I assumed aircraft. It shows in your work. With aircrafts you have no choice but perfection.

BTW, keep up the detailed log. It reads like a good book. Plus we all can learn a thing or two from someone with your level of experience.

[This message has been edited by DeLorean00 (edited 12-19-2010).]

You guys are what makes keeping this thread fun for me. For 17Car, I haven't started sorting out the electrical issues yet, which I know there will be plenty. I'll probably start that part of the project after the cradle.

The Northstar and F40 at this point are only temporarily mated since the clutch and flywheel aren’t yet installed. I am still contemplating the pros and cons of various flywheel configurations and clutch suppliers, but that didn’t prevent me from progressing in other areas. For starters, the old 2.8L engine and auto tranny had to come out of the chassis. Here it is, albeit a little out of focus, looking a little lost in the engine bay of a “Ferrari”.



The way I remove the engine and cradle from a Fiero is by jacking it from both sides of a 6” X 6” or 4” X 4” post slid under the area just ahead of the front cradle mounting ears. If you choose to do it this way, you must be sure that either the jacks are free to roll forward or the front wheels of the car are free to roll backwards, since the jack pads move fore and aft relative to the body of the jacks as you raise them. Catastrophe awaits those who don’t heed this advice.



Once the car is raised high enough for the plenum to clear the lower passenger side frame rail, I roll the engine out from the wheel well. You don't have to raise the car nearly as high if you pull it out of the wheel well compared to pulling it out from the back of the car because the trunk floor sits considerably lower than the side frame rail.



This car was an automatic, making my conversion a little more involved that it otherwise could’ve been had it started out life as a manual tranny car. It’s a low mileage one though with only 97,400 kms (60,900 miles) since the car has been on jacks since 1999. It still has the (piece of junk) pellet style OEM catalytic converter! I had hoped to use the ’88 cradle for my Northstar as many have done, so I proceeded to separate the 2.8/auto combination from it. This is always a fun time because a little effort produces huge visual results.



Here's the cradle with the engine removed:



I’ll probably rebuild the '88 engine and keep it as a spare, ready to drop in my ’86 GT if it ever needs it. I also have an ’85 parts engine that could be rebuilt but I don’t think I could ever justify the expense. It’s going to be hard enough to justify rebuilding the ’88! The transmission is up for grabs though since I can’t ever see myself using it.



And here’s the shoebox that the Northstar will some day occupy. It should fit with a little more room to spare than most of the Fiero N* conversions since the frame had already been stretched 3” when I bought it (thanks Rick!).

[This message has been edited by Bloozberry (edited 01-08-2011).]

I like your work You have given me some ideas.
IF, I could give a bit of advice I would recommend starting the engine on the cradle outside of the car before the installation. That way It is SSOOOO much easier to trouble shoot any problems. Just don't run the water pump dry They are enough work just to remove and install once, don't want to have to do it more than needed. It is amazing how easy it is to have one bad wire after doing 100+ splices. I was even able to check for exhaust leaks and water leaks.
I have done this with every swap I have ever done.

[This message has been edited by Rickady88GT (edited 12-24-2010).]

[This message has been edited by Bloozberry (edited 12-27-2010).]