ecotec swap (Page 92/98)
wftb AUG 15, 02:29 PM
While I had the car up on the hoist, I took a bunch of pictures of the underside showing some of the stuff I have done and showing stuff I want to improve upon.
Bumpsteer bracket after lots of use still like new:

Stock rear brakes still working fine after 3 years on the car. I am happy with the way they work, even for track days. If you look carefully, you can see that the entire disc is not being swept by the pads, making the effective size of the rotor about 1/2" diameter less:

The front rotor is being swept right to the outer edge by the Willwood caliper:

I use Lebarron front rotors instead of the usual rear rotor. This requires shimming of the bracket. I used a stack of grade 8 washers and have not had any problems. Making some better standoffs is one of those jobs I have never got around to. The front Lebarron rotors are lighter because they do not have the built in drums.

The nuts are for security, the spindles are threaded.
A turbo car carries a lot of plumbing:




A better Idea how tight QA1 2.5"ID coilovers fit.

Turbo is only visible from underneath


Solstice cat,no muffler needed.
wftb SEP 23, 03:46 PM
I wasn't intending to drive the Fiero this year mostly because of insurance costs but I took my youngest son's car off my insurance because he is out of the country on an exchange for school till January. Gave me extra money to use for the Fiero so it went back on the road in late August. I will drive it until the snow flies, hopefully up to the middle of December.

In the meantime, I am making some changes to clean a few things up and take off some weight. To support the water to air intercooler and to have the Cavalier radiator expansion tank at the front of the car, I had 3 extra 5/8" heater hoses run to the front of the car. Here they are in the process of being removed:



I relocated the overflow to the spot where the battery sits in a stock fiero:


Quickie bracket made up.


Tank in place and mostly plumbed

I removed the aluminum tank from the front trunk and made a small reservoir out of ABS plumbing parts. The AL tank was not heavy but fill it with 50/50 water and antfreeze and it comes out at about 15 lbs or so.add the weight of the hoses and the rest of the antifreeze and there was some decent weight saved. And now my front trunk has some useable space again. The tanks for comparison:



I took the front mounted intercooler rad and the pump and relocated them to the space where the stock Fiero has a catylitic converter. The ABS reservoir tank sits just below the intercooler and it's purpose is to keep the pump flooded and add a bit more coolant than you would have with just the HX and the rad and hoses full.



I was expecting this setup to not cool as well as the old setup and that is the case. First scans showed a peak temperature at the IAT of 110 degrees F on a day with an ambient temp of 85 F. The old setup always kept charge pipe temps at 5 to 10 degrees above ambient temp. I added a simple heat deflector below the charge pipe where it goes across above the turbo and exhaust manifold and this dropped the peak temp down 10 degrees F.



I still have some work to do to get the temps in the charge pipe down to where I want them to be. I noticed that the intercooler rad is made of steel and really it is kind of tiny. It worked well when it was sitting in front of the radiator but in it's new spot it is not good enough. On the frozenboost.com website where I originally purchased the system, they now have bigger aluminum rads and I hope to install one of those over the winter. In the meantime I am running the watermeth injection system to keep the KR down.

[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 09-23-2019).]

wftb SEP 29, 04:19 PM
Made an improvement to the interiour by getting a different steering wheel. My old GT wheel was in terrible shape and I almost bought one off of Villain's thread in the mall but just do not want to spend the money right now. He has some nice ones for 75.00 but I got this one from a wreckers. It was sitting in an 85 but there is also an 84 there and neither had the steering wheel on. So I don't know what this wheel was on to begin with, but it cleaned up nicely and only 20.00 cdn.



I also changed my charge cooler. Again. Not happy with the way the new setup works and not willing to spend more money for a better rad I got rid of this assembly(kept the pump)



And replaced it with this:



That is my no longer used ac condenser. Looks like a giant radiator to me. I have it fed with some lightweight tygon tubing and since it sits first in the airstream I did not bother with a fan. I need a hot day to test it properly but it only ran 10F over ambient under full boost. So hopefully an improvement and about 12 lbs of weight saving.

[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 09-29-2019).]

longjonsilver OCT 01, 07:14 AM
Those gages look really good in your console.

------------------
Astronomy says we will find a coded signal from outer space. Then we'll KNOW that life exists there, for coded signals aren't by chance.

Biology says there are coded genetic signals in every cell, but we KNOW that no intelligence created life.

I'm the original owner of a white ' 84 2M4 purchased Dec 10, 1983 from Pontiac. Always garaged, no rust, 4-wheel drifts are fun!

wftb OCT 01, 03:26 PM
Thanks, from a 2004 cavalier. It looks better in pictures, the upper plastic mount does not fit very well and is a bit hacked up. Looking to find something better soon. Everything works except the gas guage, need to drop the tank again to try and fix that. The float is stuck against the plastic baffle in the tank. So I use the trip odometer to decide when it is time for a fill up.
10SecSleeper OCT 14, 06:08 PM

quote
Originally posted by longjonsilver:

So let me get this straight, the Iron Duke weighs 350 lbs, the 60 degree V6 (L44) weighs 362 lbs, the base Ecotec weighs 307 lbs, the supercharged Ecotec weighs 330 lbs and the turbocharged Ecotec weighs 360 lbs.




Curious where you got these weights. I own intercomp 4 corner race scales. I'm showing 280 lbs for a turbo 2.0 with a gt3582 hanging off it. Only thing missing to be complete would be a/c and alternator, Which won't make it 360 lbs.

My car will be sub 2300 lbs with a big focus on weight balance.
longjonsilver OCT 14, 06:26 PM

quote
Originally posted by 10SecSleeper:


Curious where you got these weights. I own intercomp 4 corner race scales. I'm showing 280 lbs for a turbo 2.0 with a gt3582 hanging off it. Only thing missing to be complete would be a/c and alternator, Which won't make it 360 lbs.

My car will be sub 2300 lbs with a big focus on weight balance.



i got them from various places on the internet. It is part of my research/decision making on Ecotecs to determine my choice for an engine swap, which will not be this winter as i have dew wipes, radio, door handle, tach, and wiper board repairs to do. If that gets done, then i have seat and nose repainting todo. The duke runs good and i'm sick of too many car projects. i would love to have some hard numbers from one person weighing a variety of motors all with the same accessories and fluids, on the same scale. Not gonna happen tho. But thanks for your input, i am very concerned about weight balance and total weight. My car handles better wth the 3 core radiator rather than the single core, and with the battery under the headlight rather than in the front trunk. Of course i removed the AC compressor.

jon

------------------
Astronomy says we will find a coded signal from outer space. Then we'll KNOW that life exists there, for coded signals aren't by chance.

Biology says there are coded genetic signals in every cell, but we KNOW that no intelligence created life.

I'm the original owner of a white ' 84 2M4 purchased Dec 10, 1983 from Pontiac. Always garaged, no rust, 4-wheel drifts are fun!

longjonsilver OCT 14, 06:29 PM

quote
Originally posted by 10SecSleeper:


Curious where you got these weights. I own intercomp 4 corner race scales. I'm showing 280 lbs for a turbo 2.0 with a gt3582 hanging off it. Only thing missing to be complete would be a/c and alternator, Which won't make it 360 lbs.

My car will be sub 2300 lbs with a big focus on weight balance.



i got them from various places on the internet. It is part of my research/decision making on Ecotecs to determine my choice for an engine swap, which will not be this winter as i have dew wipes, radio, door handle, tach, and wiper board repairs to do. If that gets done, then i have seat and nose repainting todo. The duke runs good and i'm sick of too many car projects. i would love to have some hard numbers from one person weighing a variety of motors all with the same accessories and fluids, on the same scale. Not gonna happen tho. But thanks for your input, i am very concerned about weight balance and total weight. My car handles better wth the 3 core radiator rather than the single core, and with the battery under the headlight rather than in the front trunk. Of course i removed the AC compressor.

jon

------------------
Astronomy says we will find a coded signal from outer space. Then we'll KNOW that life exists there, for coded signals aren't by chance.

Biology says there are coded genetic signals in every cell, but we KNOW that no intelligence created life.

I'm the original owner of a white ' 84 2M4 purchased Dec 10, 1983 from Pontiac. Always garaged, no rust, 4-wheel drifts are fun!

wftb OCT 26, 06:16 PM
The other day I decided the rear of the car was a bit low so I adjusted the spring perches on the rear shocks to do this.The springs on the back are only 200 lbs so a bit of sag had probably set in. I took it for a ride and in town on our bumpy roads I noticed some thumping that wasnt there before.

The rear of the car has always had minimal travel the way it sat. Wheel movement compared to shock travel was pretty much 1 to 1. So with the soft springs cranked up to get the ride height I was after, when I went over a good sized bump I am pretty sure the shock was hitting its fully extended internal stop. Not good.

I have been thinking of ways to get more travel in the rear suspension. I came pretty close to buying some new KYB struts and some 7" coilover sleeves but just did not want to part with the cash. I built my system so I could go back to struts if I want.

So what I decided to do was to mount the bottom of the coilovers that I am using now on to the upper control arm and off of the strut adapter. This gives about 5" of wheel travel for every 3" of shock travel for a total calculated wheel travel of 6.6", a big improvement.

This requires new perches on the upper arms as well as new upper mounts for the coilovers.

Cutting off old upper mount:



Make a hole big enough to install the shock from the top:



Make a new bolt on upper coilover mount:



I welded a nut to a piece of 1/8" flat bar nd slid it in to the strut brace and welded it to the end of the square tube and plug welded for good measure. This will make it much easier to get the coilovers off. The new mount will be held in place by 2 -7/16" grade 8 bolts. To make the new lower mounts, I carved up some flat bar to fit the arms, cut the old mounting tabs off the strut adapters and welded them on to the upper arms.



I don't have a pic with it all installed yet because I am waiting for paint to dry. I installed everything except the coil springs and I ran it up and down and I now have 1 1/2" more droop and I can run way in to the wheel well, all with out hitting the stops on the shock. I managed to fit the mounting plate so my camber adjusters still work and are easily accessed.
wftb OCT 30, 07:13 PM
I now have the driver side suspension pieces all welded up and I will install them tomorrow when the paint drys. Along with more travel, the 200 lb springs are not strong enough to do the job any more. Trying to get to the desired ride height means way too much preload and that just lessens available travel. I have 2 other sets of springs in the garage, 350lb by 10" and 450 lb by 9". Using the 350 lb springs means only about 1/2" of preload to get to ride height so I did not bother trying the 450's. A nice feature of this new design is that ride height can be adjusted without taking the wheels off. Jack the car up under the rear cradle cross bar and you can reach in and easily adjust the coilover height. A few pics:






Coilovers can be removed easily by unbolting top and bottom mounts and pulling them up.



I am always enthused to do a project like this, especially when it works out so well. Designing and figuring it all out is fun, until you have to do the mundane task of replicating the other side of the car. So the last little bit dragged on but the whole project has taken 6 days. Tomorrow I can take it for a ride and hopefully I will not be disappointed.

[This message has been edited by wftb (edited 10-30-2019).]