The New Life of the 3800 "Formula"

[TopNotch]

Here's an update on the car. I sprayed grease cleaner on the underside where the transmission was leaking, and hosed it off. Since then, I've done a pretty good bit of driving in it, including some hard left curves. There's no sign of leaking from the transmission at all.
And the bad cabin noise is gone also. Here's what the engine bay looks like now:

I had actually rigged up the support bar you see before the trial run, and drove the car that way. No problems with it. But I hadn't taken out the old support bar on the firewall yet -- just rotated it so that it's attachments weren't touching the engine.
Today, I took the bar out, and here it is:

This bar is solid iron, drilled and trapped at each end. The mounting screws went through holes that originally had deck torsion bars in them (which is why the deck is supported by struts now).

[GTRS Fiero]

Glad to read that the transmission isn't leaking.

[TopNotch]

Today I replaced the Mass Airflow sensor on the car. You may (or may not) recall that in the earlier thread on this car, that I mentioned that I thought there may be something wrong with it, and I had taken it off the car and blown a dust bunny off of it.
Before the new one, there has always been a slight lag between gas pedal press and engine response, as if it was taking a little time to decide what to do. With the new one, response is much better, but the idle hunts just a little. Maybe the computer has to learn the new one for a bit.

[TopNotch]

After a few miles driven, the idle is much better. And the response is just fine. I've only driven one other car that had a similar throttle lag to what my car used to have. It was the BMW the movie production company loaned me while they had my red Fiero. Maybe the BMW needed a new MAF sensor too.

[GTRS Fiero]

Awesome!

[TopNotch]

Can you see what has changed (besides the direction the car is facing)?


If you guessed that the front is lower, you're right. I didn't like that the rear fender was 3 fingers above the tire, while the front fender was 4 fingers above the tire. So I got some Rodney Dickman 1/2" lowering ball joints for the front. While I was doing that, I also replaced the steering rack boots. They were in pieces, so I cleaned and lubricated the rack and put new boots on (also from Rodney Dickman). I marked each tie rod and carefully counted the turns necessary to remove the ends, and after driving it, I think I got it back together right. But I should probably get an alignment anyway.
Rodney recommends tack welding his lowering ball joints, and I did it to mine with my el-cheapo Harbor Freight flux wire welder. I'm not going to show you pictures of the welds, because they're not pretty. But they'll hold. Years ago I welded a broken steel bed frame (day bed in a spare bedroom) with the same welder (also not pretty), and it has held up to several grand kid over-nights, and even one of my 200+ pound brothers sleeping on the bed.
BTW, while I had it apart, I descovered that the lower control arm bushings are poly. Not red poly but black, so not noticeable right away. Whoever put them in slathered a lot of grease on them, so they don't squeek.

[GTRS Fiero]

I am not a fan of the lofted front, either.

[Raydar]

I like it. Nice job.
An added benefit of lowering the front of a Fiero - particularly an 88 - is that it tends to tuck the wheel under the fender, or at least give that illusion.

[GTRS Fiero]

No performance aspect?

[Raydar]

No performance aspect?

From my perspective?
It can only help, if you're driving "at or near the limit". Lowers the center of gravity a bit.
With that said... In regular driving, it probably doesn't make much of a difference. Especially since he's using balljoints  to lower the car. The spring rate is unchanged. (Of course, there IS that slightly better view of the road, directly in front of you. An inch drop ought to be worth a foot or two. )
If Pat noticed a difference, I hope he'll jump in.

[GTRS Fiero]

Mine is lowered, but not by using the lowering ball joints.  I can't really say I noticed a handling improvement, though, but wonder if travel is a concern.

[Fierofool]

I've often seen comments that the bump stops were shortened when lowering the front end. 

Lowering the front or raising the rear, whether by tire size or other means will reduce understeer and increase oversteer to a degree, depending upon how much rake.  The higher the rear in relation to the front, the quicker the rear will come around in extreme cornering. 

I have always thought the 87 and 88 base coupe body appeared to have a nose-up attitude.  Maybe because it felt it was superior in handling. 

[GTRS Fiero]

That's not good.

[TopNotch]

I've often seen comments that the bump stops were shortened when lowering the front end. 

When the front is lowered with lowering ball joints, the travel to the bump stop actually increases, because the lower control arm is lowered with respect to the knuckle and upper control arm. My front shocks are so old (but still good) that the limit of compression is clearly marked by the clean and dirty parts of the shaft, and there's plenty of room for 1/2" more compression. But I think I'll replace them before too long anyway.

So far, I haven't driven the car faster than about 50 MPH, so I don't know if there's any change in handling.

[GTRS Fiero]

My front shocks went bad in 2 years.   A previous set went bad in 3 years.  This third brand had better last.