I am contemplating / planning putting in a 3.4 from a camaro/firebird. How can the volume of this engine be upgraded, or would you want to? With the airflow restriction of the Fiero intake, its not likely you could take advantage of it.

With the restricted intake of the 3.4 w/Fiero intake, is there any solution? I have seen some custom plenums, detailed discussion by jstricker, etc - can the camaro intake system be modded for use on the fiero with some fabbing to make it fit?

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Black '87 GT Auto - Daily Driver & Autocrosser
Eibach springs, Koni shocks, Kosei K1s, Kumho Ecsta V700s, poly bushings, rear swaybar, MSD ignition, shift-kit, custom intake scoop

I would expect you could. I've never seen the intake/plenums myself, but from what I've heard, the problem is the neck of the upper plenum hits the distributer.

If you can keep the intake that came with your Firebird/Camaro engine and the ignition system they used, it should work pretty good. I remember that some of those engines were rated at 200HP in the Formula Firebirds, but they also had a custom exhaust to get there. It still would be pretty good in a Fiero.

No 3.4 firebird engine ever came with 200 hp. They were all rated at 160 crank hp.

Where do you get such bogus information? Its bogus info like this spewing from so many peoples mouths on this forum, its no wonder so many people dont' know whats going on.

JM

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1986 GT Northstar 5spd , direct port nitrous nprogress
2002 Mini (autocross car)
2004 WRX (daily driver)
www.geocites.com/morley_m/northstar.htm

The problem with the stock Camaro/FB plenum is the location of the Throttle Body. You can't turn the plenum around like the Fiero's because it won't clear the Distributor. Facing the normal way, it doesn't clear the Thermostat housing. You can fix that by using the 3.4 thermostat set up, but then you need to make the coolant lines reach and do something crazy with the throttle cable to make it work.

Your best bet is to either
A) Get an aftermarket system like Holly or Edlebrock that replaces the whole intake system. Oreif is getting something like 200hp with his carb'd set up.

B) Wait and see what forum member FrancisT comes up with. He's making some kind of new custom intake that will allow any 60* V6 (2.8, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4) to breathe MUCH better.

I, personally, am going with option B cause none of the aftermarket systems are legal in CA.

A F-body 3.4 intake and has been fitted on a Fiero w/ a distributor (by Cooter & 1FST2M6 I believe). I don't see them on here anymore, and that's a shame, because they were great for PFF. They cut and welded in pieces so that the intake would clear the distributor. I'm goin to atempt the same thing in the near future. I have pics,but can't post them for some reason; I will email them if requested.
Scott

Edit: Here's a pic of my stuff before modification.

[This message has been edited by AnimalGT (edited 04-29-2004).]

quote Originally posted by AnimalGT: A F-body 3.4 intake and has been fitted on a Fiero w/ a distributor (by Cooter & 1FST2M6 I believe). I don't see them on here anymore, and that's a shame, because they were great for PFF. They cut and welded in pieces so that the intake would clear the distributor. I'm goin to atempt the same thing in the near future. I have pics,but can't post them for some reason; I will email them if requested. Scott Edit: Here's a pic of my stuff before modification.

Any progress on the modification attempt?

I wonder why Slammed got banned? I distinctly remember a 200 HP V6 Firebird, I even remember it being a Formula. It probably was a late 80's or early 90's car. The reason I remembered it was because I was impressed with the Horsepower claims in their magazine adds. Maybe it had a Grand National engine. I do not think that I am speading lies or missinformation and I never mentioned what size engine it was either as I wasn't sure. Anybody else remember this car?
Nevermind, I found what I was looking for. It turns out it was a 1995 Firebird with a 200 HP V6 3.8L engine.
http://auto.consumerguide.com/auto/used/reviews/full/index.cfm/id/2228
1995 Pontiac Firebird: After the model year began, a traction-control system became available for Firebirds with the V8 engine. The line-topping Trans Am GT was dropped after a single season on the market. Late in 1995, Pontiac added a 3.8-liter V6 engine option, making 200 horsepower rather than 160.
Here's the info on the Grand National engine one.
Pontiac raided Buick's parts bins in 1989 to produce a 20th Anniversary Trans Am that was truly spectacular. What Pontiac took from Buick was the turbocharged 3.8-liter OHV V6 that had gained fame powering Buick's Grand National. With modifications to the cylinder heads and turbo plumbing, engineers squeezed it into the Trans Am's engine bay. Conservatively rated at 250 horsepower, this beautifully tuned intercooled engine was both easy to live with every day and truly quick. Hot Rod's test of the Turbo Trans Am had it blitzing the quarter-mile in 14.2 seconds at 97.8 mph, which made it one of the quickest factory Firebirds ever, despite the mandatory automatic transmission. New this year was the option of a notchback-style hatch for the Trans Am GTA that gave the car the look of a coupe.

I found the information here.
http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/generations/articles/68211/article.html

[This message has been edited by avengador1 (edited 06-23-2004).]

I agree with slammed's statements. No 3.4 ever came rated at 200 hp. The engine being discussed in this post is the normally aspirated 3.4, not some other engine that came in a firebird. I have seen 400 hp firebirds, that does not mean that a normally aspirated 3.4 from a firebird can make 400 hp. No.

Martin D. White
http://www.mindspring.com/~martinwhite

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Martin D. White
86.5 GT 3.4 pushrod (dual TB intake in the works) on 88 cradle (2.5" coilovers), gt-40 style hood vent, recessed lights, GA brakes on held drop spindles. 2610 lbs and on diet...

The Fiero upper plenum is the problem area. You cannot get enough flow for a high performance 3.4L. I know someone was attempting to extrude hone one to see how much increase was possible but never heard any more info on it. Even WCF's custom intake isn't up to the proper flow due to they still are using the stock runner length. You need to make/modify a different upper plenum. The trick is to reduce the runner length. If you look at the 3.4L intake pictured above you'll notice that the runners to the cylinders stop at the part that would be the middle intake section of the Fiero intake set-up. It is designed so each bank basically has it's own plenum. Cooter had a dual TB intake he made (and I think sold to Shaun) Which looked simular to the 3.4L intake but instead of a "Y" to a single TB the custom one had a TB for each bank. I had measurements and calculated flow ratings in the 450cfm range which was plenty of air for a full race build on a 3.4L.
There was someone also trying to mod a 3.4L intake to use the Fiero ignition. It was done by trimming the intake to fit around the distributor, but there was never any info on how this mod affected the flow. It did add a restriction where the cuts were made.
The F-body 3.4L's were only rated at 160HP in 1996 they switched to 3800's and the rating was 200hp.
There have been a few who have turbo'd a 3.4L and hit 250hp streetable and one guy had over 300hp with high boost and racing gas. But again these were using the 3.4L intake and ignition set-ups. The guy with over 300hp had custom made cast heads which were designed specifically for his engine in terms of flow.

Unless someone comes up with a proven design to replace the Fiero plenum, Your limited to about 190hp with the MPFI, and with the Edelbrock intake using a carb or thr Holley Pro-Jection TBI you can get into the 220-240 range. (these are normally aspirated levels) Just so everyone knows the stock Fiero intake flows 300cfm, With Darrell Morse's bore/port you will be at about 325cfm. A 3.4L requires 354cfm @ 6000rpm and the Edelbrock intake flows about 400cfm. If someone is willing to design/modify a plenum, Just Email me the measurements and I'll calculate the total flow.

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Happiness isn't around the corner...
Happiness IS the corner.

If you read my last post it states that the engine I remembered with 200 HP is a 3.8. My memory may be a little fuzzy about a car that came out almost 10 years ago, but I did remember correctly that it was 200 HP and a V6, I just couldn't remember what the displacement was. It obviously wasn't a 3.4. Now that I did some research and found it to be a 3.8, that was my mistake, other than that my original statement is 100% accurate, and Oreif himself has a carburated 3.4 you puts out over 200 HP naturally aspirated. As he mentioned, the intake is the big bottleneck. Just for the record, I don't "spew" bogus information and take offense at that remark.

[This message has been edited by avengador1 (edited 06-23-2004).]

That was me that was going to extrude hone the intake. After alot of discussion and thought I went hybrid and back to fuel injection. Its the only way I was going to break 250HP N/A without Nitrous. The gen3 heads flow 40% more air than the fiero head and the intake manifold matched to those heads flows just as well.

But this stuff is beyond most "bolt on and go" folks. Find a 3.4 Camaro intake and flip it or extend the nose if you want to retain the distributor or carb it.

Probably easier and better performance from the carb though.

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Calgary - August 1, 2004 Fiero Fiesta
1984 Indy Fiero 3.4/3100 Hybrid NA
*ALL THROTTLE AND NO BOTTLE*
http://www.gmpcm.com/ Killer ECM/ PCM tuning software and information