AZ Drifter's '80 FI Project Log

[AZDrifter]

It's been a month since the last update. Most of that has been spent waiting for parts and getting the head rebuilt. Today I finally got to put something together!

Clean, shiny stuff

Port matched and bowls blended...

Oh dear God, now comes the timing...

This is what the new injectors from Vick Autosports look like...

A quick story- I put some assembly lube around the piston walls. I couldn't figure out what to do with the cap for the lube, which is shaped like a little nozzle. I thought I left it on the block or on the car, but couldn't find it after I was done. I looked over the whole work area repeatedly and became pretty agitated. I tried spinning the block on the mount to see if the cap might have gone down the oil return galley. A week later I was contemplating taking off the oil pan because, well, it had to go somewhere! I had taped off the lube top to keep it safe from the elements. For some reason I lifted the tape, and the cap was on the lube all along. At least I didn't take the engine apart before finding it. I'm only 42, too young for these senior moments.

 

[kmarcm]

Very nice work so far. Nice project. If you don't mind me asking, what did the headwork cost? Thinking of going a similar route, curious to the cost.

 

[AZDrifter]

I paid $360 for leak testing, cleaning, decking, blending, 3 angle valve job, port matching, plus installing a reground cam, buying the adjusting disks and setting it up within spec. He also replaced a valve. The machinist is in a little town in a lower income area, and does a lot of work on privateer racecars. I think it was $50-60 per hour for labor, so your results may vary. I would expect to spend twice that much, but sometimes you get lucky.

 

[AZDrifter]

Great progress this weekend. The wife gave me about five hours in the garage for good behavior! :excited:

The fuel rail/intake mani/engine cooler duct/exhaust manifold is done. Sucks that you have to kinda put it all together at once like a little puzzle, but it's done.

I also installed the Midwest-Bayless evap system makeover with fancy braided lines. Getting the fuel filler pipe cover off to tighten the clamps was tricky to say the least. I also did the dual fuel filters and replaced what I think is the return line. It's no fun replacing the fuel lines with gas in the tank, but I didn't spill too much.

The timing cover, alternator, and accessory belt will be next.

Somehow the original shot of the car never made it on the post!

 

[budgetzagato]

Fuel lines...

The lines to the little white canisters are part of the evaporative emissions system, is that what you meant by "dual filters"?

 

[JimD]

Probably a pre-filter setup

The lines to the little white canisters are part of the evaporative emissions system, is that what you meant by "dual filters"?

I am pretty sure that by "dual filter" John meant he added a "pre-filter" between the FI tank output pipe and the FI fuel pump. This setup can keep tank crap out of the pump. I am going to do this on my X when I get to that phase of the project. Madd Matt told me it would be a good idea and who am I to argue with him?

 

[AZDrifter]

That's correct. There is a fuel filter between the tank and the pump, and the big canister after the pump.

 

[AZDrifter]

This weekend I got the timing belt cover on, the alternator, and the accessory drive belt.

Bonus... after several months, the rear brake line connector finally gave in and loosened. The other one came off later today with no fuss. One caliper refreshed with pads, line, and gaskets. Honed the bore, too, but I doubt I will hone the others. A little VHT paint to make 'em pretty. No, not red- silver.

 

[Dom.M]

As my 3 year old would say TaDa!. Looks good!

 

[budgetzagato]

Getting close...

And I like VHT silver too. :headbang:

 

[JimD]

Lookin' good John

You will probably get your running before I do.

I still need to complete a lot of little carb-to-FI specific gotchas and it just knocked the wind out of my sails a while back. My local Fiat buddy Chris is going to whip me into shape in the near future and get the 78 on the road again. At least that is his threat.

 

[AZDrifter]

Great news! The transmission went on after several more tries. My buddy suggested that I not only get the clutch centering tool in the hole, but also get it to where it is perfectly centered, so the tool slides in and out very freely. I had the motor supported on the ground with the engine hoist. It took a few tries, but finally went in.

SO today I measured the clearance on top of the engine compartment, which was 17" front to back. The engine is 22" give or take. I lifted the back of the car using a stack of wood on a floor jack, and pushed the motor under the car the same way it came out.

I called in a friend to help raise the engine on the hoist while we both made sure nothing was catching.

It took about an hour to get it off the ground and onto the mounts. We used a transmission jack and the floor jack once it was close to being in place.

Then the crossmember went in underneath to seal the deal. I noticed that my clutch slave cylinder is needing replacement, so it's another little setback. I am also uncertain about how the heater hoses connect.

Not bad for about four hours work.

 

[AZDrifter]

It's ALIVE!

Man, lots of good stuff on the forum lately. I've been out of the loop trading my BMW 335i for a KIA Rio! Budget cuts and all.

Anyway, Last weekend I couldn't get the X started. I managed to purge the fuel lines, but no start. This weekend I pulled the timing cover and found that the belt had skipped a few teeth. The tensioner had too much slack so I straightened that out. Three out of four cylinders fired after that. I pulled the distributor cap and found it was off by a few degrees. I set it to 10 degrees advanced, and it fired right up!

Bad news is a crappy idle. It was surging and stalling just off idle. I set the throttle position open a hair, and that helped a little. I got her off the ramps and went out for a spin after reinstalling the rear brakes and setting the parking brake. The new clutch works. From idle to about 3000 rpm there is a lot of bucking and stuttering.

This week I will buy a new dizzy cap and rotor, and some wires. It kinda seems like I'm not getting enough fuel, but don't have an AFR gauge hooked up to confirm. At least it runs.

There is a lot of moisture coming from the tailpipe. No smoke, just water vapor.

 

[budgetzagato]

Check for vacuum leaks, and that your vacuum lines are hooked up correctly. The one to the distributor goes to the bottom of the throttle body.

Also, make sure your Throttle Position Switch is disconnecting at idle. Otherwise the ECU tries to use the O2 sensor input to adjust the mixture, which is bad at idle because the sensor is not hot enough.

If the filter is old or unknown replace it.

My guess is the vacuum advance is not hooked up or hooked up wrong, or not working.

 

[AZDrifter]

Turns out I was about a gallon short of coolant. I found a spot where the heater hose was set up to fill the coolant system and used it- right next to the top of the timing cover. Runs fine now :nod:

I rebuilt the front brake calipers and installed new lines also. It appears that the car is drivable. I took it out to my little "proving grounds" area and ran the engine up in the higher RPMs a bit. Threw it into some tight corners about as fast as I dared on an unfamiliar car and it didn't break traction. The springs are soft, but it holds its ground well even on 420 treadwear tires. This dog's gonna hunt!

 

[AZDrifter]

This weekend was a good one. New plug wires, dizzy cap, and rotor. Before the engine was misfiring a little at full throttle in the higher RPMs. Now it sings clearly all the way to 7000. The OEM exhaust is choking the motor though.

I got five out of six turn signals working and determined that bulbs are at fault for my other lighting issues. The shifter now stays in gear all the time. My buddy fixed my passenger door strike so the door closes all the way now. I drilled some holes in the side of the air filter housing to let in air from the cold side- what a novel concept :thumbsup:

The front alignment is now pretty neutral- it was toed out pretty severely from my earlier replacement of the tie rod ends. I noticed today that the heater works, too. I have no idea why it wasn't working in the first place.

For drivability, the main issues now are a dancing/dead fuel gauge and balancing the front wheels. Either that or the bushings are causing the vibration. Hard to say. 120 miles on the rebuilt motor and the car is really coming together. Every trip in the X is an adventure. I look forward to taking her out whenever I have an excuse. 70 degrees and sunny this afternoon. Even a trip into town for errands was a joy.:love:

 

[AZDrifter]

Rough weekend. :blackeye:
Autocrossing my Neon went poorly because all my tire money has gone to restoring the X. I had the X's wheels balanced to see if that would solve the front vibration. I told the shop there is a slow leak in one of the tires. Turns out one of my original, beautiful wheels has a crack in the barrel, which is leaking air. Not sure how to repair that, if it's repairable. I imagine a reputable wheel servicing shop can fix it, but it's another unanticipated expense.

But wait, there's more! I bought some control arms with ball joints- thought maybe a ball joint needed replacing. Not a bad idea on a 33 year old car. Maybe that would cure the vibration. Nope, ball joint was fine, but I replaced the arm for peace of mind and fresh bushings.

Only thing left is the strut. Sure enough, it is providing no damping force at all. Push in the plunger and it stays where you left it. The others are probably not far from being shot either.

On the bright side, M-B has a bunch of shiny new Koni-based coilovers. Having just blown all my savings for the year on rebuilding the motor and brakes, things are looking pretty depressing. Having the seats refinished by the car show in October is looking, well... igsfly:

If I go ahead and redo the suspension, that would be $5000 deep in about 6 months. The bodywork is still untouched, the trans needs rebuilding, the tires are old, the interior is a wreck, the exhaust is stifling the free-flowing head and cam. Jeez.

Where is the :sun: ???

 

[be-em]

If those wheels are the cd-93's (?) in your other pics they are most likely Al. and should be weldable depending on the cracks position. If you have one crack you may have others that are there but not showing. I don't want to be a bummer but be careful with a repair as it can be very sensitive. B.

 

[Black-Tooth]

Coupla things John...

1. The vibration is in the tires and/or wheels. No amount of dampening is gonna fix it. Ya gotta go after the CAUSE. See the thread on the Hunter 9700 balancer with FORCE VARIATION and RUNOUT considerations for what are otherwise PERFECTLY BALANCED wheels!

2. JJ showed me something really "cute" that I must say worked extremely well. With the engine and trans outta the car, he had ME tip the engine up on its nose and hold it... with its butt straight up in the air. Then he picks up the trans and buries it noodle first right into the back of the engine. First time, and every time! No dowels or guides needed and I did center the clutch with the proper tool before hand with a bit of grease on the input shaft as well. I've changed out plenty of these before and this is by far the best method. JJ claims he does this all by himself by propping the engine up in a corner! I wouldn't normally believe it but indeed can see where its possible.

3. I would hold off on the $500 Koni's unless you really gotta have them. If the others are indeed shot, then a set of KYB's at half the price will make a great difference.

KYB Shocks & Struts 233004 - KYB Excel-G Gas Shocks and Struts


Compare

Shock Absorber / Strut / Cartridge, GR2 / Excel-G, Twin-Tube, Gas Charged, Each
Part Number: KYB-233004 More Detail...
Estimated Ship Date: Today

$73.28


And KYB233003's Two for the front and two for the rear. I see with shipping these will be well over $300... but you can try eBay as well as I once saw prices equal to Summit's with FREE shipping.

Anyway... just wanted to be sure you know you have some choices.

4. The place where you filled the system is most probably a FLUSH TEE that was made popular by Prestone many years ago. I installed mine there as well as it had a "union" and clamps there from the factory so the engine could be tied to the heater easily during assembly. An almost perfect spot. I run my engine until warm and insure there is circulation up front to the radiator and then attach the Prestone adapter and water hose... and pressurize the system so that most, if not all of the air gets outta the radiator and flows up and out the reservoir bottle. Works great for me. A better method would be to pull the thermostat and back flush the engine, radiator and all the plumbing all at once... after using a good chemical (powdered) flush as well. HTH!

Congrats on your work so far!

 

[AZDrifter]

Today was the first autocross shakedown run. The main goal was achieved- get there and back without breaking down! :excited:

I pulled off a 75 second run on a 70 second course. I ran a friend's Miata afterwards and got a 69, much to his chagrin. He ran a 78 in my X. The main drawback is the blown-out rear suspension, which now needs wheel bearings in addition to struts, springs, and tires. All in good time.

I have been busy with the front suspension, which is now set up nicely. New springs, struts, control arms, and tires. http://xwebforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/20993/

I also replaced the lights in the gauge cluster so I can see what's going on in the dark. I still need to do the Brown wire mod, and the ammeter shows barely 12 volts when any auxiliary power drains are present. With just the vent fan running I was at 12 volts. add lights, and I think there's a drain on the battery. I am going to have to take a break as I have spent way too much getting to where it is now.

TIme to drive something else for a little while. :wall:

If I find some photos from the autocross, I will post them.