G.T. Fieros

Hey guys. I'm in the process of putting in newly refurbished valve covers and plenum. As such I'm pretty much down to the heads and have the fuel rail out. I have all new gaskets and new fuel injector o-rings to go back in when I can start getting it back together.

One of the things that I am doing while I'm in there is trying to clean up / subtly modify things to make the engine bay a little bit prettier. Nothing major, I am just re-routing some of the vacuum lines and likely re-building them out of some metal tubing bcause one of my plastic ones at the EGR solenoid shattered when I was trying to remove it. I am also deleting the hard coolant lines to the throttle body to reduce some clutter.

This is a spring/summer/fall only car and I have read on PFF of some people deleting the cold start injector. I don't know that anything is wrong with mine, but after doing this job I don't want to have to take it apart again for a long time. Has anyone here in our region deleted the cold start injector? What impact has it had (if any)? I haven't decided either way, but I need to decide before the weekend if I'm going to plug it up and remove it or re-connect it.

I'm just thinking if I don't really need it then now is the time to pull it out, have a little less clutter in there and one less thing to go wrong further down the road.

My mind isn't made up either way so I'm very much open to any and all opinions.

For some eye interest, here's where I'm at right now.



Boring pic I know... the valve covers are just sitting there unbolted and covering things up for now. I've never been this deep into an engine myself so this is a fun learning experience. Only the EGR valve, distributor cap/rotor and plugs are left to come out before it starts getting put back together.

I've been collecting parts for 6 months and the engine bay is getting refinished valve covers and 88 engraved plenum, new holley red cap/rotor, red street fire coil, blue (what I could get cheap on kijiji ) taylor spiro pro wires, NGK plugs, new exhaust crossover heat shield and a good general cleaning for everything else. I'm also trying to find one of those plastic covers for the EGR valve to try and stop it from being so ugly if someone has a spare kicking around I'm interested in talking to you. I've visited my local pick and pull 4 or 5 times already with no success at finding one.

I would also be interested in a set of poly dog bone bushings if someone has a set they're not using. Colour doesn't matter.

I'm hoping the tune up takes care of a stumble I was having at low-ish rpm cruising and teh funny acting tach that went with it.

Thanks in advance for any input.

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Ryan - 86 GT

Well I've decided I'm taking the plunge and deleting the cold start while I'm in there. It's cheap to do, and will eliminate 1 less issue.

I've removed the injector and hammered in a 7/8" freeze plug into the injector hole and put the bolt back into the block. The fuel rail is getting plugged with a M12x1.25 drain plug from Napa using the OEM rubber washer. I'm leaving the wiring for "just incase" down the road I need it for something, it will be tied up under the plenum.

I made the choice after doing a lot of reading. Hopefully it works out OK. I'll report back for anyone interested.

Total cost for the delete so far is $1 for the freeze plug and $4 for the drain plug. I have to figure out if I'm going to pull the switch too or not, and if I do what is needed to plug that hole.

The throttle body coolant lines are out as well, the circuit is looped at the coolant fill neck (again "just incase") and I've picked up some aluminum tubing to DIY my VAC lines and get rid of that plastic.

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Ryan - 86 GT

I just wanted to follow up incase anyone looks at this in the future. I did end up deleting the cold start, and on Sunday when I got to start for the first time it started no problem what so ever. It was about 10 degress give or take... I started and stopped the engine a few times trouble shooting a code 35 and high idle.

I haven't tried since then, but initial impression is that there won't be an issue for a summer only / good weather only car which is how I use mine.

Any questions let me know.

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Ryan - 86 GT

thanks 4 sharing! we're paying attention
keep us posted in the future for anyone else considering this...

What is the benefit of not having it hooked up?
Searched a bit, but am a little confuzzled by this.

Disconnecting it may cause the initial start to take longer? Will get to operating temp slower/faster? I'm assuming it will use less fuel overall, but not much.

I may do the simple unplugging of the electrics for this, as it seems a few people have done that.

From what I've read on PFF, People do this for 2 reasons.

- Switching to a newer Ecu (i.e 7730) it is not needed.
When swapping in a newer ECU such as the 7730, it is programmed to "bank fire" the regular injectors during starter cranking, thus eliminating the need for the analog controlled CSI originally on the engine.

- The CSI is prone to leaking causing vacuum leak or rich running conditions.

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Dougie Murder
1985 Fiero GT...work in progress

Just an update.

I can see exactly why GM put the injector in there the way they did for this engine with the oringial ECU.

Any temps around 10 degrees and the car starts up fine, maybe an extra crank or two than before the cold start was deleted. I've done this a few times now.

This morning the weather was nice, although chilly. I hadn't driven the car in a while so decided to take it for a spin this morning. The air temp was 2 degrees, -2 with windchill, after being 1 degree over night. The car took a while to start (although it did eventually...). Like 5-6 seconds to start. Like one more second and I was probably going to let go of the key. There was half a stumble on the initial startup then it was business as usual. Engine was 100% fine once started.

I have to make note to try it at a temp around 5 degrees. Will be interesting to see if there's a difference after sitting until the afternoon.

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Ryan - 86 GT

Well, I've caved in and reversed the mod. I re-installed the cold start yesterday. It was working without it, but it felt like I was really straining the starter and the car in general. After an initial start it would start up immediately like it was never removed but I drive the car so little that a good half of the starts or more are cold starts.

Removing the frost plug that I hammered in was the worst part. It was in there good so I had to pull the distributor to get enough clearance to remove the plug. I had to hammer a screw driver through the plug and pry it out. After that I re-installed the hard line into the fuel rail and then bolted in the cold start injector into the intake and re-installed and re-set the timing. Now cold starts are almost as quick as warm starts again, which makes me feel better about having to do it. After re-installing it I realised that there really isn't that much clutter removed by removing the cold start.

I had intended on swapping ECMs to the 7730 but the budget isn't there right now. At least now I know how to pull and re-install a distributor LOL. Never done that before yesterday. In total it took about an hour start to finish, which honestly surprised the heck out of me.

Now I have to find a source of smoke coming from between the firewall and front of the engine. It's coming out of the passenger side vent after the engine is warmed up. Anyone have any tips of where to look?

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Ryan - 86 GT

Hey Ryan, has your coolant level been dropping at all? The water pump has a relief hole just under it in case the pump starts to fail. It will weep out of that hole and show a trickle of fluid.
Is there any smell to the vapors? (oil / coolant?) Might have to look on the block to see if there are any trails of fluid going down it or on any coolant lines.


I had a nasty oil leak and couldn't find it source if my life depended on it. This was just before I was about to rebuild the motor so I left it alone for the time. After rebuilding the motor, sitting on the engine stand almost ready to go back in. We filled it with oil and primed the oil pump to get oil flowing. WELL it flowed alright & found my leak too. Oil pressure gauge has a relief valve in it for failures and it's right in the middle of the connector. Since there was no harness on the motor yet, all you say was this squirt of oil come out of the top on the sensor like it was taking a piss.

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Forum Admin
87 GT 3400 Green
88T-top: WIP

Thanks for the reply Adam. If anything it appears as though the smoke is coming from between the engine and the firewall right at the corner of the engine. I will check for coolant leaks but I don't believe that's it, and I don't believe that I have been loosing coolant.

If anything there's a hint of a smell of burning oil. It's not sweet smelling like coolant. I have to get the butt end of the car up and get under it to look. I know the car had a slow leaks due to a couple of drips being left on the garage floor, but I was choosing not to deal with them right now. I believe that one is oil pan gasket and it's not a major leak. I've had cars with worse LOL.

I replaced the valve covers over the winter and put in the new gaskets so I want to check the acessible valve cover bolts for tightness and the oil filter for dripping first. I wanted to look yesterday but my allergies were rendering me useless by the afternoon.

Are you saying to check the oil pressure sensor itself for a leak?

I'm not sure if it's oil leaking onto the exhaust at the front side of the car or an exhaust leak. Any sources for oil to leak onto exhaust other than where I mentioned?

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Ryan - 86 GT

This may be a little off topic in this thread, but I think I found the leak. It got really bad really fast.

This was the puddle on my driveway after a couple of minutes warm up time to try and see where it was coming from Friday night.



Saturday morning I got into it. I had a little trouble believing it would be the valve cover gasket because it was brand new, but low and behold it was the only spot I could see where it could be coming from.

Here's what I found.



New gasket is on order. Hopefully that was the only spot where it was leaking from. I'm having a hard time seeing how I could have caused this split. Did I do comething wrong the first time around or does this look like a defect in the part?

At least this time I was able to get at it with only removing the upper intake and the deck lid. I was able to leave the middle intake and fuel rail in place.

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Ryan - 86 GT

you put the valve cover on while the middle intake was out? I know I've changed the valve cover gasket a couple of time without tearing apart the top end for clearance, and the gasket catches on anything while trying to install it. Once it's back down in place I do my best to visually inspect the gasket to make sure it hasn't fallen out of it's channel. Also got to use your hands a feel in a few places. If you got the time, put some RTV on the top side of the gasket and place it in the valve cover, let it get dry enough so that it doesn't fall out when held right side up. Then install the valve cover carefully. I got two sets of gaskets in my storage unit.

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Forum Admin
87 GT 3400 Green
88T-top: WIP

Yes, my first time over the winter I had the middle intake and fuel rail out and did the valve covers and gaskets at that time. I had read that the middle intake had to come out and it was clear access that way.

I did not glue the first gasket set in place. I plan to do that this time around to hold it into the channel of the valve cover before I put it on - my mechanic neighbour recommended doing that also. I inspected with my hands and a mirror at the time and didn't feel anything bulging out so thought it would be ok. I guess maybe I pinched it on the inside, because even when it was leaking it wasn't bulging outward (looked normal from outside the engine using the inspection mirror).

My wife's car actually needs a valve cover gasket too, though hers is no where near as bad as the Fiero got, so I ordered a set for her car and another for the Fiero from Rockauto. No signs of leaking on the rear (easy to get to) cover so I'm not going to touch it at this point. I'll just have another spare gasket...

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Ryan - 86 GT

My gaskets arrived yesterday and got it put back together last night. It takes a lot less time the second go around when you know what tools you need and how to reach things

I followed your advice: I put a little rtv in the channel of the valve cover with a q tip and placed the gasket in there and let it set up until I could hold it upside down. Damn was that a lot easier! Also while putting it back on I believe I found where the first gasket got caught up on re-install because I nearly did it again - I believe it was the leftover screw on the coolant hose clamp right at that corner of the valve cover that caught me up. Once I got it in place I ran my fingers along the edge of the valve cover to feel for the gasket and all seemed well so I bolted everything back together.

At first I thought it was still leaking because the smoke was still there, but it didn't look like any more drips were coming down. At least nothing like how it was pouring out before.
I decided to go for a good drive with the decklid left off to see if it would stop smoking.

The first couple of minutes were ok with only a trickle of smoke. Looking under the car I could see it smoking off of the exhaust pipe but couldn't see any drips. Then after half a minute on the highway I actually got pretty concerned because of the amount of smoke that I was seeing in the rear view mirror. It resembled a smoldering camp fire that just had water thrown on it. I slowed down and was just trying to get to the next exit but by the time I got there it seemed to have nearly, if not completely, stopped smoking. I think the extra heat from the highway quickly burned off whatever oil was left on the block that I couldn't reach to wipe away.

I stopped at my buddies and couldn't see anything there, then checked again with a flash light when I got home and couldn't see anything. Fingers are crossed that it's been fixed for good.

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Ryan - 86 GT

I'm actually going to attempt to do my valve cover gaskets myself this week sometime. Any tips that could help me along the way? This is my first time ever doing anything like this.