1989 C4 Functional Restoration

[SirReal63]

The dash pad, it has a crack that is pretty bad. I was going to just buy one of the covers they sell but after having to sand the texture off the crash pad replacement I didn't want to do that until I tried to repair what I had. The pad is in decent shape, minus the crack, and I figured I had nothing to lose.

The problem, the crack has become quite large, the foam under it rotted and the broken edges turned up. I considered just sanding it flat and going from there, but this piece can and will move again with nothing to hold it into place.

I decided the right way to keep it from opening up again and ruining any "repair" job was to ensure it would not be able to move much, or any. I mixed up some black epoxy and poured it into the crack in hopes the epoxy would soak into the foam and secure it to the hard foam base. To keep it held down I clamped some wood to it and put enough pressure in it to ensure I was left with a solid depression to fill.

The blue material is a silicone putty used for making molds, I really wanted to duplicate the factory texture. In the end I was unable to put the factory texture on the repair, though the mold was correct it ended up looking worse than I had imagined.

I used short strand fiberglass for the bulk of the repair and UV putty to fine tune it. This was in process but I have no idea which of the numerous coats this was, there were a lot.

The failed texture, it was difficult to see until some color was on it.

Once I had it where I thought I was happy with it, I used the same U-Pol flat black as on the dash pieces, ordered up another can of the SprayMax Matte 2K clear and began spraying. This was a mess, I have used quite a few cans of the SprayMax product now, every can sprayed perfectly, this one did not, it came out of the can too thick and the pattern too narrow. I flipped the can over and deciphered the date code, it was 4.5 years old. It did dry, but was ugly. The seller would only refund my money and would not ship out a fresh can, it took over a week just to get the clear straightened out. I assume some responsibility here, I never thought to check the date on the can, they are really only good up to 3 years from the date of filling, 4.5 years is way too old. Not the end of the world, but a time delay and annoyance.

The "finished" product, it came out better than I expected in all reality. It is not perfect, it still has a small depression where the repair is but you have to be at the right angle to see it and looks a whole lot better than the crack did.

I have a dusting issue that only shows up in this angle so I will need to do a little fine sanding to remove the dust texture.

It was really difficult to get the pad back into the slots by the windshield, it will need to come back out so I decipher what is wrong. The front is not down correctly in the pics above but I am not going to do this for a while, I am tired of working on the dash.

Since I had time while waiting on clear for the pad, I did some fine tuning on the ash plastic. I noticed the flat panel wasn't in a perfect plane with the rest of the dash plastic, the place where the left side of the flat panel attached was missing a speed nut and the plastic broken. There was no putting the original plastic back enough to hold the speed nut so I bent some ABS to fit and went over the top and to the underside. It took a little trimming but I got the panel mounting working and won't break again so easily.

With everything done I think it all turned out pretty good, it needs a good cleaning to remove finger/hand prints but I won't do that until I correct the dash pad fitment.

Next on the project list is replacing the 87-88 throttle body with the correct 89 one.

 

[Tonyrodz]

The dash pad, it has a crack that is pretty bad. I was going to just buy one of the covers they sell but after having to sand the texture off the crash pad replacement I didn't want to do that until I tried to repair what I had. The pad is in decent shape, minus the crack, and I figured I had nothing to lose.

The problem, the crack has become quite large, the foam under it rotted and the broken edges turned up. I considered just sanding it flat and going from there, but this piece can and will move again with nothing to hold it into place.

View attachment 470091


View attachment 470092


View attachment 470093

I decided the right way to keep it from opening up again and ruining any "repair" job was to ensure it would not be able to move much, or any. I mixed up some black epoxy and poured it into the crack in hopes the epoxy would soak into the foam and secure it to the hard foam base. To keep it held down I clamped some wood to it and put enough pressure in it to ensure I was left with a solid depression to fill.

View attachment 470094

The blue material is a silicone putty used for making molds, I really wanted to duplicate the factory texture. In the end I was unable to put the factory texture on the repair, though the mold was correct it ended up looking worse than I had imagined.

View attachment 470095


View attachment 470096

I used short strand fiberglass for the bulk of the repair and UV putty to fine tune it. This was in process but I have no idea which of the numerous coats this was, there were a lot.

View attachment 470097

The failed texture, it was difficult to see until some color was on it.

View attachment 470098

Once I had it where I thought I was happy with it, I used the same U-Pol flat black as on the dash pieces, ordered up another can of the SprayMax Matte 2K clear and began spraying. This was a mess, I have used quite a few cans of the SprayMax product now, every can sprayed perfectly, this one did not, it came out of the can too thick and the pattern too narrow. I flipped the can over and deciphered the date code, it was 4.5 years old. It did dry, but was ugly. The seller would only refund my money and would not ship out a fresh can, it took over a week just to get the clear straightened out. I assume some responsibility here, I never thought to check the date on the can, they are really only good up to 3 years from the date of filling, 4.5 years is way too old. Not the end of the world, but a time delay and annoyance.

The "finished" product, it came out better than I expected in all reality. It is not perfect, it still has a small depression where the repair is but you have to be at the right angle to see it and looks a whole lot better than the crack did.

View attachment 470099


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I have a dusting issue that only shows up in this angle so I will need to do a little fine sanding to remove the dust texture.

View attachment 470102

It was really difficult to get the pad back into the slots by the windshield, it will need to come back out so I decipher what is wrong. The front is not down correctly in the pics above but I am not going to do this for a while, I am tired of working on the dash.

Since I had time while waiting on clear for the pad, I did some fine tuning on the ash plastic. I noticed the flat panel wasn't in a perfect plane with the rest of the dash plastic, the place where the left side of the flat panel attached was missing a speed nut and the plastic broken. There was no putting the original plastic back enough to hold the speed nut so I bent some ABS to fit and went over the top and to the underside. It took a little trimming but I got the panel mounting working and won't break again so easily.

View attachment 470103


View attachment 470104

With everything done I think it all turned out pretty good, it needs a good cleaning to remove finger/hand prints but I won't do that until I correct the dash pad fitment.

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Next on the project list is replacing the 87-88 throttle body with the correct 89 one.

Great job on the dash pad. The Firebirds and Camaros from the 80's have the same cracking issue. What's the difference with the throttle bodies? I've had 3-4 89 tpi cars, so I'm not familiar with the older tbs. Does it have something to do with the coolant feeding into them? I know the 89s had the coolant plumber to them to prevent icing in the winter/cold. That was 1 of the 1st mods I did to mine--I disconnected those lines to the tb.

 

[SirReal63]

The air/EGR, not water, passages are a little different in the 89-91 but the way the throttle operates was enhanced to make it easier to push the pedal, smoother operation. Mine was way too hard to push which is a drivability issue, and the main reason for the change to the correct 89 TB In 89 they did away with the cold start injector but that is irrelevant in my case, even though the upper plenum and runners are from an 88 I blocked off the CSI early on. The upper plenum is different on the 89, another one year only part but the change is mostly irrelevant and the older and newer plenum still functions the same. I was going to grab an 89 only plenum but my tuner friend said it didn't matter, the 88 would function just fine.

I do not know if the F Bodies got the same treatment in 89 as the Corvette, I would think so since it was not changing power, just improved function.

I should add, the other reason for the change is I had a stumble on first start of the day and knowing the 88 was wrong I changed it, I will know later if the stumble was TB related or not.

 

[SirReal63]

I did a lot of tinkering on the car this past week, not a lot to show in pictures but a lot was accomplished. A huge thanks to Brian https://tunedperformance.org/ for helping me understand the numerous things I do not understand in relation to the intricacies of the TPI intake and TB differences through the years, he was far more patient with me than he had to be, he is a true gentleman. I would still be scratching my head and burning up the Google Machine to find answers that may or not be correct. I had lost a ,pdf file I downloaded long ago that showed all of the differences in intakes through the years, and of course I found it after Brian held my hand and walked me down the path.

The car has always had a stumble with the first start of day, it has always started but struggled to fire initially but it only happened with the first start, after that it was fairly normal. Things I knew, the intake system was from an 88, from the TB to the lower intake manifold, I had an injector that would stick even after a good ultrasonic cleaning, it ohm'd correctly but that of course doesn't mean it is firing correctly. The throttle was always way too stiff, which is a drivability issue as it was too easy to go from no throttle to way too much. To help solve these issues I bought an 89 TB and injectors from a member here a while back and decided to tackle putting things back as they should be. It ended up being a nightmare in some ways but I worked through them.

The first obstacle was how the throttle cable hooks up on the 88 vs. the 89. Here is the issue...

It looks like I need a new throttle cable, if you can find the correct one. I did and the price gave me indigestion and heartburn. If you have never changed the throttle cable on one of these cars and you need to, you are in for a treat. I am not a large man, maybe 10 pounds or so overweight and 6' tall but there was no way to get easy access to that dang cable under the dash, my size wasn't the limiting factor. I watched a video of someone doing it on an 84 and it looked easy enough but there appears to be much more wiring and crap in the way on my 89. With the seat removed and laying under the dash I could feel where the cable came through but there was no way I could get the tabs depressed to pull it out. For anyone doing this in the future, a 13mm stubby open end wrench is the perfect size to depress the tabs on the throttle cable as well as the cruise cable on the plenum and the bulkhead fitting where the cable enters the dash. The wrench would have worked if I could have got it up there but I could not, even with the pedal removed, there just wasn't enough room. I ended up cutting the cable at the firewall, removing the plate and extracting the leftover parts. I then had to seal and rivet back the plate but it was honestly the easiest way to do it. A small child with unnaturally long arms may be able to do it from under the dash, I could not.

I cleaned and painted the 89 TB to match the rest of the paint and installed it. I took a short cruise and the car still ran the same way, the TB made no discernible difference. Time for the correct and clean injectors. I really dislike removing the plenum and tubes, it isn't hard but it isn't an enjoyable task either. The last time I did this I put it back together with Hylomar thanks to a suggestion here and I can say the gaskets came right off and a little brake clean removed the old in preparation for the new. Now that my understanding of the system is better I discovered that the injectors are also from an 88 and Bosch I believe, which doesn't surprise me but I did not notice it the last time I had it apart. I will keep these and may send them out to be rebuilt and put on the shelf.

The new and the old.

All back together.

The car now starts and runs correctly, even the first start of the day. It did pick up a little power which is nice when you don't really have much to begin with. Drivability may seem like a small issue but it can be a huge issue. The throttle now operates easily and smoothly, no more 800 to 2000 rpms when taking off from a stop. The car is now running better than it has in the 2 years I have owned it. Small things corrected add up and make driving a better experience.

Something popped up on FB marketplace yesterday that I jumped on. Five miles away from me this showed up...

I have been toying with the idea of replacing the antiquated ECM for a while now. It was a long(ish) term goal and was something I knew I needed to do if I ever did any performance mods, even though I may never do any. The kit is the FiTech 38350 that was installed on a third gen Camaro for one week. The guy toasted the engine from a bad valve and removed the unit when he pulled the engine to rebuild. I got the kit, a Summit distributor and MSD dual coil for $475 which is a huge savings. I will need to replace the O2 sensor and I need a knock sensor extension as he couldn't find the original as well as the map sensor. I am probably not going to install it immediately and will continue to gather parts and do more research on it. I couldn't pass it up for the price. I will enjoy driving the car now that everything is working correctly (for now) or until the next thing appears that needs attention.

 

[SirReal63]

Time for a small update, I haven't really done much to the car as it is cool enough outside to attend to things that I don't do when it is hot outside. I have also been collecting missing FiTech parts and making a general plan for installation, thanks to those who have done the FiTech installation before. I need to fit a MAP sensor on the 88 upper plenum, more on that when the time comes.

One thing I felt I really needed to do was ensure the base timing was correct, just as with the stock ECM, the FiTech it relies on that base timing. I had suspicions that the harmonic balancer had slipped, which is normal with age and considering how many original 1989 parts were on this Vortec block I expected the original L98 balancer was put on this it. When I set the base timing prior I noticed it was set to 0 degrees instead of the 6 degrees called for. I set it to 6 degrees but at 8 it would ping, so I had suspicions at the time the balancer was off. Time to replace it.

I have several pullers of various types but nothing to put the new balancer on. I researched installation tools and was very disappointed to see how many failures were out there, breaking part of the installer into the crank, I could not have that happen, it would mean a probable engine pull and I am not wanting to do that just yet, I don't have the tools or desire right now. Reading tool reviews is often misleading as you do not know the abilities of the people using the tools. Considering that I decided to go with a set that seemed to have the best overall reviews. I was a combination set from DPTOOL and for the price it was a nice tool set. For the balancer I went with a ATP GrayWerks SBC balancer. It wasn't the most expensive and it wasn't the cheapest.

GM didn't make this job easy, but it really wasn't bad, just a lot of stuff in the way to remove. Before starting I power washed the engine bay trying to remove as much gunk as I could, I got most of it.

Pulling the old balancer off...

The old balancer pulled right off, no issues and only minimal stress.

The seal looked horrible but was actually still soft and undamaged so I did not see the point in changing it. I did clean and lube it and the balancer hub it rides on to ensure a good seal.

I took this opportunity to try and clean and mark the timing tab so it would be easy to see, wire brush, paint pen and clear coat in hopes of keeping the rust at bay in the future,

I did not take any pics of installation, they would look the same except the disc would be turned around and no smaller bolts needed and once I started I kept going until it was on. Before putting the new balancer on I checked the inside to make sure there were no defects that would make putting it on difficult. This is where the job has the most chance of failure, the balancer needs to slide on without binding. Virtually all of the failures I read about where from the stud of the installation tool breaking off while putting the balancer on, leaving that in the crank snout. The inside of the balancer did have a little bit of shavings and burrs in the keyway and a little powder coating overspray on it, I used a piece of 800 grit paper and cleaned it up. Installation went perfectly, I put the thinnest coating of extreme pressure lube I could on the crank and installation tool threads and it slid on with no drama.

So how did the old balancer look? The shots were 180 degrees apart on the balancer, not pretty. I tried to gauge the difference in the keyway to the timing slot between the old and new and they were slightly different but did not try to get a precise measurement of the difference.

The other side showing the cracks in the rubber.

I am glad I did this job, I am confident on an accurate 6 degrees of base timing now. I did replace the balancer bolt with a new Moroso one and had to change the three bolts that hold the pulley on as the old ones were fine thread and the new one is coarse thread. I chased all of the threads and used a little red Loctite on all of the threads. It took about 3 hours in total to do it. While moving the power steering lines out of the way I introduced a leak in either the feed or return line so I need to address that this week.

I am almost ready to install the FiTech, I still need an O2 and MAP sensor and will get those on order soon. FiTech ships everything in stock via 2nd day air, so that is nice. They have been great to work with, even though I have no warranty they have provided me with a complete wiring diagram, showed me how to bench test the unit and though they are not the fastest with responses, when they do get back to you the information is solid. I was able to hook up the air temp sensor, the IAC and TPS and check to make sure the ECU was working correctly and gave logical readings on the sensors I hooked up. I wanted to bench test before installing because I got this really cheap and I am by nature a skeptic, even though the guy I got it from lives in my area and has a reputation to uphold, I still had to make sure it worked.

I bought this car on 10/28/2023 so it has been two years of work. I am a little surprised I have done as much as I have, things should slow down a little but I do still have a good bit I want to do.

 

[SirReal63]

It has been a while, and I have been busy the past few weeks with helping my best friend get his house ready to sell. If anyone is looking for a 3500 sq. ft. underground multi-dome house on about 45 acres with a massive insulated barn, let me know.

Prior to the decision to help my buddy out with things he could not do I did manage to finish tracking down my power steering leak. I had added some UV dye earlier and it appears that it was weeping from the pump casting, which does look original or very very old. I took no pics as I believe I took some when changing the lines earlier. I wish I could say that was where all of the fluid drops were coming from, but I cannot say that yet. I did this at the same time I did the balancer. The car is still sitting on jack stands and has not been driven since the balancer replacement.

Earlier this week I decided since the car was up in the air I would begin the FiTech install. I have looked over every install I could find here and on the internet to make sure I saw as much of what I could find on how others did this. While this install will not be "easy" it will not really be that hard. The biggest issue will be making it look like it belongs. I wish I could say I have the car up and running, but I do not. This will take me several weeks to accomplish because I do want to make it look right and not just thrown into place.

The first step is to remove everything in the way, dash components, intake, distributor, wiring looms etc. Then using what others have done as a template it was time to verify where to ********* the firewall and make a cut.

The entry point will be right above the existing engine bulkhead connector.

On the inside it will enter in this area, the sound/water insulation is curved in this area which made getting a clean cut difficult.

I don't really have a shortage of tools, my wife would say I have way too many tools (

) however, I did not have a way to cleanly make these holes. On the outside I could just barely get a multi-tool in these to make the cuts, and it would not go deep enough to cut al the way through, all the way around and it jumped a little making a few scratches, I finished the cut with a hacksaw blade. I will need to paint this back before sealing the harness in the hole. I made the hole about 1x2", or perhaps a little taller, this is large enough to pass the largest connector and allow the harness to follow behind with all of the sub-harnesses as well. I had planned on making an oval hole and using an oval rubber grommet. I have 2 Dremel tools, a small one and a large one, the small one died recently and the large would not allow enough movement to make an oval hole. It will have to be sealed after.

The inside cut was just as hard because of a lack of room to maneuver the large Dremel and make the cut. I was able to make the vertical cuts with the Dremel and the horizontal ones with a sharp long bladed filet knife. The inside cut is UGLY, but it will never be seen so no worries. It is larger than the outside cut, which helped with harness fitment.

Once the cuts were made it time to see if the harness would fit like I wanted, it mostly did. These harnesses were originally laid out for a third gen F-Body, which is just different enough to make the harness longer than it would ideally be for a C4. Fortunately there is enough room in the dash to put the extra length of harness. (barely)

Pulling the harness though, it is still a tight fit and danged hard to do by yourself. The orange and red wires do not have any loom on them, some people hook them up with the ECM wiring harness, I will not do it that way and will need to loom them after getting the right length.

The FiTech ECM almost fit in the stock ECM white box, the plug on it kept me from being able to attach it to the original box, and having the box in there reduced the amount of space for all the extra harness.

I did manage to get it all in there and mounted securely. I used one of the OEM box mounts and drilled a second one to hold the new. I did loom the orange and red wire on the inside to prevent any chaffing.

I was going to use the original large cap distributor and adapt it to the small cap harness, after getting the large cap off I saw the chew marks on the positive feed wire, as well as the burn marks. I already have to small cap distributor and MSD coil so I will use them as I would have to repair the positive wire anyway.

The small cap distributor slid right into place after getting the engine to 6 degrees BTDC and pulling the valve cover to ensure #1 was in compression stroke. I verified the alignment of #1 with the blue tape and mark I put in place before removing the large cap. I aligned the oil pump slot on the new small cap with the location on the large cap. It could not have been any easier, it plopped right into place. I will have to set the base timing to the correct 6 degrees after everything fires up and runs on it's own.

I made the decision to cut out the unused portion of the factory harness. I agonized over this for a while but the condition of the years of repairs to almost every wire made it easier to swallow. I intentionally left the OEM bulkhead connector in place so that if in the future someone wants to go back to stock it will be as easy as buying a junkyard harness and replacing it at the connector. (It won't be easy if the engine is still in place.)

This catches me up through today, though there will be many more days of work to go. I am feeling my age and physical deterioration after a few weeks of house repairs for my buddy and then being hunched over the car for a few days.

 

[SirReal63]

More progress has been made. The hole I made in the firewall has been mostly sealed up. I made a plate the approximate shape of the harness where it enters the firewall and used high density foam on the back to seal it, this way if I need to take the plate off to access the wiring harness it will be easy. I then used some of the self fusing silicone tape around the harness and screwed the plate on. Once I know everything is going to work as intended I will use some rope butyl or black RTV to finish sealing it, as it is no light is getting through but water may so I will ensure it doesn't leak.

Painted to cover the scratches and coil mounted. It ended up being a great location for the coil inside that cavity. It is accessible and easily removed and close enough to the distributor to keep the wiring short and hidden.

As everyone knows, the 85-89 uses a MAF system and the 90 and 91 use a MAP system. The FiTech also uses a MAP system, however, the 88 upper plenum I have is obviously not set up for a MAP sensor. Fortunately it is easy to add, it just needs a bracket to hold the sensor and a vacuum port. There are numerous ways to mount this and have it work, I figured the setup as used on a 90-91 would look the cleanest. I probably could have mounted it remotely from the plenum and it would be fine, but there is limited space to add much in the engine bay. The plenum is a logical place.

I Ebay'd a bracket and elbow from a 90 and went to work. The 88 plenum doesn't have the provisions cast into it to secure the bracket in the stock fashion but I played with how the bracket would fit and discovered if I turned it around I could drill and tap two holes in a thicker portion of the plenum to secure it. I had to clean the rust and corrosion off the bracket and painted and clear coated it. It came out acceptable.

Next I needed a vacuum port because the 88 only has two barbed ports and I need three. There is a casting hole on the bottom of the plenum that is thick enough to finish drilling and tap for a 1/8 NPTx3/16 90 degree barb fitting. I had originally ordered a nice stainless 90 degree fitting but failed to notice the barb was 1/8" not 3/16" so I picked up a brass one and painted it to match. I will use this port for the A/C, cruise and vapor cannister. (more on the vapor system later). It should provide adequate vacuum as it is the same size as original. My only concern is the proximity to the back wall interfering with the vacuum but logically it will not. Time will tell.

I ordered a lower intake EGR block off kit from Hawks, it has not arrived yet. I still needed a block off plate for the EGR tube on the exhaust manifold. I decided to make one since I had a spare gasket already. Painted with high heat black, anti seize on the threads and installed.

I got the power wire, wide band O2 sensor, knock sensor and both fans wired up and routed. The stereo breaker power lug was the perfect place to feed the ECU constant power. The wide band and knock sensor were routed away from the heat of the exhaust.

I am getting close to being ready to fire this thing up. As usual I am waiting on parts like the coil wire, EGR block off plates and a replacement GM IAT as I broke the one that was on it, the connector broke free of the body and spins. It was very old, maybe even original so it was probably time. The FiTech needs a water temp port, fortunately the 88 lower intake has two, one for the OEM water temp and one for the 9th injector. I put the FiTech provided temp sensor in the 9th injector spot, an easy solution. With the exception of the A/C ON fan request wire, all of the wiring is complete.

 

[SirReal63]

It is alive! It took about 30 seconds of cranking before it fired, then it fired reliably every time. But first, we have a lot to catch up on the details that got us here.

I have been waiting on parts, something I dread but this gave me time to get a lot of detail work done.

The coil is the traditional MSD red. I don't like the color and it makes the coil stand out and I am trying to make the FiTech install not obvious. I have all the stuff to paint it black, so I did. Lightly sanded, adhesion promoter on and plastic suitable flat black applied. I had a pic of the finished coil in black but somehow deleted it, I blame old age or my wiffle ball brain.

It blends in much better being black.

The bracket it is attached to for the firewall.

Next I jumpered around the starter disable relay with the help and suggestion from someone who knows more about this than I ever will and whose electrical knowledge made all of this so much easier. This is not a requirement for the FiTech to work, but does eliminate a potential issue if that relay ever failed in the future.

12 gauge wire being shaped into a jumper. I soldered this and flattened out each pin to make it easier to insert and trimmed it to length. I really should have used the big soldering iron, that looks terrible, but most of it was trimmed off.

Jumper installed.

Jumper secured, this was overkill, it is highly unlikely this would ever vibrate out, it took a lot of pull to remove so consider the zip tie future proofing.

Zip tied back to it's original location, hopefully never to be seen again.

I had ordered the block off plates for the EGR from Hawks but was uncertain about a real delivery date so I used some 1/4" aluminum and made them and the very next day these were delivered. They are a quality part from Hawks, what I made looks terrible in comparison.

With my goal of making it very difficult for the FiTech system to be visible, I am happy with how it turned out. Only the knowledgeable will see the MAP sensor, ignore the blue one, it is a correct 3-bar but not the one I want to use. The one I want to use is a GM Genuine in black but finding the right one has been elusive, so far., the blue one is a backup. I believe it is all hidden very well, even the coil is difficult to see.

I have a lot left to post to get caught up to be current. I made a solution for the FiTech fuse box that will keep it accessible and not just hanging down under the dash. I need to figure out why my fuel pump is on with the battery connected but I am sure it is something silly with the relay, auto electrical is not my strength. I have a lot of configuration of the FiTech ECU to go over and familiarize myself with, but it felt good to have it fire up and listen to it tune itself. I will need to get the IAC counts down and the TPS reading correctly. If all goes well it may see a small drive this weekend.

 

[SirReal63]

A small update as I find time between other activities, the fuse block was an issue because I wanted it both accessible and hidden from view, it could not just be hanging down. Kind of a tough ask when there was really no good location to put it. I did not want to have to pull part of the dash apart to get to a blown fuse or relay.

In the dash there was a cavity below the fuse panel, it was almost a perfect fit for the new block, except there was knee bolster in the way. I checked the angles and found I could cut the bolster and fit it there and it would not be visible unless you got on your hands and knees and looked up. Still accessible and hidden from normal viewing. It was another tough decision as I don't like mods that cannot be undone, but looking at the whole picture, I have already done a lot of that and the knee bolster is easily found if wanted.

Cardboard template...

Hole cut..

I needed to trim the fuse block and attach some ABS strips to mount it securely.

Bending the ABS strips...

Cementing the strips to the fuse block, I had to space out the side with the relays as the relays were slightly larger than the fuse block.

Clamped in place until it cured, this was the side that needed to have some useless tabs ground off.

Finished product, you cannot see it while sitting in the car, or with the door open, you actually have to bend down to see it. This should work just fine. To secure it, I used speed nuts and OEM screws. It is firm enough to remove and install fuses or relays without fear of it breaking. It is an absolutely crappy/cheap fuse block, it is two halves side by side with nothing strong to tie the two sides together.

The car is 2' off the ground to get this pic.

I have not found a resolution to the fuel pump wire sending 12v when battery is connected. Being the Holidays it may take FiTech time to get back to me. I suspect something in the ECU itself as with nothing on the circuit it sends 12v, bypassing the relay function. I suspect the solution will either be changing how the FP relay functions, putting the FP on a switched circuit or using a switch for control, unless they have a way to correct it, which I doubt.

The car runs perfectly, I have been hitting the back roads close to home to give the ECU plenty of time to learn on it's own instead of tweaking the IAC and TPS values, and it is correcting so that is a win. The tach works, speedo works and interestingly, the occasional rough/stiff shifting from first to second is working smoothly. The car had a CAGS eliminator in it already and I am beginning to wonder if the eliminator was malfunctioning. I will know better with a longer cruise as that is when the shifting would get stiff. Removing the stock ECH so far has virtually no impact other than mpg calculations that I won't really miss. I will finish putting the dash back together when I have a resolution to the FP issue. Getting the ducting back in place was fun as there is a whole lot of harness in the way now, but it did still fit as originally routed.

 

[SirReal63]

Happy New Year!

The fuel pump issue is resolved. In the end it was a simple mistake but not my simple mistake. The harness was pinned incorrectly at the factory and it took a while to figure it out. FiTech wasn't very helpful as it was during Christmas and they were slammed with business and tech issues. They gave me a clue that I already had so I give them credit for trying to help.

Unwrapping the harness, yes I questioned what I was doing, lol.

The connector, tiny little pins and a bunch of them.

I knew that the yellow wire from the ECU to the FP relay was a ground trigger because of how it was wired. @IHBD gave me that clue and I ran with it. I removed the ECU connector from the ECU and got to probing. Sadly, I had to unbundle a lot of the harness to trace the wires as there are numerous yellow wires in the harness. If it were wired right I would find the yellow wire on pin 27 and it should have continuity to the yellow wire on the relay, it did not, but it did on pin 28, which is a ground. Thankfully FiTech provided me with the ECU pinout months ago, it made the diagnosis easier.

No wonder the FP always ran, it was being given a ground as soon as the battery was connected and turned on the relay. Second row from the bottom on the left, it should be Blue, Blue, Yellow, Black. That's not right.

I knew what had to be done and I did not want to cut and splice except as the very last resort. It took some time with Google to find the same connector they used, an 81 pin connector. I needed to see this to figure out to take it apart and remove the pins. I had already discovered that none of my de-pinning tools would do it, after seeing the connector broken down I understood why. The pic is from Alibaba, the connector number is a somewhat generic number, what it is changes by the pin count.

Now with the connector mostly apart I could remove the two wayward pins and help them back home. It was actually easy, the connector came apart easily without the pins/wires falling out, you have to release a clip on each wire to remove it.

The harness taped back up and ready to be folded back into the dash.

Putting the dash back together was easier this time around, I was able to change some of the routing to make the ductwork easier to install. The dash and car is still dusty, I have been driving with the top down, working on the car with the top down and everything has a layer of dust on it.

Since everything was working correctly I put the FP relay back on the firewall and put most of the tools away. It should be nice for the next week so I will have plenty of time for the ECU to finish it's learning cycle. The ECU comes with a pre-loaded tune based on the TPI setup and is close enough to start right up and run well. It should get a little better on it's own but there is also a lot of tuning available from the handheld. Time to learn what I can.

All in all I am happy with the system and the install, minus having to correct a harness issue which I never would have expected. It is not obvious that the engine isn't being controlled by the aftermarket, it all blended pretty well., minus the pretty blue MAP sensor. I have a GM one coming in the next month, I hope.

I think next on the list is to make the leather on the tranny tunnel go away. I have been trying to find an actual Cognac carpet that will match close enough to the OEM in the back. I have got several samples, none are even close, all of the samples appear to be ACC that is rebranded by others. I hate the thought of buying new carpet and immediately having to dye it to match the existing carpet, but I may not have a choice. I really hate carpet.

 

[mountie]

Happy New Year!

The fuel pump issue is resolved. In the end it was a simple mistake but not my simple mistake. The harness was pinned incorrectly at the factory and it took a while to figure it out. FiTech wasn't very helpful as it was during Christmas and they were slammed with business and tech issues. They gave me a clue that I already had so I give them credit for trying to help.

Unwrapping the harness, yes I questioned what I was doing, lol.

View attachment 475294


View attachment 475295

The connector, tiny little pins and a bunch of them.

View attachment 475296


View attachment 475297

I knew that the yellow wire from the ECU to the FP relay was a ground trigger because of how it was wired. @IHBD gave me that clue and I ran with it. I removed the ECU connector from the ECU and got to probing. Sadly, I had to unbundle a lot of the harness to trace the wires as there are numerous yellow wires in the harness. If it were wired right I would find the yellow wire on pin 27 and it should have continuity to the yellow wire on the relay, it did not, but it did on pin 28, which is a ground. Thankfully FiTech provided me with the ECU pinout months ago, it made the diagnosis easier.

No wonder the FP always ran, it was being given a ground as soon as the battery was connected and turned on the relay. Second row from the bottom on the left, it should be Blue, Blue, Yellow, Black. That's not right.

View attachment 475298

I knew what had to be done and I did not want to cut and splice except as the very last resort. It took some time with Google to find the same connector they used, an 81 pin connector. I needed to see this to figure out to take it apart and remove the pins. I had already discovered that none of my de-pinning tools would do it, after seeing the connector broken down I understood why. The pic is from Alibaba, the connector number is a somewhat generic number, what it is changes by the pin count.

View attachment 475299

Now with the connector mostly apart I could remove the two wayward pins and help them back home. It was actually easy, the connector came apart easily without the pins/wires falling out, you have to release a clip on each wire to remove it.

View attachment 475300

The harness taped back up and ready to be folded back into the dash.

View attachment 475301

Putting the dash back together was easier this time around, I was able to change some of the routing to make the ductwork easier to install. The dash and car is still dusty, I have been driving with the top down, working on the car with the top down and everything has a layer of dust on it.

View attachment 475302

Since everything was working correctly I put the FP relay back on the firewall and put most of the tools away. It should be nice for the next week so I will have plenty of time for the ECU to finish it's learning cycle. The ECU comes with a pre-loaded tune based on the TPI setup and is close enough to start right up and run well. It should get a little better on it's own but there is also a lot of tuning available from the handheld. Time to learn what I can.

All in all I am happy with the system and the install, minus having to correct a harness issue which I never would have expected. It is not obvious that the engine isn't being controlled by the aftermarket, it all blended pretty well., minus the pretty blue MAP sensor. I have a GM one coming in the next month, I hope.

View attachment 475303


View attachment 475304


View attachment 475305

I think next on the list is to make the leather on the tranny tunnel go away. I have been trying to find an actual Cognac carpet that will match close enough to the OEM in the back. I have got several samples, none are even close, all of the samples appear to be ACC that is rebranded by others. I hate the thought of buying new carpet and immediately having to dye it to match the existing carpet, but I may not have a choice. I really hate carpet. View attachment 475306

View attachment 475307

Contact ‘ California Car Cover Company’ ……. They may have a vendor that has a color for your carpet…..( They do more than car covers )

 

[Tonyrodz]

Happy New Year!

The fuel pump issue is resolved. In the end it was a simple mistake but not my simple mistake. The harness was pinned incorrectly at the factory and it took a while to figure it out. FiTech wasn't very helpful as it was during Christmas and they were slammed with business and tech issues. They gave me a clue that I already had so I give them credit for trying to help.

Unwrapping the harness, yes I questioned what I was doing, lol.

View attachment 475294


View attachment 475295

The connector, tiny little pins and a bunch of them.

View attachment 475296


View attachment 475297

I knew that the yellow wire from the ECU to the FP relay was a ground trigger because of how it was wired. @IHBD gave me that clue and I ran with it. I removed the ECU connector from the ECU and got to probing. Sadly, I had to unbundle a lot of the harness to trace the wires as there are numerous yellow wires in the harness. If it were wired right I would find the yellow wire on pin 27 and it should have continuity to the yellow wire on the relay, it did not, but it did on pin 28, which is a ground. Thankfully FiTech provided me with the ECU pinout months ago, it made the diagnosis easier.

No wonder the FP always ran, it was being given a ground as soon as the battery was connected and turned on the relay. Second row from the bottom on the left, it should be Blue, Blue, Yellow, Black. That's not right.

View attachment 475298

I knew what had to be done and I did not want to cut and splice except as the very last resort. It took some time with Google to find the same connector they used, an 81 pin connector. I needed to see this to figure out to take it apart and remove the pins. I had already discovered that none of my de-pinning tools would do it, after seeing the connector broken down I understood why. The pic is from Alibaba, the connector number is a somewhat generic number, what it is changes by the pin count.

View attachment 475299

Now with the connector mostly apart I could remove the two wayward pins and help them back home. It was actually easy, the connector came apart easily without the pins/wires falling out, you have to release a clip on each wire to remove it.

View attachment 475300

The harness taped back up and ready to be folded back into the dash.

View attachment 475301

Putting the dash back together was easier this time around, I was able to change some of the routing to make the ductwork easier to install. The dash and car is still dusty, I have been driving with the top down, working on the car with the top down and everything has a layer of dust on it.

View attachment 475302

Since everything was working correctly I put the FP relay back on the firewall and put most of the tools away. It should be nice for the next week so I will have plenty of time for the ECU to finish it's learning cycle. The ECU comes with a pre-loaded tune based on the TPI setup and is close enough to start right up and run well. It should get a little better on it's own but there is also a lot of tuning available from the handheld. Time to learn what I can.

All in all I am happy with the system and the install, minus having to correct a harness issue which I never would have expected. It is not obvious that the engine isn't being controlled by the aftermarket, it all blended pretty well., minus the pretty blue MAP sensor. I have a GM one coming in the next month, I hope.

View attachment 475303


View attachment 475304


View attachment 475305

I think next on the list is to make the leather on the tranny tunnel go away. I have been trying to find an actual Cognac carpet that will match close enough to the OEM in the back. I have got several samples, none are even close, all of the samples appear to be ACC that is rebranded by others. I hate the thought of buying new carpet and immediately having to dye it to match the existing carpet, but I may not have a choice. I really hate carpet. View attachment 475306

View attachment 475307

Is that carpet sample being compared to a part of the oem carpet that was protected from dirt, sun etc? I'd assume yes, but i just wanted to ask.

 

[SirReal63]

Is that carpet sample being compared to a part of the oem carpet that was protected from dirt, sun etc? I'd assume yes, but i just wanted to ask.

Yes, it is the passenger knee bolster but all of the carpet except the floor, tranny tunnel and door sills are in near perfect color condition. The rear compartment never gets any Sun, same for the knee bolster All of it was washed with a carpet machine.

I have ACC sending me sample they say will match, we will see.

 

[Tonyrodz]

Yes, it is the passenger knee bolster but all of the carpet except the floor, tranny tunnel and door sills are in near perfect color condition. The rear compartment never gets any Sun, same for the knee bolster All of it was washed with a carpet machine.

I have ACC sending me sample they say will match, we will see.

I'm not surprised you're having a hard time finding a good match, especially with that color. Lots of different variations--all depending on what company did it, and the formula of the dye they used.
FYI--Even if you had a black carpet you might've had issues. Black isn't always black.

 

[mountie]

I'm not surprised you're having a hard time finding a good match, especially with that color. Lots of different variations--all depending on what company did it, and the formula of the dye they used.
FYI--Even if you had a black carpet you might've had issues. Black isn't always black.

Even the color from the same company….. The batches are usually different ( maybe not by much )
Try to match the same carpet in your house….. Good luck !

 

[Tonyrodz]

Even the color from the same company….. The batches are usually different ( maybe not by much )
Try to match the same carpet in your house….. Good luck !

Yup. Probably would be better off replacing the complete carpet. That'll be the only way to get it all to match unfortunately.

 

[SirReal63]

I'm not surprised you're having a hard time finding a good match, especially with that color. Lots of different variations--all depending on what company did it, and the formula of the dye they used.
FYI--Even if you had a black carpet you might've had issues. Black isn't always black.

GM used the Cognac/Saddle color designation for many many years, all produced by Stevens Auto Group. I think part of the problem is some fading is expected and most people replace the entire carpet set so they wouldn't really see the color difference. I won't replace all of mine, only a few pieces need it and the quality of the OEM carpet is superior to what is available today. The difference is stark.

 

[SirReal63]

Yup. Probably would be better off replacing the complete carpet. That'll be the only way to get it all to match unfortunately.

The other way to get a close match is to use the SEM "dye" that I used earlier. If all else fails that is what I will do, replace with the closest I can find and use the SEM product to get it close enough.

 

[Tonyrodz]

The other way to get a close match is to use the SEM "dye" that I used earlier. If all else fails that is what I will do, replace with the closest I can find and use the SEM product to get it close enough.

That'll work.

 

[SirReal63]

Not a lot has been happening with the car, I have been driving it more than anything else giving it a good shake down and watching my logs to see if everything was going to remain happy. I also had a little fluttering of the ignition spark last week and the log showed it, unfortunately the log was a 45 minute drive, which made it very hard to zoom in on the relative part, each mouse click would take about 30 seconds to register and move to the right part and I failed to get a pic of the area that showed the fluttering spark. The distributor is just a cheap Summit brand and I had a feeling the ICM was failing, this seems to be common with the cheap distributors. I decided to buy the distributor that FiTech sells, which appears to be a Davis Unified unit, but I am not positive on that just yet. I did try replacing the ICM with a Genuine GM ICM but it would not give an rpm signal, it will be returned. While waiting on the new dizzy to arrive I tackled another issue, the cheapo MAP sensor. I am on my third MAP sensor trying to buy an OEM 3-bar MAP with the correct connector and I still have not found one. It is sad that a $12 Chinesium part is easy to find and correct for the application and an OEM one is not. Pay no attention to the pics of the connector orientation it shows, that may not be the connector orientation you actually get. I decided for now to just have a spare $12 one and I painted them black. Once my frustration with GM parts has subsided I will try again but at my local GM dealer this time.

Paint it black.

My last trip out on back country roads the Dual head unit started randomly shutting off and folding itself away like the power was turned off. Most of the cheaper units will fail within six months, if they make it past six months they will usually last a long time. This one did not, such is life, it is easy enough to replace so I did. I had time to kill waiting on parts so it was a good time to replace the head unit. I decided not to go back with a flip out unit. When all of the dashboard mileage features worked it was nice to have the ability to switch between modes, but with the FiTech all of that is now useless, no mileage computations or range estimates, this gave me to opportunity to cover up those switches since they no longer do anything. Most of the time the only ones I paid any real attention was the top two switches for oil pressure/temp and water temp/voltage. The idiot light panel is also mostly useless now, covering it is no loss. I searched Ebay for several days to try and find a better quality head unit that would fit the space and have enough features to be useful on long trips. An 8" or 9" unit would have been perfect but there aren't many units still being made in those dimensions, but there was a plethora of 10" units. A 10" head unit is massive and if I needed access to the bottom 2 switches on the panel it would never work, but I don't need that access now. There were few smaller units by Pioneer and others but I wasn't going to spend a grand on a head unit, that made no sense to me.

I took measurements and paid attention to how these large units mount because the other part that is important is how much they stick out. With a six speed it cannot stick out much at all or you will be hitting a touch screen with your hand when shifting, that would not be ideal, it also helps if the unit can be tilted and aimed to remove any interference. I landed on an Atoto model, a brand that has been around a long time now and is loaded with features and has a relatively good reputation for durability. They also make some way too expensive models as well as some medium quality less expensive units. One thing I really wanted was a physical volume knob, something that is getting harder and harder to find. I found one on Ebay and the seller was 30 minutes away. It met most of the criteria, it could be mounted deep in the dash so the screen could be pushed up against the dash, no interference with the shifter and it had a physical volume knob. It has a good GPS unit that you can download offline maps to, though I always use a Garmin for nav duties, it is still nice to have. The sound processor is incredible with a 48 band EQ, (24 bands front and 24 bands rear), a customizable crossover and numerous inputs and outputs and the best part of all, it was NIB with a warranty for $110 instead of the typical $250 price. I went for it, if all else failed I could always put in one of our other vehicles or use it for target practice, for the price it was an easy choice.

The unit installed. Yeah, I know, yet another head unit. lol My wife looked at it and asked if I couldn't find a bigger one?

One issue with in dash GPS units is the GPS antennae, which is usually the cheapest one the mfg could use. On my last one the best place to put it was on the dash between the windshield and the defrost vent. The issue with this is it can melt being so close to the glass, my last one did. I decided to try something different, these antennae's do not have to be dash mounted, or roof mounted, the critical detail is what is above them, you cannot have metal above them but if you have metal below them it can assist the signal and act as a pseudo ground plane. It isn't a true ground plane but being mounted on a metallic surface will help the unit get a solid signal. With the dash pad removed I found where the unused dash speaker was in relation to the under dash area, and decided it was the best place to put it where it had the least obstructions as it only had a thin piece of plastic and the windshield above it.

The top of the vent tube is in the correct place.

I used 1/8" aluminum and 3M VHB tape and 3M adhesion promoter to affix the plate to the vent tube. It is firmly attached and should not come loose, I hope.

GPS antennae attached. I was able to get a good signal inside the metal shop with the door open, that is good enough.

I took these at a creek that was completely gutted with last years record flooding. There used to be large trees obscuring most of this creek from view from the road, those trees are all gone. Sadly, many of the areas around us that were hit the worst still have excavators and bulldozers working every week to clean up the mess.

I did get the carpet sample from ACC and it is still too light, it is exactly the same as the ones I have received prior from other companies. I will be forced to buy the lighter carpet and paint it with the SEM product. The carpet will be dealt with later, I am more focused on the car's function as I hope to take a little trip on Route 66 this Summer for the 100's anniversary of the iconic East to West passage. I am not sure what route I will take but I hope to spend several days on it.