I have been following the posts by V8 Archie concerning the Zumalt V8 Conversion kit and in keeping with the spirit of talking about the subject in a flame free manner, I would like to offer some food for thought. Since I have nothing to sell, I would hope that my comments are taken as unbiased.
As far as I know Gary Zumalt was the originator of the smallblock V8 conversion kit for the Fiero. He also offered a big block conversion kit. Like V8 Archies kit; his kit underwent a series of refinements over the years. His early kits had flaws but they were eventually corrected. Garys kit used a Billet steel flywheel, a 9 11/16 diameter S-10 clutch and all aluminum billet brackets. The motor mounts were solid aluminum but I always thought that he should have used rubber mounts. I thought that the parts in Garys kit were of good quality but the flywheel mounting method with its countersunk bolts could have been improved. We cannot say that this is a good kit to buy as Gary was not an ethical business man and because of it is no longer in business.I know people who waited months to get all the parts that they paid for, some never did. Therefore, we cannot give his company a quality rating for service, just comment on his kit.
Randy Corson tried selling this kit for a while but his kit had problems with the axels- they were quite weak and sometimes broke. I know a guy who snapped on in half!!! Randys axels were garbage and this ruined what I thought was getting to be a good kit. . He is no longer selling these kits either. As Archie pointed out the Zumalt kit used a different approach than his kit. All of the Zumalt kits contained mounts and axels that allowed the engine to be moved 2" to the left. With a certain modified Ford water pump pulley the engine and A/T fit into the engine compartment of the 84-87 Fiero with no modification. If you had a stick then slight modifications of the left frame rail was required. ONLY the 88 model year required heavy notching of the frame. Archies kit on the other hand retained the stock position of the drivetrain which did not require frame notching. However in keeping the engine in the stock location part of the right wheelhouse needed to be cut away. I always had concerns about exposing the water pump pulley and belt to rain water and road dirt, but the kit did what it was designed to do.
Getting back to the Zumalt kit; what became of it? A clone is still being manufactured by Hi-Tech Development of Mississauga Canada. Hi-Tech claims that there kit will mount a Chevy smallblock in the Fiero without any body modifications. I cannot attest to the quality or service of this company but if you want to look at approach to mounting the Smallblock which has Zumalt type features,this company has it.
If you wish to know which kit is better, talk to the manufacturers, people who have installed the kit, examine the features and decide for yourself which is better.
The Hi-Tech V8 kit can can be seen at the following url.
[url]http://www.hi-techdev.com [/url]
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87GT 3.4 Turbo Best 0-60 5.2 seconds
http://turbofiero.fierojoe.com/turbo.htm
