Experience swapping motors in a Fiero?

[Captain Obvious]

Has anyone here done it or have a local buddy who has?

I was thinking about getting one with a seized motor and would want to upsize the power. No matter which motor, I would need to have custom exhaust made.

Mental, Dallas?

[puckstr]

I saw a one with a 32 Valve North Star V8 in it once. F*ckin FAST.

Check online for engine swaps for Fiero.
http://www.westcoastfiero.com/engine...sion_info.html

[Snowman]

Night "Fucking" Mare...

You have to raise it high enough off the ground to let the motor and rear end swing down.

Use to race one in the SCCA. Spent three days to get headers on the thing and it wouldn't start once it got hot because of them.

[puckstr]

4.6 Cadillac conversion ( Northstar ).

300HP & 295Ft Lb Torque
This is one of the highest output conversions for your fiero. It is also one of the most difficult conversions to install. Modification of the engine compartment is necessary to facilitate this installation. Special fabrication of all mounts and brackets is required to accomplish the installation of this very large engine into the Fiero.

The performance increase achieved with this conversion is substantial over most other engine swaps. The increase of installation labor is also substantial.

It is highly recommended using the transmission that comes with the Cadillac. You can, however, bolt the Fiero stick transmission directly up to this engine. Special clutch and flywheel are required.

[Devaclis]

there is one in Highlands Ranch I see almost every day with a BOSS 302 and Trubo. Next time I talk to the dude I will get some info for ya.

[puckstr]

Wow there is a bit of work removing the engine...
http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/088599.html


Wow Snowman is right. Looks like a pain in the A$$

[Captain Obvious]

there is one in Highlands Ranch I see almost every day with a BOSS 302 and Trubo. Next time I talk to the dude I will get some info for ya.

please do. I have found several sites online and there is some good information. It appears that there is an unlimited variety of motors that people use.

Def wouldn't want to go the Caddy Northstar route, but if the hassle is a level 6 for a 3800 series motor or a level 7 for a small block chevy motor with unlimited performance upgrades it seems the SBC might be the way to go.

[Devaclis]

Steve, that picture, right there, made me NEVER want to work on another car again, ever

[Snowman]

Yes, but they are so fun to drive.
I could power through any corner lifting the inside front tire.

[SupermotoMJ]

Insane, Hope you have a lot of time to spare..

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

Gonna try and replace it one that doesn't spontaneously combust?

[konichd]

I think the motor to give you the least amount of headache but good power would be a 3.4L DOHC motor made from 91-96. They came in a few cars: Olds Cutlass, Monte Carlo, Z34 Lumina. Good power in a small package. Probably the easiest to "drop in" considering the circumstances

[puckstr]

Gonna try and replace it one that doesn't spontaneously combust?

Well stay away from a first Gen MR2. I had one turn into a BBQ grill while I was driving it

Burn Baby Burn Nice fire, total loss.

But I have no deductible on my Comprehensive coverage (FIRE, theft ,vandalism, and glass breakage) So I was completely covered.

[CYCLE_MONKEY]

Friend of mine had a Fire-O, and he'd had to take it back to the dealer a bunch of times for problems. One day (surprise!!) it burned to the ground in the street. He still owed on the car. He had a towing company tow the still-smoking wreckage to the dealership after hours, and had the guy drop the heap in from of the service bay doors.......and never made another payment on the POS. Funny, they never asked for a dime out of him after that....

[merlin]

The 84s were bad about burning down- unless you had the recall to prevent that done.

They had pretty much fixed that little issue by 85.

v8archie (V8Archie.com) has the best kits for a V8 swap. It's not actually that difficult, from everything I have found on the subject- I've been wanting to do an LS6 Fiero forever... less than 50 pounds added weight over the stock V6, and 385 horse, stock. Yummmm... Little expensive though... about 10K from start to finish last I checked, and that was several years ago,

If you put in a 250+ HP motor, look around and get one of the Getrag 5 speeds. They will hold a good bit more horsepower.

Lemme know if you need any help once you get started!

Merlyn

[dattaway]

I had an 84 model. The engine was tuned to turn the exhaust manifold cherry red. Combined with oil spray (and it was a spray!) from piston blow-by or transmission overfilling, it often got smoky.

The small block engine swap idea looks fairly easy. A light motorcycle engine would be more interesting...

[Tipys]

I think the motor to give you the least amount of headache but good power would be a 3.4L DOHC motor made from 91-96. They came in a few cars: Olds Cutlass, Monte Carlo, Z34 Lumina. Good power in a small package. Probably the easiest to "drop in" considering the circumstances

DO NOT USE THAT MOTOR it is a piece of junk. It may be easy to get in there but do you really want to have to take it out agian when it breaks.

[Mental]

If you are getting it for what I think you're getting it for, it better be free.

That 4 cylinder in those things was just god awful, redlined at 4 1/2 thousand RPMs. Regardless of what you are looking to do, the picture of the one hanging from a hoist is pretty spot on.

The trick to most upgrades you are looking at is that the electronics have to come with it, and you have to map that out, or go here http://www.megasquirt.info/

or another DIY fuel injection, you get the idea.

In keeping with a cheap theme, I have seen one with a Quad 4. Depending on the version, you could get over 200 HP out of those engines. They were availible in everything, Grandammits to Achievas. But you will also need to change the trans, and that is gonna get entertianing.

For most of them, V8s are the swap of choice, and N*s are the V* of choice becuase they are already mounted in the right direction.

But to be honest, if you are looking for a fun car to get and do a swap in, I would not go this route. I would look into a Z, RX-7 or 944 and do a simple V8 swap.

Its easier and cheaper than you think

[konichd]

DO NOT USE THAT MOTOR it is a piece of junk. It may be easy to get in there but do you really want to have to take it out agian when it breaks.

Odd I've had it in a few cars and never had a problem with proper maintenance. The things produced over @220hp and with a few mods were up above 240. You definately need to keep an eye on the timing belt and be careful changing plugs but I love that motor

[dm_gsxr]

I had an 84 and yea, it had lots of problems. The fusable link was the biggest pain in the ass though. It'd pop for no apparent reason and you'd just coast to the shoulder and call for a tow.

I blew a cylinder in mine. The tow guy wanted to do the work on it but I took it back to the dealer. Found out there was a recall on the engine and got a free short block replacement, labor and all. I had them do some other work while they were there, checking out the engine mounts and other stuff. Still cost me a couple hundred bucks with those extra bits since the engine was out already

I finally traded it in for an 89 300ZX after the fricking headlight electronics blew. To use the headlights I had to open the hood and, using a pen, manually spin the light up and down

It was a lot of fun though. I had to pick my brother up from National airport at 2am one morning. On my way back, I zipped through the fun section of Rt 1 north of Stafford VA (we lived behind the courthouse). At the beginning, I thought I saw a car in the median area but we zipped anyway. I kept it between the lines and didn't see the car until right at the very end.

One of my many reckless driving tickets He commented that he couldn't keep up with me though

Carl

[FZRguy]

I had an ’84 and it was one of the worst handling cars I’ve ever owned. Complete waste of time/money if you ask me.

[dattaway]

I had an ’84 and it was one of the worst handling cars I’ve ever owned. Complete waste of time/money if you ask me.

But the most fun. Turns on a dime. Hit the brakes and the Fiero pivots on the front tires. Instant spin on the highway. Puts drifting to shame.

Lots of Fieros got married to trees and telephone poles.

[DavidofColorado]

I never would have thunk you could do that with a fiero. And there is so many of you that do it too!! This is weird. Tag for updates.

What about a Audi a4 twin turbo in that beast? 500hp. That would be cool!

[Captain Obvious]

I haven't ruled it out, but the limited space and having to trim the frame makes me less than excited with the V8 conversion.

I am also looking at some of the more "traditional" builds including Mental's list. Also surfing for Talon/Eclipse AWDs.


And Mental, you are thinking correctly on my interest. The cost for a Fireo build could be prohibitive though.