So I have a chance to grab a very clean 88 Fiero (very sharp car IMO) from a friend of mine. It’s silver with grey interior… 4 cylinder mated to a 5 speed manual.
do these cars have a decent after market? How do the 4 bangers respond to boost? It shouldn’t take much to turn a car that light into a rocket ship.
The car has many new parts and should be able to grab it for cheap
If I grab this, the GTO would take a back seat and remain a DD
any ideas?
bump
just talked with the guy today… said it’s all ready to go if I still want it. What should I look for? I know most of the car is fiberglass. What are common problem areas on these?
the things been sitting for atleast a year… maybe 2
as far as im concerned that thing has the best 4 banger gm ever produced. I think it has the 2.5 iron duke motor , if so that thing will run forever.
IIRC JayS should have some solid answers for you. You pick this up, I want to see it :tup:
well, as for the motors… I’ve never owned one. It may be reliable, but I wonder how it will hold a shot of nitrous or small turbo setup. Maybe an ecotec swap would be a better solution?
Tom, if I get this… you’ll be helping me work on it 
lol
funny thing is, i think he went from a Fiero to a GTO lol
I’d say stick with the GTO. I really miss mine a lot, but in the same context I’m glad I dont have it because I know I would not have my Mustang, but thats neither here nor there. But when I did have mine, I thought it had a lot of potential to be a very good all around performance car in terms of speed, handling and braking.
I’ll definitely still be keeping the goat, but I as much as I want to mod it sometimes… I find myself holding back since it’s still owned by the bank. I planned on a cam installed among other goodies (blower), but this seems like a better solution since I don’t have to worry about it breaking and shit lol
Drop a L67 from a gtp in it, very common swap. Not to mention you can make a lot of power from a L67 and still be DD drivable and last a long time.
yeah i will totally agree with you there…having a good reliable DD that you dont have to worry about is nice, and then having a project car that only advances as money and time allows, and if something doesnt get done, or it breaks then oh well you dont have to worry about driving it to work the next day anyhow.
hmmmm… you know what those (l67) are going for these days?
paging JustinH
First, http://www.fiero.nl/cgi-bin/fiero/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro is your best friend if you own a Fiero. Such a wealth of information.
Things to look for on a northern car.
The cradle. Get under there and look at the cradle itself as well as the mounting points. I’ve seen the cradles rust so bad they were almost falling out of the car. At the rear mounting point you’ll see that the bolts go into the frame. Inside that frame rail is a little welded piece that it threads into. After all those years you’ll go to remove the cradle bolts, the weld will snap, and the bolt will just spin and spin. At this point two things happen.
A: The person knows Fieros, takes off the rear bumper, and uses a plumber wrench to grab reaching down the frame rail.
B: The person doesn’t know Fieros, cuts a hole in the frame, and grabs it with vice grips. Now they’ve weaked it and well as introduced a great place for rust to get worse.
Fuel tank. They’re not a lot of fun to change and tend to rust right around where the gas tank strap holds the tank up.
As for the 4 banger, it’s the iron duke. I personally wouldn’t try building one up but I know people who have. There’s not a lot of aftermarket so you’d be doing everything from scratch. Your real potential is yanking that boat anchor out and dropping in one of many documented swaps. 3.1, 3.4, 3.8, 3.8 supercharged, 4.9 caddy, 4.5 caddy, and of course the good old 350 SBC.
If it’s standard I’m pretty sure the 4 only came with the 5 speed isuzu trans. The real sought after trans is the 5 speed getrag that came in the 86.5 to 88 V6’s. The 5 speed getrag for the Fiero was specific only to the Fiero despite GM having a 5 speed Getrag in lots of V6 cars of that era. You can buy a kit to convert a normal Getrag to a Fiero Getrag and I’ve heard that it’s not a difficult job.
Most parts are interchangable from 84’s to 88’s. The 88 came with a much better rear suspension than the 84-87 but it makes finding parts a bit tougher.
I used to get tons of parts from www.fierostore.com. They ship out of CT so standard ground gets it here in 2-3 days.
No comment.
probably pick up a L67 long block anywhere from $500-$800, can also use a L36 block and L67 top end (heads, intake, M90) for more compression. If you want to make stupid power 500+whp then I’d get L67/L36 and go turbo.
they have the potential to light on fire…
a much easier swap would be the 3400. Which is what I swapped into my car.
My 3400 put down 200 whp and 220 wtq which is more than an N/A 3800 puts out and it was 100x easier to get in.
EDIT - and my 3400 in perfect running condition with 23K miles on it cost $600
thanks for all the info :tup: , I may go check it out after work tonight.
If all goes well… I might be slapping some plates on it and driving it home. Pretty excited about it actually… can’t wait to dig into it.
Jay, I apologize in advance for all the PM’s you’ll be receiving over the next year 
EDIT: and Tom, sorry for the bloody knuckles lol
Heh, no problem. In the years autocrossing mine there wasn’t much I hadn’t torn apart on that car.
Part of me is still pissed I didn’t hold on to mine but shuffling 3 cars and the boat around my 2 car garage was going to be a big pain in the ass. Eventually I’m putting a garage door in the back of my garage so can get vehicles to the back yard, at which point I’ll probably have another Fiero.
haha bud, I don’t know what the fuck those GM engine code numbers are…
I’ll have to google it…