1) Introduction
The V-8 swap we are doing here is as follows: This car is a 1986 Fiero GT with automatic transmission. This car has about 86K original miles and has been well cared for. The engine will be a ZZ4 GM 355 HP "Crate Engine" Purchased new from the local Chevy dealer parts department. We are also installing a TPI Fuel injection unit with new LT1 injectors. We will do this TPI installation with the help of a wiring harness from Street & Performance. On this car we are also converting it from an automatic to an Isuzu 5-speed. So you will see that as we are taking it apart it is and automatic car but as we are putting it together is a stick shift car. This car is from AZ, was driven to the Chicago area for the swap and was driven back to AZ by the owner upon completion. (The instructions for the automatic to stick shift swap are not included in the following article)
Please note: Our V-8 Kits come with complete Video Instructions and this description doesn't cover the V-8 swap in as much detail as the Video does. All major step are covered here and as I will try to make this complete as possible, without being boring. I'm sure I'll leave out a few details.
The purpose of this article is to give the interested party an idea of what he is getting into.
2) Removal of the Stock Fiero Engine
This is the stock Fiero as the Conversion is about to get under way. The decklid has been removed. Before jacking the car up onto jack stands, remove air cleaner, battery, shift cables from the trans, throttle cable cruse cable and all other items that can be reached from the top. Remove the slave cylinder from the transmission mounting bracket but don't disconnect the hydraulic line, place it off to the side out of the way. It is easier to remove them right now than to wait until the car is up in the air. For a complete list of items to be removed see the Haynes manual.
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In addition to all the other items you can remove now. You should also remove the console from the interior and unplug the computer wire harness from the computer. This wire harness will be coming out with the engine, also remove and separate the wire harness plug over on the inside right side wheel well.
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Once we have as many things disconnected as we can reach from the top, we can put the car up on jack stands. To get the car at the right height from the floor, you need to have the front tires about 6" off the floor and the distance from the floor to the top of the rear wheel opening is about 45". Secure the car and attach the overhead hoist or the "cherry picker" to the lift plates on the engine.
2) Removal of the Stock Fiero Engine (part 2)
We then can remove the wheels and the calipers (hang the calipers out of the way. Remove the inner wheel well liner on the right side and the rubber in the "K" member to frame area on both sides. Dis-connect the handbrake cable and remove 2 of the 3 nuts at the tops of the rear struts. Dis-connect the balance of the coolant hoses, engine to frame ground wires, and any other items running from the engine/trans/cradle to the chassis. The engine cradle is held into the Fiero chassis via 4 bolts, 2 horizontal bolts in the front and 2 vertical bolts in the rear. Remove the nuts from the 2 front horizontal cradle bolts, do not remove the bolts yet, just the nuts. Remember the wiring harness will come out with the engine/cradle assy. So only disconnect wire connectors that connect from the engine/cradle assy. To the chassis.
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Connect and Adjust the overhead hoist or the "cherry picker" to the assy. Ideally when we go to lower the cradle assy. Out of the car it will be level left to right and the rear of the cradle will start to go down just a few inches before the front of the cradle. Once the lift is adjusted and is tensioned so as to take up the weight of the assy. You can remove the rear vertical bolts. As the assembly is lowered down out of the car a few inches you can remove the front horizontal bolts.
2) Removal of the Stock Fiero Engine (part 3)
While you are lowering this assy. You will want to do it slowly continually checking to be sure that you have dis-connected everything. At this point you can remove the remaining nut at the tops of the struts and lower the suspension until the "A" arm can support the strut. Lower the assy. Out of the car and down onto a dolly or wooden floor creeper.
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Roll the assy. Out from under the car thru the right side wheel opening. Then you can reposition the overhead hoist or the "cherry picker" to pick up the cradle assy. And place it on a strong workbench. I use 2 saw horses nailed together with a pair of 2x4's. You will do most of the disassembly and re-assembly here.
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You can now remove the struts/spindles/axles from the cradle assy. And set them aside.
3) Disassembly of the original engine from the cradle
The first thing to do at this point is to remove the wire harness from the engine. Do not cut anything, un-bolt & un-plug as you go. Put this harness in a place where it will be easy to remove the wire covers and modify as describe later in this article.
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Also remove the oil pressure sending unit and the water temp/gage sending unit.
3) Disassembly of the original engine from the cradle (part 2)
You can also remove the suspension components from the cradle. There are a total of 8 bolts holding the engine/transmission assy. Onto the cradle (6 bolts on 4 cylinder). Once you have positioned the Hoist to lift the assy. Up off of the cradle you can remove these bolts and pick up the old assy. You can then remove the transmission from the engine and toss the engine aside..
4) Prepare the Cradle and Engine Compartment for the V-8
Time to clean and paint the cradle and transmission and clean the engine compartment. On the engine cradle we cut off the original engine mount flange to clear the dual exhaust system we will be installing. Note you can leave this on the cradle and work around it with the exhaust. Also we drill 2 holes in the cradle in the mounting area of the front transmission mount.
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In the engine compartment, we will remove the heater core coolant pipe that runs around the right side frame rail. We need to remove a small amount of metal at the bottom of the right side hinge box, we just saw odd about a half inch to add some extra clearance on the valve cover. You'll also need to remove the battery tray. At some point, to clear the water pump we will be cutting a small hole in the right side inner wheel well, we will remove a small, about 4" piece. Of sheet metal. We will be doing a trial fit of the engine assy. Into the car later and at that time we will determine exactly where to cut out this sheet metal piece.
4) Prepare the Cradle and Engine Compartment for the V-8 (part 2)
On '85 thru '88 Fieros you will also want to unbolt the chassis A/C lines from the left side frame rail, in most cases this will allow you to use the stock Fiero A/C Compressor lines, this will save you a chunk of change as you will not have to have your A/C lines modified. This is optional but, I prefer to remove the fiberglass insulation material in the engine compartment, then I clean and paint the whole engine compartment. For convience later on during assembly I also attach 2 four foot lengths of heater hose to the main heater core pipes. I then route them up over to the side out of the way. These hoses are a bit difficult to install once the engine is in the car so I do it now.
5) Installing the New Engine onto the Engine Cradle
If you would like to minimize you Fiero's down time, you'll notice that quite a bit of the following items can be done to the new engine before you take your Fiero apart. Install the Flywheel and the engine/trans. Adapter plate and you can bolt on the clutch. Install the alignment pins into the adapter plate, these will ensure the proper alignment of the engine/trans. Assy..
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Install the Morosso p/n 23770 to the engine. Now you can trial fit the starter & get the starter drive gear adjusted properly.
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You can install the oil line as per the instruction video and final mount the starter.
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Install the T/O bearing in the transmission and mount the transmission to the engine adapter plate.
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Bolt the Front Motor mount onto the engine, install the Harmonic Balancer Pulley
5) Installing the New Engine onto the Engine Cradle (part 2)
And put the transmission mounts onto the transaxle.
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You can now set the engine/trans assy. onto the refreshed cradle. Locate the transmission mounts into the holes and the Front Engine Mount to the frame rail as described in the Video Instruction Tape. Once the Front Engine Mount is located in the proper position it gets bolted down. Later it will be welded but for now it is bolted down. We will be doing a "Trial Fit" of the assembly into the Fiero and once we have confirmed proper fit we will remove it from the car and weld the mount and final assemble the all other parts.
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Before our trial fit, we install the Alternator to the Alternator Mount and put it into the engine..
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Now the "Trial Fit", we set the engine/trans/cradle assy.. Back down onto the "dolly" and roll it back up under the car. With the hoist we lift it up into the car, installing the 4 cradle mounting bolts as we go. With this assy.. In the car we are looking for clearance all around. The important clearance areas are:
1) The right side hinge box to the valve cover as detailed earlier.
2) The H.B.P. to the right side frame rail.
3) On V-6 cars, the fuel lines will interfere with the Alt. And will need to be bent a little toward the center of the car.
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Now is when we "Trial Fit" the water pump to determine the sheet metal that needs to be removed for it to fit properly. (Note: best pic I have was this pic I actually took a bit later in the assembly process, so ignore the pulleys for now)
5) Installing the New Engine onto the Engine Cradle (part 3)
After the "Trial Fit" we remove the assy.. And put it back up onto our "Work Bench" After any adjustment considerations we weld the Front Motor Mount into place and proceed with mounting all the rest of the items needed. Almost all of the V-8 engine swap is done with the cradle outside the car. The exhaust system, starter, Alternator, A/C compressor & lines, oil filter, fan belt and many other items are assembled onto the cradle on your "Work Bench". The only major items that have to be assembled after the engine is installed in the car are the Water Pump and W/P Drive system. These items are "Trial Fitted" here then removed until the cradle has been re-installed in the chassis.
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Final installation of the Remote Oil Filter system. As you can see the Remote Oil Filter system is pretty simple the filter mounts in a easy to get to, yet safe location. So that the oil doesn't drain back out of the filter, I always try to mount it down below the centerline of the engine crankshaft.
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Install A/C compressor. There are two things to consider when installing the A/C Compressor. You will consider the orientation of the A/C hoses and consider the alignment of the V-Belt pulley with the H.B.P. The A/C Hoses should be orientated so that after this whole cradle assy.. Is installed in the car the hoses will line up with the original hose connection on the Fiero Chassis while also clearing the Exhaust system. This is more fully detailed in the Video Instruction Tape. Once it has been determined which 2 holes on the A/C Compressor will be mounted to the Front motor mount, you will need to drill out those holes to accept 3/8" bolts. You will also consider the alignment of the "V" grooves in the pulleys. As more fully detailed in the Video Instruction Tape, there are a few different A/C compressors used on various Fieros. They differ in that the mounting areas are different distances from the center of the "V" groove. There are parts included in the V-8 Conversion Kit to allow mounting for any of these A/C compressors.
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In this case the center of the "V" groove was very close to the face of the mounting bosses so, to get proper alignment, we needed to use the extra A/C mount that came with the kit. As we move on to mounting the alternator that, in some cases there is an unused mounting boss on the A/C/ Compressor that interfere with the Alternator, this boss will need to be cut off, do not cut it off until you are sure of the proper A/C hose orientation.