Awesome build up. I was wondering what the hell happened to this thing! I like how you've taken Greg's project and put your own twist on it.
Thanks, after getting side tracked again (its amazing how fast 2 1/2 months can get by) I'm working on it again. I've got the left a-arm done and I'm starting to work out some of the problems that are a result of using the Corvette spindles ( aside from the axle centerline being behind the balljoint centerline, I have to notch the frame for tierod clearance with the suspension at full compression and the steering at full lock and having to make some stops for the steering. It's the old saying in enginerring " if you change one thing, count on changing three others"
I'll have some more pics up soon. (my laptop crashed recently and image processing software was one of the casualites.)
Sorry about the computer. A royal pain in the ......
I do love this thread though. Just a different approach to something cool.
Thanks Tony, the way I'm building the truck has two things going on, first it'll bookend nicely with what I have in mind for my other project, the Grin Reaper https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum3/HTML/000024.html second think what if, what would it have been if GMC got the nod to provide S-10 Blazers as the pace car!!!
I see from the view count, there are a lot of people watching, please feel free to post your comments, thoughts and ideas.
OK, whatever happened to the build. I was talking to johnyrottin about doing this after i picked my Indy up this weekend with my Astro van. This is awesome! And so is my new Indy....LOL
[This message has been edited by danger (edited 12-13-2010).]
It's been too long since my last update. Here's some pics from recent work
One of the problems created by the Corvette spindles, the tierod locations are higher and farther back in relation to the S-10 spindles, this caused an interference when the suspension is compressed and the wheel is turned full lock. (not that I think I'll ever encounter that possible combination while driving, but you have to take all possibilities into account when modifiying suspension)
When you cut a notch that you'll reinforce, you need to allow room for the reinforcement.
Using a piece of scd 40 2" pipe, I made the gusset and welded it in.
That's much better. Onto other problems, an sbc in an S-10 with a short waterpump is a tight fit, using a long pump using and the 4.3 acsesories increases the difficulty factor many times, to make the required room, the ac condenser and radiator need to be moved from their original locations. The ac condenser was set into the rad support and the rad set behind the support, to make room the ac condenser will move to the front of the support and the rad will move to the area the condenser sat, several cutoff wheels gave their life to trim the support to get the rad to fit in it.
Even with all the cutting, I needed to lower the rad to get it in and have room for the top mounts.
I cut some 1" box tube to make the saddles for the lower rad mounts.
The rad in the support.
And the ac condenser in front of the support along with the modified hood latch, I've since finished mounting the rad and adapting a set of fans and the housing from a Dodge Intrepid, aside from a couple of custom brakets you'd think it came from the factory it fits soo good, I'll get some pics this weekend.
Next up on the problem solving channel, How to fit a third gen right side Camero exhaust manifold to Vortec heads, here's a hint as to what the problem is. The Vortec heads don't have the seventh bolt hole that's been on all cast iron sbc heads since '78
BTW have I mentioned that I hate using MS paint to resize pics, can somebody recomend an easy to use program???
Cheers Beers n Beers. Joe
[This message has been edited by motoracer838 (edited 12-16-2010).]
Here's more of how the rad and fans came together.
The fan assembly came from a second gen Dodge Intrepid, to make it fit I had to grind about a 1/16" off each side, cut off the existing brakets and make some new ones. This setup made enough room to allow me to move the engine forward in the compartment, making more room at the back where the exhaust manifold and ecm wire harness were fighting for room. It's truly amazing how well it fits the S-10 rad, it completely covers the core.
On to that little problem I hinted about in my last update.
Notice that there are two bolt holes to the left of the port, the far left hole was added by gm in '78 to allow a manifold that they used on the mid size cars of the time (Monte Carlo, cutlass etc) with the sbc and also used on the third gen f-bodies, this manifold is by far the best fit on a V-8 S-10. Here's the problem, the "seventh" bolt hole wasn't included on the Vortec heads. It could be assembled without the last bolt, but you'd have an exhaust leak in short order. Note this pic is of another sbc in my shop, not the one in the blazer with the Vortec heads.
Here's my fix.
I drew up an adapter flange and had a local shop that does cnc laser cutting make it for me, it has a countersunk allen at the "sixth" hole to complete the seal on the head side and the "seventh" hole is taped for 3/8"-16 to seal at the back of the manifold.
I still have some port matching to do.
And here's how it looks in place, you can also see the room between the manifold and the heat shield for the harness, before I moved the engine forward, the manifold was hard up against the heat shield, unacceptable!!!
Wow such a cool idea, bummer all those setbacks but that interior was sweet! Now if it was up to me and I had money I would have swapped in a gmc Scyclone drivetrain... Now that would really "haul"... Get it? Haha
Sorry thats its been 3.5 yrs since I've been on but was kinda painful/depressing losing everything so I completly distanced myself from the car world.
Glad this build/thread is still going.
Wow Greg, I completly missed your bump, life seems to keep getting in the way of this project as well as my Fiero, but I'm starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, and I don't think it's an oncoming train, Welcome back.
About the 3rd gen manifolds, I know they suck, they also fit a very tight engine bay, it's not like I'm going for big hp, this is a tbi injected engine, just a nice stout daily driver.
Don't have any updats, do have updates. I have worked on it a little recently, then went out and bought an '04 Cadillac SRX. suddenly the project seems obsolete, The SRX is a low mile unit that I got a great deal on and is a really cool ride, got a lot of car for the money.
I'm finally working on the truck again, I can't believe it's been 3 1/2 years since I've done any significant work on this thing. Currently finishing the weldout on all of notches, had to rework clearance on a number of things when I moved the engine forward to get clearance between the exhaust manifold and the wire harness.
It looks like myfiero.com is down again. Since I've never been able to make pip work, I need to find a photo hosting site, suggestions? Also how do I post photos from my phone? (LG G2)
It looks like myfiero.com is down again. Since I've never been able to make pip work, I need to find a photo hosting site, suggestions? Also how do I post photos from my phone? (LG G2)
Joe
I know there are folks who can't see photobucket photos... plus the whole bandwidth thing. Well to remedy that, I was using g CarDomain as my website and hosting images via them. Then they got stupid with their formatting. So I would avoid them till they get their crap together. I will instead use motortopia.com. They are similar to facebook in that you can make albums of photos for your vehicles. I could not make a ride built style page with them like old CarDomain, but they do make photo posting pretty straight forward. I would make an album and host photos there. No limits on bandwidth. You just have to do the whole right click view properties to get the image code. Hope that helps. I have not tried to use them on my phone, but I will give it a go and report back.
------------------ 1984 Indy Fiero SE Pace Car Replica #770 "SE" Stormtrooper Edition Rescued, resuscitated and reversibly modified! (I'm so not done yet!) Poly all round & Black Drag DR-34s Frt: 225/45 on 18x8 (47 offset w/ 8-9mm spacer) 1.5 coils cut off 1984 WS6 springs Rear: 265/35 on 18x8.5 (45 offset) Coil-overs w/ 10 inch 300lb springs & 7 inch sleeve
Ok I just uploaded this photo below via the phone to a new album at motortopia. Tada.... now I will say, they dont have a mobile version, so it can be a bit difficult to move around on a phone. My Galaxy S3 works just fine. To upload... I used the simple uploaded. Only do one pic at a time. It does not display the pathway once it captures the photo via the browse feature. So dont freak there. Just tell it to upload photo and then do another. Slow yes, but it works. If you have uploaded avatars on forums via your phone you will understand how the phone processes the browse request. Im not sure how much you will have to do on the front end to set up an account. I have had mine for ages. Let me know if I have been unclear in my directions or if the site gets confusing. Id be glad to help.
I've made good progress over the last couple of weeks, and had to deal with some of the worst engineering I've ever seen from GM. I'm being serious when I say our Fiero's are easier to work on!!!
Some of the work includes a custom stainless 3" exhaust, mostly done except for the y-pipe, need to get the engine in to finish that, hopefully by the end of today or early tomorrow.
Finally got the block and heads back from the machine shop, I can't believe what they get for simple stuff like hot tanking and cam bearing install. It's official I'm sure I could have put at 5.3 in for less than its cost to use the tbi 350that I had. Joe
I've made good progress over the last couple of weeks, and had to deal with some of the worst engineering I've ever seen from GM. I'm being serious when I say our Fiero's are easier to work on!!!
Some of the work includes a custom stainless 3" exhaust, mostly done except for the y-pipe, need to get the engine in to finish that, hopefully by the end of today or early tomorrow.
Finally got the block and heads back from the machine shop, I can't believe what they get for simple stuff like hot tanking and cam bearing install. It's official I'm sure I could have put at 5.3 in for less than its cost to use the tbi 350that I had.
Joe
Good talking to you today Joe. Trucks coming along nicely.
I'm gonna post the pics you sent me. You can comment on them.
Major milestone Friday night, Frankenstein has returned from the dead. Started the engine for the first time, have a few bugs to work out but Damn this thing sounds mean, the exhaust starts out as 2 1/4" to the y then 3" for the rest with a Thrush welded muffler, (think Flowmaster) with the exception of the muffler it's all stainless and made up from mandral bends.
I think the nickname Frankenstein fits with all the graveyard (wrecking yard) parts and the scars from surgery (the truck frame graft).
For the first time in a long time, the light at the end of the tunnel doesn't look like a train.
I drove it around the neighborhood yesterday, with all the variables I've introduced in the project, pu frame graft, Corvette spindles and brakes and custom upper a-arms, I was a bit concerned but it works great.
The engine combo is very close, 350 tbi short block, vortec heads, GM performance parts intake, 50mm throttle body and comp cam, tbichips.com got very close on the first shot, the only issues at this time is a bit of a stumble off idle and feeling like it wants to stall on decell.
A royal pain in the ......
Welcome back.
do have updates. I have worked on it a little recently, then went out and bought an '04 Cadillac SRX. suddenly the project seems obsolete, The SRX is a low mile unit that I got a great deal on and is a really cool ride, got a lot of car for the money.
