3500 (LX9) swap into a Fiero

[86FieroSEv6]

Don't feel bad. My circle comes up with the same tired old saws as well . . . "put a 4.9 in it, or do a 3800....supercharged!" Or, the ubiquitous "do a chevy V8, man . . . an LS would be really coooool!" . . . and of course, deep down inside, a little bit of me vomits. That ain't hotroddin', cause it's been done..........to death. You just stay on course, I like the 3500 swap and have the luxury of time cause I don't yet have the money. I have all kinds of wild ideas flying through my head to come up with that special sort of Fiero that makes people say "what a crazy m**********r, but it hauls a**!". My personal research tells me that if you're not in the trophy hunt or racing for money/slips, then 300 ponies is more than enough fun for the Fiero and that opens up a whole world of driveline choices.

[flimbob]

Got my tranny on the cradle. Tomorrow I will mate the engine and tranny. I have to redrill the motor mount holes in the cradle as it originally had a Duke and a 125-c mounted. Here are a few pics of the engine and one of the tranny on the cradle. Once the engine is mated, I'll go down to Autozone and rent a harmonic balancer install tool. Need to get that overspray cleaned up on the pic showing the timing cover.

[86FieroSEv6]

Awesome . . . but you should have avoided getting paint in the water pump chamber area of the cover.

[flimbob]

Are you thinking that the paint will be a problem in that area? When I bought the timing cover, it already had been painted black. I never thought about whether the paint would come off with all that heated water rushing through it.

[86FieroSEv6]

I know ethylene glycol makes a pretty good solvent and pieces of paint can abrade seals. If it were any other vehicle, I might not care so much as repairs would be easier. Seeing as how this is going into a Fiero, I would leave no stone unturned with respect to build details in order to avoid any unnecessary trouble.

[pocket-rocket]

I'm sure that amount of paint could possibly clog or at least partially clog a heater core as well.

[flimbob]

I removed the Fiero timing cover and stripped the paint from the water passages. I started looking over the whole design, along with the harmonic balancer I modified. The reason I wanted to use the Fiero timing cover was to eliminate having to cut the decklid and to be able to reuse the alternator and belt routing. I found I was just not comfortable taking the chance that the balancer was modified correctly. I also was concerned that the balancer outer ring would slip over time. There were also issues related to plumbing that frankly I don't understand. My donor vehicle ( 86 Fiero GT auto ) is my daily driver. It is imperative that all work be done prior to pulling the 2.8 out. That means all electrical ( harness and wiring ), plumbing, mechanical linkage, and exhaust needs to be completed on the cradle. I reinstalled the 3500 timing cover and harmonic balancer. I will bite the bullet and purchase the TCE crank trigger. Money is very tight( no job ). It looks like it may be close to August before it all comes together. I am about 90% complete on the harness. I originally thought that my LX9 was going to be complete with all accessories as everything was present when I went to purchase it. It appears that the yard removed these items prior to delivering the motor. In their haste to get them off, they removed the ac bracket and the alternator bracket as well. So, as it stands now, I need to come up with an alternator with bracket, a starter, and an ac compressor with bracket. I have decided that Ben is the best avenue to take regarding tuning. I will be contacting him in a month or so to get the ball rolling. I'm going to be asking lots of questions concerning plumbing as there are some deletions and rerouting to be done.

[flimbob]

I have swapped the valve covers so that they match the original Fiero configuration. The black hard pipe coming from top of water pump that comes from heater core is blocking the ccv hole in the valve cover. It also has some interference caused by the TB adapter as the black hard pipe was originally mounted to the TB. I guess one way of fixing this would be to cut the black hard pipe very close to the top of the water pump and use a flexible hose to connect to the heater core. Then I could use a small air filter in the ccv hole. Any feedback on this?

[flimbob]

I obtained an alternator bracket and found that I will not be able to swap the valve covers around. It appears the bracket interferes with the valve cover vacuum connector. Well I guess going back to the stock location won't be so bad. I won't have to worry about all the interferance issues I';m having now.

[flimbob]

Picked up an ac compressor from the local pick-n-pull. The top 2 bolts work fine, but the bottom bolt does not fit correctly. Others have posted this should not be a problem. Got an alternator and starter from Ebay. They should be here next week. Received and installed the TCE crank trigger. Making good progress.

[flimbob]

Received the alternator late yesterday afternoon. Starter is the only missing piece except for PS delete pulley. None of the Pick-n-Pulls around here have vehicles with LX9 engines. Anyone have an idea how much horsepower is robbed by the PS pump? I'm wondering if I could just leave the pump hooked up and plug the tube. That way if I ever decide to modify my Fiero for power steering, I'll have the pump ready to go.

[CNCguy]

If you were to leave a PS pump on there, I would suggest running a short hose from the pressure side to the return. If you plug the holes it will operate at max pressure, create more hp loss and reduced pump life.

[scrabblegod]

On my wifes 3.4DOHC Fiero, I wanted to keep the stock belt, so I opened up the pump and removed the pump vanes so there would be no pressure. This allowed me to plug the lines and keep the pump full of fluid for lubrication.

Gene

[flimbob]

If the high pressure side of the ps pump was connected to the low pressure side, wouldn't the pressure relief valve bleed the pressure off?

[flimbob]

Got the tranny and engine mated. Both are mounted on the cradle. Mounted the alternator, starter, and ac compressor. Ordered a crank sensor and evap solenoid valve. Still haven't decided what to do about the ps pump. Rewired the fuel injector harness to eliminate the cam sensor. I will need to have an ac hose extension created that will mate between the Fiero long tubes and the 3x00 dual compressor lines. I figure the small extension will allow me to quick change hoses if needed. I also need to get the ac hose sensor installed. I need to research where the sensor need s to be ( high or low side ). Things left to do before removing my existing engine/tranny:
1) Create return style fuel regulator.
2) resolve 440t4 issues.
3) Resolve CTS issue.
4) Obtain a 96 EGR tube.
5) Start exhaust design.