Just getting ready to pull the engine. FYI, THIS is the ONLY rust on the entire car.



I think I know why the car was laid-up, the firewall side exhaust manifold has a loose bolt. Undoubtedly it was running rough. But the good news is NO CRACK! I can clean-out the flashing and it will be better than new!



If you haven't read my thread on pulling a V-6 engine, here it is: http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum9/HTML/000024.html

And this is the result.



The next step is to pull the gas tank. I need to drain the old stale gas and replace the pump and filter.



After a good inspection of everything I can see that the donor transmission has been ridden hard and put-up wet. The rear main seal was bad and just look at that goo! Fortunatley, it shifts well, the gear oil is clean, and with a good cleaning and new seals, it should be good to go.



Tomorrow, I will take care of the gas tank and break down the engine for cleaning.

[This message has been edited by Toddster (edited 06-09-2021).]

Job one after getting the engine out was to clean it well enough to work with it. Pressure washers are great for this as they can get all the gunk off. I removed the alternator before cleaning. Several details become clear right away, the alternator, muffler, and starter have all been replaced! As I get further into the engine I am sure I will find other upgrades that had not been documented.



The next step is the transmission which was REALLY dirty. After cleaning I now need to remove the clutch arm for rust removal and polishing. This thing sat for a long time. I can't make this point clearly enough, Cleaning your parts is critical! Those little "fins" and "vanes" on your transmission are for heat dissipation as much as they are for strength. Many of the problems your car has is heat retention in all the wrong places. We will talk more about that when I break the engine down but for now, suffice it to say that a clean engine will last longer and run better.



Today I got a tap in the mail which allowed me to finish one last item up front. I bought the 3 core aluminum radiator online but I did not think to ask if the overflow spigot came with it (seemed redundant but as I learned, it isn't! So ASK!). There was a 7mm hole there but nothing in it. Now the problem is that even if I had a 7mm spigot, it would not be large enough for good overflow so I found one on Summit that was 10mm. The thread pitch is 1mm however (which is an oddball size, so I had to order a tap).



Step 1 was to drill out the hole with a 11/32 drill bit and tap the hole with the 10x1.0 tap. A paper towel prevents debris from getting into the radiator.



with some teflon tape the spigot looks like it was made that way.



The finished product



And the finished front end is now ready for the hood to go back on.



Next I had to replace the fuel pump after draining the gas tank of the varnish in there. That is the easy part, setting the gas gauge is not so easy. It should ideally read 90 to 0 ohms (90ohms = Full and 0 ohms = Empty). Now I personally don't care so much if the needle goes past F when FULL but I hate not having it hit E when EMPTY. The fact is there is nothing you can do about it. The closest I have ever calibrated these was 2.9 ohms; which isn't bad considering they are usually set around 10 ohms from the factory, meaning you run out of gas with 1/8th of a tank showing on your gauge. The Ohm meter probes should go in at the yellow plug for the most accuracy. I got this one down to 3.5 ohms; close enough! To do it, disassemble the resistor and use an emery board to clean the corrosion off the filaments (BE CAREFUL, the filaments are very thin, use the buffing side of the board here), also clean the springs, and the contact patch where the spring contacts the metal plate with the emery board. Re-assemble and use a T-10 Torx to adjust until you get the right readings.

[This message has been edited by Toddster (edited 10-29-2019).]