quote Originally posted by davylong86: A 115lb dog makes a great security system for your fiero lol! I guess I know who to ask about 4.9 swap,sounds like you had a little practice.

He's a cool dog. Very mellow. He just likes to hang out with his people.
I've only heard him bark a handful of times. He will bark once when something is out of the ordinary outside. Best dog I've ever had by far. Akita's are an amazing breed.

I can't find the pic of him in the fiero. I'll have to take a new one.

quote Originally posted by Neils88: For the valve covers, you need to follow a special procedure: You need to start by degreasing the magnesium by scrubbing it with an alkaline cleanser. Then apply a chromic acid treatment (you have to be really careful with this!). The acid gets neutralized and rinsed off. Next you use a zinc chromate spray primer followed by a zinc chromate spray paint.

Thanks for this. I knew it was a procedure. I will see what I can come up with. I was considering an epoxy paint as I think it will last longer. We have cases of the zinc chromate primer at work that I can use.

I may just send a few parts to be powder coated.
I was trying to find a old thread. It was a forum member that was offering powder coating for other members. He was located in my town. If I can find the thread again I will try to contact him. Maybe he still does it? His name was Excelon or something.


A little update while I'm here...
3 of us spent a very long day working on the car yesterday. We got a ton done. The goal was to start with the engine on the cradle and end with it rebuilt and on the engine stand. We almost did it too.

I don't know of I'll have time today but I have about 50 more pics to post. The house if getting an appraisal tomorrow as the final step before the refinance. There is a lot of final cleanup to do. Another busy day. Yay.

Later

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 08-17-2014).]

The wife is headed to brunch with the ladies. I decided I have enough time to post the pics from yesterdays work. I'm not going to do much explaining on this post since its mostly stuff I've posted before.

Here goes...

This is a block off plate we made out of 3/16 nylon. We built a set to cover the exhaust ports in the heads before pressure washing the engine. Just trying to keep the water out.


Time for a bath. It was really dirty and way past due.






What a difference a couple cans of degreaser and a pressure washer can make.


Time to strip the 4.9 down... again.



Valve covers off...




The intake manifold. Quite a bit of carbon in there. Definitely running rich.



Heads coming off... I broke my breaker bar (he he) so I had to improvise a new one.







The combustion chambers do not look very good. Thick carbon deposits and the valves are rainbow colored. There is also some white deposits on the back of some of the valves. Probably coolant in the chambers. Looks like the head gasket was leaking for a while. Some of the piston tops also have thick carbon buildup.



Other then that the engine is in good shape. No bad valves so I don't have to tear the heads apart. It just meant it was going to take quite a bit longer to get everything cleaned up.

The heads..



With the heads and intake off it was time to move to an engine stand. Since there were 3 of us we decided to do this by hand. We won't be doing that again. It worked fine but was really unnecessary. The short block probably only weighs 125-150lbs.



Here is the dented oil pan. It was riding on the mount bolt.


Under the oil pan looks good though.


Back outside for another bath.




Now the tedious and time consuming task of scraping and cleaning everything. This took entirely too long. Some of the deposits were really stuck on.




Torquing the oil pan bolts with a new gasket and pan.


New head gaskets. Corteco white seal. Hopefully they will hold up better then the graphite ones. Only time will tell.


Heads going back on...


Torqued to spec, in sequence to 37ft lbs - 74lbs - then 90ft lbs.



At this point its almost 1 in the morning. We had been working since 9 am. It was a very long day. Since we were calling it a day we set the intake on to help keep the dust out. Work will continue shortly.


We would have finished completely if it hadn't been for all those deposits. It just took waaaaaaaay too long to get everything clean again.

Later.

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 08-17-2014).]

Despite what has been stated on the forum this is NOT a difficult motor to rebuild.

Except for the aluminum block and cast iron cylinder sleeves it rebuilds like any other engine.

Be careful with the head bolts. Remember they thread into aluminum. Use heat and wd40, etc the first time especially. The 10 outside bolts can/should be lubed from outside the block. The inner ones aren't usually a problem. 9 of them can be lubed after the intake is off. Be extra careful with the one you can't lube.

Its best not to rotate the engine with the heads off. This can sometimes push the sleeves out and require re-sealing. Some short M12x1.75 bolts and a some large washers can hold all 8 sleeves in place if you don't want to disturb them. If they don't leak, don't "fix" em.

The sleeves can be removed cleaned and reinstalled with new o-rings and Hylomar. Just keep the cylinder sleeves in their original place and orientation if you must remove them. If you put them back in the same place and orientation you won't have to do this>>>>> After re-install check the cylinder sleeve height above the deck height. For this you will need a dial indicator or another accurate way to measure the .008"-.020" over deck height range.... On second thought, just don't remove them.

EDIT: Oh. Don't swap them between motors either. Its even more of a PITA.

[This message has been edited by Fieroseverywhere (edited 08-21-2014).]