I have a 1984 pontiac fiero with a 2.5 and a 4spd, i think it threw a rod and i need to rebuild. but its a dinky motor , so im just doing a complete swap. i was thinking either a small block v8 or a 3800 v6 , im on a budget so the less i spend the beter. what u guys think?
Well, from the recent reading I have been doing, 84’s are an odd year being the first year, and only offering the 4 cyl. I think if you are going to do the swap, you should check out Pennock’s Forum (google it) and see. There is a guy there that makes the mounts for the 3.8L that are fairly cheap, but stonger supposedly than the West Coast Fiero kits. And they are relatively inexpensive ($300 or so) with the possibility of doing it for less.
I personnally would start there. Also Series 1 3.8L and series 2 3.8L are different and parts don’t swap. Many people make this mistake and think they do. You want a Series 2 if you want to mod it at all.
SII 3800
even just a NA L36 you can get for $200-300
with free mods the car would be fun.
ever since i saw a shop have to remove the body from the fram or some shit like that to remove the clutch on one of the GT’s with the 2.8 V6, i’ve never looked at another one. i’d seriously consider getting a different car to mod if you have to pull the engine. these do not seem to be much fun to work on. at all.
i’ll tell you from personal experience, DONT DO A SMALL BLOCK. a customer at my old shop came in quite a few times to have us do work on one. probably the worst experience of my life. took us 4 hours to change the rear bank spark plugs. and they tend to melt spark plug wires. its probably the tightest fit i’ve seen in an engine bay. oh, and hes used a fiero 5 speed trans with an adapter plate for the small block. trust me, they are HORRIBLE to work on, and you will always be chasing down gremlins.
ask Fbodymadness, about working on them. he can do headers in aboput 4 days:lol:
there a light car. So a getrag 252/282 will hold up pretty well.
yeah i was leaning towards the v6… v8 just sounds scarry, and i mean theres so much out there for the 3800 anyways
Scruggs on transit has a purple fiero gt with an LS6 HOTT!!! and all the weight is over the rear tires so i guess it actually hooks up!
http://www.fiero.nl/cgi-bin/fiero/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro
That’s where you need to be for Fiero swap info, not NYSPEED.
- You’re on a budget, so cross off V8 swap.
- You’re on a budget, so cross off 3800 SC swap.
I was very active in the Fiero community for 4 years. I saw countless swaps started and never finished because everyone heard you can slap a V8 in a Fiero easily, or cheaply. Go start reading over at Pennocks and you’ll find neither is true.
The exception being the 4.9 caddy motor, but you end up with a car that really isn’t that fast even after you do all the work.
Some day I’ll find a nice 88 shell and do an LSX swap, but I’ll budget about 7-8k to do it.
I used to have a 88 2.5L and I thought about doing a swap many times. I could have the body off of the subframe in just a few hours. it wasnt that bad.
eventually i will get another one and do some kind of swap. i was thinking of doing a turbododge swap though it might piss off some folks hehe. the trannies are very similar so all i have to do is use turbododge inner saginaw cv’s and slide them on the fiero halfshafts and make some mounts.
I know a few guys with 3800SC fieros and they run 12’s pretty easily. I know another guy with a 3400tdc with a turbo. pretty sweet setup.
Brian
theres really no such thing as a ‘budget swap’. if you think you can pull it off though, go for it.
sure there is such a thing as a budget swap, but most people dont budget enough.
lol
sell you a rebuilt gm 3100 v6 with rebuild auto tranny, $500.
I am selling a 99 gtp motor for 500. There is a guy in belleville ont that makes a plug and play harness for 400. He has done a bunch of swaps and can tell you the right engine mounts and extras that you need to get. I was going to due this to an 86 2m4 but my z engine rebuid was more than I expected and i need the money. Theres really no reason for 2 really fast cars. The motor includes the tranny, ecu subframe and parts of the harness. I would think that you could be running for under 2000 as long as you do all the work. It will probably cost near the same as a rebuild but you will have soo much more of a car doing the swap.
I have been in a fiero with a 3.8 it was interesting. I would love to see what it could do with the supercharged 3.8
i would look for a 3.1 turbo from the sunbird gt’s
Thought the sunbird turbo engine was a 2.0 4 cylinder?
Correct, the sunbird was originally a 1.8L turbo, then in 88 moved up to a 2.0L turbo motor.
Th 3.1L turbo came in the 89-90 McClaren Turbo Grand Prix. We just had one come into the junkyard here, but someone got to it before I could.