Real Fiero Tech

Well today I replaced my dist. cap and rotor today because I noticed the tip was burnt to a crisp on my old one. So I started it up today and It's backfiring really bad and the rear exhaust Mani is glowing hot red. I'm not sure if this is normal or not because I haven't really had it running until now.

I want to set the timing on it but I'm not sure what tab to put the mark on. I think there is 3 marks. what one is the stock timing?

the backfiring makes me think its running rich but the red manifold makes me think its running lean.

any thoughts?

keep in mind this was running at idle for about 4 minutes before I decided to shut it off.

Here is a procedure I wrote on how to set the timing. The V6 timing should be set to 10 degrees BTDC.
http://www.fierodotcom.com/viewtopic.php?t=74
My timing marks are on the opposite side than the stock 2.8 because I have a 3.4 timing cover, but the marks should be the same as in the picture in my article.

The three marks are there so you can look at timing for any of the engine's cylinders.

Well i set the timing to 8* and its sill doing the backfire/glowing mani thing. I got a new injector off of a v6 at a junk yard. Do the 2.8 and 3.1( i think that's what it is) v6 have different injectors? has anyone else had there mani glow bright red just at idle?

The manifold shouldn't be glowing at all. IIRC, its usually caused by a vacuum leak, typically the EGR tube. You're getting way too much air in the engine and running hot and lean.

How fast does it turn when it's trying to idle? If it never gets below 2,000 RPM, you definitely have the EGR vacuum leak.

I don't know about the glowing manifolds or anything yet, but I just got done putting the new engine in the car, should have it fired up later today.

There are three marks on the damper, as you said, but on mine one of them is about twice as wide as the other two. The fat one will be your Cylinder 1 or 4.

The Dark Side of Will wrote:How fast does it turn when it's trying to idle? If it never gets below 2,000 RPM, you definitely have the EGR vacuum leak.

you said that I might have a egr leak. I took my fingers and pulled the egr diaphram up and before it would lower the rpms but now it doesnt do anything.

How many of you block off your EGR with a plate? any luck with that?I come from the DSM world and that is what we useually do.

It idles at a even 1500rpm. I have replaced almost every vacuume line with new ones.

Does anyone have a modified vacuume diagram that simplifies the lines and shows what to block off and what to keep? thanks!

your car should be idling at 1k rpm when hot. You def have a vacuum leak which is causing the manifolds to glow. You need to find the leak.

I have blocked off the egr return with some card gaskets that felpro makes. Works good.

There's a vacuum diagram on the bottom of the decklid.

I have printed off one from mitchell on demand, but i was wondering if there is one that has just the necessary lines, like emissions removed.

Look at the vacuum diagram.
Decide what you want to remove.
Look at the engine.
Locate what you want to remove.
Remove what you want to remove.
Cap open vacuum ports.

What more do you need to know?

nothing... ill get back to you guys tomorrow. thanks