nose almost touching.

Engine Out.

Custom 3.4 Engraved intake

Lebaron Brakes with Caddy Calipers

What the F muffler resonator thing that will be thrown away, previous owner installed it.

Better shot of my V8

We hope to get it all done in 3 days, minus the install of his motor as it will take a few extra days for that to come back.

I'll try to update this thread every night, as we get more done.  

Will do photo's later, but we loaded his engine onto the trailer, after getting everything removed off of the cradle. (F&UCKING Inspection Plate)  He took the motor to crackers, got it onto an engine stand, partially dismantled.  Then got back here, we put the cradle / trans / suspension back into his car, got the wheels back on the car so it can be rolled.  I got a battery back into my 88 fired it up and moved it into the staging area, then we realized that it was 4:30 and he was behind schedule to leave.  So he just left, I am taking a break, then I'll get back at my 88 and see how far I can get before he comes over tomorrow morning. 

        I had intended to install my spare motor "As Is" without cracking anything open, except for double checking the ported exhaust manifolds.  However Damian has convinced me that taking such a gamble would be a really bad idea.  So once we get the 88 motor out, we are going to do a minor tear down on the spare motor, replace a few seals and inspect the main and rod bearings.  Swap in my high volume oil pump and make sure the motor won't leak any oil. 

     I am also going to try and find the leak in the A/C system on the 88 so I can go back to having a working A/C in the car.  Will be really nice for this summer.   Unfortunately this means that their will be no way for me to have the car ready for the Arlington run.  So I will be in the GTP with Lisa and Arianna taking amazing video and photos on the drive. 

Ya good neighbors are nice, and I agree, working on Fiero's alone does get kinda boring.   Always nice to have someone there to shoot the breeze with while you work. 

Ok day 2 pics. 

3.4 out on the picker

Hmm someone had a bit of an oil leaks

Loaded on my trailer, ready to go to the shop for a rebuild.

Empty Engine Bay.  We put the cradle and suspension back in so that we could roll the car out of the way and get my Yellow 88GT into position for its engine to come out.

Hmm Wheel Gap must be a light load, LOL.

My spare engine for the 88, I was going to drop it into the car as is, but Dawg has convinced me that we should tear a bit apart to check things like bearings and such. 

I got the 88 into the driveway and started prepping her, battery out, fuel lines shift cables, and other misc stuff unhooked or removed. 

The donor motor.  Its not an 88 motor, but I can take some solace it is an 85 Motor with slightly higher compression so at least it will be peppy. 

Very Cool Pics John.  I'll have more in about an hour or so to post.

We got the motor out of the 88, then Damian ran to the locker and grabbed the engine stand, we put the spare motor on the stand to check it over, and everything looks great inside, still doing inspections.

Todays Pics.  I did them in gallery format becuase there were so many of them.

Of special note, everything went smoothly until one of the damn cradle bolts spun forcing us to cut a hole in the frame rail. 

May 27th 88 Fiero Engine Pull

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We have pulled both motors and sent the first one a 3.4 off to get a
full top to bottom rebuild. The 2nd car my personal 88GT we pulled its
motor and are installing a spare 2.8 into the car, it was a good running
motor but before I installed it, we decided to yank the pan and check out
the bottom end. The rod bearings were heavily worn nothing spun or worn
enough to knock, but they were original  stamped GM bearings. So we decided to
replace them, same went with the main bearings. The club has a cash
account with Lordco, so I went online and priced out new
Clevite main and rod bearings. I have been using Clevite bearings for years
and to this day, even with 7000rpm nitrous aided shifts in a 2.8 I have
never had a Clevite bearing fail. Price was $134 for the main bearings, and
$67 for the rod bearings.

I then called up the local Race Shop (Mopac) and the exact same part
number was $65 for the mains and $35 for the rod bearings. However they had
no stock on any parts for an 80's era 2.8. I called Napa, and got a similar
cheap price, but again I would have to wait at least a week for parts. I
called up Lordco and got a sales guy on the phone and had him double check
the computer and sure enough prices were $134 and $67. They could have them
from their warehouse in a day. I asked him why are the prices double what
everyone else charges. He double checked their cost and all of a sudden,
came back and matched the other stores prices.

I just could not believe it, we have a club account at Lordco and
recommend all of our club guys go to them, and I find out in 10 mins of
calling around that they are gouging the heck out of us. I don’t mind paying an extra 10 or 20%  to have my parts locally and quickly, but double, that just seems NUTS. 

I have some 60+ photo's to post, but here is just one quick teaser shot.  The A/C bracket needs to come off and get the same polish that I did to the Alternator bracket.  Aside from that, what do you think so far.

I polished up all the brackets today, ran all the wiring and hooked up the sensors, installed the adjustable fuel pressure regulator. (Something I think all V6 Fiero's should have especially ones that get driven hard)  I did a ton of little things today and clear coated a lot of the polished pieces so they should stay shiny for a long time.

    I used my needle point greaser and greased the hell out of the throwout bearing so even being used, it should outlast the clutch.

        As for install, if everything goes as planned, I'll be installing it this week. 

     On a side note, I have actually found a source for Good Year Gator back belts.  Yippee, I am so happy to be able to buy them again, I'll have one at the next meeting to show people why they are so good.  Instead of just having straight ribs, they have teeth kinda like an aggressive car tire.  So as it wraps around a pulley, the teeth open and close and bite into the pulley.  I have never had a gator back belt slip or squeal or any other issue even on a rainy day with an engine that has a front main seal leaking oil.   Lordco stopped carrying them a long time ago, Napa never had them, turns out that Alder Auto parts can get them.   I have a new old stock Fiero V6 stock length belt here that I can't use, because I run the under drive kit on my car, so I'll be either selling it to someone or donating it to the club for the raffle.    P.S. Gary, I have decided to get rid of all 3 of my tool boxes.  When I am done with both of these engine swaps, am going to sort out the tools and give you first option on buying one before I repost on Craigslist. 

Ok a few more sneak peaks,

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.

------------------
857GT Part 85GT Part 87GT Part Caddy, 93 Eldorado 4.9, 5spd Dual O2 Custom Chip, Custom Exhaust.  MSD Everything Now with Nitrous. http://www.captfiero.com - Capt Fiero --- http://www.captfiero.com/Cadero - 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.     

Well the compression tests are done.  I knew it was a mistake not to pop the heads and pull the pistons out when we did the con rod bearings.  I was just hoping that the engine was a good solid motor, as it ran well when pulled.  It possible that the rings just need to be worked in after sitting for several years without being started but I just don't know.  I was hoping for 150psi across the board.  Mine and Zanders old race vs 2.9's had 220psi across the board.

Cyl #1 90psi

Cyl#2 90psi

Cyl# 3 10psi

Cyl #4 30psi

Cyl #5  Zero psi

Cyl #6 Zero psi

I am going to try putting some Rotella down each hole and letting it sit for a bit then retesting.

Just hooking up the last of the lines and torquing everything down nice.  I notice the clutch release arm seems to be under tension, I grab it with my hand and it won't budge, locked up solid. WHAT THE FUC*.

I jump into the car and press the pedal, its rock solid won't move.  FRACK.

Everything is in the damn car, just about to toss a battery in and test fire it, and now I have to pull the whole damn thing back out again.

OMG I AM SO MAD RIGHT NOW.

I am going to PRAY that the release bearing is hung up, I'll try removing the slave first and wiggling the arm, if that fails, looks like the cradle is coming back out.

Just a little update, sorry no pics.

Yesterday, (Sunday) I managed to get the last of the hookups done and did a test fire.  The Good news is that with a bit of ether it eventually fired up, the bad news it really didn't want to.  She smoked like a devil due to the oil I had poured into the cylinders, and I think it totally fouled at least 3 or 4 of the plugs.  I let it idle for a min then tried to set the timing and it died, no matter what I tried I could not get it to run right.  The odd thing was it did not matter how far I had the throttle open or closed it just didn't want to run over about 1200rpms.  I am thinking that I will install the MSD 6a box on it to give the plugs a bit of a helping hand to get all 6 cylinders firing and see what happens after it burns off all the oil.  I have the fuel pressure cranked up pretty high at about 45psi in the hopes that the extra fuel will help to thin the oil and burn it off a bit quicker.  

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