When I first started reading about Fiero's here and other Fiero sites , I read that the 88 cradles were made of thinner metal and were prone to cracking. I dont remember where I read this now, but if it is true I want to address this when I drop my cradle soon.

Your thoughts and experiences please.
Joe Crawford

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88 Coupe
Pointblank, Texas

Everything in the 88 was upgraded. I never heard of such a thing in the 88.

I don't have the thread handy but yes, there was someone who was tearing up the 88 cradle. I cannot remember if it was after an engine swap or not. IIRC they were cracking in the rear corners. I will be driving my car mild but still I will be looking for problems there.

Charlie

Many people, myself included, have found cracks in the 88 cradles PRIOR to an engine swap. Stock motors, mounts, ect.

The 88's have been known to crack between the tranny mount bolt holes in the front crossmember. Most put a thicker plate underneath to help spread the load in that area.

I cracked the rear of my 88 cradle twice... SBC/spec stage 3/poly engine/tranny mounts... not the best combo. Excessive low end torque, abusive clutch and asking too much from the rear tranny mount/cradle location were all contributing factors. On my personal swaps since, I have been upgrading the front/rear crossmembers to 2x3x1/8" tubing (and raising the rear to allow the muffler to lay flat). On swaps for others, I run a weld bead on the inside of the rear crossmember like this:

I guess with all of these 4.9 swaps and such going on right now this is a good thing to bring up again. When I was drilling the new holes for the rear mount I was thinking that this was either real soft ,or thin steel. Way to easy for motor mounts. This picture was lifted from FieroAddiction's site.
This is where I had to redrill some holes. He just cuts out the area and moved it 1 3/8". Probably stronger:

I am gonna cut and put a stiffner underneath this area.

[This message has been edited by josef644 (edited 11-03-2009).]

quote Originally posted by mcaanda: Many people, myself included, have found cracks in the 88 cradles PRIOR to an engine swap. Stock motors, mounts, ect.

quote Originally posted by fieroguru: The 88's have been known to crack between the tranny mount bolt holes in the front crossmember.

I agree so far out the three cradles that I have harvested two of them had cracks between the tranny mount holes and all were stock engines.

I've had the cracks with the stock 2.8 V6 cradles as well. I just weld up the cracks, grind them flat and weld another plate on top and drill out for the mounts, that is, if your not cutting the crossmember out for a N* or other engine.

I found cracks in the front transmission mounts on the 88 cradle I used.

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yellow 88 GT, not stock
white 88 notchie, 4 banger

Oh, ok. I was thinking about the original stock configuration. I'll tell ya, you guys are a wealth of knowledge!!!!!!!

quote Originally posted by Jason88Notchie: Oh, ok. I was thinking about the original stock configuration. I'll tell ya, you guys are a wealth of knowledge!!!!!!!

Most of these were breaking under stock configurations. This is supposed to be a better handeling upgrade, but they cheaped big time on the quality. I never thought GM would do that to us . Not

I will be starting my restoration build next week, so I will definately keep a close eye on this. Thanks for starting the thread!!

To do some of those deep draw shapes, you start with a good thickness but it does get thinner as you get in the final shape. It also work hardens and becomes more brittle. Arguably the cause of the cracks. The front transmission mount has a backer plate spot welded inside the cross member to keep from catastrophic failure.

You can grind a V into the crack and drill a small hole at the very end of the crack and weld it back up and start the clock again.

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yellow 88 GT, not stock
white 88 notchie, 4 banger

I never found any problems with any of my cradles, but for my V8 swap I "beefed it up a bit"