AaronZ34

Here's mya 1988 Fiero GT. The best/last year, with the best option package. Factory leather seats, hardtop, and a 5-speed. The factory 135hp 2.8l OHV V6 is bad. God even hates it. It is slower than ****, heavy, unreliable, ugly, leaks everything, smokes a lot, won't pass emissions, idles like a cammed Honda, sounds like a bucket of marbles past 5,000rpm (If you can manage to get it there), etc. It's bad.

So I do an engine swap. The brand new crate engine, a 3.4 DOHC V6, is for a 95 Grand Prix GTP, making 210hp/215tq stock with 9.25:1 SCR. Since I'm way smarter than any GM engineer, I decided to fix it. So I took off the brand new heads. On goes a fully ported/polished set of heads, flowing 325/227 cfm at half inch. On top of those goes a set of 48g lifters, 40% lighter than stock (Reciprocating mass is bad). The cams are stock, no one makes cams for it. Then goes on a 96+ intake manifold, which has larger, shorter runners with 3 times the plenum volume, and a brand new Northstar throttle body, which is 75mm (Stock is 64). Fueling is done by a Walbro 255 intank, and flow matched 42.5 injectors (Stock is 23), all controlled by a Split Second FTC1 piggyback. Getting it out is a set of tuned equal length headers that I built, with 1.75" X 20" primaries, into dual 2.5" collectors. These Y into the Garrett GT35R dual ball-bearing, water-cooled turbocharger. It is one big, expensive, bada$$ turbo. Then there is a TiAL Sport 38mm external wastegate, with a 8.7psi spring. The charge side leads to a 800hp water to air intercooler, then to the HKS SSQV blowoff valve. I used household 9/16" copper tubing to runt he IC water system to the front of the car, where it runs through a Kawasaki sportbike radiator. On the power draw side, I've removed power steering and the A/C system.

I put down 417whp, and 427wtq at 14psi, with a really bad tune. The 1.25 correction factor was because the dyno is in Colorado. Since turbo cars are still affected by altitude, but only half as much as N/A cars, the more realistic figure is 376whp. Still brutally fast in a 2800lb car that hooks up like it's got slicks. I've got the tune worked out much better now, I'm hoping to put down around the same numbers, but at 10psi.







Old piece of ****:



New piece of ****:












Powdercoated cradle, engine mounts, and fuel lines. Because that's how I roll.









Buying headers is for people with money. I don't have any money. My Fiero has all of my money.

AaronZ34

Other misc mods:

Stock oil pan with the cuts made. I want to keep the stock drainplug and the area around it because it's easy, and recessed. Otherwise it wouldn't be recessed, and I'd have to go find a weld in bung.


With the cutout portions removed:


With the new 10" X 5.75" X 1/5" box tack welded in, with the stock drainplug part. I will not be welding this unfortunately because it is too thin for my MIG.



Modified oil pump. I bought some 1/2" ID black steel fittings from Home Depot ($1.59), and welded them into the oil pickup tube to gain 1.5" of depth. Yah it isn't the prettiest solution on earth, but it won't add much head loss to the pump, and should work fine.




And now for the pretty parts. The Y-pipe, turbocharger, wastegate, wastegate dump, and 3" downpipe:




Oil pan powdercoated:






The entire charge piping finished. From the get-go, I wanted the kit to fit under the decklid, retain my stock trunk, and absolutely minimize charge pipe volume.



The Y-pipe, turbocharger, and wastegate are installed. As you can see, I also wrapped a section of the Y-pipe, where it goes in between the tranny and shift cable. Hopefully this will keep the cable from getting too hot.




And the view from the bottom. This is where the intercooler will be, you can see the blue silicone connector at the turbo outlet.





I also installed the water pump for the intercooler. You can see the bottom and side of the IC as well:









Here is how the car sits right now. I got the turbine blanket on, the huge 4" inlet, the 3.4 DOHC V6 beauty cover, and the bigass AMG exhaust tips.

AaronZ34

Now that those with 56k have burned in hell....

Here is the dyno chart. Look at that tune baby!



And here are some videos. The highway sprint was done at 8.7psi, with the crappy tune. I've since got the tune much better.

Idle/freerev: http://videos.streetfire.net/video/8...rbo_193915.htm

0-75 getting on the highway: http://videos.streetfire.net/video/8...rbo_193913.htm

Dyno vid (4th gear): http://videos.streetfire.net/video/8...rbo_194049.htm

con

I like your cat and I want more pics of the 55 chevy. Thanks for breaking it down for us like were retards. :1

seerex

NOOB OF THE YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BigBird

Awesome setup. Good writeup too. When is it going to the track?

AaronZ34

I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not....So....I'll just keep my mouth shut....

I don't think the breakdown was that bad, it can be quite confusing looking under the decklid, trying to figure out WTF is going on with all of the hoses and ----. At any rate, that was basically a cut and paste from other forums. I was on a budget, however, since I did all of the work myself (Minus the aluminum welding), I actually fared pretty well. I was able to use top shelf components, top shelf quality, and get top shelf results. I basically kept to my goals, which was to have the entire swap quiet enough and reliable enough to daily drive, fit under the stock decklid, retain the stock trunk (Without burning the ---- inside of it), keep the charge pipe volume to an absolute minimum, and take every route possible to reduce lag. Although the turbo doesn't come on hard until 4,000rpm, anywhere above that and the lag is not even noticeable. I'm overall happy with how it drives, although I do wish the turbo would come on a bit sooner. But that's the price I pay for picking a large turbocharger, and running it at low pressure ratios and flow.

I'm pretty much done with the Fiero though, and should be getting a new job here pretty soon, so I'm hoping to sell the Fiero, and embark on a new project. I want to build my own car, from the ground up. Carbon fiber frame, mid mounted RWD LSX, and a target weight of 1500lbs in a full size, 2 door, 2 seater.

As requested, here are pics of the 55 (By the way, good catch!). As you said, it is a 55 Bel Air, 2 Door hardtop with posts. It is my father and I's project car. It has a 406ci small block, on a relatively stock rebuild (400 + .030, mild comp cam, mild port and 2.02 valves on the stock heads). To liven it up a bit, I put on a small Weiand blower, a Demon 750 carb, and a full MSD ignition. The sound, and the power, are spectacular. For being such a cheap, and way undersized blower, it's ------- awesome! Right now the engine is out of the car, the front clip is off, and the interior is gutted while it awaits a frame-off restoration. But we're in no hurry, as you can tell (The dates in the camera are correct...






How it sits now:

IntaCooler

you got some nice ----, but you still get the douche of the year award for wearing a button up shirt outside in winter

con

that 55 is nice, I would beat your fiero like a red hair'd step child if it was mine. Good work

AaronZ34

Thanks The 55 has taken a back seat recently, as my Dad decided our garage needed to be bigger, so we've basically double the square footage from the pic above. It's still too small. He also bought another project for us, a 1976 Honda CL360 motorcycle. So I've been toying with that, got it running just the other day. I am also midway through a Fiero 3.4 DOHC V6 swap for a guy in Oklahoma, and I have a friend's Fiero sitting in my garage with a 4.6l 32 valve V8 sitting next to it. Northstar baby!

As for the shirt...Uhhh...I think it was actually fairly warm out that day, I know I drove the car all of the way to Denver, so the roads must have been clear, as Fieros don't really do snow. Here are some pics from that night. I don't remember much, I went out with a friend and his single mom, whose date ended up dropping like $300 between steaks and drinks




And with the friend's Fiero, soon to get the N*



Thanks, it needs a lot of work. I'm actually fairly nice to it, it's honestly too fast to really ---- around in. The brakes and suspension just aren't up to the task. Plus, the Fieros don't handle very well. They do for a stock 80s car, but once you toss a lot of power in the mix, they are very unpredictable, and ---- turns south really fast. So I try not to screw around in it, and I don't street race at all.

I may take it to the track one of these days, but I'm not sure if I want to subject it to that abuse for a few numbers. The Fiero launches like it's got AWD, I get very minimal tire spin. This breaks ---- lol.