quote Originally posted by Patrick: I'm willing to bet that the reported "white smoke, fuel dripping from tail pipe" was simply condensation/water. There's no way that was "fuel" dripping out of his tailpipe.

I'm not getting any fluid like that out of the tailpipe, I did get a couple of drips when I first started it (which I'm sure is condensation). The car hadn't run in like 3 months. But what I'm getting is a cloud of smoke only after the car has been sitting. The fuel pressure regulator is off, and the injector is a much larger injector too... and I'm guessing that fuel is pooling in the intake manifold while it's sitting at idle. Then when I blip the throttle, it takes all of that excess fuel at once and it's just too much... and creates that cloud of smoke.

But driving around, not a single bit of smoke anywhere. Runs well, I'm just getting horrible fuel economy. And then when I pull into a spot and let the car sit for more than a couple of minutes, and blip the throttle... a little cloud of smoke.

I plan to lean it out... but there's an adjustment tool that I really want to get... otherwise, I have to keep taking the top of the throttle body off.




This sneaks right up and under the fuel pressure regulator (little hole in the bottom of the bowl) and allows you to turn the bolt to raise and lower the spring pressure plate. I assume the tighter the spring (in the FPR) the less fuel will come out of the injector?

quote Originally posted by ironpuke84: which head is this if I might ask? It's not the SD4 head is it?

It's not the SD4 head, but it's also not a stock Fiero head. The Fiero heads all have the year stamped in them, and the casting is a bit more open (for oil to drain down). I can't remember the website, but it talked about several cyl heads that were ever so slightly better than the stock Fiero head, and were recommended for using if you were building a performance duke. I don't remember what engines they came from... maybe the S10? That wasn't my goal, but I ran the head casting number, and it ended up being one of the ones it recommended (if you couldn't find or afford an SD4 head). To me personally, I can't tell a bit of difference between a stock Fiero cyl head and this cyl head. It seems to have a little bit more meat in some places, but supposedly it has slightly larger intake passages with some restriction removed. I hadn't really paid much attention to that, and was just more interested in getting it installed.

But it runs pretty nice... lots of low-end torque. I haven't been flooring it at all, but it effortlessly pulls off the line below 3,000 rpms.

EDIT: I looked it up... it ended up being a 552 cyl head. From another forum, it said: "The exhaust ports aren’t really any better, but the intake ports are better and the intake valves aren’t shrouded like they are in the 1984-1986 767 casting heads."

[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 11-25-2025).]