I finally picked up my Fiero! With pics...

Fiero topics such as vendor reviews experiences, car shows, Fiero buys acquisitions, Fiero Photography.

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dhen
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2013 11:55 am

I finally picked up my Fiero! With pics...

Post by dhen »

It's an '85. It had the 4-cylinder engine and an automatic. I plan on putting a manual in and a 3800 SC engine.

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I think I'm the only person that likes this body style better than the GT, so no worries there. It has a little surface rust here and there, but nothing that concerns me. The spread of rust in south Texas is something akin to spotting Bigfoot, so I'm not concerned.

I got the car for $600 + a used transmission. The guy threw in a 5-speed transmission that was on a 4-cylinder that he got from Pick N Pull and the manual cables. I tried bolting it up to a 3800 NA block I have and was happy to see that the bolt pattern was the same. I thought that was only for the 6-cylinder transmissions.

I've got a lot of questions that I know have been asked before and I don't want to bug people. Does anyone know of a book that explains how to modify these cars?

Thank you very much. I'm really excited about this project.
CincinnatiFiero
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Location: Columbus, Ohio

Re: I finally picked up my Fiero! With pics...

Post by CincinnatiFiero »

The iron duke and the 2.8 have the same bell housing pattern. The TH125, 4speed, 5speed, Isuzu and Muncie/getrag all share a bolt pattern. Which is the same as 3800s, 60*s, and others.
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Emc209i
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Location: Charleston, SC

Re: I finally picked up my Fiero! With pics...

Post by Emc209i »

There is no book, use the search function on the "other" forum if you think its an easy question, ask here if you want more depth. The transmission you were given is an Isuzu. The Isuzu is a nice shifting transmission, but it's measly. You mustn't use it with the 3800, it will fail immediately. Here is a picture of an Isuzu gearset failure (very weak transmission).

This picture belongs to Series8217.
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dhen
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Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2013 11:55 am

Re: I finally picked up my Fiero! With pics...

Post by dhen »

Thanks for letting me know. I will study your F23 writeup some more, but a quick question: since I have to make my own mounts, is it hard to get the transmission centered between the CV axles properly? I've never messed with a transverse engine setup before.
jelly2m81
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Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:13 am

Re: I finally picked up my Fiero! With pics...

Post by jelly2m81 »

Aligning the drivetrain isn't that hard, I built my own mounts on my personal install and spent WAYYY too much time trying to ensure it was centered and square before I realized I was over complicating it.

Before you pull the drivetrain from the Fiero look around the engine and see how the axles line up to the rear knuckles, I led myself astray thinking the differential was directly inline with the wheel bearings, after I couldn't figure out why I couldn't achieve that with my 4T65E due to clearance issues I looked at one of my other Fiero's and found that golly gee, the axles are actually offset back slightly with a stock configuration.
Once you drop the drivetrain from the Fiero mark a spot on the right side of the cradle where the stock engine crankshaft centerline is, that way you know where your fore / aft placement is. Level your cradle on the work surface and then you know you want to keep your drive train level with the cradle. You can use simple carpenter tools ( plumb bob, level- I used a laser level ) to determine if your drive train is level on the front / back plane. The only tricky alignment is side to side, what I did was make the distance from each outer cv joint to the cradle equal on both sides.


EDIT: I looked at your pictures again and realised your car doesn't have a drivetrain in it. I don't have any pre-88's but I'm sure one of us here can find that fore / aft measurement for the crankshaft centerline. Fore / aft doesn't have to be a specific placement, the cv joint's will accommodate for that.
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Series8217
1988 Fiero Track Car
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Re: I finally picked up my Fiero! With pics...

Post by Series8217 »

There is a book, but I don't know if it's any good.
High Performance Fieros by Robert Wagoner

jelly2m81 wrote: EDIT: I looked at your pictures again and realised your car doesn't have a drivetrain in it. I don't have any pre-88's but I'm sure one of us here can find that fore / aft measurement for the crankshaft centerline. Fore / aft doesn't have to be a specific placement, the cv joint's will accommodate for that.
The car has a transmission in it. That's all he needs for the measurements.

Also, moving this to non-tech.
fieroguru
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Re: I finally picked up my Fiero! With pics...

Post by fieroguru »

With the limited room within the confines of the cradle/fiero engine bay, its nearly impossible to put the axles at too severe of an angle. If it fits, nothing rubs and the tripods don't bind internally, then the axles will be fine.

Many of the transmissions have the axle centerline higher/lower or closer/further to the engine, so if you use the same engine mount, your tripod ends of the axles will move from transmission to transmission. For example, here is a visual of the different tripod locations between the 4T65e-hd and the F40 (intermediate shaft) and the isuzu (card board) vs. F40:
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dhen
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Re: I finally picked up my Fiero! With pics...

Post by dhen »

Thanks. I had to read that a couple of times but it makes sense now. It doesn't seem like centering it will be hard.
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Emc209i
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Re: I finally picked up my Fiero! With pics...

Post by Emc209i »

It won't be. The hardest part will be getting everything straight in the engine bay, so that the engine doesn't look crooked when the decklid is open. If you do that correctly, everything else will line up.
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