I finally decided to start a build thread for my 88 Formula. I purchased the car in December of 2009 in Southern California. It is an 88 Formula with just over 90K. It has an automatic, power windows, power locks, and non-CJB T-tops. Initially, I wanted to find a T-top GT since I prefer the fastback look. However, this rust free Formula was too good of a deal to pass up. I plan on converting it to a fastback body. Now I know I may get some heat from a few purists that will say this is too nice of a Formula to modify, but I prefer the fastback, and the 88 GT T-tops in this condition go for quite a bit more than I paid for this car.

Here are the pictures from when I bought her. A few of you might have seen her before.

[This message has been edited by UND_Sioux (edited 10-02-2010).]

I left the San Diego area on a Friday night and drove her all the way to Houston in time to tailgate at the Texans game Sunday morning. It was a long drive, but she did pretty well. The brakes were pretty bad, the A/C was missing it's belt (no big deal in December), and blower motor kinda had a mind of it's own. Other than that, it was a pretty good ride.

Here she is in the garage:



Let the tear down begin:





Engine and cradle are out:

[This message has been edited by UND_Sioux (edited 10-02-2010).]

Still standing by

All the body panels were removed and put in storage for later use. I'm attempting to do this in 1/2 of a two car garage. I'm have to be very efficient with my space and I am using shelves with parts stacked all the way to the ceiling. Thanks God for a 9 ft. garage. The interior was removed and put in storage. While I was debating what engine to put in this thing, I starting fixing a few small issues that were driving me nuts. Both doors were removed and I replaced the hinge pins and bushing. I also changed the door striker bolt to the Ford F150 one. While I had the doors off, I removed the window glass, changed the power window motors, lubed everything, and reinstalled the doors. I'm waiting to put new window glass in sometime closer to completion.

My Dad had some extra 2 inch square tubing laying around, so after the pain in the butt of dropping the cradle on a cheap furniture dolly, we welded together a cradle stand/dolly. With the legs on, it is a cradle stand. If you remove the legs, the base rolls the cradle low enough to slide it under the car. I saw something similar on PFF, and it was my basis for the dolly. I used the old casters from the furniture dolly, so the entire thing cost only a few bucks since the steel tubing was free. :-)

What part of Houston are you in? I am up by Livingston.

The Woodlands

Save that overflow tank if it's good. One mount busted loose, and it fell into the fan while the AC was on. Made a heck of a racket. $25 +shipping.

[This message has been edited by josef644 (edited 10-02-2010).]

Sorry, the parts car is gone. I bought it, stripped what I needed, and then it went to the junkyard. Most of the car was junk. It had been sitting in a field for 10 years getting rained in. Also, it had been hit in the front and had some damage to the front right corner. I had to get it out of the garage so my girlfriends car could go in. Also, where I live, parking the parts car out in the driveway was not an option.

Well, after much thought and many delays, I have purchased an engine and transmission. I decided to go with the 3900 60 degree V6. There are just too many unknowns to attempt the 3.6 VVT DI at this point.

The mechanics at the local GM dealership warned me away from the 3.6. They said they have had a number of problems with them. The 3.9 on the other hand, they said is pretty much bulletproof. The 3.9 engines are also more readily available and much cheaper. I found a company up in Michigan who dismantles GM test vehicles. This particular engine/trans came out of a 2006 Chevy Uplander with a grand total of 26 miles on it. The pictures of the van prior to dismantling and the engine/trans are below. I should mention that I was able to get it with the entire wiring harness uncut, the ECM, the Body control module, and the electronic throttle control for $1300 shipped to Texas.

It will be here next week, so work will begin mid-January.

Just a quick update. The engine and trans arrived within days of purchasing it and it is awesome. I can't believe what a good deal I got on it. I ordered some of FieroX/Ryan's transmission mounts and will be fabricating a mount that will use the existing bracket on the bottom of the "structural" oil pan. Here is a picture of the 2.8 out of the car, and the 3.9 after I removed the wiring harness.





Another issue that I am thinking about is the alternator clearance issue. Based on the other 3.9 that I have seen pictures of installed and some rough measurements, I think the alternator is going to hit the decklid. A solution that I am considering is using the Buick Lucerne coolant crossover pipe and that has mounts for the alternator on the firewill side down a little lower. On first glance, I think it will fit, but I won't know until I buy the part and try it. If it won't work, I'll just have to notch the decklid and do some fiberglass work. The pictures below are the 3.9 for the Impala (similar to mine) and the 3.9 for the Lucerne.

It is mounted. Of course it didn't go as smoothly as I thought it would, but the end result came out good.



Here are some of the issues that I ran into. First of all, my "BrandX" transmission brackets were probably not designed to be used behind a 60 degree V6. The rear bracket was pre-drilled and that put the engine too far to the passengers side. As I understand it, the 3800 block is shorter so that makes sense. I fixed it by drilling a new hole for the bushing bracket closer to the gusset. That moved the engine to the right and probably made it stronger sense it wouldn't be cantilevered out as far. I could not have moved the lower part the mount any more to the drivers side because it would have bottomed out in the cradle opening before it was moved far enough to the left. The forward bracket worked fine as designed.





The next issue was the engine mount. The oil pan on the 3.9 comes out and interferes with the 88 bracket. Additionally, the 3.9 does not have the upper hole on the left. To make matters worse, the hole on the right is not in the same place as it is on the 2.8 and would be blocked by the A/C compressor anyway. On the 3.9 installation on the Uplander, the bottom of the oil pan has a bracket with three vertical holes and one horizontal hole that is mounted to the factory engine mount. The 88 bracket was cut at the top and on the bottom right, and then ground down until there were no clearance issues. Then I mounted the modified bracket to the block to the hole left of the crank pulley, and in two places on the oil pan where the Uplander mount was. I used a factory style replacement motor mount and the engine sits pretty much exactly where the 2.8 was.





The next problem I ran into is that the A/C compressor hit the cradle. I thought this was going to be a major issue. Although I do not have one installed right now, I think I have the solution. The Uplander A/C compressor is HUGE. I'm guessing it is because the Uplander is a larger system with front and rear air. On the pictures of the Impala 3900, the compressor appeared to be higher. I went to the auto parts store and took a look at one. The angle for the mounting arms are different and the diameter of the compressor overall is smaller. Although I won't know for certain until I buy one, I'm pretty sure an Impala or Lucerne compressor should fit without a clearance issue.

Additionally, the oil filter presents a problem. The 3.9 has a built-in oil cooler that is attached to the block and cools with coolant circulating through the block. I'm going to have to either find a short filter that is less than 3" long, or I will buy a remote oil filter kit and relocate the filter to somewhere within reach. The front of the forward cradle crossmember may be a good area since I'm not currently planning to run any exhaust pipes back there.





I bolted the decklid back on to take some rough measurements and as suspected, the alternator is definitely going to hit the decklid. Additionally, the filler neck and the lifting bracket will hit the decklid as well. As I stated in my previous post, I'm hoping the Lucerene setup fits. The alternator sits a good bit lower, but my concern is that it may hit the right decklid hinge mount. I'm going to go find a Lucerne tomorrow and try to take some measurements before I order any parts. Here is a picture of a Lucerne engine installed in the Lucerene.



Lots more work to be done. Stay tuned.

Today I was able to finally pick up an entire electrical system from a 2006 Monte Carlo with a 3.9. I already had the engine harness from the Uplander. Now I have everything else including the dash harness, body harness, body control module, etc... I also picked up the all of the computer controlled evap stuff. What a mess.....

nice job!!!!!!!!!!! keep on that way,,, congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was wondering how the swap was going. If you want any ideas on how to get some things done (ie: coolant filler neck) let me know.
Matt

I'll take free ideas/advice anytime.

This week I worked on the axles. Nothing is ever as easy as I think it is going to be. First of all, I went to Darth Fiero's website for information on the axle combination that I needed. That information can be found here: http://www.gmtuners.com/swap/axles.htm

My first plan was to buy three remanufactured axles from the local parts store. According to the information I had, I needed a Beretta driver's side axle, a manual Fiero passenger side axle or a Beretta passenger side axle, and a Driver's side axle from a W-body GM car. The plan was to use the center W-body shaft in between the two joints on the passenger side axle, and to use the tripod housing from the W-body car which came with a 4T65-E to replace the 4T60-E tripod on the driver's side Beretta axle.

Problem 1.

The W-body car axle came off of a 2000 Grand Prix with a 3800 non-SC engine with a 4T65-E. The center shaft was too big.

Problem 2.

The tripod did not fit the bearings from the Beretta axle.

Now I was back to square 1. I decided to take it all back to the store and go to the junkyard. I was able to buy both a driver and passenger side axle from a 1998 Grand Am. This time, I bought a W-body axle from a car with a 3.1L; a 1998 Chevy Lumina. The Lumina center shaft did fit in the passenger side axle to make it longer. At this point the passenger side axle was done. For the driver's side, I found a tripod housing off a 2006 Uplander with a 4T65-E. Unfortunately, the bearing size on the tripod for the Uplander is an very large odd size.

Back to the parts yard again. I went to a pick-a-part and found a 4T65-E off a early 00's Impala that had a tripod that was the correct size for the bearings on the Grand Am. It all fits and looks correct.

Here is my one concern. On both sides, the tripod bearings are only half-way into the tripod housing when the axle shaft is parallel to the ground. I'm not 100% convinced that the bearings won't get too close to the end of the tripod housing when the axle is in the full up or full down position while the wheel articulates. There is a place locally that will rebuild the axles with new boots, grease, etc... But while I have the boots off, I'm going to wait until I have the cradle installed back into the car, and then I'm going to force the knuckle to travel all the way up and all the way down while watching the bearings plunge in and out. If it gets too close for comfort, I'll go back to the drawing board. Here are some pictures with the axles installed minus the boots:

Any news about your build thread

Two things have put the project on a short hold. We decided to remodel the master bath, and that has taken up a ton of time. Also, I've taken a new position at work and I have 7 weeks of training out of town. By mid-May I'll get back on track.