A little Freshen Up on the 87GT

[Fierofool]

The years of running the curves, mostly in 3rd gear, has started to take a toll on the old transmission.  It was developing a little whine in 2nd and 3rd.  The RFTH 27 Scouting Run With The Porsches sounded like it was time to retire it.  First and second got pretty loud in the lower RPM's.  Fortunately, I had bought a replacement to have on hand. 

Today the drive train was dropped out to swap the transmission and install a new clutch kit while it's out.  A number of other things came into view that need to be addressed.  The front manifold is cracked.  The manifold has been running white-hot and had cracked.  This was likely due to those 14# injectors that were supposed to be sufficient for the engine.  The ones that caused the crossover pipe to be filled with white ash. 

Also, the new right side axel that was installed early last year had a CV boot that was cracked all the way around.  No grease inside.  The exhaust had been rattling due to one of the internal crossover baffles breaking and we found a 1 1/2 x 4-inch chunk of the muffler that had blown out and peeled up. 

We're going to resleeve some of the wiring with high-temp wire loom that I got from Pat.  Some of the loom had melted.  Just wasn't rated for engine bay temps that were probably above normal due to the extremely lean-burn of the 14# injectors that were in the engine.  The new 17# injectors are supreme. 

[Raydar]

...The new 17# injectors are supreme.

Have you already run those injectors? Did they help the "down on power" situation that you were seeing?
We need to scan it again to see what the fuel trim looks like, unless you've already had that done.

[Fierofool]

It doesn't seem to have as much acceleration as it did with the distributor, but that may be that I might have had the timing advanced a little more.  I think Ryan set timing at standard advance. 

I believe these injectors are doing the job.  Those LEAN injectors were only giving me a max of about 11-16 MPG.  These are running 16-20 and I got a whopping 29 MPG from Burnsville down to Traveler's Rest, NC.  Out in the hills, running hard and mostly in 3rd gear, I was still up around 16 MPG.  Not rich at idle like they were when running on the stock ECM. 

I hope it's back together before the June meeting.  Maybe we can do another scan on it at that time.  Definitely won't be together next week.  I have to go to The Fiero Farm Saturday to pick up an exhaust from Todd.  Axel and seals won't be here til about Monday. 

[TopNotch]

I wonder if you need a knock sensor to take full advantage of the 7730 ECM?

[Fierofool]

It's necessary with the 7730.  There is one installed.  Ryan said that anyone doing a 7730 conversion should use a knock sensor that is of the same year and engine as the 7730 came from.  In my case, even though it's a 93-95 3.4, the ECM is from a 92 Beretta and that's the knock sensor that's installed. 

[Fierofool]

Finding other little things as work progresses.  It began idling at 1500 a week or so ago.  Found a vacuum cap on the throttle body that had cracked.  Had a plug wire that broke off at the plug.  The front valve cover is leaking pretty heavily. There appeared to be a very small coolant leak somewhere around the water pump area, but the source became obscured when spillage from removing the thermostat ran down.  Also found one wire of the conversion that had become disconnected at the ECM.  Might be the cause of the Code 42. 

Replacing the spring donuts while it's out to see if it won't level up the stance. 

One of the fusible links coming off the C500 had been replaced many years ago when the cooling fan shorted and blew the link.  It was found that the replacement piece had overheated, burning most of the insulation off.  Likely due to being a smaller gauge wire that was spliced into a larger gauge wire.  It will be replaced with a length of wire containing an OEM fusible link with the proper gauge wire.