3500 (LX9) swap into a Fiero

[flimbob]

any updates for us?

Trying to locate a nice clean pickup to use as a daily driver so I can finally finish my swap. At this point I haven't been able to work on the swap. It's been over a year(almost 2) since I paid for the ECM tuning from Ben. Guess I need to contact him regarding what it will take to finally get moving on it.

[ericjon262]

any updates for us?

[caffeine]

I'm hoping 2012 will be the year I finally get my swap going. My swap is my dd and I can't afford alot of downtime caused by unknowns. Unfortunately there will be unknowns caused by various things. Had to do an emergency motor swap using a stock 2.8 because the original motor decided to give out after 200k miles. As it stands, I'm still waiting on:

Exhaust design
plumbing
small amount of harness wiring

Not sure if this helps, but for exhaust I'm getting a y-pipe made that utilizes a stock-style muffler and tail pipes, to simplify the setup and keep it inexpensive. For the intake side, I used the stock air cleaner canister with a 45* 3" coupler, 6" long section of 3" exhaust pipe, and a straight 3" coupler to to throttle body (lx5 65mm throttle body). The 45* coupler cost me about $20 and the exhaust pipe cost me $6. And the 3" straight coupler I already had. I was nervous at first about the wiring but it's pretty straight forward I just took my time and double-checked my work.

Actually the only thing that held up firing up my swap was clogged fuel injectors. It always pays to have injectors tested in my experience.

[flimbob]

I'm hoping 2012 will be the year I finally get my swap going. My swap is my dd and I can't afford alot of downtime caused by unknowns. Unfortunately there will be unknowns caused by various things. Had to do an emergency motor swap using a stock 2.8 because the original motor decided to give out after 200k miles. As it stands, I'm still waiting on:

Exhaust design
plumbing
small amount of harness wiring

[natebee]

No change in mounting holes. The 85 mount needs just a little taken off to fit correctly.

Wow, thats amazing they kept the same mount location after all these years!! Yay for us! Should be a fun swap then. Thanks bob. Can't wait to see your finished project

[flimbob]

Quite the write up. I'm trying to do some research for a fellow employee who wants to swap a 3400 into a 1985 Fiero 2.8L. Only thing that concerns me is the motor mount holes, did GM change the mounting hole locations from 85 to 1999?

No change in mounting holes. The 85 mount needs just a little taken off to fit correctly.

[natebee]

Quite the write up. I'm trying to do some research for a fellow employee who wants to swap a 3400 into a 1985 Fiero 2.8L. Only thing that concerns me is the motor mount holes, did GM change the mounting hole locations from 85 to 1999?

[02dohc]

hey i'm in the process of doing a 3500 swap into my 4 speed 85 gt. i'm also installing a getrag 5 speed tranny. im mocking up a true dual exhaust system for it and still having the trunk. im running 2.5" exhaust. and a cross flow dynomax muffler with dual inlets and dual outlets. i did flip the exhaust manifolds to the opposite sides of the egine so the one that comes straight down is visual when looking at the engine in the car. thats just the way im doing my exhaust for thought if you needed some.

[flimbob]

As Spring approaches, I've started looking at what's needed to complete my swap. Engine and trans are on a spare cradle. Returnless fuel pump mod needs to be completed as well as the exhaust. Harness is 85% done. I realized after reading several posts of 3400 swaps on Pennocks that I have the wrong alternator. It is the 2 pin type which was originally used on the 2006 Uplander. Looks like a trip to the pick-n-pull is in order.

[flimbob]

ever get the swap finished?

Have the engine/trans on a cradle, waiting for it to get warmer.

[ericjon262]

ever get the swap finished?

[86FieroSEv6]

Which is why some swappers will sacrifice the "trunk" to make room for a good exhaust system.

[flimbob]

It has been just too hot to work on my swap. All I could do was just sit in the house while most of July and August creeped by. I'm about to get geared back up to finish the swap. I've seen a couple of ideas for exhaust designs on 3400s over at Pennock's Forum. I'd like to have the exhaust finalized and my harness wrapped up fairly soon. I received my chip from Ben and am looking forward to finishing this project.

[flimbob]

Got the thermostat neck tapped. Is it common for there to be no gasket between the thermostat neck and the manifold? Mine didn't have any type of gasket, just aluminum to aluminum. Sensor looks like it was made to be there. Finished up some small stuff, i.e., modify/mount the 440t4 dipstick tube and mount the coil-pack. Will pick up my modified a/c flex hose tomorrow. Had them install a pressure sensor in the high pressure side. Looking at what can be done to low mount the alternator. Don't want to have to notch the decklid if I don't have to. Just about ready to start looking at the exhaust system. Many of the 3800 swaps over at Pennocks use a similiar design where the cat is mounted horizontally and parallel with the engine. They then use a Flowmaster or similiar muffler that is constructed like a fiero/firebird type.

[flimbob]

Don't forget that they are referring to pipe thread sizes for the taps in this case. 3/8 pipe thread is of a larger diameter than 3/8 common thread.

Thanks! I looked it up. 37/64 drill bit for 3/18 - 18 NPT.