ecotec swap (Page 63/98)
wftb MAR 27, 03:29 PM
got the car out of the shed and in to the garage .could not get the ride height set in the shed because of the "give" in the floor .it was driving me nuts until i figured what was happening .got my lenses on my lights .decided to just lay a bed of velcro down to fill in the gaps .not perfect because i did not drill my holes in the right place and i dont have an even gap.i am going to get another set of lenses and do a better job . took a few pics,also a pic of my last allignment read out. you can see i had a few settings in the red , not too far out that it caused any problems with tire wear or handling .hopefully i will be all green after the next allignment .still cant drive it yet , we are still getting snow and the roads are covered in salt and sand .
doublec4 MAR 27, 08:14 PM
Nice! I've yet to see anyone paint the inside of the headlights silver, great job!
wftb APR 01, 04:05 PM
thanks .i will PM you about another set of lenses soon .today is april 1 and i still cant drive the car because it is too cold out . and it has snowed off and on all day .my car has summer high performance tires that are not supposed to be used at around the freezing mark .took some pics .i cant finish my wet sanding and minor touch ups i want to do yet cause it is to cold and i dont want to put it back in the shed .looks good in pics though .yesterday afternoon was warm enough to go for a shakedown run .the bumpsteer kit works well , nice and stable on the bumpy road on the way to work .my new brake calipers really dont improve the braking much , but they are smoother than the old ones .i was getting some low speed pedal pulsing before that is gone now .i had the discs turned while i was still driving it and that did not fix the problem .the pedal is a bit softer now and goes further down to the floor , but not bottoming .i may put the S10 brake booster upgrade on it sometime .pics:




looking at rear window options now , am thinking maybe the fiero fibreglass open panels .
wftb APR 25, 07:33 PM
i ended up buying new tinted 1/4 windows from the fiero store .they were back ordered so i waited about 2 weeks but they look nice .it has been too cold to install them though .i bought a new instrument cluster today :

this one is from an 04 ecotec powered sunbird .it is compatible with my cavalier harness .i find it funny that the the guage configuration is slightly different .a lot of development money down the drain for something no one would even notice .this time the plan is to make a whole new pod for this cluster , rather than hack it up and make it fit in to the fiero cluster pod .tomorrow i am going to pick up some MDF and carve up a home for this cluster .i am hoping to make the turn signal indicators work as well as the backlighting .according to my cav/sunfire haynes manual , i can cut one wire and that will disable all the warning lights .i am going to try that on the old cluster .right now i just have them covered with some vinyl , but if you lean over you can see them (airbags, service soon etc).put about 2000 km on so far this season, i was kind of surprised at that with all the rotten weather .but the rotten weather means i cant ride the motorcycle so the fiero has become first pick .yesterday it snowed most of the day .nothing stayed , all melted .
wftb APR 26, 06:06 PM
today we finally had some sun and warmer weather , so i put on my new windows .they fit really well, but of course i got the passenger side a little to far foreward .and it stuck so well i did not attempt to take it off .its not too noticeable but annoying to me .i ended up putting my old drip rails back on .once i put the windows in ,there was space that needed covering so back on they went .i hope to find a nice set sometime .

[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 04-26-2013).]

wftb JUL 04, 11:24 PM
Went to the 30th and had a great time .40 miles from home and the car started surging at 100 KM/hr every once in a while .very annoying as it has been forever since i have had a problem .i decided to gas up before crossing the border , and as long as i did not have a problem starting it i would keep going .started right up , so off i went .the surging happened off and on all the way down .ran a scan when i got to the hotel and it was not throwing any codes but i did notice my air intake temps were hitting the low 40's C .when i got home , i put my ice can back in the front trunk and changed the fuel filter .with out the reservoir of water , i think the pump was just pushing air half the time .any way , the fuel filter was full of some tar looking stuff so it seems to have solved the problem .there was a fellow at the show with wheel scales and i had the car weighed .results 819 driver rear 577 driver front
742 pass rear 653 pass front
that puts the total at 2791 lbs with frt /rear at 44% frt and 56% rear .this was with a full tank of gas .i thought i would be lighter but i have a lot of turbo related stuff that easily adds up to over 100 lbs .they ran the scales friday night briefly before the monsoon hit and again sat night after the Callies speech so i dont know if a lot of cars did this .hopefully more people will post results so i can compare .thanks to all the 30 th organizers and volunteers , lots of hard work was put in to make it a great show .
Lunatic OCT 03, 08:11 AM
Excellent build my friend! Thanks for paving the way for the people who want to do an Ecotec swap. Although the journey was long, the end result was well worth it.

I've met WFTB in person, very cool guy! I've also gone for a drive with him in this awesome little car. This car is so much fun!

To anyone thinking of doing the swap, go for it!
wftb NOV 02, 03:03 PM
sorry it has taken so long to reply and update but been really busy with work and other projects .it was great to meet a fiero enthusiast from nearby .off and on all summer i have had fuel problems .after the car acted up again , i decided to quit stalling and drop the tank and see what was going on .i expected to find a bunch of crap but it was clean .so i ordered a new AC delco OEM fuel pump .cheapest i could find was 280.00 including tax and delivery .aftermarket ones were as cheap as 80.00 but i dont want to drop the tank for a long time so i passed on those .it runs awesome again , like it did before i worked on it for a year .i tried to get my fuel gauge to work while i had the tank out .turns out that the float was hitting the plastic baffle in the tank and it could not rise .so i cut a hole in the baffle but now i have a different problem .the float seems to have gotten stuck in the 3/4 full position against the top of the baffle .so i am still using the trip odometer to decide when to fill up .i have the old pump and sender unit still , so maybe i can figure out a fix .but , not going to drop the tank again any time soon .
wftb NOV 18, 05:04 PM
putting it away for the winter soon .funny but my car is still the only documented running turbo ecotec swap .planning more suspension work soon but not till the new year .
akademikjeanius NOV 22, 12:50 PM

quote
Originally posted by wftb:

...funny but my car is still the only documented running turbo ecotec swap...




Makes NO sense to me that folks are shying away from this swap the way they are. Thanks for being a pioneer and a well-documenting one at that.