Ottawa Fiero Club Forum

Well I have finaly come to a fork in the road.. I will have procured $5000 to either do an engine swap in my now defunct '87 GT... or I will sell the GT and buy a truck.. I love the fieros! Always have, and Always will! But I have never had ANY luck with the 2 that I have bought so far... I would love to see my car drive down the road under its own power.. and Ive already put 4k into buying and getting it cert.. and even a gt with a bad engine wont get me much on the market..

  so now.. I have been leaning toward a 3800sc.. or a 327 sbc... is it possible to get either of those put in for 5k? Im not so sure.. I can do a lot of the work myself.. but its so dang cold out now again...

Lets here some opinions.. hopefully ones that will encourage me to keep the GT and get er on the road again!

That would be a tough call,  I would say if its your hard earned, saved up money for a daily driver that is required to get you to work and those pesky bills are all up to date than think about that fiero swap.  $5000.00 for a swap IMO would be hard but not impossible for a 3800 s/c that is with you doing some of the work yourself. Especially so if its a automatic $t60E transmission, they can cost close to the cost of the engine.  Fieros are nice but remember they are old and very often act thier age.   If you need a daily driver $5000.00 would get you in the market for a vehicle less than halft the age of a fiero.

Being a person who does turn key swaps for people I love to see the look on thier face when thier fiero accelerates like a rocket but I also know what it can be like when you spend your last dollar on one part of the car to have the other end fall apart.

Hope this helps.

Pete

The answer is yes, but that depends on what kind of shape the rest of your car is in.

If you leave enough information Dan may chime in with a price for the 3.8 sc.

sbc will be about the same price, but you have to be firm on how far you want to go with this swap.

To fix everything and make your brakes and suspension up to date it could be over $15 000.  But that all depends on how far you want to go.

Aaron

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Ive talked to Dan before about this now... I think if that engine combo in Peterborough is still available I may book a time in April to have it done.. by then I will have gotten my tax back too! which I should be getting a handsom check cause Ive worked a lot, and went to school.. so got plenty to write off...

The car is in Near mint condition actualy.. Ithink that the engine spun a cam bearing though cause it was in storage for 5 years before the guy brought it out to sell..

What Pete said was very true, you could put the money in and have something ELSE go at almost any time....it IS an older car..... so will have electrical things probably from time to time unless (and even despite) you going thru things as thoroughly as possible.  To be fair, was the first car in good shape too or was it a 'bargain'..??? 

They are nice AND unique and if you are willing to do a bit of work yourself (what stuff can you/will you do?) then I am sure you will enjoy it.  However if you get all this done are you going to put it away for the winter?  And get a beater?  Or drive this one then too?
Something to think about with the $$ allocation.......

I don't know if any other swaps are on your radar screen; ie there MIGHT be a cheaper one - I am thinking the camaro 3.4 pushrod motor; NO it won't be a screamer but it will be a nice pick me up over the 2.8.  I am guessing it might be a cheaper swap but you would have to check.
good luck and keep us posted

The 97 GTP engine is gone but the 170,000km 98 GTP one is still there along with the matching 4T65E HD tranny and ignition module. They no longer have the PCM but that isn't a problem as I can always find you one cheap. I have harnesses and pretty much everything else needed in my parts bins. Can probably get the engine, tranny and ignition module for around $1,700 so with my labour building and supplying everything else except the fuel pump you would be looking at around $3,900 in total to get you running down the road. Thats $1,700 for the motor, tranny and ignition module. $2,000 for my labour and parts. A good fuel pump is around $200. That leaves you some to spare. Dan

memo to Rob:
"Book him before he changes his mind!!!" LOL :o :o :o

you will be getting a really top notch job from someone who is very conscientious and painstaking in his work.
Wow
that is a DEAL.  If you are considering anything at all this is your chance for a really fun setup.  With whatever is left over, my suggestion is that you get Dan to go over "other stuff" that he knows to be potential trouble spots; maybe headlight motors, maybe something electrical, maybe something as simple as a cold air kit, but whatever his recommendation is; I would go with it.
Wow again.
 8)

Under 2K for engine tranny etc and 240 hp :). An excellent price and a good working setup. You could get a 3800 series 1 set -up for like under 1K and this might suit your needs.

rob. if your car is in that good of shape ther is only one good choice to make. buy that truck that you want. make sure that it will not cost alot for insurance try a s10 or ford ranger. put it on the road and fix your car as money and time will allow. it should not be that bad to repair your motor. if it is put a good used one back in and away you go. if you change the motor to a small block or 3800 you will have a hard time to insure it.rember that you are in school and you will be looking at big bucks keeping a v8 runing in that car.A WISE OLD MAN TOLD ME IF YOU WANT BIG BUY IT BIG DO NOT BUY SMALL AND TRY TO MAKE IT BIG YOU WILL BE JUST LOOKING FOR TROUBLE : ::)

 Once again steveo is talking out his rear, this is the guy who tries to unload over priced 88's and useless caddy engines on us and who also is against replacing rusted brake lines. Question do you even own a Fiero or do you have something against them but like to try and make money off selling stuff for them.
 Rob I appologize to you for the above paragraph, my advice is do what ever you feel is right for you there is no hurry if you decide later to do a swap and the engine is gone do not worry another can always be found. If a truck is what you want then go that route, if you do decide on a S10 look it over really well as they were made of very thin steel and prone to rust just like the Dodge and Ford equivalents. Dan

!@#$%  --This goes against the grain of why we hot rod cars.--  If I wanted a stock fast car I would have bought a new $50,000 one. To customize a car is what it is all about.

go fast 88 l donot want to get into this with you guys again but l hardly would put a fieo into the hot rod class.all l am saying is you have a schoolkid trying to make the right move here. if he had $50,000 to spend on a car he would not be asking for this kind of help. try driveing a hot rod in the winterand finding a place that will insure it as a daily driver. come on here . give the kid some good  help. >:(p.s. with the truck idea he can still have the best  of both worlds

We are only trying to respond to his request.  That's all we can do, we don't all know the particulars of his privet life.

As for insurance and such, we have a few threads here on the subject.

A few of us here have Fieros that definitly qualify as hot rods, even sports cars with the power to weight ratio.


Aaron

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aaron.sports car maybe hot rod  i don't think so. sorry to upset you but i am trying to let rob know what it is like in the real world. if you think i am wrong then just try a get inssurance for him with those kind of changes to a fiero and his age.that is it l will not talk on this subject again i do not want any more people upset at me. but ROB unless money is no object reamber what i said. thanks steveo :)

 ;D

Just found out that I got a new job today! starts in January. Things are looking good financialy for me at the moment. What I really want is my fiero to be fixed and runnign with a 3800sc in it, and a truck! haha.. This new job, is FINALY in the automotive field, so Im really happy.. I will probley be making up my mind in the pretty near future.. By the way.. Im All done school, I wouldnt even be talking about upgrading my car if I was still in school! I have priorities, and now I can finaly put the car as one of them.

Thanks for all the info, feel free to continue posting, I like to hear everyones opinions about this.

hey Rob
I am sure that EVERYone is trying to be helpful.  If the money is earmarked for ALL your transportation needs, then you need to decide of course.  Get the money flowing in BEFORE you spend it....... O0
But it does make sense to have a nice car AND not drive it in the snow!!  It is such a shame to see a fiero out and about on a cold January nite..... Of course, it can't be MINE!! >:( LOL.  (sob)
So if you can manage to build it up into what YOU want - whatever that is - and be able to 'baby' it,then you will have the best of both worlds.  But it is ALWAYS going to be a 20 yr old car, so either be ready to work on it yourself or to spend money on it SOMEhow.  A LOT of people buy these things because (solely?) they find one for peanuts.  Then they try to run them on a shoestring.  If you want something reasonable you are going to have to spend more then $5 here and there. 
But I am sure you know that by now anyway. 
Good luck and keep us posted. 
One thing for sure; a "Dan 3800" would be a thriller.
gp

Steveo;

I’m not trying to bug you I’m just trying to provide information here.

Aaron

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I too am just trying to help Rob out he is a local guy and a nice person as for these cars they can be sporty with a lot of power for a lot less than most cars. I have a friend with a 2003 Mustang GT Cobra with the super charged engine and he can't beat me. Its so close you can't call it but I have only around $5,000 into my whole car not over $50,000 like he does. I have hot rod friends one is the president of a respected club and he loves my car to him its the only GM on the road he likes being a Chrysler man that he is. Tell me where you can get a high 11 low 12 second 1/4 mile car that gets 50 mpg and handles the corners quite nicely for the same money that I have in mine. As for reliability I have put 30,000km on mine in two summers, I drive it every where when the weather is good. So tell me just what is it that you have agianst these cars and while you're at it why are you here insulting them after all it is a Fiero club not Fiero's haters of Canada. Dan

2ml67 l do not think that l have said that fiero's are junk. as a matter of fact it is quite the opposite. we own a 84 since new a 88 since new and had quite a few others at one time or another. give your head a shake look into the real world and try to listen to other people some time. reamber we live in canada everyone can have a view. is this not what this is all about. that is it i will not post again on this topic O0 O0

It's too bad that the government doesn't agree with you, as they have a registration category for "hot rods" which numerous fiero's and other cars are.  It's too bad that you don't want to be part of the discussion. We all have something to learn from the good as well as the bad ideas. 

Shouldn't bother saying this because you never know.




That's what I'm talking about!  I have this friend with a Lotus Esprit Turbo and when we go out driving it’s hard to tell the two apart when it comes to handling and acceleration.  But one can’t help but notice that he has much better brakes than I (next thing on the list).  It feels really good to experience people in fast and expensive cars that can’t pull away form you in your stock looking Fiero.  For those that are going to think that this Lotus isn’t tuned properly let me say this.  He has done a lot of work making his own chip that out performs any other chip including the racing chip and he’s boosting 22 lb (I think stock is 8 lb or something).


Aaron
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