Well, we've just finished our last LeMons race of the year (Thunderhill, September 14-15, 2013) A year and some months after the point I left our continuing narrative. And yesterday we finished the last Reno-SCCA PDX/open-track track day at Reno-Fernley Raceway. So I should have time to move this story right along.

So we left with a blown engine. The $100 Pick-N-Pull Special 2.8 out of an '86 that we had been running and abusing let go coming off turn 23 onto the front straight at Reno-Fernley. No surprise. We saw and heard it coming. And it forced us to actually start working on our 3800SC transplant.

Surprisingly, I cannot find a photo of our damaged 2.8. Essentially, it looked like we spun a bearing and had a catastrophic failure of the rod. A little extra cross-ventilation of the oil pan was the result. Along with a missing chunk of the pan rail.

What we started with was this 3800SC Series I engine.


The source of the power plant was a '94 Buick Park Avenue. We did get some questions about using a Series I versus a Series II. But it's what we found during an exhaustive 12 minute search on Craigslist. And, to be honest, when we found the car we knew nothing about Series I or Series II. I don't think either of us had actually seen a 3800. Certainly I couldn't even identify a Park Avenue. As I write this, we've now actually bought four of these boats. But that's getting ahead of the narrative.

As anyone who has done such a swap knows, the wiring harness is a huge task. I'm not going to get involved in telling much about that part of the swap. I'll just say that it's a good thing that we had over two months time to make it all work. Ryan's (http://www.gmtuners.com) wiring diagrams were helpful as were several of the resources he makes available. As was the case with modifying the original 2.8 harness, having a real electrician on the team is something I can highly recommend. We did talk with a local tuner who recommended that at the very least we get a '97 and up (preferably up) PCM for use on the conversion. Looking around the PCMs seemed to be in the $100+ range and uncut harnesses were going for around $125. So when we found a package deal on e-bay for both the PCM and harness from a '97 Park Avenue going for $125 we made the leap. We were no longer using the C-200 and C-500 original connectors for the Fiero, so Rich utilized the bulkhead connector from the "94 Park avenue to transition from the interior to the engine compartment.

Oil Pan #3. Rich had to fabricate an oil pan for the original '88 engine. And found out that the '86 engine we actually used was different, requiring a second oil pan. The 3800 is, of course, entirely different. How different we didn't fully realize until I tried to order a new oil pump for the 3800. In order to get a jump on the work, I tried ordering a new pump before we even opened the new engine. Huh? I can't even order a new pump at Napa? Just a rebuild kit? We dropped the pan and couldn't even find an oil pump. We had a lot to learn about these new engines. Rich bent up a new pan with a larger lower sump as well as an additional 2" in depth. Again, we wanted to combat oil starvation through the long, sustained turns on the race track. But we were now faced with a problem that we had not encountered with the conventional old style oil pump found on the 2.8. We couldn't easily fabricate a newer extended pick-up tube.

After some head scratching, we settled on fabricating a spacer between the block and original pick-up tube. I cannot find a photo of the original 2" spacer. This later 1" spacer should show what we were doing.




We then bolted the stock pick up tube through the spacer with appropriate gaskets to the block.





In retrospect, 2" of additional depth added to the pan was a bit excessive. The pan, and specifically the drain plug, became the lowest point on the car. Later iterations ended up with a 1" spacer and a 1" addition to the sump depth.

[This message has been edited by DonP (edited 09-29-2013).]

We were now faced with making motor mounts and accessory mounts. Because this is strictly a track car, we did not have the same considerations that a street car has. That means we are free to mount the engine and transmission solidly. No rubber needed.

To start, we placed the cradle with the original 2.8 on a set of saw-horses. Using some adjusters built into the legs, we leveled the saw horse and cradle. We then took measurements at several points to determine the height and location of the transmission and the centerline height and lateral location of the crankshaft. Next, we bolted the 3800 to the Getrag and suspended the combination over the cradle and determined the location of the needed mounts.

Okay, just a couple quick photos of the transmission mounts. On the rear mount, Rich used the original metal framework after removing all the rubber components. I believe Rich used a 1.5x1.5 square tube to essentially mimic the thickness of the rubber mount. This allows us to unbolt the new mount from the cradle in the same way the original did.






On the front mount, Rich basically made a piece that wrapped around the corner of the cradle to spread the load. He then cut an angle on the end of another 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 square tube to match the angle of the transmission mounting plate. He positioned the tubing to match the plate, transferred the center on the mounting hole to the tube and essentially had a new mount. Once everything was bolted into position and all mounts made, he welded the base plate to the cradle. Simple and strong.








One note. On the front transmission mount we found that the cradle was cracked through the original mounting holes. We ended up plating the inside of the cradle to both repair and strengthen the area. That was before CC Rider started offering his cradle stiffeners. http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum4/HTML/064284.html I haven't used CC Riders product but would still heartily endorse using the piece.

Rich then moved to the engine mounts. We decided that we wanted two engine mounts, one on the front, one on the rear. The thinking was that with two independent mounts, the dog-bone becomes redundant. Not that we would remove the dog-bone. We like redundancy.

On the front side, towards the passenger firewall, Rich made a flat platform that fit to the contour of the cradle. this gave us a flat place to bolt a new mount to. He then welded in a couple 1/2" flange bolts to the underside of the new platform. This would give us the bolt-together assembly we wanted without the problem of floating, hard to start bolts that slow everything up. Once that was in place, he but a piece to match, drilled appropriate holes to match existing holes in the block and we had a solid mount.







I make this all sound easy because I was essentially just sweeping the floors and painting parts.

So far it was going well. But we wanted to change the front "U" mount to two independent mounts. We lacked a really good pick up point on the cradle at the back side of the engine. We wanted a point on the cradle basically below the dog-bone. While looking for inspiration, we looked at a spare cradle in the shop. This was out of a 4-cylinder car. That cradle had an additional pad on the driver's side designed to support the 4-cylinder transmission. Hmmmm. A quick pass of the plasma cutter gave us a new pad that we could weld to our six cylinder cradle. Once the pad was in place Rich did up a quick and simple mount for the back side of the engine.



The rear mount was designed with a step to help with rigidity.in addition, we gained a bit of needed clearance with the oil filter housing. It also wraps around the passenger side axle with lots of room to spare. The real proof of concept is that at no time while installing the various bolts do we experience any bind. So I believe we were successful in not stressing any of the supported components..

[This message has been edited by DonP (edited 10-01-2013).]

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87 GT
series 1 3800sc (7.597 @88.53 1.579 60ft)
(series II swap in progress)
85GT Northstar/ 4t80e
86GT 3800 n/a
My Build