Auto'Biography

[Emc209i]

Your dad's car was the first time I had ever seen a 2.0 Turbo engine. You posted a few videos about it a year or two ago, and I liked the idea. Thanks for the heads up about the transmission info, I really appreciate that.

[CincinnatiFiero]

Get us some more pics paul, I was thinking about this swap today, you picked the perfect car. An Aero notchback. If I did the swap I would do a stock style GT exhaust, run a stock style airbox and intake boot and a sunbird gauge cluster, make it look stock. 2.0T doesn't seem glamorous enough for a fastback for whatever reason. As if the 2.8 was glamorous.

[Emc209i]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUGRjp7LL1E

Posting another video on youtube, but its going to take a while to finish uploading. Someone tipped me off about the thread on Piffle. I wish it would die.... I don't want more "joe shmoes" doing this swap.

And Paul, I wouldn't consider putting one of these in a fastback either. Its fucking AWESOME in the notch though. People keep mentioning the 3800 to me and I want to puke each time - as if the world needs another 3800 Fiero. I'm afraid I can't keep the oil pressure up no matter how much oil I feed it, so I'm beginning to think maybe the oil pump was responsible for the camshaft. It's an expensive little dude too; $100+.

A big shout out to Josh (XII), he's been camping out in the garage with me. Friends really do add a lot of enjoyment when working on cars.

[befarrer]

Are you planning on any upgrades? My dads is only polished from the turbo back to the turbo, everyting is stock. With a slipping clutch, he did 15.01 in the 1/4 mile at 87MPH on the first time he went, with the headlights on, and a higher altitude, on stock 14" tires, I think he did a 2.05 or so 60'.

If you do any upgrades, this engine is fairly common in Europe, it is an Opel engine, the head, intake, and fuel system is America specific I think. My dad has done lots of research, but they do make a DOHC version of this motor, and it was sold in the US, Daewoo used the DOHC version, and so did some GM cars like the Optra I believe. I think they called the engine the ECOTEC I in Europe, the ECOTEC that is used here currently is the 3rd generation ECOTEC.

[CincinnatiFiero]

Needs moar turbo.

I love how when you have a swapped car people do nothing but suggest other swaps after you've spents months and thousands of dollars. When my 3800SC was done every local fuckhead was like 'ya know, this guy makes a kit, where you can put like a 350, 383, LT1 in that car, it'd really fly then'

[Emc209i]

I found a DOHC head the other day and almost bought it - Daewoo.
I'm not doing that though, kind of purged it from my mind. I've promised myself I'm going to get this car finished so that it'll be a dependable backup car when needed.

However, I've already got an intercooler and some plans. I've done a ton of research also. Apparently, GM in the dawn of turbo technology decided not to use intercoolers, and instead added almost 4 times the needed amount of fuel and moved timing forward to compensate for heat. The 2.0 with an automatic gets about 25mpg EPA estimate in the Grand Am - a car that weighs considerably less than a Fiero. The injectors are literally supposed to be about maxed out in stock form. So I plan on using a WBO2 and pulling a considerable amount of fuel after adding an A2A intercooler. If I can pull MPG back to 35 and turn the boost cut off and crank the T25 to maybe 10-12 lbs, I should be in the 200+ bhp range, and that's something that would make me considerably happy. I've read just about every turbo build I can find, and they all turn into horror stories after upgrading to a larger turbo. Even the T28 upgrade sounds like it moves power too far forward. Although I'll add, just about everyone online is using complete hack work to make power - as in tricking the MAP to read a false value to get around the fuel cut at 9 psi. If I can keep Kr down, turn boost up, get more economy out it, and make as much power as my old 3.4 DOHC with a lightweight 2.0, I'll be happy.

I'll definitely share results. I'll put it on a dyno when I get "done" with it, and we'll see.

Sources:
http://www.daewootech.com/forum/viewtop ... b&start=15
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2237171/1

[CincinnatiFiero]

That's the right idea, I don't think the 2.0T is the right venue to try to make 400whp. 200whp, 30+mpg, more reliable than your 3.4... perfect.

[Emc209i]

Right click "View image" to see the entire thing. I'm on a 3200 wide pixel monitor, so sometimes I can't see when images get clipped. If you're in IE, right click > properties > image location.

[Shaun41178(2)]

about ready for paint huh. cool can't wait to see the pics.

[Emc209i]

Note: I traded the 496-00 for two gallons of 498-00. I decided I wanted the higher depth of image in a longer drying clear. I kept the high temp activator so it would lay down smoother.


2010 Ferrari Rosso Corsa - Dodge Viper Red

[befarrer]

That red looks the same color as the car is now?

[Emc209i]

I don't know what color is on the car now. The Rosso is pretty darn close, slightly darker. Makes me wonder what color it was repainted. I wish I could save it, but it's pretty bad in some areas.

The viper red is so bright, it hurts my eyes. You can't see what I'm talking about in the picture. It's for my fathers car. I think he's nuts.

[Emc209i]

Erm.. Where was I.... Oh right, brakes. Grand Am upgrade, stainless steel brake lines.
Front -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rear




'96 S10 Blazer booster.





I cleaned about 6 inches of mud out from under the headlight buckets, pulled up the plastic cowl and cleaned out the HVAC tract, and slicked up the front compartment. Oh yeah, the hammer's for the S10 booster.


Painted the radiator support.


The larger booster is installed in this picture.


I was thinking about color schemes here. Trying to wrap my head around what color and if I want to keep the black ground effects.


I've also gotta do something about this filthy interior..


Before I started on the interior I snapped this picture, I was trying out an idea I had for paint. I used black duck tape on the roof panel.


What a dirty job... at least I collected some beer money.




Bought some black automotive grade carpet.




The new stuff smells so good when it warms up in the sunlight. I guess its sort of a new car smell, so to speak.


A headliner even lowlux would approve of!


LUXURY VISORS!! Everything's covered in micro suede, and I cleaned up all of the plastic that wasn't covered.

[Emc209i]

It was July when Taylor came to talk to me about selling me his car. He was leaving for the Marines in early September and he didn't want to leave the car with his dad. He also owed me a bit more on the engine swap, and so I would cancel that in exchange for the car.



With this added car to my collection, the reality of how many projects I had began to set in - again. My original conceived idea for selling the L67 had been with the intention of starting a new and different engine swap in the '88 and giving the old swap a chance to live a long and happy life in another car. Now, the damn thing had wondered back to me, with a free car, and a couple grand for leasing the motor. A sound investment, but quite irritating considering I was trying to get rid of a project I didn't want or need to disassemble. I had purchased both red cars because they would only be sold to me as a pair - cheaply though. I'd also gotten most of the things I wanted to do away from school done, so the idea of going back soon was also at the back of my mind. Ultimately, I decided that rather than build three different Fiero's with different personalities and colors, I would spare the novelty and be decisive in picking what I wanted in one.

So I decided to start with the '87 GT. Instead of painting it all white, lowering it, changing the interior to black, buying aftermarket wheels, building a stereo for it, tinting the windows, and swapping in an LQ1 behind a 287, I did this:


Arrivederci. What I'm holding there is more than I paid for both it and the '86. And then!



After pulling the frame around the neighborhood tied to the back of a truck (tons of fun, I highly recommend it. Also, Fiero's don't weight anything when they look like that - too bad they don't weight that much all the time.) we dropped it off at the scrap yard for some more beer money.

[Emc209i]

The next thing to do was a no brainer. Taylor's car had been banged up beyond belief; wrecked twice, driven off the road, spun out 1080* off of a guardrail on the highway, you get the idea. The suspension was t.o.a.s.t. I talked it over with Taylor, and he understood I had no use for it, and could get more for it in parts than as a whole. So, being he wasn't going to be upset, and the car was outside of my scope of profitable repair..

.. round two:


And the drivetrain was sold to a local gentlemen to go into an '84 Fiero.


Now, back to the red car, I need to do something about the low oil pressure.

[Emc209i]

The oil pressure was good until the engine warmed up. Normally, that's a tell tale sign of bearing wear. So forum member Pocket and I pulled the engine out and tore it down to the block and rotating assembly. The rod bearing were horribly trashed, and the crank thrust bearing showed significant wear. The crank bearing's weren't relatively that bad. The crankshaft had grooves deep enough to catch my fingernail in. So a new crankshaft and 0.025 undersized rod and crank bearings were ordered and installed. I replaced the water pump and oil pump, and did a complete head gasket replacement with new seals all around.







Here you can see the much larger hole we bored in the intake to accommodate a Fiero throttle body.



The fuel rail had to be moved down a little bit to clear the much larger 2.5 throttle body inlet and cold side intake plumbing.



Here she is crisp and clean. New ignition parts and belt.



Back on the cradle and ready to go in. The exhaust is a 2.5" open down pipe.





Now, time for the intercooler. I put a great amount of time into thinking out the intercooler setup. Placement was going to be an issue, particularly for an air-to-air unit. I didn't want to add the complexity of a pump for an air-water setup, simplicity was key. I originally had an intercooler from a Volvo 850 T5, but we couldn't squeeze it along with a fan into the space where the original muffler used to live. We finally got a break when we found a perfect condition '89 Ford Probe turbo front mount. I had heard these weren't as efficient as the turbo coupe coolers, but the fitment was absolutely perfect, so I couldn't pass it up. We also found that the Probe condenser fan would work perfectly as a push fan for the intercooler. SO...



We cut a large hole in the driver side engine compartment and mocked up the fan shroud.



Next, we built a box to funnel in air from only outside the engine compartment.





With the wheel well in place, air is channeled from behind the quarter panel and from below.



The box was hard mounted, siliconed at the seems, and painted. We installed the fan motor and blades, and then bolted the intercooler on top.



Building the cold and hot sides.

[Emc209i]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAbDfdbdm4A

[Shaun41178(2)]

looks awesome, engine fits real good in there. nice work with the larger throttle body. Should be worth some extra hp.

[The Dark Side of Will]

All that turbo goodness and you bolted it up to a TH125...

[CincinnatiFiero]

Looks good, I've been thinking about a Supercoupe Intercooler for my 300D.

Have you thought about shift kitting the TH125, may make things a bit better.