Anyone every heard of a successful 4 cyl swap? I know most who take the time to do engine swaps typically go for 3-4-5 liters, but since I currently have a 2.5L, and have the room, suspension, and pocket-book budget for gas for a 4cyl, I was wondering if anyone's ever dropped a highly impressive 4cyl into their Fiero. For example, and of the Saturn 4's (the 1.9 commonly found in the SC2, SC1, etc, and the 2.2L found in the LSeries and VUE).

Those engines produce nearly twice (if not more) the HP than the old, heavy, DUKE. Plus, since they're already fit for a FWD vehicle, wouldn't it be a bit easier?

Just wondering. ??

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1985 Fiero 2M4
redwhiteandnew.com

Most headcahes start with the wiring and most 4cyl swaps end with the same.

Go for the ecotec 2.2 liter. There is a lot of performance parts for it. Some of the sport compact people are calling the ecotec the next SBC. There is no replacement for displacement, but at $3.00 a gallon it may not hold true.

If the ECOTEC is outside the budget you have set aside the QUAD fours are still around

The problem with the Ecotec you have to have an adapter plate it will not bolt up and if you start adding after market stuff you will lose gas mileage and the wiring is a mess. In the end you end up with a motor that cost more to install than a 3.4 DOHC or a 4.9 or 3.8 that gets the same or worse gas mileage. I was thinking the same thing but decided it would not be worth it to me but it might be for you. I get over 30MPG out of my 2.5 and as long as it runs I will keep it I drive to work every day I can not remember the last time I drag raced so as long as the 2.5 runs gets good mileage and runs down the HWY at 80 with no hiccups it will stay. If yours is bad then I would drive a car with different motors you would like to have and see if you can drive them long enough to check the mileage for yourself. This is just my opinion so don’t hang me if you disagree.

the 1.9L is tough as nails IMHO, I put over 20 lbs of boost on a completely stock twin cam engine, (on accident BTW), anyways, eventually, the motor leaned out too much on 10-15 lbs (also on accident) and I killed three pistons. but it still ran on three cylinders, until finally 2 others let go from boost again. but the rods and crank are undamaged, undamaged after 20+ PSI!!!! I would highly recommend against trying that out for yourself though.

at any rate, the problems with this motor are a few; wiring will be annoying, no one's ever done it and it would suck. there are two versions of this motor, the twin cam, and the single cam. the later model SOHC's have a habit of heads cracking where the cam is held in place towards the passenger side. the twin cams are pretty tough, but both twin and single cams tend to wear valve seals out and become oil burners. also, they don't make anything near twice as much power as a duke. the SOHC makes 100 HP and 114 ft lbs. the DOHC makes 124 HP and 122 ft lbs. stock for stock, if you don't drive above 4K ALL the time, the duke will be much quicker than a twin cam. the SOHC would do ok off the line, but after that I couldn't tell you.

pluses to the 1.9L;

1) awesome, awesome, awesome close ratio 5 spd manual in the twin cams (called the MP3 tranny), weld the differential pin and there are guys making 350+FWHP with these trannys. if you really wanna go awesome, there is also a quaife limited slip for this trans. I can't say enough about how awesome this tranny is, I would LOVE to have it in a fiero with a 3.4 DOHC.
2) there is a great aftermarket for it, lightweight cranks, forged rods and pistons, modified heads and cams, headers, intake manifolds pretty much everything internal can be replaced with something better, lightweight flywheel, heavy duty clutchs, all kinds of good stuff. plus they take to boost fairly well. I've seen 220 FWHP and 210 FW tq on 7 PSI with a Garrett T3 super 60. I'm only shooting for 175-185 FWHP in my saturn, but that's just me.
3) speaking of the motor, it's freaking light. with rods and crank, I can easily pick up and carry around the block by myself, and I only weigh 145 lbs.

other notes, DON'T do this for fuel economy (at least not if you want power too). you WILL be disappointed. Right now, I get 31-33 MPG around town/very light highway driving, but I'm babying it to no end and only getting on it three or so times every 50 miles. If I get on it ALL the time, I still get mid 20's, but that's running rich. When I drop the boost to 4 and lean it out some, I should be able to get high 20's getting on it a lot.

On the bright side, if you had a fiero that only, ONLY weighed 2350 lbs, you could do the same for fuel economy on a SOHC as a S-1. The SOHC saturns get 45-50 MPG highway, and if you lightened a fiero a bit, and swapped in the SOHC with the LONG 5th gear, you should be able to replicate that mileage. but you won't have tremendous power, probably similar to a duke.

I suppose if you really wanted to, you could put in a SOHC with the 1-4 gears of the MP3 with the long overdrive (.605) 5th gear of the MP2. to put that into perspective (FD is 4.063 BTW), you'd have a longer 5th gear than ANY fiero trans. It'd be really close to an izusu 5th, but with a wicked close ratio 1-4 gears. anyways, 2200-2300 lb fiero SOHC, MP3 1-4, MP2 5th, 215/60/15 sized wheels/tires, the right fuel management, and a garrett T3 60 trim 4 PSI (or T25 pushing 6-7 PSI if you wanted lots and lots of low-end torque) and you'd probably run low 15's mid 14's, have all kinds of power from 2K til 4.5K maybe even til redline at 5.5K, have better handling because that motor's light as crap (ok, with the turbo it might, MIGHT be as heavy as a duke.) and still get better mileage than a duke, with a much better trans. I'm sure you'd still get that 45-50 MPG highway, and proably 30-35 MPG around town if you kept your foot off of it.

I'd love to do it if I had the desire, but my fiero is getting a 3.4 DOHC turbo, and i already have a 96 SL2 twin cam turbo, and I don't need another turbo saturn and/or a fiero with a 1.9 SOHC turbo...

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AIM= Fish100770
96 Saturn SL2 Turbo (evil SL2)

My cardomain site: cardomain.com/memberpage/702872

If you are going to use the ecotec, use the ecotech trans too. No adapter plate issues then.

But want you have to deal with custom axles or are they the same? What about the trans do you have to use an auto?

quote Originally posted by cooguyfish: the 1.9L is tough as nails IMHO, I put over 20 lbs of boost on a completely stock twin cam engine, (on accident BTW), anyways, eventually, the motor leaned out too much on 10-15 lbs (also on accident) and I killed three pistons. but it still ran on three cylinders, until finally 2 others let go from boost again. but the rods and crank are undamaged, undamaged after 20+ PSI!!!! I would highly recommend against trying that out for yourself though.

WOW! Any four banger that won't quit until you kill 5 pistons deserves my vote as one tough engine.

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FierOmar

quote Originally posted by FierOmar: WOW! Any four banger that won't quit until you kill 5 pistons deserves my vote as one tough engine.

Let me rephrase, so it makes more sense. It killed three total, but didn't kill all three at one time. it ran on three cylinders for a little while, then it finally killed two others and just ran on one. It did to an extent still run on one cylinder too. it could go about ten miles and hour, and stalled super easy and couldn't idle without using the gas pedal to hold the RPM's up to 2K or so. I wouldn't recomend trying to replicate what happened to me though. anyways, does this make more sense? 1 died, then two more died until a total of three died?