The 'Milburn Fiero'

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

Bonus points if you snag actual food trays from the hospital cafeteria!

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

Dang, beat me to it, I was just going to say you need some fast food trays ;)

Dusterbd13-michael said:

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

Bonus points if you snag actual food trays from the hospital cafeteria!

I wonder if the fiberglass trays last longer or the plastic fast food ones do.

TheTick58 said:

obsolete said:

LX9 uses an electronic throttle body (DBW), so you'll need the pedal from the donor car at a minimum, and the TAC module, if it has one. I actually like DBW, especially for street car swaps (free cruise control!) but it scares a lot of people off. It may not be what you want for a race car. The LS DBW setups generally work well and are easy to swap, but I don't know enough about the LX9 setup to say whether you should steer clear or go for it.

I had the same DBW throttle question with my EcoBoost swapped Miata.  Initially I mounted the complete DBW pedal assembly under the hood and connected it to the original throttle cable because it was a quick way to get the car working.  Once it was in and I did a little checking it offers more "pedal travel" than the FBW pedal alone, so it's easier to get "the right amount" of added throttle in those touchy situations.  I think I'll be leaving it this way long term.

I hadn't even though of operating the DBW pedal with a cable pedal. That's simple and brilliant.

On wet grass last night, I didn't have any luck with the tray trick. The front wheels would just spin. I ended up just driving it to the garage by maneuvering back and forth a little when I couldn't get it to turn correctly. The engine and drive seems good.

looking forward to this...

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

Do you think there's a kid somewhere watching YouTube saying "Hey that's grandma's Buick!"?

This Buick has the worst roach infestation that I have seen. They are everywhere. LOTS of them Everywhere - inside every module, behind every panel, in the wiring. All the ones I saw were dead, but after I bombed the car, I found new ones had died crawling out of the HVAC control and other small places. I want to wear a paper suit when I work in the interior so I can burn it afterward. No parts from this car will go into my garage until after they are fully decontaminated.

Holding back the vomit, I managed to pull the dash and I have access to most of the wiring harness. It's going to be slow work extracting it from the car. There's a lot of it that I don't need, but I don't have a schematic or any sort of manual for this car. Best not to cut anything unless I am clear about where it goes and what it does.

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

YUCK better you than me. There are some things that make having a real winter worthwhile. If roaches ever become winter hardy I'm moving to Mars.

You are on the right track. Don't forget to label everything.

In reply to maschinenbau :

Thanks.

The weather is great today and it's going to get cold and rainy tomorrow. This afternoon I want to get the engine clear of the car and wiring harness out if I can.

Full subframe drop without any outside guidance:

Biggest problem (so far) is that the engine harness is integral with the body [I was wrong about this]. I'm used to having a place to disconnect the engine harness and just pull a connector through a grommet. No such luck here. It looks like the only choice for an intact harness is to pull the engine end into the cabin under the dash and work the rest free from the inside of the car. There are connectors on the back of the engine that I can't see or reach with the engine in. At least there is enough slack to drop the engine, then pull the harness to free the engine from the car.

To drop - Strut tower bolts (keep one finger tight until ready)(remove windshield wiper assembly), Steering column removed, Brake hoses cut and plugged, fuel supply and return disconnected, Shift linkage cable disconnected, Airbox removed, front engine mounts removed, Cut out lower cross-bar of radiator support, Disconnect (cut) exhaust, Grounds and harness dealt with as much as possible... I'm sure there's more that I did and a few surprises left. Almost free of the car now.

Edit: AC compressor hoses, that's what I didn't list, came off when I pulled the radiator and condenser.

Lesson Learned: Loosen the Axle nuts while the struts are still installed.

I felt really stupid, but relieved when the engine harness fell away from the chassis harness. I had disconnected them from the engine fuse box a week ago. To keep water out I stuck them in a plastic bag and taped it shut, taping them all together. The engine harness has been disconnected from the rest of the car for a week and I didn't realize it until I opened the bag to pass all the wires through to the chassis. It fell out and separated. ...and that's all I have to say about that.

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

That's a win!

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

That's a win!

Yes it was. It was a good day today. Everything that I need for the swap has been removed from the car. I only had to make a small offering of blood and sacrifice a single 17 mm socket to the void (17s are actually a lesser offering than a 10 mm and are usually returned on the next job). The interior harness came out easily with a few quick slices of the dash framework with the Sawzall.

The engine harness is back on the engine now. It was a good exercise removing and reinstalling it. All the connectors are checked and I'm familiar with the layout now. If I didn't live in a nice residential area, I'd burn the rest of the car in place. Instead, I'm planning to pull a few more parts off to use, trade, or sell for recoup. It was a $350 purchase, but I paid Copart Fees and delivery so I need to review the Challenge rules to remember how it all budgets out, being a parts car and not the Challenge vehicle.

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

Auction fees are included in budget.  Delivery fees and taxes are not.

A bountiful harvest just in time for Thanksgiving. I too have a FWD powertrain sitting on a subframe in my driveway. 

Now finally someone else here has been as deep into a buick rendezvous as I have

The Buick is gone. I kept enough parts for trade or recoup that along with the cash from scrap I can probably zero the whole engine swap out on the budget. The Fiero was a $900 purchase and has an easy $1,000 of potential recoup. Having the car meet the $2,000 budget doesn't seem hard at this point, but working the numbers on the spreadsheet by the time of the Challenge could be a different story.

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

I'm now picturing some C'était un rendez-vous type footage, but instead of the soundscape of a Ferrari against an early Paris morning en-route to meet a beautiful woman, it's the soundtrack of a a GM v6 while dragging this hulk to its demise. 

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

I'm now picturing some C'était un rendez-vous type footage, but instead of the soundscape of a Ferrari against an early Paris morning en-route to meet a beautiful woman, it's the soundtrack of a a GM v6 while dragging this hulk to its demise. 

Thanks. Now I have the siren song of the baaahhhhhAHHHHHHHHHHuuuuuhhhhhhggghh of GM V6 power stuck in my head.

I may be an outlier but the sound a 60° V6 makes is kind of awesome to my ears. 

QuasiMofo (John Brown) said:

I may be an outlier but the sound a 60° V6 makes is kind of awesome to my ears. 

You're not alone. Especially a 3400/3500 through a single 3 inch pipe and glasspack. 

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

Just remember that you have a max recoup of $1000 and can only recoup up to what you paid for the item.  Hate to see you hit budget problems because of a simple mistake.

Stampie said:

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

Just remember that you have a max recoup of $1000 and can only recoup up to what you paid for the item.  Hate to see you hit budget problems because of a simple mistake.

Yes and the $1,000 is the easy part. All the trading, self-trading, FMV, and "Oh, look at this cabinet that I found by a dumpster", is where the problems of an unlimited "$2,000" budget begin. I can do the 3500 and transmission at the purchase price of the car, at FMV, trade them for the current (bad) engine or the nice racing seat at FMV.  Should I trade one high end wheel for four beater wheels from a VW Jetta? Maybe throw my nitrous system from the 2019 car on there in self-trade for extra parts that came with the Fiero or use cash from the budget...  Figuring out what tactics to use to optimize the budget is where all the trouble begins. I even remember a rules thread that discussed trading labor for parts and I'm pretty sure it concluded with Tom agreeing that it was legit - and is a way that can add more to a car that is already at $2,000.

Not complaining or planning to game the system, but Budget seems like the most complicated part of a Challenge build.

AAZCD (Forum Supporter) said:

Stampie said:

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

Just remember that you have a max recoup of $1000 and can only recoup up to what you paid for the item.  Hate to see you hit budget problems because of a simple mistake.

Yes and the $1,000 is the easy part. All the trading, self-trading, FMV, and "Oh, look at this cabinet that I found by a dumpster", is where the problems of an unlimited "$2,000" budget begin. I can do the 3500 and transmission at the purchase price of the car, at FMV, trade them for the current (bad) engine or the nice racing seat at FMV.  Should I trade one high end wheel for four beater wheels from a VW Jetta? Maybe throw my nitrous system from the 2019 car on there in self-trade for extra parts that came with the Fiero or use cash from the budget...  Figuring out what tactics to use to optimize the budget is where all the trouble begins. I even remember a rules thread that discussed trading labor for parts and I'm pretty sure it concluded with Tom agreeing that it was legit - and is a way that can add more to a car that is already at $2,000.

Not complaining or planning to game the system, but Budget seems like the most complicated part of a Challenge build.

Budget can be simple like our Buick this year if you aren't trying to hit top 1/3.  If you want top 1/3 then you need to get your budget skills strong.  If that's just making good deals or knowing how to use the rules.  I've actually bought a vehicle for $250 then once I did the mock budget realized that I couldn't build the car for the Challenge and sold it.