262's 85 Fiero SE LX9 F23 swap thread lots of pics

[ericjon262]

I'm running C5 fronts on all four corners right now, I forget how far my adapter offsets them, but it's somewhere around 0.195" the caliper bracktets required some clearancing to fit, as notated by the red on the picture below, the only thing I really need to figure out right now, is some kind of parking brake. I have a C5 drum in hat setup, but I'm not sure it will work with the C5 front caliper. I might use a willwood spot caliper. also, the bolt spread for the C5 caliper is slightly more than 5", what I had made works, but spreading them an additional .01-05" might make them fit a little better. I can email you the cad file if you want it.









right now, I'm working on the cooling and fuel systems, getting them to a more reasonable spec, I have a new fuel filter setup that I'm installing, as well as new injector screens, the new filter is a pair in series, one 40 micron for "the big stuff", and a 6 micron for everything else, all E-85 compliant as well. I've got a couple of slow cooling system leaks to track, but I think I'll have all that done tonight. as well as have the fuel filters mounted.

[neophile_17]

Damn man, looking good! I don't check in here nearly as much as I should. Really liking the new wheels and hoses! I'm a little curious about the tires though- are they for test fit and around town? They look like all seasons but I could be wrong.

Also, as another guy that's silently brooding about brake upgrades I'm curious about the details on yours.

Anyways, hope you get back to driving soon!

[ericjon262]

lots of stuff going on this week, gonna try and get the cooling system finalized, I'm currently waiting on some -12 45 degree fittings for the heater lines, and recirc lines, I've also ordered a new pair of fuel filters, a 40 micron, and 6 micron, and new screens for the injectors, I also discovered tonight that the lower port on my wastegate is leaking like mad. I ordered a replacement and should have it by friday I hope. I also ordered some stainless tubing to make fuel lines for the new filter arrangement. the next big thing I'm going to tackle is the intercooler mount and locaction, with the new subframe and engine mounts, the intercooler no longer fits where I had it with the same mount, I've got a couple of ideas, but I'm not sure what I'll do yet.

Not an easy place to install a tube flare...



no more hose clamps...




New hoses



heater core supply line





general hose routing

[ericjon262]

welded up a new thermostat housing, we'll see if the welds are watertight...







the outlet is now approx parallel with the scattershield, which should make hose routing easier.

I made a surge tank, I'm gonna try and get it mounted up tomorrow, I have all the fittings on order, and will get a ton of hose from a local supplier. this tank will kind of replace the coolant tree on the water pump housing.





the car is back on four wheels again, I spent a ton of time adapting C5 front brakes to the rear of the car, now it has C5 fronts on all four, should stop on a dime and give 9 cents change. I love the look of the new wheels, but want to lower the the car about 1" to close up the wheel gap some.

[ericjon262]

the engine is back in the car, I have some small details that need to be ironed out, but it's there. I also fixed lots of little things while the engine was out, the shifter is now way tighter thanks to a tack weld and a bushing on the transmission end of the mechanism, and the engine mounts are probably an order of magnitude stronger and will provide much better anti-rotation characteristics than the previous setup. I may still add a dog bone up top as well, but I'm unsure if I will do that yet.

Are you building the scatter shield because you expect to turn unreasonable RPM or beat the heck out of it at the drag strip? Or because you're going to make a flywheel from scratch?
FYI, GM turned the LGO Quad4's to 7600 from the factory... I *believe* they used the same flywheel casting as the V6/60's.
Not that a scatter shield is a bad idea... just wondering what's driving your requirement.

it's more for piece of mind than anything else, I I'll determine how high I spin it when I see where power drops off... I've got 18x9.5's going on the back of the car, so traction will be a thing, and I plan to take it too all the tracks eventually. when I built the shield, I integrated it into my front transmission mount, which had to be re-built for the 88 cradle swap.



I'm getting ready to fab up a new thermostat housing that points the hose down over the shield as well. I feel much safer with it now, if the flywheel lets go, it has quite a bit of material to go through before it gets to me.

here's a teaser pic of what's to come... (it's on jackstands, not really that high...)



As much as I hate to say it, not much else has changed, been working long hours and haven't had a chance to get much done.

[Will'sFiero]

Are you building the scatter shield because you expect to turn unreasonable RPM or beat the heck out of it at the drag strip? Or because you're going to make a flywheel from scratch?
FYI, GM turned the LGO Quad4's to 7600 from the factory... I *believe* they used the same flywheel casting as the V6/60's.
Not that a scatter shield is a bad idea... just wondering what's driving your requirement.

[ericjon262]

got the rear transmission mount finished, and the engine mount is almost done. I threw it in and realized I don't have much clearance to the axle in the region to the left of the left side upright, so I am going to notch the tube to make more clearance. I'm pretty much done with the scattershield, I just need to do some final welding, then I'm going to integrate the front trans mount into it. hopefully that will be done tomorrow and I can focus on relocating the strut tops inboard for the 88 cradle and fixing the cage nut that broke loose.

[ericjon262]

No need to overhang the block, as the crank flange is flush. There isn't enough internal clearance for a shield.

agreed, it wasn't something I was giving too much thought towards, thats a bummer on the internal shield, that would be way easier.

[Will'sFiero]

No need to overhang the block, as the crank flange is flush. There isn't enough internal clearance for a shield.

[ericjon262]

Your shield will need to extend toward the block over the aluminum bolt bosses.
I don't think it will need to be as wide as the sleeves are long

I planned to overhang the bolt bosses, possibly even overlapping the engine block a bit. I don't want to go too far with the shield until I have a mock up block for alignment/clearance purposes. I'm also thinking about the possibility of an internal shield if there is enough ring gear clearance.

[Will'sFiero]

Your shield will need to extend toward the block over the aluminum bolt bosses.
I don't think it will need to be as wide as the sleeves are long

[ericjon262]

coil mount version 2.0





ugly, but worked...

then came version 3.0, which I forgot to take a picture of...

then version 3.1. which was just a shortened version of 3.0



but, 3.1 wouldn't work on the front and back, just the back, so, version 3.0 was used in the front, 3.1 in the back, forming version 3.1.1



much cleaner., very functional, and should be able to use off the shelf LS2 plug wires.

at this point, I'm probably about 50% done with the wiring, which I have also made much cleaner looking.(the mess int he pictures is just part of the process) I've also finalized the location of the flexfuel sensor.

I also picked up another F23 and began working on a scattershield for the bellhousing, nothing fun yet, just a bell with some heavy sleeves around the bolts.



hopefully tomorrow will be as productive as today was.

[ericjon262]

Then just tuck the trunk under the corner of the console... don't even need to poke a hole in anything if you're not concerned about some of the harness being exposed.

poke wasn't really a good word, really meant notch.

[Will'sFiero]

that's pretty much the plan, I was just gonna poke a hole in the console though. I decided shortly after posting this, that this install would be very function over form.

Then just tuck the trunk under the corner of the console... don't even need to poke a hole in anything if you're not concerned about some of the harness being exposed.

[ericjon262]

Use the stock routing, but just poke a hole in the carpet and run the trunk under the carpet and behind the center console to keep it completely out of sight

that's pretty much the plan, I was just gonna poke a hole in the console though. I decided shortly after posting this, that this install would be very function over form.

the progress:

LS2 coil mounts, the long term plan is to mount them to the valve cover like that would be stock on an LS2



more progress on the wiring, it's shaping up nicely so far, just slow going as expected...







like I said, function over form. that being said, it also won't just be a massive ball of wire either..most of the mess you see here has already been cleaned up, but it doesn't really show in the pictures like it should.