quote Originally posted by darkhorizon: Going out to take pictures, and explain were I am making my mounts to go on the cradle. Its "on" the cradle, just not bolted to it right now. I have it shimmed and leveled and straight on, so I can make the mounts tommorow. DOWN WITH WEST COAST FIERO MOUNTS !!!!! I am hoping to prove wrong the 10+ people that have told me to buy WCF mounts. I WILL mount my motor for less than $20. I should change this thread to "The real economy engine swap"

Hope this car is not going to be a daily driver or meant to be reliable.

quote Originally posted by MstangsBware: Hope this car is not going to be a daily driver or meant to be reliable.

Why... if one can weld how much do you think that it should cost? Now, he hasn't stated how is going to do it for less than 20 bucks, of course, but if its just solid mounting *shrugs*

quote Originally posted by carbon: Why... if one can weld how much do you think that it should cost? Now, he hasn't stated how is going to do it for less than 20 bucks, of course, but if its just solid mounting *shrugs*

Well-I figured for 20 bucks its going to have to be soilid mounted, can you say vibrationnnnnnnnnnnnn. But he may have some poly that he got for free so that may be why its only going to cost 20 bucks.

quote some poly for free

close, I found a big stick of rubber stuff. imagine a 1.25 inch diameter hotdog, with a .75inch hole through the center.

Its comparable to poly I would say, but no where near as rigid. I expect good durability. I also doubt it would cost much if one was to find it for sale somewhere. There should be plenty of pictures on the way when its all going down this week.

Hey, worth a shot. If you have trouble with your mounts you can always go to plan B.

Best of luck. I was gonna make mine but decided to buy them once I got into it the other day.

Thats my mount idea, for the mounts that I will have parallel to the ground. Its not anywhere to scale, I think the rubber is alot bigger in the picture than it should be.

Would really like some constructive input on this idea.

The skinny brown line is the cradle, its going inbetween the grey washer and the rubber, i just didnt draw it right.

[This message has been edited by darkhorizon (edited 06-19-2006).]

Run down to the local zone, go to the motor mount section and pop open every small box you see, you will find a plethera of options, in addition to the '78 dodge 318 engine mount, I found several small but sturdy options, including zone part # 2337,2393, 2394 which I chose. Im using the stock front engine mount with a custom cradle attatchment, near stock location tranny mount with modified brackets, a mount under the AC compressor bracket, a mount on the cradle that ties to the top of the tranny bracket for hefty torque control, and I havent figured out where the rear engine torqe control will but, but it might end up just being a dogbone. So far, using parts and steel I had laying around, my total mounting cost has been less than $20.

The one problem I see is that I mounted the engine a little low, so if I loose torque control, the engine could hypotheticaly rotate far enough to run the CV inner joints into the cradle. Had I noticed this before I would have raised it a little. I might still shim it up, I'll have to see how things look.

Yes, I am on my way down there in a few hours, going to wait for some responses back from some of my friends with piles of parts bigger than mine to see if they have anything laying around.
ANCHOR 2310 LLT $10.99
ANCHOR 2393 LLT $6.99
ANCHOR 2394 LLT $7.17

Nice call on those part numbers Adam, I think I can stay right around 21 bucks if I get 3 of those $7 mounts. Are you still doing a 3800 swap?

Why not use a mini van front mount? the u-shape will work with the stock fiero mount

OR

try a 71- 80 dodge truck motor mount. it has a thread on both sides bolt one to the stock plate and the other end to the bracket you make for the engine...

quote try a 71- 80 dodge truck motor mount. it has a thread on both sides bolt one to the stock plate and the other end to the bracket you make for the engine...

thats the plan as of 4:00pm 6/19........ off to autozone to find some for those truck mounts.

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Well, thats just some pictures of it shimmed into place. No mounts around it yet.

looking good so far (keep up the good work) mounting around the ac bracket will be the easiest mount to do, If you weld a piece of angle iron 2x2 to the subframe will give you tons of choices in mounts, What every you do make sure you get the height right and not too low or your oil filter will interfere with the subframe and you will have to do them over again.









A couple of pics on my setup with my back mount. on this setup you can pretty much use a bunch of versions in mounting even go with the 2 way setup of your first idea. The angle iron I got free so the that mount cost me 19bucks, Those stupid GM mounts are expensive for just 1.

your lucky to be using the 99 wire harness (way easier to work with then the 97 harness) Btw did your engine come with a starter ? Nothing like that came with mine . those tripods on your transmission, Keep those close and dear, Those bad boys will save you a ton of money and your lucky to have those included with your engine, I had to spend $120 bucks just to obtain those freaking things (1 I lucked out on and found on a car in the j yard $15bucks) The other I had to buy the whole entire axle ($105) just for that stupid tripod cup.


keep us updated on this swap, I might do my tranny shift bracket this weekend, Im defaintly fabbing my own.

[This message has been edited by 86fieroEarl (edited 06-20-2006).]

Awe, you beat me to my idea of welding angle onto the frame! I just did that and didnt check my post, but I am in love with my front mounts I just finished today. I welded in some angle to the frame, then set my big truck mounts on that, and put some brackets together on them, I think they look absolutly awesome.

Yesterday I swapped pulleies around on my superchargers, pulled the 3.4 off my GTP, and tossed it on my fiero blower, and put the stock (3.8) back on the GTP. My GTP didnt have anything to support the small pulley, so my engine now loves me when it goes wide open throttle.

here are a few pictures of what I have done for the front mounts, lets just say that heavy duty doesnt begin to explain these suckers.

[This message has been edited by darkhorizon (edited 06-23-2006).]

quote Originally posted by darkhorizon:

Remind me to start locking my garage at night so you stop stealing my designs



I got the rest of my mounts made up, you should check out my thread see how yours compare.

BTW, I still need a pulley for my SC, as mine was bent, 3.4 or maybe 3.8 lemme know if you come across any.

Ok, mounts are just about done, I will get pictures up after I paint them and get the motor fully hung by them so you can see them in action

I found some free cv shafts at a friends house, out of a caviler. I think the pass side lines up perfect, its just a question of the tripots and shafts lining up right? Has anyone used a caviler axel shaft for a swap before?

I dunno about those shafts, but a drivers side stock Fiero auto shaft will plug right in. It looks a little small (by that I mean the diameter of the shaft) for the job, but I dont know if the other shafts you're supposed to use are any stronger.


How about the VATs on an 01, do I just need to feed the right resistance into that pin on the ECM or does it expect some special signal from the vats module?

Final cradle assembly today, just inside waiting for some paint to dry.

Axles and some accessory belt stuff to tidy up, then she is going to get wired up/put in the car (whichever i feel like doing first).

Final mount pictures soon.

Well Ive already had mine in the car three times

Also I got the wiring 90% done today, Ive got the belts planned out, CV shafts hopefuly planned, and coolant tubes are in the works.

I wish you would like call me and talk to me about how you did your wiring, because I am sure you could at least give me some direction as to what I need t do.

here are my fancy mounts, painted in gloss black.

Well, im at work until about 7, so maybe I will try and call you later if Im not too tired but heres the jist of it.

for now my explanation got very very lengthy, so I decided to put it on your wiring questions thread

And the total bill comes to $21 for all my mounts, not poly, but I think I will like the rubber better anyway.

Everything is getting really close now. I have all the main things done or really clsoe to done now. The body is fully preped, I have belts ready to go on, and my exhaust is on order. I am all ready to get this thing finished in less than a weekend or at tops 2. New due date is the 16th of july.

Got alot of new pictures coming here in a few minutes.

How goes it?

Mine is moving, more slowly lately though. I ordered the muffler (3" in dual 2.5 out) and some additional tubing today. I also pulled the manifolds, you really should to port these if you havent, probably %35+ of the port it blocked off, its just stupid.

I also discovered that in addition to my belt SC pulley, the smooth idler mount is broken, so now im waiting for ed morad to send me that too before it can be on the road.

Still havent decided where to put the coils either ....

going fine, I have everything figured out, I was going to order my 3inch in, dual 3 inch out muffler, its a flowtech that is 14inchs wide, but I decided against it for the time being. I dont want to get an cheap aftermarket exhaust that will just make a ton of noise, but I dont want somthing that will be overly restrictive. Its all about the blower lol.

I have all the parts for my last axle, thats tommorow, so I will end up with everything put together other than wiring and my tensoner bracket, and obviously exhaust. I need to get some way of bolting the cradle to the car, as I couldnt save any for the bolts on removal.

Ok, new list of things to do before I can get this project done

Run trans lines
Run feed fuel line
make exhaust downpipe
buy some random coolant hose hookups
wait on my "welder" to weld the tensioner bracket
Put the transmission and c500 connectors into the harness
Put harness on motor, and run main constant power lines.
bolt on throttle body
Make trans shift components
Plug water pump coolant inlet


Extended shopping list:

Passenger side coolant hose
*******************************************
Kelly/Springfield:
XL-1004

Goodyear:
62053

Napa:
NBH 7620

Dayco:
71696

AC Delco:
26030X

Metric Interchange:
0096931
*********************************************************

Coolant T fill point
CV axle boot clamp
3" bent tubing downpipe material
bunch of coolant
bunch of ATF
registration
accessory belt
supercharger belt

quote Originally posted by darkhorizon: Ok, new list of things to do before I can get this project done Run trans lines Run feed fuel line make exhaust downpipe buy some random coolant hose hookups wait on my "welder" to weld the tensioner bracket Put the transmission and c500 connectors into the harness Put harness on motor, and run main constant power lines. bolt on throttle body Make trans shift components Plug water pump coolant inlet Extended shopping list: Passenger side coolant hose ******************************************* Kelly/Springfield: XL-1004 Goodyear: 62053 Napa: NBH 7620 Dayco: 71696 AC Delco: 26030X Metric Interchange: 0096931 ********************************************************* Coolant T fill point CV axle boot clamp 3" bent tubing downpipe material bunch of coolant bunch of ATF registration accessory belt supercharger belt

When doing the transmission lines make darn sure, You use either all metal or some very good hose (routed with no bends) I don't know if your pcm was programed for harder line pressure or not, But there is a very large amount of pressure that goes through these, I ended up using full metal lines for the reason of my lines kept either busting or leaking.

I am doing my lines tonight, no idea what I am going to do yet.

Part of me just wants to run 5/16 line all the way to the front, and get rid of the 1/4 stuff, but for not I think I am stuck making rubber lines with 3 clamps each like I did on my grand prix.

Well, today I did just about everything. This is just a quick late night update.

I spent all day mounting the cradle, running wires, ect. Got everything hooked up, and the fuel pump didnt work. So for now I am just going to ghetto switch it off the stereo power or somthing, I cant seem to get any action out of the fuel pump relay control wire. I will mess with it more in the morning.

So I just pumped up my fuel system to check for leaks, and I havent had time to fill up the cooling system, so I just filled the fuel system up and cranked it over.

Lets just say I am going to bed happy!

Well, didnt do much sence I got it running, I just put on alot of parts, worked on cleaning stuff up, asembling random things.

I mounted my coil packs right on the bulkhead right next to the pass side hood hinge, looks like it will work well. Going to load a ton of pictures later for a last part of my build thread, then maybe I should start a "keepin it going" thread?

Well, I still havent made the right dogbone setup, need to make somthing tommorow.

Put my new "dogbone" in yesterday, although it is hard from a real dogbone in truth. I took another dodge truck mount, I think a tranny one (the auto zone just just let me run around behind the counter now), and I put it under the transmission final drive right by the pass side output. it works OK, I honestly think that it shifts rough, but it could just be my imagination. I set the trans up before I put it in to shift just about as hard as you can set it, so I think thats the biggest reason why I dont like it, but when you get to shifting under good power, it really works out nice, almost no movement.

Still tracking down wiring bugs, but I have lost my intrest in working in this heat now that it is running, and I really want a small break from working too.

Expect a fully paint prepped, and fully operational, fully interior'ed, fiero in 3 weeks. If I really get my way, you might see a fresh coat of black paint sprayed down soon also.

One idea I had was to paint my 1/4 windows black when I paint the car black. The windows on the car were "oversprayed" by the previous owner because he said it looked cool? Anyway I have a pretty nice set of windows I could swap on, but I was wondering if painting them would be at all cool.

Still having ground problem, more info tommorow.

well, long time no update.

Not alot eventfull has happend, but I left alot of loose ends, and due to lack of intrest in the thread I sorta lost interest in keeping it updated.

I have done a full interior makeover, putting a v6 dash in, new steering collum, random trim peices and extra switches. I have found a completly melted ground wire running through the dash, that is most likly causing some of my severe electrical gremlins. Currently my wiper fuse randomly blows and my wipers freak out. The turn signal fuse blows all the time, so I cut the wire that was causing it to blow and now they dont flash, they just stay lit. The reverse lights dont work, but I am going to look into that. headlights = great for some reason.

The body is mostly prepped for paint, more info on that later. If anyone is reading this, I am sorta curious as to what paint I should use for it, I am not doing much of anything fancy I just want to do a few coats of a one stage paint. Basicly I need to know if I should be using latex/urathane ect....

I have a load of pictures of finished things, exhaust, my super slick shift link, intake, more exhaust, ect. I put about 500 miles on the car so far, no problems other than like 8 seperate trans line leaks.

I wanted to include this very important wiring thread with mine.

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/074653.html

[This message has been edited by darkhorizon (edited 09-06-2006).]

quote Originally posted by darkhorizon: well, long time no update. Not alot eventfull has happend, but I left alot of loose ends, and due to lack of intrest in the thread I sorta lost interest in keeping it updated. I have done a full interior makeover, putting a v6 dash in, new steering collum, random trim peices and extra switches. I have found a completly melted ground wire running through the dash, that is most likly causing some of my severe electrical gremlins. Currently my wiper fuse randomly blows and my wipers freak out. The turn signal fuse blows all the time, so I cut the wire that was causing it to blow and now they dont flash, they just stay lit. The reverse lights dont work, but I am going to look into that. headlights = great for some reason. The body is mostly prepped for paint, more info on that later. If anyone is reading this, I am sorta curious as to what paint I should use for it, I am not doing much of anything fancy I just want to do a few coats of a one stage paint. Basicly I need to know if I should be using latex/urathane ect.... I have a load of pictures of finished things, exhaust, my super slick shift link, intake, more exhaust, ect. I put about 500 miles on the car so far, no problems other than like 8 seperate trans line leaks. I wanted to include this very important wiring thread with mine. https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/074653.html

Lets see them pics ! I been driving mine around lately and still yet to fix my temp light being grounded into the sensor ground on the EMC so it stays lit all the time, And I still need a freaking auto shifting knob and some small interior parts.


As for the paint on your car, Make darn sure the place knows how to paint fiberglass and plastic body panels, I had to take my car back to the paint place 3 times for them to get it right There problem was them not using any type of flex agent (or not the right type) on the bumpers, So after a couple months my paint on the bumper would start peeling. They also had to fix a couple of fish eyes with a wetsand job.

You dont need to use flex additve to paint a Fiero, most experienced paint people will tell you it looses its flexibility within a year or so anyway. Without it you will only get spider webs if you bend the pannels. It definitely wont peel for lack of flex, if you're saying you have a peeling problem and a fisheye problem Id say theres no question that they did not prep the surface properly.

Ive never used it in painting a Fiero, of course I do have one with some spider-webing on the front bumper so I wont say its useless, but I just wanted to let you know so you didnt go searching for someone and pay a lot more for it.

The only advice I have when painting a Fiero (or any car) is to remove as many of the pannels as possible. It will take a little more paint, but you will get much better results. I would at least remove the bumpers and hood/spoiler/decklid/door pannels. You can get them all off in a couple of hours. The fenders and 1/4s are easy but you have to mess with the GFX. I always take them off, but some dont want to mess with it. If you wanted to go all out Ive stripped them completely in less than a day. BTW, do not do this if you are painting with a metalic, as you need to spray metalics all at once or you could get odd looking transistions.