hopefully this wont be the shortest thread ever as this is an attempt to get pip to work for me and to document an ecotec swap.i am the owner of the second running ecotec fiero and i hope to do a picture by picture buildup on this thread.so here goes : (edit) i thought i would add a bit to the start of this thread for the people that have not been here before .i think a lot of people get the impression that this car is a long term project that has not been on the road yet .it is a long running project but only in the sense that i am a traditional hot rodder who will never give up trying to improve my ride .but by the time i started this thread , the basic swap was completed and i was driving the car .so there is a lot of back tracking .i am going to start editing the thread to clean it up and clarify things .i hope to add a list of all the mistakes i have made along the way (just engine swap , my life mistakes would take way too long) so that i can save any future ecotec swappers some time and aggravation .so enjoy the thread , you will note that i change mind and direction a lot , i always say if you dont you wont see the cliff coming.......
[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 04-21-2011).]
A list of what is in this thread : Overview of initial 2.2 ecotec engine swap Turbocharging the original engine with a 16G mitsu turbo Willwood brake calipers and front suspension mods New 2.2 engine ( there was nothing wrong with the old engine- I messed it up trying to make the changes to it in the car) with wiseco pistons and eagle rods and 20G mitsu turbo (Hahn Racecraft) and new intake and charge and exhaust piping Various mods and add ons like water meth injection and HP tuners , air to water intercooler etc Building an SLA custom by me rear suspension , another new exhaust , intake and charge setup Tuning tuning and more tuning. If you are going to do a 2.2 ecotec swap I recommend a 2010 or newer engine and operating system. Older OS like mine have a lot of drawbacks, the main one being there is only a map sensor and no MAF. Thread is long and I dont have the time to give it a proper index yet (maybe when I retire) and it needs editing (again , maybe when I retire) .
[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 04-04-2018).]
Just a tip. Photobucket.com is a lot easier to manage the pictures. Many are posting the pics from there on the forum. The size restriction is a little simpler also. Plus you can group them in different folder by topic.
now we are getting somewhere.this is my modified dogbone that attatches to the bottom of the ecotec .the actual moter mount is near the top of the ecotec.now i will try from the beginning.
the above picture is of test fitting the engine and transaxle to my 86 gt .the assembly is supported on the dolly from under the dolly with 2 x4's .made it easy to move around.
this is my upper engine mount.all the cavalier mounts were used by adding metal mounts to the fiero cradle.the ecotec has no noticeable vibration from idle to full throttle so i did not bother with poly mounts .
[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 04-04-2018).]
the above pictures are how i adapted the fiero slave cylinder to the cavalier master cylinder .the entire cavalier hydraulic clutch circuitry was utilized .the fiero slave and cavalier master cylinder were mounted on the drivers side strut tower .this eliminates the need for a flex fitting on the fiero line. the cavalier line incorporates a self bleeding reservoir and the throw on the hydraulic cylinders is very close in length.
whats left of the cavalier body side wiring harness after i got rid of stuff i hope i wont need (edit) i now consider getting rid of any of the cavalier harness to be a mistake .my donor car came with ABS , cruise , AC and all kinds of stuff that i needed these wires and connectors to make work .in my haste to save space i have made more future work .
[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 04-22-2011).]
this is the cavalier air intake adapted to the fiero breather assembly .i cut it and taped it back together and it works really well.the fiero throttle cable fits the ecotec throttle body by simply hooking it on.
this is a cavalier instrument cluster adapted to the fiero pod .since i utilized the cavaliier harness all i had to do was extend the wires and plug it in
this shows where i mounted the cavalier rad overflow tank.the cav ecm is mounted on the rear firewall in front of the bottle.i relocated the battery to the front trunk.
tis is how i got rid of the ecotec power steering pump .it is sealed with hi temp rtv.the oil pressure is not high here ,just enough bleeds out to lube the pump bearing.
i have been working on installing the fiero shifter back in to the car .i have been using the cavalier shifter since i got the car on the road ,but i have not been real happy with it. it didnt have a real smooth 1 - 2 shift and it sat up fairly high in the car .the problem with the fiero shifter is that the gear selector arm goes backwards compared to the cav shifter. also since the cables feed from the wrong side of the tranny you have to either join two sets of cables together or use extender rods.so there are two ways to make the fiero shifter work : make a custom bracket to make the gear select cable pull from the other side of the tranny or leave the cables where they are and modify the fiero shifter to reverse the action.since i dont want to drop the cradle this winter ,i decided to modify the shifter.like this:
[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 04-22-2011).]
edit:this shifter mod is something that i did not think worked very well but other factors were involved . 1- i left the long bolt that goes through the shifter pivot and holds on one side of my throw reversing bracket too loose .i thought it needed the slop to avoid binding and i was wrong .i recently tightened it up and now my shifter is a lot better .positive shifts , low effort . 2= a lot of other problems were caused by my old crappy steel hydraulic clutch line .constantly degrading and corroding slave cylinders .i think i have gone through 4 of them .do your self a favour and when you buy a fiero , install a stainless steel line for your clutch .then bleed out all the old fluid and you will never replace a slave again .the rusty fluid that the carbon steel line creates causes corrosion pitting in the slave cylinder and ruins it .
[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 04-21-2011).]
this shifts really well .i was hoping to be able to use the orginal fiero trim around the shifter but the extender rods interfere with it.so i have to make a piece to trim up around the shifter.the cavalier shifter installed :
Thanks for sharing the pictures and info! Don't know about anyone else, but I'm impressed with your work.
You may have already covered this in another thread, but I have a question: When you adapted the Fiero shifter to work with the Cav. transaxle, did you have to reverse the direction of only the shift (fore-and aft motion) cable, and not the select (side-to-side motion) cable? Or did you reverse the direction of both cables?
Also, the ecm that I believe you said you mounted forward of the coolant tank: Would this be a silver metal box that's mounted to a bracket on the Cavalier's firewall, like 4x 4" square ? I'm guessing that it can withstand engine-compartment heat quite readily, since that's where they put it (if that's in fact what the silver box is) on the Cavalier. But it also entered my mind that since ordinary coolant is electrically conductive, I'd not want to risk splashing coolant onto the ecm. Is the stock Fiero coolant tank still present in the front?
Oh, yes - are you using Dex-Cool (think that's what they call it) for coolant - the stuff GM recommends for the EcoTech?
How's access to the plugs and oil filter housing? I realize you've not put enough miles on it yet for an oil change, but curious how it looks to you.
all good questions,only the gear select cable needs to be reversed .the ecm is the silver coloured metal box with the cooling fins on it. it seems to be sealed up pretty good.the fiero puke tank is still in use at the front and thats where i do my top ups .i left it on because i didnt feel like running another line from the cavalier bottle to the rad .for whatever reason there is four lines that connect to the cavalier bottle and it is pressurized the same as the rad.i didnt use the dexcool i used a dexcool compatible antifreeze that is suitable for aluminum engines and mixes with normal coolant.i did this because it is near imposible to get all the coolant out of a fiero.the spark plugs sit under a cover on the top of the engine , easy access.the oil filter isnt so easy.some of the normal eco stuff makes it a bit ackward and i will have to cut some tywraps and move wires to get the filter out.id rate it about a 4 out of ten for accesability.i have noticed that the cavalier tranny is quite stiff shifting when it is cold . is this a trait with all 5 speed cavaliers.i put in the exact amount of fluid reccomended by gm ,i will check and see if it is low.once the engine warms up it works fine. thanks for the kind words .(edit) i realized later that the stiff action of the shifter was caused by yet another failing slave cylinder .the f23 getrags shift quite nicely .
[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 04-22-2011).]
How many mounts did you use? Because my Cradle is custom for a 87 3.8 it has different mount locations. One, lucky enough lines right up, only if I get rid of the AC comprssor. I dont need it anyways. But I am trying to figure out where another location should be. I was thinking about using the stock dogbone location at the top. Then I know the ecotec has a lower motor mount on the side of the trunk in a fiero.
I order my megasquirt stuff monday so I can atleast get the motor running and tuned. BTW if you are looking for perfomance for this motor go to Ecotecforums.com People are getting a well tuned stock 2.2 ecotec into the 160-170hp range! Add a couple bolts-ons and these little things could be sneaking up on 200.
Your post has got me all excited, to bad its 33 degrees here and snow/rain
the mounts you see in the pictures are all stock cavalier mounts.there are 2 on the tranny and one up near the cylinder head of the ecotec .none of the steel parts of the fiero mounts were used except i bolted a plate to the fiero engine mount support that is welded on the cradle.i used this plate to locate the dogbone.on the eco ,the dogbone goes on the bottom.
i forgot that i had to make a slight mod to the cradle to allow the ac compressor to fit .i did not reweld this area because with my setup this crossmember no longer carries weight ,it just acts as a spreader .my ac does not work right now but i hope to get it going this winter.the ecotec compressor was damaged by the wreckers when they pulled the engine.
i have been working on getting the fiero ignition switch to turn on the ecotec .i spliced onto the purple wire in the engine compartment and extended it to the eco starter.now the fiero key will turn over the eco.i added three relays to break the hot voltages that i found on the cavalier ignition switch .the plan is that when the fiero key is switched on the relays pull in and i can just leave the cavalier switch in the on position and use the fiero key to turn the car on and off.but i have run into a snag.when the fiero key is turned on ,it seems to cut out the key controlled accesorie feeds .so when i turn the fiero key the car cranks but doesent start .since i dont want to use a switch to turn on and off the relays ,i am going to add a second feed to the relay coils from the solinoid pull in wire.the accessorie feed will remain and take care of relay coil voltage once the switch is off . i can still start the car right now by turning the fiero key on and then cranking with the cavalier key ,but the goal is to only use the fiero key.
well adding the extra wire to the relay feed turned out to be not well thought out.i forgot that there would be a backfeed to the starter solinoid from the relay feed.so after i started it i searched in vain for a rattle that i didnt have before .that was the starter not disengaging and now i think i fried my starter.all this to avoid using a 3.00 rocker switch .oh well ,live and learn.
i have been working on my new exhaust system and i figured out that a 50 cent diode would have saved my starter .new one cost 270.00 cdn no one rebuilds these yet apparently.some more pics
No Ecotecs here, a shop I deliver parts to replaced an ecotec, and the cheapest one they could find was $1300, and that was just a long block, without an oilpan and exhaust manifold.
mine cost me 1000.00 and came with 5 speed entire cars wiring harness steering collum with ignition and key shifter and cables entire breather assembly cavalier axle assembly. found lots of ecotecs for around 500.00 for an entire moter without harness and accesories got mine from bell city in brantford ontario.lots of bad drivers in ontario =lots of wrecked cavaliers
[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 01-06-2016).]
the above pictures are how i adapted the fiero slave cylinder to the cavalier master cylinder .the entire cavalier hydraulic clutch circuitry was utilized .the fiero slave and cavalier master cylinder were mounted on the drivers side strut tower .this eliminates the need for a flex fitting on the fiero line. the cavalier line incorporates a self bleeding reservoir and the throw on the hydraulic cylinders is very close in length.
time
es and plug it in
