So I'm compiling a list of stuff to do thats decently inexpensive, and heres a good list I thought I'd share in one big post...
From Skybax:
Take what you have, and make it run perfect first.
- all new ignition system (plugs, cap, rotor, Delco pickup coil), fuel filter, new O2 sensor, K&N air filter
Then your ready for mods...
- Rodney Dickman high flow cat
- port exhaust manifolds
- port throttle body / intake
- crank pully
- 180 thermostat
- 210 fan temp switch
- set timing to 12*
That's the basicly it for a stock 2.8.
Heres a bit of this in larger detail by Dave Gunsul:
Although i've written about this many times here goes:
1. porting the exhaust manifolds is a great mod. You can get these done by Darrell Morse pretty cheap at $150-160 shipped to your door. Forget about the headers, it's a waste of money. The headers cost $500 or more and give 1-2 HP more than the ported manifolds so definitely not worth the extra cost. Even with a ceramic coating the ported monifolds are hundreds less with the same gains.
2. Original cat is restrictive. Straight pipe, Rodney high flow, or Cat co high flow from Summit will give a slight bit more.
3. Exhuast; Borla is dyno proven for 7 more HP and you can get this from Twin Lakes Fiero for the cheapest at $500. It has a million mile warrenty and is all stainless. You could also put on a Flowmaster muffler for a crossflow Camaro in place of your stock muffler. The Flowmaster gives 5 more HP and can be done cheaper than the Borla but it comes pretty close to the Borla price when you have it installed by a shop. There's also some pitfalls to this that you might not want to deal with such as, if you have an 88, the muffler needs to be modded to fit the cradle. It's a tight fit on the other years as well but it will fit without actual mods to the muffler itself. There will be mods needed to the pipes connecting the muffler and the muffler to the tips of course but any decent shop should be able to handle that. The Borla can be done in the driveway with the right tools since it's essentially a bolt on.
4. Pulley; this does help, i've had it on two of my Fieros. The problem is, these cars are old and people think that gauge inside the car is accurate which it's not. Over time the alternator weakens slightly and the gauge inside doesn't really show that. Once you throw on the pulley it can show a weakened alternator immediately so that's why people have trouble with them. If you're going to use a pulley, go outside the car with a real tester and check the alternator before putting one on. Also check the battery and cables. If anything is wrong then replace them before using the pulley and you wont have any trouble. Don't expect any huge gains from this but it does do a little bit. There's been people on here that have posted before and after track times showing better times with the pulley.
5. The stock coil is junk. It starts losing power above 4500 rpm so a good aftermarket coil helps especially in the higher rpm range. The MSD coil part# 6226 fits right in the stock coil location with only a slight mod to the holder or you could use the Accel coil part# 140008 but that one would be needed to be located somewhere else. I mounted one on the engine side of the trunk and it worked fine there for years. I now have the MSD coil in my current car with no problems either. This is also a good time to do some performance plug wires as well because a good coil will burn those junk stock wires in short time. You'll find that your car will run better with these two mods alone.
6. Bored out throttle body and matching upper plenum; These can be done by Darrell Morse again cheaply. I have had these done on two cars of mine and several friends cars and have always been happy with the results. He also ported my middle and lower intakes as well. I have nothing but good things to say about Darrell. His stuff helps with power and he's resonably priced. Porting the other intakes does also help and isn't that expensive.
7. K&N filter. Not much of a help but it does help some....slightly. You can also remove the water seperator behind the air scoop for free.
8. If you do all those mods you will need an adjustable fuel regulator to help tune. Lot of people skip this and it's a mistake. When I set up an adj. fuel reg. I do it by ear. First I check what the stock pressure was before installing the adjustable regulator so I have a baseline to start from. I check the plugs to see what's going on inside the engine so I know which way to adjust the reg. (leaner or richer) and then I basically do it by ear. A little bit at a time, drive, check plugs, and repeat until it's right. It sounds simpler than it is. It's good to do very little adjustments each time followed by a lot of testing. I don't check the pressure agian until it is right and then I only check it so I can write it down so I know what it's supposed to be at in case it gets messed up or changed somehow.
9. Lose some weight out of the car. Easy and free.
10. Lightweight wheels.
Those are the easy bolt on stuff.
Heres some stuff from John Stricker
As far as improvements, for my money the single best thing you can do to a Fiero for the $$ is to find a used front sway bar off another Fiero and mount it on the back so you have a rear sway bar. This will improve the handling a whole lot more than you'd ever imagine but it WILL handle differently and be more prone to snap oversteer especially when trail braking. What that means is that in a corner, if you drive in too hard and chicken out by lifting off the throttle and/or touching the brakes, the car's back end will want to trade places with the front end very quickly. This is not something that makes it undrivable but you do need to learn how to drive it so take it easy at first. The sway bar is something that can be done by a new owner with just a few hand tools and an electric drill.
A link for the Sway Bar installation..
http://fierozone.tripod.com/weekend/swaybar/index.html[/B]
While you're under the car, make sure you have nice, tight ball joints and good shocks and struts. The bushings are also in need of replacement as they are rubber that tends to deteriorate over the years so check them out. Once you have those issues addressed, take the car to someone that has a good reputation with 4 wheel alignments and get a good alignment done. These cars are 20 years old in some cases and often were neglected because of their role as a commuter car. Many people looked at them as a cheap, throwaway type car and treated them that way in the later years of their life so things are most likely going to need replacement.
With new, tight suspension components and good shocks/struts added to a rear sway bar, you'll be about 80% of the way to real race car handling and once you've been there, you'll never go back.
Upgrading your brakes is a good idea as well....
http://fierozone.tripod.com/realbrakes/index.html
Theres a good link to the Berretta upgrade
Another one is the LeBaron upgrade, I'd like to get some tips, which one to do?
http://home.earthlink.net/~david.cole/fieroman/walt/walt.htm
Adding an extra ground is a good idea too, link here
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/043240.html
If you happen to have slow power windows, heres a good tip..
https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Archives/Archive-000001/HTML/20040223-2-043261.html
Some links:
http://www.60degreev6.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Pushrod&file=index&req= listarticles&secid=3
http://www.fierosails.com/fierosecrets.html
Anything else I can add to this post? No doubt this will be a great post for the archives, hm?
[This message has been edited by MetroMatt (edited 01-27-2005).]
