Anybody compared the performance of a fresh 3.4 to putting a turbo on a rebuilt 2.8?

Remanufactured 3.4s can be gotten for around $1700. Turbo kits seem to run around $3000.

I'd like to keep the car streetable (meaning no wild turbo boost).

Remanufactured? Heck, you get a brand new GM Performance 3.4 for $1700!

Factory performance 3.4?
Is there a difference? Does GM make diff types? I only saw one 3.4 on the GM site.
When I can save up the cash 3.4 is the way I plan on going, but I thought you had to get a basic and build it up?

Discount Auto Parts chain sells a 3.4 camaro long block for about $1200. Don't know how it compares to a GM performance motor.

Is this the one you are talking about, Uaana?

GM 3.4

It's listed under the GM Performance Parts section. I'm sure it could still use a little more help. How much power do you think this motor would make with a Fiero MPFI intake?

A 3.4 will pull about 180hp in a Fiero and the turbo 2.8 will pull about 200hp. With better exhaust, chip,thermo etc, you can match the turbo performance. Then you add the turbo to the 3.4 like I am trying to

why dident they just make a fiero with a factory 3.4 ..that woulda rocked

Cause GM didn't want to do ANYTHING to harm sales to their precious Camaros and Vettes The reason why all 84's are 4cyl's.

[This message has been edited by Gokart (edited 06-06-2000).]

The 3.4 was a 2.8 in those days. It then was stroked to become the corporate 3.1 before it was bored out (actually, a revised casting) to be a 3.4.

I was told by someone long ago that the Fiero was supposed to debut the Quad 4 for GM, but it came too close to the Vette in perf. numbers.

All 84s are four cylinders because the Fiero was designed to be an economical commuter car. When the press got hold of it and found the sporty styling and lack of power GM made the v-6 available.

i believe that i heard somewhere that the 89 fiero was supposed to offer a 3.8L enging. thats about all that i know about the 89 cept that they look suspiciously simular to these new firebirds...coincidence?...
well at least the pictures ive seen make them look alike. not exactly the same mind you because the fiero as we all know is a 2 place and the ta and firebird a 4. i did see a piicture of a stupid looking 4 seat gt fiero. looked like a sporty limo. anyhow thats my 3 cents haha.

a good friend, of mine, once met a guy that used to work for GM/Pontiac. according to this person, the deal for '88 and beyond was, as follows:

1)upgraded suspension (which happened)
2)power stearing was planned(as we all know, by now)
3)Quad 4, to replace the iron Duck.
4)Twin-Turbo's, or single... can't remember, for the 2.8l (hence the available space above the tranny)
5)a chip and proper tuning for the NA 2.8 liter. they tested this in a '88 GT and found it as fast as the ZR-1! hence the version that the public got, and a reason for cancelation of the project.

as for a 3.8 liter... that woulda been nice

I can tell you the 2.8 Fiero with a turbo is a screamer! If I nail the throttle from a stop I don't experience ANY turbo lag, HOLD ON!! Damn thing scares me sometimes! It doesn't stop.
I've done some work to the exhaust, so I figure I'm running 220-230 hp. Swapping out the 2.8 for a 3.4 and runnning my existing turbo sounds like fun, but I've got no reason to do it. The 2.8 is in excellent shape, only 51K.

I am driving my SE to Virginia next week for the show in Williamsburg, just look for a lowered black 86SE with custom TURBO sail panels, and me sitting next to it with a grin from ear to ear! That'll be me! I'll also be going to MD for a couple days after the show.

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=226077&a=1676370

[This message has been edited by turbo86se (edited 06-09-2000).]

Hey Turbo86SE,

How does the exhaust note sound now that you have a turbo (does it still have that awesome v-6 growl) and are you using a design one systems turbo or RSM's or ????

HotFieroGT, oh that growl of the V6 is still there, it's unmistakeable. Once I get into mid-RPM's and let the turbo kick in, the whine of the turbo takes over the growl, and woooosh!
Ask DXR_DAD how the V6 sounds!!

I hope you were just kidding about the part of putting a chip into an 88 fiero and making it as fast as a zr-1 vette. I doubt any chip for any NA car, is going to take more than 3 seconds of a 1/4 mile time! ZR-1's are bad ass 32V 4 cam v-8's and run the quarter in the low 13's to high 12's stock. Aint no way a chip is going to add the needed 120+hp to take a fiero into the low 13's.

I have an 86 3.1 stroker kit (2.8) with afmkt turbo. Its mounted just downpipe after crossover. Has perf chip, 160* stat, 4 spd. kit included complete exhaust after manifold, Muffler was tuned to sound like v-8 Ferrari. cant hear any turbo wine, no lag at all, great bottom end torque. i only run 4-5 lbs boost normally and it screams from the getgo. Pulls pretty hard clear to 150. ive managed to put away a few v-8 camaros on interstate. i can pull up to 7K and havent broke yet, carry 75 lbs oil pressure. prob is i cant stay out of it, only get like 12 mpg, and I use reg, dont have any detonation prob. I thought about going v=8 4-bbl, but glad I kept what i have.

rg

GM also didn't have the port 2.8L in 83 to drop into the 84 Fiero and they didn't want to drop the HO V6 carb Z engine in there.

To have come out with the V6 in 85, meaning they had to have it in production in late 84, they would have needed to start the tooling in 82 (about 18 months at best lead time).

By 84, GM had gotten certification on the code W V6 (X-11) and code 9 V6 (Fiero). They are identical engines except for the Fiero is speed density and the X-11 is mass air flow. They were backups to each other should one fail certification. This means the 85 X-11 could have had Fiero SD system (and Holley TB) or the Fiero could have gotten the X-11's mass air flow system (and Rochester TB). The SD system is cheaper, so Pontiac went with that.

More urban legend about the Fiero than Bigfoot. No one was afraid of the Fiero, not Chevy, not anyone. The market sucked and they killed it. When you have $500M tied up in production equipment, 40k units/year don't cut it.

Terry

As far as the market dropping on the Fiero's, I think GM was as responcible for that as the consumers. I mean, heck, in 84 the sold what like 200k of a new line? towards the end, the prices jumped way up, and the production numbers dropped down. If they could have kept the price down just a little more in 88, the would have hit the sales goal and kept it at least long enough to get the 89 out. But w/ the fiero's history, (engine fires, poor performance, etc.) and the sever lack of advertising spent in 88 (I don't have the numbers in front of me, but they took a drastic advertising cut) and they still came close to the sales goal. My guess is it came down to politics in GM, maybe over the corvettes competition, maybe over the low price of the fiero, or maybe Delorian, or someone else from the fiero design team got caught sleeping w/ the head of GM's wife. Somethings the world just wasn't ment to know.

According to Witzenburg's book Fiero, Pontiac Engineers were playing with a 2.9 ALUMINUM V6 with a intercooled turbo that said Porsche Eater in the back. 0-60 times were 6.2 seconds with dyno output reportedly around 235 bhp. At the time, Aston Martin had the fastest production 0-60 car of 5.8 seconds.

Also according to the book, there were 4 distinct and seperate reasons.
1. In 1984 136,840 Fieros were sold. By 87 sales had slumped down to 46,581. The Fiero plant was geared to build 200,000 a year (!) so running a huge plant at 20% capacity didn't make much sense. Unlike Firebird/Camaros or the Celebrity/6000/Cutlass Ciera/Century nobody shared the same chassis as the Fiero.

2. The 2 seater market had exploded on Fieros. With the MR2, CRX and RX-7 saturating the already small customer base Fieros no longer had the advantage.

3. Insurance for young male Fiero owners with clean records were approaching a reported $5000 a year.

4. Fieros reputation (weak performance in 84, ho hum handling, and worst of all the engine fires, ONLY in 84s.) had pretty much put the writing on the wall. In 88 after all of the improvements, advertising was pretty much nil and still sold 26,401 until August of that year.

A moment of silence for the passing of a GM product that was hobbled at the starting gate...