Ill start with pic of my car. Sorry if there over 100k, i dont have anythign to resize at the moment. Sorry.






"No hate-ing on the wing, im selling it $200. IT DOES NOT BELONG ON THIS CAR.

Well... At first I was just going to replace some exhaust manifold gaskets. But then I decided to do a 3800 swap. Ive wanted a fiero all my life, my car is about one year older than I am. The first time I saw this car i knew i had to have one. I got this car at the begining of this summer and have been working my a$$ off trying to get it to how I want it. I got all the body work/ paint and interior finsihed already. I plan to keep this car forever and If I move away from Iowa im going to need a good running engine in this beast. We could argue all day about what the best engine for these cars is but I happen to come acrosse a non supercharged 67k mile 1998 bonneville with some rear end damage. The guy wanted $400 for the engine and I got him down to $350 for everything under the hood. Not that ill need it all, but I bought another bonneville for this swap a month before for $500 and it was just to nice and good running of a car to tear into. So ill be getting alot of parts ill be able to use in the long run for my other cars. ANYWAY,,,I may be starting this thread a tad late but i took pictures of everything ive done so-far. I guess a few owners before me did a stock engine replacement and just mutilated the wireing and the cradle. Everything was done half a$$. Here, ill shut up and show some pictures.

I took the engine out from the top. I should have thought about it a tad more before doing so. But I didnt think my garage roof hoist could support everything.



I definatly do not think this is stock. The person who did the swap "im pretty sure" Welded the bolts going through the front most cradle mounts, which really sucks. If anyone has some god ideas other than drilling it out please let me know!


For the rear mounts, both of them just spun in their holes. "My luck". It took me a bit to figure out I needed to take the carpet out to get to anything. Turns out a previouse owner made a hole to get to the nutt on the other side but this was useless to me. I cut a hole on the side and put a nut splitter on what i thoguht was a nutt and turns out it wasnt a nutt. It was a thick threaded piece of metal that was suppose to be welded to the frame. I put some locking plyers on it and got it off eventually. The otherside I used a air chizzle to cut away the metal and it was just spinning like the other side but i decided to salvage it, i couldnt get my welder out because my garage is that messy....so i drilled a hole through the threaded metal thingy and ran a bnolt through it. I got under the car and it came right off. Im going to fiberglass something over the holes i made. Itl be cool.



Ive got a few 2.8's laying around already and dont need another. And i cant think of any other reason i would need another, cept for my imaginary dune buggy...sooo If anyone wants this engine and transmission Ill let it go for $400. The engine runs very good, ill give you the manifold gaskets. The transmission doesnt slip. The only reason the 2 are dirty is because it hasnt been washed in 20 years and that exhaust leak got on everything. Did i mention the upper intake was ported and somewhat polished?


Has anyone used seats out of a sunfire? I needed new seats and these looked like they fit. Whats awsome was that the stock fiero brackets match perfectly with these sunfire seats. They are pretty much the most comfortable seats ive ever sat in, And they don tlook to bad either!

quote Originally posted by Chris Hodson: Has anyone used seats out of a sunfire? I needed new seats and these looked like they fit. Whats awsome was that the stock fiero brackets match perfectly with these sunfire seats. They are pretty much the most comfortable seats ive ever sat in, And they don tlook to bad either!

yes, I have a set in my car and they are very comfortable, they sit a tad higher up than stock fiero seats (thicker foam?)

Im 6 feet and 4 inches tall, my head just clears by half an inch. I can adjust the seat back and Ill have tons of head room though. When i compared the two seats the sunfire foam was a bit thicker, your right. I dont know how i would be able to fit in one of those chop top fieros lol. But i still want one.

quote I definatly do not think this is stock. The person who did the swap "im pretty sure" Welded the bolts going through the front most cradle mounts, which really sucks. If anyone has some god ideas other than drilling it out please let me know!

I would try to get a grinder in there or break out the cutting torch.
Jason

I should invest in one of those.

quote Originally posted by Chris Hodson: Ill start with pic of my car.

So to whom does the red one belong to?

quote Originally posted by Chris Hodson: I definatly do not think this is stock. The person who did the swap "im pretty sure" Welded the bolts going through the front most cradle mounts, which really sucks. If anyone has some god ideas other than drilling it out please let me know!

If it were me, I think that I would use a cutoff tool or die grinder and locate the center of the bushing sleeve and drill it through first. After that I could turn the drill loose on one side of the bushing sleeve. Do both sides. Then burn the bushings out and cut the pins and drop the cradle.

quote Originally posted by Chris Hodson: For the rear mounts, both of them just spun in their holes. "My luck". It took me a bit to figure out I needed to take the carpet out to get to anything. Turns out a previouse owner made a hole to get to the nutt on the other side but this was useless to me. I cut a hole on the side and put a nut splitter on what i thoguht was a nutt and turns out it wasnt a nutt. It was a thick threaded piece of metal that was suppose to be welded to the frame. I put some locking plyers on it and got it off eventually. The otherside I used a air chizzle to cut away the metal and it was just spinning like the other side but i decided to salvage it, i couldnt get my welder out because my garage is that messy....so i drilled a hole through the threaded metal thingy and ran a bnolt through it. I got under the car and it came right off. Im going to fiberglass something over the holes i made. Itl be cool.

Most of us go through the frame rail on the side (in the fender well) to access that area but what was done before works as well, just make sure to get a good seal and douse some por 15 (or rust convertor) along with some paint on the back side to help prevent rust through.

nice hood, I actually cut mine right off a $400 3" rise camaro hood (its OK, i only paid $50 for it)



yeah, it does still need a little work.

When working on the front cradle bolts, or whatever is actually there, just try to preserve some roundness of a hole under all the random welding. If you cant be prepared for some serious fabrication work rebuilding the cradle mounts.

Thats freakin cool slow. It looks much wider than mine. I saw someone on the forum who glassed his hood to his fenders then cut the side molding on his fenders and it all goes up as one. I though it was cool. Thought id share that. So about the fron cradle mounts that are welded, i think i can use a stone grinder with a flat top and take it down till the bracket without damaging it to much "if the air chizzle doesnt work first" I will post picks later today after i power-wash everything. By the way, does anyone know where i could possibly pick up a "flipper" front end?

normsfiberglass.com

I ground the bolts off flush and hammered the hell out of it with the air gun. NO RESULTS. im thinking the person who made these welds thought "ahhh oh well, im never going to have to mess with it again" To that person i say..... "Thanks...." very sarcastically. Anyway, DarkHorizon mentioned he got his off by cutting the bolt on both sides and working from there. So this is what im going to be doing. Once i drop this cradle im going to rebuild the area where my battery box once set. Ive got a ton of diamond plate laying around. Im still waiting for my engine. So ill paint the engine bay and cradle up and stuff while im waiting. Any ideas on what to do with the exhaust? In reguards to it being loud, or totally silent or somewhere in between? I think im kind of liking the silent idea. More so cops are not attrackted. What you guys think though. heres some pics.



And unrelated, i took this in davenport...this is sad.

Ok, no one else will , so I`ll ask, who`s the very pretty girl in the top pics...?

I thougth she was the owner till I saw the pic with the hairy legs and I was like uhhh o.k.???? good looking g/f

Ha, i own the hairy legs. The cute girl in the pic owns me. Thank goodness i own the car. & im definatly apart of the girls and fieros thread lol. I guess ill keep throwing pics of her in here to keep this build interesting!

Anyway, I finally got my engine today. The guy still has some misc parts i need but i can get those later. Its really cold and rainy so ill power wash the motor tomarrow. I need to build something i can roll the engine around on for a bit while i do the wireing. Im going to have both engines side by side while i do the wireing. i need to move my car out of the garage and put the new engine in the garage then move the car back in before i drop the cradle. This is where ill start taking more pictures.
The new transmission has an over drive gear, the shifter in my fiero doesnt have a setting for this, if you know what im talking about how do i get around this? I can fiberglass parts but is the shifter cable long enough to use all the gears?
Heres the engine.


Heres a pic of me and my other project

There is room in the stock fiero shifter for another gear, like there is a notch below the 1.

------------------

It's Done!!
Time to iron out the kinks.....

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/072877.html

I got the engine into the garage today also I did all the detailing i cared to do to the engine bay at this moment. I patched a hole with some glass and went over some rusty spots with resin to kill the cancer. Im ready to drop the cradle and begin doing "real work" to this car. I did run into something interesting though when pushing my car bcack into the garage, i notice it wasnt moving very well and... well look at this..

I didnt take it apart yet but wheel bearings were falling out. i can put it back together but this gives me a reason to buy new ones! might as well.
Heres the engine bay now. That blue was some overspray. I still need to sand all that off and repaint it so it doesnt matter much.

Heres the two engines next to eachother. The 3800 looks like it has a pretty heavy duty manifold. It just looks solid.

They seem to look about the same size. The transmission on the 3800 looks alot bigger though.

So next time i work on this car im going to drop that cradle and work those welded bolts out. Ill post more pics when i get to that pont.
I have a helper now too! Hell yeas.

Have a good evening everyone!

wheel bearings are NOT designed to work without the support of an axle shaft going through them. They will destory themselfs if you try to move it without the axles in them!

Ive got alot more done. I did alot of cleaning. I finally dropped the cradle. I still need to get some parts off of the donor car wherever it is. The wire looms coming off the 3800 has been cut from the connectors from whoever took the engine out. ive been reading up on Ryan Gick's wireing schematics. I need to take a trip to the junkyard for some axles. I need to find out what transmission I have. There is 7 shifter spaces i guess. it could be 1-2-3-d-r-n-p or could the third gear be an overdriev gear? Im not sure. Ill have to look at the donor car or have one of you guys tell me. i found a small radiator i can use for my transmission fluid lines. Im feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment so im just going to do one thing at a time. Im going to mount the engine first. heres some pics. Give me all your thoughts! Help is awsome! And im thankfull for it!
I made this when I had trouble getting to spark plugs. This may be helpful in the futur.

Whats this?

And this?

Heres a floor shot.

"cleaner" engine

Empty Bay.

Cut wire loom off of 3800 harness. Is this a big issue?

Heres a colored pic of whats goin on.

The front was welded on and i cant get the pins out, if i burn them out how do i replace them, with what, where do i get it an dhow much does it cost?

Just throwing around some ideas with the tranny line cooler.

Black and white photos dont really need to be resized. They are around 56kb off the camera im using and it saves me trouble.

I cant wait till i get to work on body mods again.

When you run out of places to write down females numbers you resort to spray painting them on plywood lol.


Thats all for now. More to come tomarrow. And if anyone wants to do do my wire harness for free. I think id be up to letting you have a go at it. I want this car on the streeeeeeet.

Heres a link for removing control arm bushings and installing poly, please read the comments from other members as you don`t have to completely torch them , (you can) (but messy) in either case it will give you a good idea of how to do the cradle bushings your asking about removing, the bushings have a metal sleeve around them from 84-87 , 88`s are solid. As far as the trans goes, IIRC you said it was from a 98 bonneville --non super-charged? So I can say its not a 4t65eHD if thats what you where wondering. Everything Iv`e fooled with has been 99SC and up. I like your trans cooler, but just thought I would throw this out there, it needs air hitting/cooling it from somewhere, thats why alot of them are installed in front of the radiator . (cool idea though) .. Looks like your off to a really great start. If your going to sub out the harness , Loyde, PBJ, Ryan, ect , ect all come to mind. This is the part that takes a little time. It`s all in the manuals/diagrams/ect , just takes a little time is all. I really like the body modifactions you made to it--wish I would have spent more time in that dept, maybe this winter...
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Archives/Archive-000001/HTML/20050818-2-062976.html

LOL, thank you for the information on the transmission. And the compliments! Im full of ideas for body mods. I was just settin ghte radiator there just so my mind has some pictures to work with. I plan to cut out the slanted part of the trunk and bring it up level..or flat. Im going to make a hole for the cooler on one side of the trunk and then install a good fan on the other side. Ill show you what i mean when i get home. Ill route some cooler air from somewhere else so its not sucking in hot exhaust air assuming its going to be a problem in the first place. Im insulating my exhaust with wrap so it may not be a problem. Thats another thing. Its personal preference but I cant decide if I want my car loud or not. Prolly the last thing i should be worying about right now but I like to gather parts before hand so when the time comes to doing it I can just...do it.
Gather round, i have a story.... My friend camren has a fastback and was driving in some rain and couldnt see well. He was going through a construction zone somewhere and a the leg of a large metal sign cought his tire and the sign sliced through his rear, shattered the window he just replaced and messed stuff up pretty bad. That was the bad part cuz this kid put his heart and sole into this car.
The good thing... The president of the KNIFE club was following right behind him and camren didnt know it. He asked if he was ok and where he lived. HE dropped off matching parts to fix his car the next day for free. SO cool. How often does that happen when you mess something up lol. Good story.

Well... Back to school. Lit sucks.

get alumi. cradle mount it take all the play out . you will notice if you don't and put in a bigger motor . i have to take my 3800 out over the winter so i can get the alumi cradle mount in there . if i get on hard the shifts alittle from the rear end . i have rebuilt everything back there but the cradle mounts
rodney dickman has them

im pretty sure i have two front cradle bushings that are poly, that thats all i have, you have to re-use the metal sleave that your bushings are in, but i could ship these to you for like $5 shipped.

you just press them into your existing bushings, PM or email me if interested, sorry i dont have the rear poly bushings.

matthew

Trunk Idea. Use your imagination. "Thats a tranny cooler" btw

easier to mount the cooler up front like I did, it works great! there are even little holes to run the hose through.

BTW hurry up and get to the hard part, your wasting time!

That took like 2 min to draw in paint lol. Its just an idea. Did you use rubber hose or metal lines to run it to the front? I was just going to run a few rubber hoses like the ones already there because they are cheap. I kinda wanted to do something that looks cool to. BUT thigns are going hella slow! My air compressor pooped out on me. I can see myself on half the cradle but the othe half still needs work. Its really expensive to get things sand blasted around here. In my down time im going to take the things i dont need off the engine. Im hopeing i can get the power steering pump to work on my berretta wich needs a working pump, so i can sell it and use that cash for my fiero. Someone is sending me a few bushings "thank you". Maybe i should start on the wiring while my compressor is down. The majoriy of my tools run off of air so im limited in the things i can get done. Maybe ill clean my garage a bit so i can move that blazer over and have more room to work. Actually scratch all that, im going to go take care of my drive shafts. Thats what ill do.

A little articale about trans coolers at the top of page. http://dtcc.cz28.com/tech.htm and a little something for your axles, http://dtcc.cz28.com/swap/axles.htm

I loosely followed ryans axle information for my swap, and the axle was the wrong size. The beretta axle was very short for me, because you have a normal trans, just grab a transport van pass side axle, according to fieroflyer they bolt right in.

Thank you. I was reading through that and was thinking, hmm i dont htink this is going to work. Because my driver's side axle did fit. Thank you dark, thats exactly what i needed to see! Off to the junkyard i go! ......I wish my compressor was working. Im going to see about getting the cradle sandblasted.

Ah this isnt good. I cant figure out whats wrong with my compressor?!!??! I did get the pass axel off a transport for $15 though. Im starting to tear down my wire harness. I work third shift at a hotel so i think i can get alot done at a pretty good rate.

It was the magnetic starter. I ordered a new one and it should be in on the 8th. I swapped valve covers after cleaning them. They look good the stock color so thats what it will stay for now. Ive got another helper also, ill post pics on the 8th.

Ive got a question... For the mount on the drivers side on the inside of the cradle... is there a mount from some sort of van " i hear" that would work for this? I just need one more mototr mount. the one i thought i was going to use is actually..crap. its all ripped to shreds. WOW i need to take some pics.

I am sorta useless here as far as the magic van mount, but I just made my own little bracket here anyway.

There are a few styles you could use, one would work mostly like the stock one, and hook on the rear of the engine block, the other would be like a little angle peice and hook onto the front of the cradle.

here are some pictures.


this is purple reign's mount. The one at the top that looks like an L, goes right on the rear of the motor, sorta right where the power steering was. It then drops down to the stock v6 or 4cyl motor mount.

Look around my last few pages for all of my mounts, thats all my thread really is.

Now for my computer. I have the 4t60-E transmission. Does this mean I cannot use my Stock Fiero computer? Or do i need to get ahold of the donor cars computer?

Heres a thread on my mounting and axles. https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/078498.html

quote Originally posted by Chris Hodson: Now for my computer. I have the 4t60-E transmission. Does this mean I cannot use my Stock Fiero computer? Or do i need to get ahold of the donor cars computer?

The Fiero computer is history with the 3800SC---the 4t60-E is a good question, I have the 65eHD and haven`t ever looked into it to be honest, I have a good guess--but don`t want to mislead you, this is a good Loyde or Ryan question.

quote Originally posted by Chris Hodson: Now for my computer. I have the 4t60-E transmission. Does this mean I cannot use my Stock Fiero computer? Or do i need to get ahold of the donor cars computer?

The stock computer had no chance as soon as you picked up a 90 degree, DIS engine. The Fieros (crappy, old) ECM won't run the 3800 or the trans, not to mention it is slower and has less resolution than the donor computer.

The donor car computer is by far the way to go, it is already calibrated for the final drive ratio of the trans you have, you know it has the correct control strategy to run the 4T60E and it also has the proper calibration to run your swap engine smoothly and efficiently (provided you keep it pretty much stock)

Good Luck!
Kurt

yea, the person who got my engine for me didnt think to grad the comp, i need to get the comp and the connectors because mine were cut off. This is going slow right now though, school is getting in the way lol. this should be done.