Colinb17's Little Red Rocket Build: 1988 Fiero

Now take another one with a helmet on.

 

had a great couple of days driving the Fiero around Northern Virginia/Washington DC over the holiday weekend. got a number of photos with my uncle's '87 and my dad's '14 Ghibli. fun weekend all around, and the gar did fantastic on the 250 miles I put on her. really getting the feel of the car, and having a blast seeing how far she can be pushed. this truly is a turning car.



you can see what a 1'' drop does if you look at the fender gap on the two cars.

 

The more comical part of a build on a 28 year old car. The bleed screw on the clutch slave was severely corroded. Turns out it's about impossible to find an M12 bleed screw. Had to buy a whole new slave, just to steal the bleeder off of it. Yay for spare parts I don't need!

 

No matter how hard or soft the shift, or how slowly I let off the accelerator to engine brake, I was getting a lot of back and forth shaking jerking.

I believed I knew the cause, and confirmed it last night. With the engine in the rear, you have more vertical space and less horizontal space than a conventional front engine car. As a result, the engine/transaxle assembly is taller and narrower, with the mounts to the frame being relatively close together. This doesn't give you a lot of resistance to rotation, when you load or unload the engine. To combat this, they put a "dogbone" at the top of the engine, to anchor it back to the frame and keep the engine from ripping itself off of the mounts. Great design, but bushing do fail. The bushings in my dogbone had over an inch of combined movement, with relatively little force. I swapped out for anothe dogbone with good bushings, and it feels like a whole new car. Throttle input and shifts in either direction are far smoother and immediate. While is was at it, I also took few minutes to polish up the cast aluminum dogbone as well.

Old dogbone installed


Tear in old bushing


Polished up new one, ready for install. I'll likely polish up the old one, and install some poly bushings in it, for an even better upgrade

 

They couldn't have used something more common....*for the bleed screw*

You posted while I was posting.

As well you answered mu question about a poly bushing upgrade.

 

Would a hydraulic damper be a possibility as well?

 

M10 is about the largest bleed screw commonly available. M12 is just giant.

you can get a hydro damper for the V6, but is a different length, so it doesn't work on the L4. people have put in the effort to make them work on it though. however, from what I've read, it is best suited for the V6, or V8 swaps. the L4 does better with poly bushings, or even a solid mount. poly/solid will shake the shit out of you at idle with an auto, but bot with the manual.

V6 damper version


L4 solid dogbone

 

There has got to be a good aftermarket engine damper, universal or specific, which should match the dimensions of yours. Not sure why I have such a desire for a hydraulic damper though?

 

adapting isn't hard to use the V6 version. they guys who have done it just don't report much benefit, and some switch back to the poly or solid versions.

what benefits do you have on your mind drawing you towards it?

 

Something like this:

http://www.evasivemotorsports.com/m...arch_Begin_Only=&sort=&range_low=&range_high=

 

Or these:

http://www.frsport.com/index.php?target=catalog&mode=searchImproved&q=Engine+torque+damper

 

Smoother than that of the stiffer mounts. However, they won't be as responsive as them. Clearly.

 

Just the smoother anticipated NHV's through the rpms.

 

hah, half of the aftermarket parts I have are NRG. might as well try out one of their dampers. all I really need to do is find the right extended and collapsed lengths

assuming that they have different valving based on the engine they are made for, I could always find a proper length one that's made for a V6, and presumably stiffer. best of both worlds if that's the case.

 

Those are my thoughts as well.

 

Add in an NRG steering wheel hub adapter, and you can have an NRG quick release steering wheel as well.

 

and seats!

 

I thought you already had the seats?

 

yes........ and I already have the hub adaptor and steering wheel too