LS4 V8 DoD 4T65-E TAPShift swap underway (pics inside) (Page 4/39)
Darth Fiero SEP 19, 11:02 PM

quote
Originally posted by darkhorizon:

Does it interface with that hinge perch?



It doesn't interface with the hinge support, but it will interfere with it once the coil packs are installed (not to mention the water pump housing cover); so some clearancing of this hinge support will be required.


quote

As far as brakes go, the grand am/lebaron swap is a very decent upgrade over a 84-87 brake setup. The 88 brakes should offer plenty of stopping power for you.



This is an 87 car. Currently it has the factory rear brakes and the Grand Am vented upgrade on the front. I think what blkcofy was asking was if the 11.25" LeBaron brake upgrade was comparable to the 12" (corvette?) brake upgrade; and what the price difference was vs. perforance difference. I personally haven't messed around with anything more than the Grand Am brake upgrade so I couldn't offer any advice or price lists.

-ryan
FIEROPHREK SEP 20, 09:09 AM




Thats a TON of room ! SAweet ! Awsome progress Darth.

Are you planing on relocating the coils on the front side of the motor? They look like they might interfer with the hinge box.

------------------

ARCHIES JUNK IS FASTER THAN SHAUNNA'S JUNK

darkhorizon SEP 20, 09:24 AM
Assuming the grand am brakes give you 88 like performance, I would be happy with just running the grand am upgrade. To prevent high speed fade, some type of vented upgrade on the rear would be nice I would think.
blkcofy SEP 21, 01:01 AM

So, I've spent the last 2 hours searching the net trying to figure out the 11.25" Grand Am/LeBaron/Caddie/Blazer/Wilwood Brake Kit!! Whew! Too much information!

What I have figured out, is that I should investigate this combo kit before investing $1300 in a turn key kit on the web. There's some good kits out there from RCC, WCF, and V8 Archie. But it sounds like I can get similar performance from this 11.25" kit if I went all four. So here's my question...if I have the Grand Am kit from The Fiero Store on the fronts, am I partially there? What do I need to get to upgrade to a 11.25" rotor and a multi piston caliper from Wilwood...or any other high performance lightweight caliper?

And for the rears, since I want to keep the e-brake functionality, and these are still stock rotors and calipers. Do I start from scratch to get them to 11.25" rotors? I think this is where the Caddie/Blazer stuff starts happening, in order to keep e-brake. There was alot of stuff about weird positioning of the brakets, and not being able to use certain brake lines, ect.

I'm trying to allow Ryan to stay focused on the engine swap, and try to figure out the right brake upgrade myself, but it sure seems easier to buy something off the shelf right now. Hopefully there is guidance out there for me!
darkhorizon SEP 21, 01:19 AM
Rear brakes only do about 15-20% of your braking anyway, so focusing on upgrading the rears, lends you less benifit than upgrading the front. As much as a pain as e-brakes are, I wouldnt attempt to put an ebrake on stock fiero brakes, let alone upgraded ones, so if I was you, i would leave stock rears, and then go radical up front.

Why are you not happy with your grand am swap already?
OH10fiero SEP 21, 11:50 AM
blkcofy, PM sent..............again.
blkcofy SEP 21, 05:54 PM

quote
Originally posted by darkhorizon:

Rear brakes only do about 15-20% of your braking anyway, so focusing on upgrading the rears, lends you less benifit than upgrading the front. As much as a pain as e-brakes are, I wouldnt attempt to put an ebrake on stock fiero brakes, let alone upgraded ones, so if I was you, i would leave stock rears, and then go radical up front.

Why are you not happy with your grand am swap already?



I was very happy with the Grand Am upgrade up front w/ 135hp engine behind me. My assumption is that this won't be enough with 340hp behind me!!

Plus, I can pretty easily be categorized as 60% performance, 40% all looks and asthetics! So when I go from the stock 15" tires to the planned 18", I can't have those whimpy 9" rotors exposed! On the performance end, if I slam it to the floor in an aggressive/gingerly sort of way, I can lock the tires up without too much control loss at a 70mph to dead stop action, but I've not been 100% accurate with this manuver and that's with the now removed stock 2.8L engine. I do NOT want to count on a similar approach going from say 90mph to dead stop...which is what I'm figuring the same time and distance would be with the new engine. (no calculator here, just assumptions!)

I'll continue the search. My goal is to have a complete list of the parts needed to get me 11.25 rotors (cross drilled) in the front and back...keep my e-brake functionality as I live in a hilly area and I need e-brakes in winter snow (don't ask)!

All the searches I've found on Pennock capture alot of debating but very little "Brake Upgrade List for Dummies" information, which I think alot of folks other than myself would love to see. Don't get me wrong, reading some of the chastising, "my piston is better than yours" conversation is informational and sometimes even entertaining...but when you're actually in the middle of a swap and rebuild, sometimes you just want to hit the "easy button" and cut straight to the chase!

Once I have the complete list and a few options of GM Metric Calipers...Wilwood Calipers...or cleaned up calipers from the junk yard options, I can figure the final choices myself based on what I want to spend and what type of performance I want. Again...alot of work...fun work...but work nontheless. Which is making the off the shelf options looking more and more attractive! Thanks for the insight on the brake load on front vs. rear. This does make sense, as even on my BMW, the brake rotors on the front tires are slightly bigger than the rears, so the logic holds true on newer cars apparently.
MstangsBware SEP 21, 09:50 PM

quote
Originally posted by FIEROPHREK:

Are you planing on relocating the coils on the front side of the motor? They look like they might interfer with the hinge box.




It looks like a ton of room but I have seen one installed in person and there isnt as much room as it looks like. There will be several obsticules to overcome with clearance issues with the LS4. It is going to have to be mounted very solid to insure it doesnt rock to much a come in contact with the firewall. Looks to be coming along and will be finished in not time. Who are you going to use for wiring the setup or are you going to do it yourself?
blkcofy SEP 22, 11:31 PM
Thought I would share the work I did on the interior before handing off to Darth Fiero for the LS4 Swap. Leather seat kit from Mr. Mike's. I had Mike stitch the logo design from the gentleman who redesigned the horse logo and got eveyone all excited about new badges...still haven't received mine yet! But it looks nice on the seats. Then I color matched the Lambo Creme color and Pistol Grip Black from Mr. Mike w/ Sherwin Williams Automotive Interior paint and sprayed all the panels using a low volume pressure spray gun. New carpet, new black seat belts, new headliner and sunroof trim, and short shifter from Rodney's (though that all goes away with the paddle shift kit).

Here's what the interior looked like before painting...


And now after the interior work. I think it turned out pretty darn good. I told my wife all of the episodes of Unique Whips and Overhauling would pay off! I still have to paint the instrument panel housing, but will do that after I the swap...




New air vent corner panels were also painted, and I painted the ash tray door covers and even the carpet on the glove compartment pocket. Turned out pretty good too. The steering wheel was a MOMO steering wheel I picked up off ebay. I was able to mount it to keep the OEM Fiero horn. One day I'll figure out how to wire the horn to get rid of that darn metal pin, as it's not working well right now. I still have to order the Mr. Mike lower door panels (black to match seats) and visors (lambo creme to match seats) to finish the interior. I also recovered the fire wall in black vinyl.
Eau_Rouge SEP 23, 08:47 AM
blkcofy, where did you get your black seatbelts? I'm also looking for a pair. Do they fit under the plastic panel without any problems?