84 to 86 Duke retrofit

[dguy]

Time to finish off the firewall.

There are a variety of sound/heat barriers out there if you look hard enough, or go without if you don't mind the noise and a potentially warmer passenger compartment.   

We chose to cover the firewall with Dynamat.  While it tries to sell itself as primarily a sound barrier, it also possesses reasonable heat resistance.  It's also easy to find at Future Shop. 

Dynamat's packaging appears to have changed since I purchased the material, but with careful work you should be able to cover the firewall using two 11½" x 32" sheets with little waste.

I invested in Paul McKibben's firewall heat shield template, which made life quite a bit easier.  Rather than trying to apply the Dynamat in the biggest pieces possible, I sectioned it off in to easier sizes to work with.  I wasn't really interested in trying to persuade a 12x36" sheet of self-adhesive material to stick itself where I wanted it to instead of where it it felt like going.

Seams between the individual pieces of Dynamat can be sealed with aluminum "muffler repair" tape.  You know the stuff...  it's sold in the "muffler repair" sections of most automotive stores, and is rarely an effective repair for an exhaust system.  It does however work well for other applications.   

The pic below is the completed work.  What you can't see is that the original clips which secured the main wiring harness to the firewall have been replaced with stainless worm gear-style hose clamps.  You may or may not have to find an alternative method of securing the wiring loom, depending upon the condition of the retaining clips from the donor car.

Also not shown below, is the modification required to connect the 84's fuel pump & sending unit harness to the 86 main harness.  The 86 main harness uses a single, 3-wire weather pak connector, whereas the 84 fuel tank uses one 1-wire, and one 2-wire weather pak connector.  The wire colors are identical; all that's needed is to cut off the 84 connectors, and splice in the connector from the 86 fuel tank.  Self-sealing heat shrinkable tubing and a soldering iron are your long term friends.  Twisted wires and electrical tape are not!

[dguy]

Now on to the engine prep.  This will vary greatly with the condition of the donor engine, so I'm not going to go in to much detail.

At the moment this is the bottleneck of the project, thanks to a fair collection of rust-welded & broken bolts in a variety of locations.  Hey at least installing the polyurethane cradle mounts went smoothly.   

Note that the crusty-looking struts shown below are not being used.  I simply haven't removed them from the knuckles yet.

[fiero308]

nice docs, Don
keep it up!
Question: how DENSE is that heat shield stuff?  Did you have a chance to compare it to anything else (or have you used other stuff in the past?)  I am of the belief that it is simple density that is going to make anything (like that) effective at least for stopping noise; on the other hand, anything DENSE (opposite of air/styrofoam, etc) is going to transfer (and hold!) heat.  Hence, my question.
Any thoughts on it?
Do they make any special claims?  I think it is a bit pricey, too, isn't it?
gp

[fiero308]

and oh, yeah: anyone who is thinking about doing any poly bushings swapping; (noting your new bushings, Don; not trying to hijack your thread..... )

THERE IS A VERY EASY WAY TO GET OLD BUSHINGS OUT OF CONTROL ARMS OR CRADLES.  IT DOES REQUIRE A BIT OF INTELLIGENCE AND CARE.  Guess how I found THAT one out!?!??!?   

I think I put up a description on the process sometime ago but would be happy to go over it again if I can't find it here.
gp

[dguy]

Most of your questions about Dynamat's properties are answered here.   

As I said with some poor wording above, it markets itself as an acoustic barrier and is resistant to heat.  Whether or not it acts well as a thermal barrier is yet to be seen, and unfortunately we'll only be able to provide subjective answers. 

As for price, Future Shop wanted $100 for a "door kit" which is comprised of four 11½" x 32" pieces, of which I used two.

Standard auto supply shops in the area didn't have anything available, and I wanted to stay away from materials which were flammable, easily torn, or could absorb/hold moisture.

I think that answers most of your questions?   

[dguy]

Fuel vapour cannister mounted & connected.  It doesn't hurt to replace the filter in the bottom of the can while you're doing this.  CTC's "Help" section has a big fluffy yellow breather filter which fits right in with a small amount of squishing.

[dguy]

If you're using the transmission from the donor car, don't forget to check the VSS driven gear & change it if necessary.

In this case the donor car's transmission had the red (29 tooth) gear, and we needed to take the blue (30 tooth) gear from the original transmission to keep the speedo reasonably accurate.

[dguy]

If you were able to remove the engine a while ago, I doubt that you need any instructions for installing the new one. 

But here are a few things that would be easier to deal with before you install it.  For one thing, the 86 Duke's under car coolant tubes & engine-to-tube hoses are different.  You either need to switch the under car tubes to the 86 version, or use the 84 hoses on the 86 engine.  The photos below illustrate the differences between the hoses.

The first is the left-hand side hose which connects to the thermostat housing.  The second is the right-hand side hose which connects to the water pump.

[dguy]

Square peg, round hole.  Literally. 

Options are to upgrade to the 86 throttle cable, switch the trottle cable mounting bracket between the donor & the original engine, or trim the round bracket until the 84's cable can be snapped in to place.

If you choose the latter option, be very carefull in your trimmings.  You want to remove enough metal so that the cable will fit, but not so much that it is loose and can pop out unexpectedly.

[dguy]

The holes in the 84 firewall which the shifter cables pass through are equal sizes, approximately 38mm in diameter.  The gromets for the Isuzu shifter cables are not. 

The shift cable has a 38mm gromet, but the select cable's gromet is closer to 54mm.  As with the throttle cable, hog out the hole until what you want fits where you want. 


A tip when installing the gear shift assembly & connecting the cables...  Assuming that nothing was out of adjustment on the donor car, getting everything properly lined up in the victim is easy.

• Install the gear shift assembly, but don't tighten the mounting nuts.
• Using the shifter linkage, place the transmission in 3rd gear by first finding neutral, then rotating the shift arm down & toward the trunk.
• Connect the cables to the gear shift assembly.
• Now wiggle the thing about until you can place a 5/32 drill bit or same diameter pin in each alignment hole, then tighten the nuts.  Done!

You may still have to adjust the cable positions at the shifter linkage, but it's hard to tell if this is necessary without driving.  Whether you wish to be proactive & do it now, or only do it if necessary, is entirely up to you. 

[dguy]

1.  Smart people will photograph or document which of the three HVAC cables goes where on the control head upon disassembly.

2.  I am not a smart person.

Fortunately for un-smart people, there is this thread on PFF which tells you which cable goes where.

[dguy]

...and we're finished.  As of yesterday afternoon, Kitten is no longer a member of the Motionless Fiero Club! 

Start-to-finish for the project was about 92 hours.

[Kitten]

YAY!!!!!  It's alive!!!!!

[GoFast88]

Sounded like a real "Labour of Love" project.

CONGRATS !!

[aaron88]

Sweet!

And nice write up!

It's a good thing we like to give away free information here.  Lots of happy selfless people here in Canada!

Aaron

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