RFTH 25 Trial and Documentation Run--June 20

[GTRS Fiero]

Y'all have fun tomorrow.

[scottb]

Thats the goal

[scottb]

charlie, found my radios........ Mike Mac, AC works good in the orange car

[TopNotch]

Today I found out that my "new" Fiero isn't quite ready for RFTH. It has a leaking transmission axel oil seal on the right side. It's not much of a problem in normal driving, but during a hard left curve, the transmission oil is slung to the right, and some comes out, gets on the exhaust, and makes smoke. Also, coming in to the second gas stop, I noticed my brake pedal getting lower than normal, and after getting gas, it was even lower.
So I left the trial and headed for home. Charlie said that the brake fluid might be boiling, and that's probably correct, because the brakes came back after a bit of more gentle driving. I'm going to flush them out completely, and I have to deal with the leaking transmission.
Here's a picture from the trial...

[GTRS Fiero]

Well, sorry you had to duck out due to issues, but hlad you found them before RFTH.  Hope everything's OK.

Just goes to show that everyone should give their RFTH vehicle a good shakedown.

[Raydar]

...I noticed my brake pedal getting lower than normal, and after getting gas, it was even lower.
So I left the trial and headed for home. Charlie said that the brake fluid might be boiling, and that's probably correct, because the brakes came back after a bit of more gentle driving.

That sounds like the same thing that my car was doing. (I described it as a "spongy pedal", but it sounds very familiar.)
I ended up replacing both front calipers and pads (from Calipersonline), chasing another problem, and flushed the system to a fare-thee-well. After all that, the situation seemed to be much better, although the pads that came with my "loaded" calipers seem to dust worse than any pads I've ever used.

[GTRS Fiero]

MikeMac, did you enjoy the ride?

Not sure whose yellow/black Fiero that is.  Tiretread?

[Raydar]

MikeMac, did you enjoy the ride?

Not sure ehose yellow/black Fiero that is.  Tiretread?

That's Jason's.

[Fierofool]

Pat was able to make a little better than half of the run, but had to tap out just before The Dragon.  I had just the opposite situation of Pat's.  My brake pedal height improved from about a half pedal engagement to about 3/4 pedal engagement. 

All of the cars performed very well.  At least, when we could let them perform.  We were occasionally held up by other vehicle traffic.  The picture above was at a pullover to allow some distance between vehicles that were holding us back. 

There was one special moment that I'm sure brought smiles to all.  Budgetman was in the lead and we encountered a new Corvette.  Jason said he just couldn't contain himself.  It didn't take very long in the Hare and Hound chase with Jason sniffing the exhaust pipe of the 'Vette that it decided to pull over and let us all pass. 

I also had a "Vette owner riding along with me.  As we were on the return trip home, we were talking about the cars and what had been modified to make them perform the way they did.  When I told him that at least 3 of us were running unmodified suspension with only 2 having little or no engin upgrades, he told me that there was no way that his 'Vette could have kept up with us. 

[TopNotch]

I looked under my car yesterday, and found that the transmission leak must have been there for a while. There is a makeshift shield over the exhaust pipe under the right axle, but it is far from adequate. There was quite a lot of burned trans fluid on the exhaust pipe.
I gave it a bath to clean off the soot from the burned trans fluid, and will do other work later.

[Fierofool]

I just calculated my fuel mileage from the start to the last fuel stop before Gatlinburg, and I found something that seems to always happen on these runs.  I get better gas mileage doing all-out driving than I do in around town local driving.  I averaged just over 25 mpg on the trial run, while everyday driving only yields about 20 mpg.  This has been the case with every Fiero I've owned, so it's not something particular to my 87.  Has anyone else had the same result? 

[Slyp]

I've noticed that before.  I think it is because for intown driving you do a lot of stop and idling, like at stop lights.  And on the open road you are doing a constant speed

[TopNotch]

My best mileage on the trial run (not including the more leisurely trip home) was just over 33MPG. Not bad for a big engine.

And on the open road you are doing a constant speed

Not really constant with the curves, but also no stopping.

[Fierofool]

And most of the time I'm running 3rd gear at about 4000 rpm or above seldom getting 4th gear and almost never going to 5th.

[Fierofool]

Out on the road I think a manual would get better mpg in 4th gear  but 5th gear causes less wear on the engine.