World's slowest Fiero/Quad 4 Swap (Page 34/51)
Quadfather MAY 19, 09:14 PM
Part of an old weed eater makes a good tool for pushing the AC lines out of the way while lowering the car onto the cradle.



It also works as a prop for your engine hoist if it has a slow leak in the hydraulic cylinder.



The front of the cradle is sitting about 2” too high, but I think I’m getting pretty close with the muffler and tail pipe mounts.



I’ve been working some crazy hours over the last week and haven’t had much time to spend with the car. That should change next week.
Quadfather MAY 30, 09:55 PM
Haven’t had much time to work on the car between work and family obligations. I did finally realize one small change to the springs on the muffler would make it and the tailpipes fit better. Instead of connecting the upper spring, another hook attached below the other two would rotate the muffler away from the engine and tilt the tailpipes down.





[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 06-01-2022).]

Quadfather JUN 05, 07:55 PM
Making progress. I ended up welding two more spring mounts onto the muffler to get it to sit right. Then it was time to start welding up the manifold to muffler pipe.









As I was tacking the last piece into place, it became obvious that the pipe extends too far toward the rear of the car. The pipe cannot extend rearward past the plane of the muffler. Rolling the engine and cradle under the car one more time confirmed it.



Maybe I’ll get lucky this time and will be able to make the 180-degree bend a little sharper without any trouble.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 06-05-2022).]

Will JUN 15, 10:58 AM
That's not incredible for a 2nd ring. Check the top rings and see how they look.
OE rings will not be file fit.
You may also want to look into gapless top rings from Total Seal. They're great. You can set the gap in each piece wide for safe operation, but when the pieces go together, the gap goes away completely.

Bore increase * Pi = gap increase

0.010 overbore/hone = 0.031 increase in ring gap.

EDIT: Oops, sorry... search result for something else took me to an old post about your piston rings.

[This message has been edited by Will (edited 06-15-2022).]

Quadfather JUN 15, 07:21 PM
No worries, Will, I figured that’s what happened.
Quadfather JUN 15, 07:31 PM
So much for thinking fabbing this exhaust would be easy. The weather in Oklahoma over the weekend was ridiculously hot and humid, so I worked pretty slowly. I lengthened the horizontal pieces of the exhaust hangers so they’d clear each side of the trunk.





I also cut out the 180-degree bend in the pipe and tacked in a much tighter turn, keeping it on a lower plane.



I was feeling confident, until I rolled the cradle back under the car for another test fit. Naturally, the muffler now contacts the front of the trunk.





Since Sunday I’ve been strategizing how to proceed. The most logical thing to do would be to cut the tail pipes and the spring flanges off the muffler, make my own spring flanges and attach them to the springs with the cradle installed in the car, then hold the muffler in place and weld the flanges to it. Once the muffler is in the proper place, then attach the tail pipes. Sure would be nice to have a lift right about now.
longjonsilver JUN 15, 07:58 PM
i musta put my exhaust in and out a hundred times to get it right - assuming its right even now.

------------------
Astronomy says we will find a coded signal from outer space. Then we'll KNOW that life exists there, for coded signals aren't by chance.

Biology says there are coded genetic signals in every cell, but we KNOW that no intelligence created life.

I'm the original owner of a white ' 84 2M4 purchased Dec 10, 1983 from Pontiac. Always garaged, no rust, 3800SC, 4-wheel drifts are fun!

Quadfather JUN 16, 02:42 PM

quote
Originally posted by longjonsilver:

i musta put my exhaust in and out a hundred times to get it right - assuming its right even now.




Thanks for sharing that, it actually helps to know I'm not the only one who struggles.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 07-04-2022).]

Quadfather JUN 16, 02:51 PM
I mentioned before that I used to have the username Quad Raider, but after I updated my email I couldn't log in anymore so I created the Quadfather account. Funny thing is I still get notifications at the old Quad Raider email address when someone posts on my build thread, including me as Quadfather.



On the downside, if anyone is sending PMs to the Quad Raider account I have no way of accessing them.
Quadfather JUN 27, 08:42 PM
Maybe I figured it out. I pretty much started over. I cut off the tail pipes, then just used the stock spring mounts to see where the muffler sat. Naturally it was in the perfect position.

So then I propped each tail pipe under the car, attached the hangers and then cut a piece of pipe to fit between the tail pipes and the muffler.





Then I tacked the pipes to hold them together.



At first I had the splitters right up close to the fascia. I rotated them down a little to get a little more space.

[This message has been edited by Quadfather (edited 06-27-2022).]