Is anyone familiar with fiero suspension?
I am having trouble finding an easy solution to stiffen up the front of the fiero. The rear has qa1 coilover a with 350 lb 12" springs, I believe they are too long and the reason the car sits so high. Would like the front to be at least as stiff or stiffer.
I for some reason just noticed this thread now.
I might be interested in the car after the challenge, and I conveniently live only 80 miles away. I can bring my empty trailer with me since JohnRW1641 is driving the Infiniti after I pick him from the airport on Thursday. As far as tools go I have a pretty well equipped two car garage. (Welder, Air compressor, etc...) I also have several sets of springs that are shorter then the ones on the car that might work to lower it in addition to a set of used 205/50/15 hankook race tires we could mount if the Hoosiers don't fit.
I really don't need a Turbo Fiero with a cage but maybe after the challenge I can run chump/lemons with it (sans turbo). Besides at $1300.00 ish I can't go wrong....
Probably need some $ accommodation for the parts others bring. Not my decision, but might make people more willing to put parts on it.
That's understandable, and for it to work out I want to be fair to all involved. I haven't talked to the wife yet but I think we can make it happen.
Should be fun. I will be there with wrench in hand.
I am the one purchasing the car, I will gladly pay for all the parts and provide refreshments to anyone who helps.
In case it wasn't clear or left out.
PM me your contact info WillrunifChased so we can discuss...
Oh, forgot to mention—I have a ton of friends that live in Gainesville, and go over there all the time. Need someone to look at this?
In reply to WillrunifChased:
All I really know about fieros is that I learned to drive in one. I was about 11(?) when Dad picked up an 89(?) GTA...
Shorter rear springs should be easy to source, if pimp doesn't have anything to fit the bill. Just measure the diameter and head to jeg's or summit. 350lb sounds about right considering the estimated weight of that thing. In the front I would just bust out the grinder or something and cut those springs down a bit. A couple coils should up the rate (200ish factory?) and bring the front end down a bit. From what I understand, some caution is needed. Going below factory ride height will make the bumpsteer issue worse; keeping it slightly higher than stock will actually help the issue and not have too much effect on the center of gravity. Someone else might be more expert than I, but that is how I understand things.
What does the MS use to hook up to a laptop? USB or bluetooth would work for me to help tune it. With the proper sensors (map, afr) the registered version of tunerstudio will make it a snap to get a decent, safe tune. Even the free version looks pretty powerful for getting it to run right.
Do we know what size turbo and how the boost level is being controlled? This will matter, but I can work with anything.
I cannot bring wrenches or parts with me, but I will be ready to use what is left of my brain to help out...
Tom Suddard wrote: Oh, forgot to mention—I have a ton of friends that live in Gainesville, and go over there all the time. Need someone to look at this?
???? Car's in PA.
Looking at this.
Looks like we'll need a serial cable, and a laptop capable of connecting to one, or a serial to USB cable. I'm fixing to get on amazon and look for one because someone volunteered me to help with another squirt system locally.... not pointing any fingers or anything...
Anyone have a camera capable of timelapse? I was thinking that using timelapse to capture the build and the amount of people we have volunteering to help with this thing might go over well with the concourse judges, even though we have all of 3 min to present it. (iirc) Since putting a proper build journal together for this is going to be interesting.
Anyway, my .02 for the moment.
Edit: Serial to USB cable ordered, lets hope I can get the laptop setup to talk to MS now.
I will be down there wiling to help. I am arriving on 20th.
Best. Forum. Ever.
4cylndrfury wrote: Best. Forum. Ever.
Agreed!
In reply to tb:
I'll be bring down my laptop with the full version of tunerstudio which has autotune. You can use a USB to DB9 adapter to connect to megasquirt itself but don't get a cheap one off ebays since most of them don't have the correct drivers. I also have a cable and bluetooth adapter to hook it up to an android phone or tablet running MSdroid.
In reply to PseudoSport:
I figured you would be busy working on your car, but will gladly accept your guidance when it comes to tunerstudio. I might just buy the full version to get autotune or borrow yours to help smooth out the rough edges and use my laptop to manually make adjustments when you need yours?
I will definitely get MSdroid on both my phone and tablet, too so that there are plenty of available devices to log and tune. If Spinout gets his laptop to talk well over his new cable I might just bring the tablet? IDK, this is all new to me but I am sure once the hardware gets setup tuning should be easy enough...
You can still do a lot with the free version but the autotune feature in the paid one is nice.
MSdroid is good for loading tunes and monitoring gauges but you can't do any actual tuning with it. Its still very useful and I plan on using it as a my dash board for the trip down since the only working gauge right now is the speedometer (i think).
I have no idea what state our car is going to be in when it gets there but i'd like to help with this project as much as I can.
I am assuming the build is going to commence Thursday afternoon and run well into the morning hours. Do we have a list of things that need to be addressed? Obviously getting the car running correctly is paramount. What else are we going to need to tackle?
I can't leave till late afternoon on Thursday due to child care issues (1.5 hours away). Initially I was planning on driving up Friday morning but I don't want to miss out on this.
In reply to PseudoSport:
Thanks, I understand it now. Just downloaded MSdroid on my phone an tablet; could be a good passenger seat tool to monitor or logging.
Of course, I will lend a hand wherever I can so let me know when we meet there I can help you out in any way.
In reply to pimpm3:
I'll be there Thursday afternoon; I think most people will be coming in various times throughout the day...
A working list of all of the issues would be useful; I assume Willrun will fill us in as he has time and discovers things.
I am pretty sure there are a couple of parts stores nearby and I volunteer to make the runs for whatever we need from them.
There are two big u-pull it junkyards in Jacksonville and I am pretty sure both have their inventories online in case we need anything before hand. There are probably countless 3400 GM x engines there, not holding my breath for any fieros though.
PM me your contact info so we can coordinate better. Have you spoken with willrunifchased outside of the forum?
I think the plan is to get everything set up Thursday morning and to be able to start work almost immediately, or as people come in. A 24 hour build is going to suck for those who put some effort into it. Then again, maybe. We'll see, I'm trying to wrangle up a generator. If I can, I've a compressor I'll load on the trailer and bring out so we've got air. But from what I can see now. we need to:
Sort the suspension, Lower it or run it in the 4WD class? 
Get it running on MS, and tune it that we're able to in the time frame.
Double check every nut and bolt holding this monstrosity together.
Install harnesses.
Make it prett...err presentable.
Before we can tune it, we've got to make sure everthing is there for the MS to run it. Apparently it has a miss on #3 or so I've been told. So we've got to run that down.
That's the short list I can come up with without actually seeing the car.
Tools!!! We've got to come up with a system for tools, I don't mind bringing a few out. But I don't want them getting thrown into a community pile and disappearing.
I just checked and the big junk yard here has two Fieros (Who would have thought). If we can get a preliminary list of what we need I can hit the yard on Tuesday or Wednesday. We need to figure out what vintage the 3.4 liter engine is? I can snag some coils, wiring, sensors etc. while I am at the yard.
I have lots of tools, but I share your concern. Maybe wrap the sockets or the handles the tools we bring with painters tape and write your initials on them.
Do we need a generator? Could we run an extension cord from the hotel? My parents have a generator but it is pretty big and I would hate to tote it to Gainesville / secure it when I get there if we don't specifically need it.
I have a 120V lincoln welder that I can bring If I need to.
Maybe put groups of people in charge of different things. Ie; I can take care of suspension while someone does engine work etc. Put someone in charge of "beautification". As people finish their assignment they can pitch in on other projects. Since it seems like you are orchestrating this maybe you could be the crew chief so to speak, and keep people on track etc...
Spinout007 wrote: A 24 hour build is going to suck for those who put some effort into it. Then again, maybe.
My car is already done, I am not doing anything until Friday...
pimpm3 wrote: Since it seems like you are orchestrating this maybe you could be the crew chief so to speak, and keep people on track etc...
New hat, but what heck I can wear it. Can't be any worse than managing a restaurant on a Friday night before a home game. (old hat)
My big concern is having people come over to help and locking them in there, or making them feel obligated to stay. I know Aussie has offered some parts, and I maybe trying to get him to snag an engine on the road south for me. But he's also talked about harnessing up and working on it while going down the roads so.... Basically If you need to work on your car I don't want to keep you from it. I'll probably run over to the hotel and ask where it would be good to set up something like this impromptu garage.
OR SHOULD I LEAVE THAT TO THE MAGAZINE TO SECURE PERMISSION, or do we just do it, and ask for forgiveness later?
Depending on the crowd, we may need to run back to my place and grab the second canopy, it's starting to get crowded in here already. 
Heck I just want the chance to make a few drag passes. I'm still a bit lost on a AutoX course, but I can cut a heck of a light.
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