It really was nerve racking turning that key for the first time, you really don't know what to expect.

I haven't ran mine long enough to see if the coolant fan come on, so I can't say everything is working corectly just yet.

I have been having one problem though, my boost gauge reads vacuume, and not boost. I have it tapped off the FPR, so I know there is boost there. I think my tensioner is bad, and the belt is slipping and not turning the supercharger fast enough. If I rev it up, all the gauge reads is more vacuume. You think this could be the problem?

I OWN PAGE 5!

Sorry I didn't see your post, I must have been posting at the same time. I have it teed at that port, in my above post.

The sound of this setup is AMAZING, it sounds nothing like a V6. I can't wait to get it on the road, but it will still be a few days for that.

BTW, ZZP sells a 3" exhaust gasket that fits it perfectly.

How do you know it isnt charging? Alternator light? Low or no gauge read out? Does you alternator light come on? Mine too is wired the samew as the fiero and am using the GTP alternator. I splice the exciter wire into the (+) wire coming out of the alternator works great.

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" DRIVE IT LIKE YOU LOVE IT"

I am using the stock fiero alternator, actuaslly one from autozone, kind of explains why it is broken. I am also using aftermarket gauges, and I don't have a charging light, but it readt jut under 11 volts, which is very low for a running car.

What do you mean, all I have to do is hook up a light behind the dash and be doen with it. does it matter if the light is burned out?

I have a ton of room next to the heat shield, I made sure of that

Here is what I did with the intake, 2 3.5" pipes

This is what I did to the decklid to clear the broken engine

A great pic of the POS engine

I can't believe that I have to deal with this, I have to tear it ALL out again, and do it ALL over!

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quote Originally posted by Golden86: I went over to my uncles house to pick up the exhaust, I couldn't ask for a better welding job, it came out great. There was A LOT of tight bends with this exhaust, we had to get a little creative. It is all TIG welding with stainless filler.

Golden:
You may want to check into something like this for your exhaust setup. They are exhaust donuts and will get rid of that "kink" in your exhaust setup. I cant imagine that it's good for the exhaust flow - especially with all those goodies going into the motor to make it a screamer...

They come in all kinds of ID's, and are not $$ at all for what you are getting. I will get the name of the co tomarrow that you can contact for one for your setup. I know that they came in super handy with the tight corners for my exhaust. Rickady88GT turned me on to 'em, and I know that they helped him pass SMOG here with the use of the OEM cats on his exhaust.

--Allen

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That sucks about the engine knock. Do you have any ideas where it's coming from? Think it's in the valve train or lower end? If it is the lower end you could always get a crank kit and have it back together in a day. Thats what I did with the 4.9 last year when it had a rod knock.

I was going to say somthing about the kink in the exhaust but figured I wouldnt.

It is def in the lower end, I know it wont be that bad to pull the engine again, I know what to do now. I am just hopeing that it didn't spin a bearing, then I have to replace the rod too, which means I have to pull it down to a short block.

Actually the ID in that section is larger than the rest of the setup. I am not going to worry about it, its not like I need any more power. I could kill my self with the 2.8's power, now I will have double, possibly tripple that.

quote Originally posted by mcaanda: Golden: You may want to check into something like this for your exhaust setup. They are exhaust donuts and will get rid of that "kink" in your exhaust setup. I cant imagine that it's good for the exhaust flow - especially with all those goodies going into the motor to make it a screamer... They come in all kinds of ID's, and are not $$ at all for what you are getting. I will get the name of the co tomarrow that you can contact for one for your setup. I know that they came in super handy with the tight corners for my exhaust. Rickady88GT turned me on to 'em, and I know that they helped him pass SMOG here with the use of the OEM cats on his exhaust. --Allen

I have seen those before, but fogot all about them. I probably wont tear out the exhaust for a VERY long time, it was a pain to build in the first place.

I had to replace 2 bad 3800's before the current 5k mile engine was good. First one was bad due to coolent leak in transporting the car across the country, I started it without coolent and had rod knock. Number 2 was my fault I sand blasted the intake and must have had sand still in it and took out the main bearings. I lived and learned the hard way. I keep a spare 3800 on hand now just in case there are problems. My spare cost me 200.

That stinks big time My first 3800sc 2 was bad due to the place leaving it out in the weather, They did all the stuff for motor storage but it was not enough, I ended up taking that engine apart and getting it bored 30 over, Everything looked good inside except for the rust pits (due to water) It was not siezed but it had to be bored. I bought new main bearings and rod bearings and had the crankshaft polished, Then ended up finding a nice engine with 25k on it for as much as I would pay for new pistons, And this engine was soo clean that I decided to just use it and not rebuild.

If it only had a rod knock, You could always just buy a new crankshaft and replace the rod bearings and mains(might as well), From the pics everything else looked good. But just to do the new crankshaft and rod bearings, You will have to drop the engine but you won't have to pull the heads. You can also drop the oil pan and check with a feeler gauge to see exactly what rod or bearing is shot. Normally if the rod is bad or spun then you will need to do the crankshaft, In these engines it's better to just go ahead and buy a new crankshaft then getting it turn down. But then again the rod could be trashed if it spun (and that requires a engine teardown). A spun bearing sounds very very bad tho.

You can find brandnew crankshafts for around $175 and the bearings costed me around $75bucks.

Another thing is, a engine that has been sitting without the oilpump being primed (hard to prime it on these since the oilpump is ran by the crankshaft) Will knock when first started, Then the sound will go away, My first 4.9 did that.

Another thing is, A New autozone or discount auto TO bearing (for the clutch) will sound exactly the same as a rod knock, My first TO bearing sounded like that and scared the crap out of me, But the sound went away when I stepped on the clutch so I knew it was the TO bearing it went away after awhile.

You defaintly hold the records in Gernading engines hehe please take it easy on this one The good thing is your probally a pro at dropping the engine back out, So the time it will take a average person to drop a engine will take you far less time.

I still think I hold the record at the fasted fiero fuel pump change

That is a very aggressive L67 buildup, one that would really need headers to get in low to mid 11's (my friend has that identical setup, with N* TB /MAF a gen 5 supercharger, and most importantly headers.). With that agressive of a buildup, you need to spend ALOT of time tuning the motor to make it run hardly at all. That knock could very well be from detontation due to extremely retarded or advanced timing adjustments your computer is making.

quote Another thing is, a engine that has been sitting without the oilpump being primed (hard to prime it on these since the oilpump is ran by the crankshaft) Will knock when first started, Then the sound will go away, My first 4.9 did that.

also a very big point. your engine will make tons of noise if it isnt getting oil where it should be, this happens when you do oilchanges alot. my gtp FREAKED OUT when I did my last oilchange with synthetic oil, it lasted for almost 5 mins at 1500rpms. Also, rodknock should be heard even a little bit at idle, RPMs have little to do with the fact a rod bearing is fried.

We will be dropping the cradle in the next few days,and pull the pan to see what is messed up under there.

I really don't think it is THAT aggresive of a build, I am only using a 3" pulley, when I could be down to a 2.8, or smaller. I am also using PEM's compaired to headers too. I could have gone A LOT further on this build up, but I didn't want to stress the engine more than what I needed. Anybody who knows about these engies knows that it has a very strong bottom end, and the crank was the least of my worries.

I talked to ED, and he is willing to work with me, I am not saying he shipped me a blown engine. For all I know, a little peice of metal could have found its way to the rod bearing and ate it up, thats just how my luck is. I am done being pissed about it, $hit happens, live and learn.

My next plan of action is to get a new shortblock, and have the whole assembley, with flywheel and all, balanced at a machine shop. Pull all the goodies off the engien I have now, and build up the short block, and slap it back into the car. I am going to spend the extra money and do it right this time.

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I had 60psi for my oil pressure.

My father has been a certified GM mechanic for more than 30 years, and has built/rebuilt countless engines in his time, we went therough all the proper procedures. The only thing that we didn't check was the bearing clearances before installing it, the engine was so clean, we shouldn't have to check it with 51K on it.

Pete