Thoughts on this potential purchase? (Page 6/7)
MarkS JUL 30, 12:25 PM
Great! Best of luck with her!
82-T/A [At Work] JUL 30, 02:17 PM
Congrats man! Send more pictures when you get her home!
dizzie AUG 01, 08:47 AM
Thanks a bunch, guys! So excited to have her in my driveway. Now the real fun begins haha. Inside, it had extra gauges, plug wires, and O2 sensor, manuals, as well as three total sets of keys! Clips for a LeBra bumper cover are present. Hoses are actually not dry-rotted and the 15 year old tires seem to be holding air just fine when inflated to 30psi (I'll change them after we get it driving). Really pleased with the overall condition. Even had a sunroof air deflector under the hood. Does that stay on all the time or only when the sunroof is completely off? Also, what is this little pipe that vents into the back of the engine bay? Should something be connected to it?








[This message has been edited by dizzie (edited 08-01-2025).]

82-T/A [At Work] AUG 01, 08:52 AM

quote
Originally posted by dizzie:

Thanks a bunch, guys! So excited to have her in my driveway. Now the real fun begins. Had extra gauges, plug wires, and O2 sensor inside, as well as three total sets of keys! Clips for a LeBra bumper cover are present. Hoses are actually not dry-rotted and the 15 year old tires seem to be holding air just fine when inflated to 30psi (I'll change them after we get it driving). Really pleased with the overall condition. Even had a sunroof air deflector under the hood. Does that stay on all the time or only when the sunroof is completely off?




The deflector gets stored in the front when the sunroof is installed on the car. You don't HAVE to use it when the sunroof is stowed and removed; however, it makes the drive much better. Otherwise you get what is effectively a whirlwind into the car. It nearly eliminates any wind disturbance with it installed. Totally worth it.
dizzie AUG 01, 09:02 AM
Ahh cool, great to know, thanks. Added some photos and an additional question in the above post. You were too fast for me!
82-T/A [At Work] AUG 01, 11:56 AM

quote
Originally posted by dizzie:

Ahh cool, great to know, thanks. Added some photos and an additional question in the above post. You were too fast for me!




That pipe (that it's open) is part of a recall. I THINK it originally connected the PCV to the front of the air cleaner, or something like that, I can't remember. But regardless... GM did a recall on all Fieros. The first year Fiero was the only one that ever had fire issues (that were because of any specific design flaw). It had something like 1 out of every 5 connecting rods that had imperfections in the casting. It resulted in some 200 engines that blew up with less than 20k miles on them. Blew up as in, a rod broke and sent shrapnel out the oil pan, which inadvertently would then dump oil all over the catalytic converter and cause a fire.

But, it was one of those "we must do something to show we're doing something" that organizations do, so they made several changes to these cars, which included that. That tube is basically bypassed, and it should likely also be open on the other side as well. Some people find a rubber cap and cap it off, while others try to cut it and remove it from the other smaller vacuum line that's attached to it below.


EDIT: Another thing they removed was a weather seal that goes between the trunk lid and the rear window. You see those little square "slots" in the back of the decklid? There was supposed to be a clip in each of those, and it attached a big rubber strip that sealed the decklid against the window. This prevented water from dripping down directly onto the exhaust manifold and rusting out the bolts. There are several cars that didn't get the recall, and these are sought after. People re-install them because it's kind of silly... I don't really know what the logic was, as it doesn't help cool... maybe it was something to the effect that, if there was a fire, it would be more obvious since you'd see flames coming up... or something?

Also, since I was talking about the catalytic converter... if you still have the original (huge flat charcoal pellet canister), it might be worthwhile to replace it with one of the newer aftermarket ones. You'll pass emissions better (if that's a concern), have more horsepower, and drop some weight. Long story, but back in the 70s, some company that made these lobbied the EPA, and they forced car companies to use these instead of the honeycomb style cats that were far more efficient. They rescinded that law back in the late 80s, so all new cars from like 1988+ came with the newer style of cats that all other cars have today.

[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 08-01-2025).]

dizzie AUG 01, 02:13 PM

quote
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]:
That pipe (that it's open) is part of a recall. I THINK it originally connected the PCV to the front of the air cleaner, or something like that, I can't remember. But regardless... GM did a recall on all Fieros. The first year Fiero was the only one that ever had fire issues (that were because of any specific design flaw). It had something like 1 out of every 5 connecting rods that had imperfections in the casting. It resulted in some 200 engines that blew up with less than 20k miles on them. Blew up as in, a rod..




Wow, truly great info and context, thanks again! I'll be looking into the cat and maybe even putting some of my own weatherstripping in that area since I don't have a garage or carport. Appreciated!

[This message has been edited by dizzie (edited 08-01-2025).]

dizzie AUG 13, 05:17 PM
Overdue update! We started by pulling the plugs last week and putting marvel mystery oil in all the cylinders to sit while I was away for the week. The valves looked pretty good inside! We looked again with a scope yesterday and all the oil seems to have since penetrated and drained down around the pistons.

Yesterday we removed the wheels, put it on jack stands (scary - one of the temporary jack points was a bracket piece that wraps around the cooling tubes), took a look at where the fuel filter was, changed oil and filter, tried unsuccessfully to get a scope down the tank, removed the old battery, and probably other stuff I'm forgetting. We did a general inspection and control arms and sway bars actually look pretty good. Motor mounts aren't awful, hoses are surprisingly not dry rotted, and the 25 year old tires continue to hold air, lol. Rotors are rusted over and brakes are scraping. Hopefully the calipers are ok.

At one point I sprayed brake cleaner down the sunroof drains to make sure they were clear. Trunk is relatively clean! I have plugs, a new radiator cap, fuel filter, and Delco manual transmission fluid on the way, and there were new plug wires in the car.

Next, we'll try unhooking the fuel filter, hooking up a battery, and seeing if the fuel pump will remove whatever is left in there, if anything, into a drain pan. Then we'll try to flush it with some new gas and try to get a sense of the state of the inside of the tank. We'll also finally try to turn the engine over by hand. In fact, we'll probably do that first - if that doesn't work, all this could come to an end very quickly. I'm not doing an engine swap.

The oil was dark and about 2,000 miles overdue (5K miles total since last oil change) according to the odometer and windshield sticker. There was one little thing we found in the oil, too - I'm unsure whether it was a metal shaving, but hopefully not!

If the above goes well, we'll add some more gas, some coolant, and maybe try firing it up. Oh, I need to check that heater box for nests and debris first, though.

The journey continues...
Patrick AUG 13, 05:49 PM

quote
Originally posted by dizzie:

...what is this little pipe that vents into the back of the engine bay? Should something be connected to it?

CLICK FOR FULL SIZE



After the PCV system was altered for the recall, that pipe was supposed to be capped off... as it leads to the filtered side of the air filter cannister. Hopefully you'll find that the fitting on the air filter cannister was plugged instead. If not, unfiltered air has been sucked into this TB/intake system for decades.



quote
Originally posted by dizzie:

Next, we'll try unhooking the fuel filter, hooking up a battery, and seeing if the fuel pump will remove whatever is left in there...



And this car has been sitting for 15 years? It's a longshot that the fuel pump will still run.

I'm just going through this with an '86 GT that I've had in storage for a dozen years. When I apply 12v (from the cigarette lighter) to the fuel pump terminal of the ALDL connector, all I hear is a muffled thump. The fuel pump is basically seized and won't spin up. I've dumped several gallons of fresh gas in the tank, infused with injector cleaner, hoping it might loosen up the fuel pump over the course of a week. I'm not optimistic, but I figure it's worth a shot. I'll also try connecting two batteries in parallel to the ALDL fuel pump terminal, hoping that the extra boost in power may help to jump-start the pump.

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 08-13-2025).]

dizzie AUG 14, 12:47 PM

quote
Originally posted by Patrick:

And this car has been sitting for 15 years? It's a longshot that the fuel pump will still run.

I'm just going through this with an '86 GT that I've had in storage for a dozen years. When I apply 12v (from the cigarette lighter) to the fuel pump terminal of the ALDL connector, all I hear is a muffled thump. The fuel pump is basically seized and won't spin up. I've dumped several gallons of fresh gas in the tank, infused with injector cleaner, hoping it might loosen up the fuel pump over the course of a week. I'm not optimistic, but I figure it's worth a shot. I'll also try connecting two batteries in parallel to the ALDL fuel pump terminal, hoping that the extra boost in power may help to jump-start the pump.




Thanks, Patrick - I'll check to see if it's capped off. Interesting to hear you've been working on getting an old fuel pump going, too! I hope the extra measures will get it back in action - let me know how it turns out if you think of it. If so, I may end up having to do the same. I really don't want to drop the fuel tank but I will if I have to. If I can't get the fuel pump to work, I may try cranking it on starter fluid just to make sure the engine will actually crank and run.