Capt Fiero
08-26-09, 04:49 AM
OK its been a very long time, over a year since I have been on here. Its really nice to see a great deal familiar people.
Well if you don't remember me, you should recognize the car, so here goes Pics
http://www.captfiero.com/conversionpics/tach/3.jpg
http://www.captfiero.com/ccai/2.jpg
The Rebuild
http://captfiero.com/85gtrebuildpics/feb20th/4.JPG
Video is here, http://captfiero.com/videos/mycar/my49.wmv
http://westcoastfieros.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1031&PN=1&TPN=3
http://westcoastfieros.com/forum/uploads/85SEnochie/2008-12-05_115155_captfblack.JPG
I found out a few months I am going to be a dad for the first time, which took my already tight budget and little time to play with the Cadero away. However little by little, its going through its new transformation.
In June of 2007, I installed a serious race clutch in the car and was loving it, however the trans, didn't like the fuel blown race clutch and 300lbs of torque in trans axle that was designed for a 140lbs of torque 4cyl. I made it about 30 mins before the trans axle went POOF, I was on the hunt for a new / better trans. Average price for the heavy duty getrag 5spd which is rated for double what my old trans was. Wrecking yards wanted $500 for them Private sales, are 350 IF you can find one. I just happened to get a call from another Fiero owner, he needed to sell his car quick. It happened to have a bad clutch, so it was underivable, and owner had lost the keys. He said the car is legal, has papers, just needs a new clutch and new keys. When I saw the car in person, It had the 5spd Getrag, the much better Headlight motors, damn near spotless, new car looking interior. Lowered 2 inches, all poly bushings, only 1 Minor accident, which was all soft damage, (no bent metal, just the composite poly body panes. He said look, he needs it gone, I asked how much he wanted for it, He didn't know, he priced out the clutch job, and it was going to cost him over $1400 in parts and labour. He said, look, he doesn't have time to dicker over price, if I had $300 yes 300 hundred, He'd help me load it onto a flat deck and it was mine. I didn't even question it.
So we got it home, and I put the 85GT and the 87GT side by side, my idea was going to be, drop out both cradles with engine and trans attached, move the Getrag to my cradle and install it all back into the 85GT. However after removing the rainbow glasses, and taken a hard long look at my 85GT, it had been my baby since I was 18 years old. I am 33 now. I didn't want to see what I was seeing. 2 5" long stress cracks in the top of the strut towers, 3 more cracks in the front suspension, and metal fatigue in many other places, 450,000 Kim's on that chaise, and driving in my late teens all my 20's and into my 30's, it has been used and abused and put away wet too many times. So I mad the gut wrenching design to part my V8 car.
So the list of swaps went like this. Nice stock interior was removed from the 87 then bagged up and put away. I am not talking just carpets and seats, the ENTIRE interior was gutted, even the gauge pack came out. Then rust proofed the floor pan.
Next up was steering and braking parts, the 87 was all stock brakes, so I moved all my larger brakes to the 87GT from the 85GT. Instead of getting new keys cut, I simply changed out the entire steering coulomb and re-used my 85GT ignition key. Same went for the doors I used the entire door panels, inner and outer. Only thing I had to do, was take the trunk lock down, leave it at a GM Parts counter and they re-keyed the truck lock to use my 85 Keys.
My custom 5" cowl hood and 3" cowl deck lid were installed onto the 87GT, I took the entire subfram from the 85GT swapped the better trans onto that car and as an entire package, (engine, trans, Suspension, brakes calipers and rotors, I slide it under the car and slowly raised that package into the the 87GT.
Whew its installed, so next up was re-designing of the wiring harness, coolant pipes and exhaust. I did not find out until the motor was installed, the shift cables for the new trans has them located dead center in the custom Y-pip, so out comes the old Y-Pipe and start building a new one, took me 2 weeks just to get the correct bends then take it to a Buddy Would take car of the fussy welds for me. Oh I have also relocated the battery to the front of the car, to aid in weight distribution,
Nonow skip up to present Day
Something in the main harness got tweaked, We have power at the coil, we did a continuity test for all the wires that go from the Dist shaft, to the ECM and all are good, grounds are also (or at least the grounds seem to be.
The car was running less that 8 months ago, now when I hit the key, it spins over really fast, but there is not even a hint of it trying to start. How common is it for a 4,9 to have ignition module or pickup coil, I know in Fieros' I know in Fiero's its so common that most people keep the tools and parts needed to replace it, in there glove box. Even my wife can do a module by herself along side the road.
So to recap, turn master battery, system comes online, all gauges reading in there default position.
Turn the key, the motor spins over. We can smell raw fuel from the tail pipe, hut still no start
The ECM must be seeing data from the dist cap as IIRC the Caddy computer will not spray the injector until it knows what piston is where.
So where do you guys think I should start looking my issue. Thanks again. I can't weight to get back into Fiero Caddy V8 goodness. Well here are pics of the old car, new car and combination. The the photos of the completed black and white fastback is designers idea of what this will look like when done.
Well if you don't remember me, you should recognize the car, so here goes Pics
http://www.captfiero.com/conversionpics/tach/3.jpg
http://www.captfiero.com/ccai/2.jpg
The Rebuild
http://captfiero.com/85gtrebuildpics/feb20th/4.JPG
Video is here, http://captfiero.com/videos/mycar/my49.wmv
http://westcoastfieros.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1031&PN=1&TPN=3
http://westcoastfieros.com/forum/uploads/85SEnochie/2008-12-05_115155_captfblack.JPG
I found out a few months I am going to be a dad for the first time, which took my already tight budget and little time to play with the Cadero away. However little by little, its going through its new transformation.
In June of 2007, I installed a serious race clutch in the car and was loving it, however the trans, didn't like the fuel blown race clutch and 300lbs of torque in trans axle that was designed for a 140lbs of torque 4cyl. I made it about 30 mins before the trans axle went POOF, I was on the hunt for a new / better trans. Average price for the heavy duty getrag 5spd which is rated for double what my old trans was. Wrecking yards wanted $500 for them Private sales, are 350 IF you can find one. I just happened to get a call from another Fiero owner, he needed to sell his car quick. It happened to have a bad clutch, so it was underivable, and owner had lost the keys. He said the car is legal, has papers, just needs a new clutch and new keys. When I saw the car in person, It had the 5spd Getrag, the much better Headlight motors, damn near spotless, new car looking interior. Lowered 2 inches, all poly bushings, only 1 Minor accident, which was all soft damage, (no bent metal, just the composite poly body panes. He said look, he needs it gone, I asked how much he wanted for it, He didn't know, he priced out the clutch job, and it was going to cost him over $1400 in parts and labour. He said, look, he doesn't have time to dicker over price, if I had $300 yes 300 hundred, He'd help me load it onto a flat deck and it was mine. I didn't even question it.
So we got it home, and I put the 85GT and the 87GT side by side, my idea was going to be, drop out both cradles with engine and trans attached, move the Getrag to my cradle and install it all back into the 85GT. However after removing the rainbow glasses, and taken a hard long look at my 85GT, it had been my baby since I was 18 years old. I am 33 now. I didn't want to see what I was seeing. 2 5" long stress cracks in the top of the strut towers, 3 more cracks in the front suspension, and metal fatigue in many other places, 450,000 Kim's on that chaise, and driving in my late teens all my 20's and into my 30's, it has been used and abused and put away wet too many times. So I mad the gut wrenching design to part my V8 car.
So the list of swaps went like this. Nice stock interior was removed from the 87 then bagged up and put away. I am not talking just carpets and seats, the ENTIRE interior was gutted, even the gauge pack came out. Then rust proofed the floor pan.
Next up was steering and braking parts, the 87 was all stock brakes, so I moved all my larger brakes to the 87GT from the 85GT. Instead of getting new keys cut, I simply changed out the entire steering coulomb and re-used my 85GT ignition key. Same went for the doors I used the entire door panels, inner and outer. Only thing I had to do, was take the trunk lock down, leave it at a GM Parts counter and they re-keyed the truck lock to use my 85 Keys.
My custom 5" cowl hood and 3" cowl deck lid were installed onto the 87GT, I took the entire subfram from the 85GT swapped the better trans onto that car and as an entire package, (engine, trans, Suspension, brakes calipers and rotors, I slide it under the car and slowly raised that package into the the 87GT.
Whew its installed, so next up was re-designing of the wiring harness, coolant pipes and exhaust. I did not find out until the motor was installed, the shift cables for the new trans has them located dead center in the custom Y-pip, so out comes the old Y-Pipe and start building a new one, took me 2 weeks just to get the correct bends then take it to a Buddy Would take car of the fussy welds for me. Oh I have also relocated the battery to the front of the car, to aid in weight distribution,
Nonow skip up to present Day
Something in the main harness got tweaked, We have power at the coil, we did a continuity test for all the wires that go from the Dist shaft, to the ECM and all are good, grounds are also (or at least the grounds seem to be.
The car was running less that 8 months ago, now when I hit the key, it spins over really fast, but there is not even a hint of it trying to start. How common is it for a 4,9 to have ignition module or pickup coil, I know in Fieros' I know in Fiero's its so common that most people keep the tools and parts needed to replace it, in there glove box. Even my wife can do a module by herself along side the road.
So to recap, turn master battery, system comes online, all gauges reading in there default position.
Turn the key, the motor spins over. We can smell raw fuel from the tail pipe, hut still no start
The ECM must be seeing data from the dist cap as IIRC the Caddy computer will not spray the injector until it knows what piston is where.
So where do you guys think I should start looking my issue. Thanks again. I can't weight to get back into Fiero Caddy V8 goodness. Well here are pics of the old car, new car and combination. The the photos of the completed black and white fastback is designers idea of what this will look like when done.