Well I just got done looking over the other ecotec build up threads and its quiet alot to take in...
But its time! First I'll tell you my build up with be on the low end... low end budget, low end power.
I will be installing a stock ecotec with hopes of a cavailer 5spd joining it.
This swap will be most interesting for the people looking for a cheap swap, as this will be nicked named
The-Poor-College-Kid-With-More-Time-Than-Money-Swap, I plan on spending about $500 on this swap, using mostly money from things I sell on ebay and old fiero stuff.

I bought a cavailer motor,trans,cradle for 300 bux off ebay, I still need the ecm and wiring and a transmission. To keep this swap cheap I plan on doing all the fab work myself, or by friends.

Right now the car has a '87 3.8v6, I rebuilt it after a spun bearing, it took to long to prime the oil when i started it and i beleive its what caused my knock now, I have 2000 miles on it since its started to knock with no change, now that summers over its time to get rid of it.

Why am I going from 6cyl to 4cyl? Well i am 18, the tuning scene seems to call me more than the v8 crowd (nothing against v8s ) its seems the ecotec is becoming as well known as the Chevy Small Block, but for a engine of its size it packs a punch.

Anyways thats nuff boring stuff

My 2.2 ecotec had 40,000 miles on it, ran 14.8 in a 4 door cavailer with CIA/Muffler, automatic transmission.
Approx 150hp/160tq.
Heres some pics...


Ok... in a little bit my laptop doesnt have any programs to save to a .jpg file... grrr

Im going to end up ditching the auto tranny, so its for sale if anyones interested
I think I may have a newer getrag for it.

just wondering...how far from the ports does the intake manifold extend? I am planning a DOHC 4 cylinder swap and am worrying about firewall to intake manifold clearance..and I know the ecotec manifold fits...just wondering if the one I am using will..

"My 2.2 ecotec had 40,000 miles on it, ran 14.8 in a 4 door cavailer with CIA/Muffler, automatic transmission."

bull$hit. So the Cavalier weighs about 500lbs more than a Fiero, has the same amount of horsepower, less torque, and an auto tranny, and yet you're saying its almost 1.5 seconds faster? bull$hit.

[This message has been edited by FieroRush88 (edited 09-11-2006).]

I call BS on that too, I know many of the fastest N/A eco Cavys from Jbody.org. A stripped down basemodel 03 Cav w/ 5spd Getrag can run a 14.9, but don't push it further than that. My 03 LS Cav w/ a few bolt ons runs 15.1s.

a 3800 would show a TON more yeild and 10 times the "tuner" mindset.

Basicly if you actually want to race things with a ecotec powered fiero, you would have to dump HUGE amounts of money into that motor, as honestly the cavilers have us basicly beat in the weight department.

In fieros torque wins us races. The mid mounted huge low end torque engine mated with an auto trans will beat ANYTHING else out there running simmilar horsepower/trq. Living in michigan here, I asume most of your friends have either hondas or dsm's, so let me say this.

A basic 3800 fiero can beat on any budget turbo honda, anything N/A honda, and you might get lucky on some lightly modded dsm's, but if they know what they are doing they should be able to walk all over you.

Now with the ecotec... turboed you would MAYBE see the horsepower that the 3800 puts down, and nowhere near the torque. On top of that the hp/trq curves will be all screwy and not anywhere the fiero can take advantage of it.

/end naysaying

If you still care, check out www.xceedspeed.com, its a michigan based car community, bascily ALL the import guys in the state belong to that site in some form. I am a huge supporter, and all I have is my swapped fiero.

------------------

It's Done!!
Time to iron out the kinks.....

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/072877.html

quote Originally posted by darkhorizon: A basic 3800 fiero can beat on any budget turbo honda, anything N/A honda, and you might get lucky on some lightly modded dsm's, but if they know what they are doing they should be able to walk all over you.

I just wanted to clarify a bit: a basic 3800 fiero can beat any N/A honda street car. There are some NA hondas that are pretty much drag-only cars that I think are in the 10s. But they also cost a bajillion dollars more than a 3800 fiero because... well, they're race cars, not street cars.

so far my eco fiero has been 1.fun to drive.i dont get the gas mileage i should because i love running it up through the gears.
2.light on its feet.it handles much better now.
3.quieter(when i dont have it floored)
4.the swap took me 2 months and cost about 1400.00cdn.
i dont know how fast it goes yet,it feels alot faster than my old 2.8 but i dont really care how fast it is in the quarter.i wanted a modern engine and drive train .the 3800sc is a lot faster but if you dont pair it with a modern auto(4t60 etc)you have reliability problems.and when you pair it with a heavy duty auto you add a lot of weight.tranny alone weighs 300 lbs + the 3800 is all cast iron.as far as having to spend alot of money to go fast ,a home made turbo is as close as the nearest junkyard .anyway,the nice thing about the eco swap is it is a cheap way to turn a clapped out fiero into a fun reliable car.

Whoa simmer down everyone, 14.8 is what I was told by told by the seller, he told me he had the slip for the run, but i never saw it.(Along with the ecm.....grrr)
I have to go to class, I didnt get a chance to read all the post but i will

quote Originally posted by darkhorizon: A basic 3800 fiero can beat on any budget turbo honda, anything N/A honda, and you might get lucky on some lightly modded dsm's, but if they know what they are doing they should be able to walk all over you.

stop drinking that domestic juice dark i love my fiero and id dump way more money into a fiero then my honda BUT for the price it will cost you to do the swap a turbo honda can get into the mid 12s which is faster then a good amount of all the cars on this forum

I for one applaud any engine swap not usually done, let people have the engine they want without saying "but oh, this one is better" which it may very well be...but its not as unique...I am all for stuffing any and every engine into a Fiero...he he, the problems other people run into help the rest of us out

quote Originally posted by wicked93gs: I for one applaud any engine swap not usually done, let people have the engine they want without saying "but oh, this one is better" which it may very well be...but its not as unique...I am all for stuffing any and every engine into a Fiero...he he, the problems other people run into help the rest of us out

Thanks for the positive remark first of I hope alot...

Anyways Im working on breaking the auto tranny away from the cradle, which by the way is about the same size as the eco, ive taken amanual tranny from my 2200 cavailer twice now and that was alot easier, Also for anyother person doing this GM did a wonderful thing and spot welded the rack and pinion in place and painted over it, I missed it and started cranking on the bolt and have almost ruined it, but just make sure to look at it carefully and not get stuck on it for 1/2 hour like i did. It took until i got a 4 foot pole on the breaker bar and had it tear chunks off the bolt till i realized something wasnt right .
Breaking the tranny is proving to be very difficult, I beleive I have found all the hidden bolts as I can get a pry bar between and get some clearance only to have it close back up, but cannot get it off. I have not dealt with this engine tranny combo, or any auto tranny for that matter, so if theres a trick to it please point it out!
Now to bed finally!

Has anyone ever used the front brakes/spindles off a cavailer, i just took a look at them and the set up would be nice on a fiero, I also now have a sway bar, can that be put on the cradle of the fiero?

do what I do to run my SRT4 engine....buy a pre assmebled Megasquirt from Rodney at rs-autosport.com, and using MS1 software wire it up to run EDIS4...mount a 96 mustang 36-1 trigger wheel to your crank pulley and use EDIS4 and a VR sensor from a 91 escort...works like a charm...mainly because I really dont know what type of trigger wheel the ecotec uses...is it a standard 36-1? or a 72-2? or something easy? or is it some weird vane setup like a SHO engine uses?

also just to let you know you can get ignition modules wired in by rodney as well so you dont have to use an EDIS module to run ignition...thats actually the last upgrade I just had...it simplifies my wiring quite a bit...not having to run shielded wires all over the engine bay

[This message has been edited by wicked93gs (edited 09-13-2006).]

Torque wins stoplight to stoplight races. I'd gladly give up the low end grunt of my 3.4 pushrod for the high RPM power of a 3.4 DOHC, or and EcoTec. I've raced Steven Snyder's mostly stock 3.4 DOHC with my heavily modded 3.4 OHV and he can mop the floor with me. Fiero's are light, they don't need earth shattering torque to win races. Once you're off the line, its the horsepower doing the work. I would love to do an EcoTec swap, they're likely to become more much more cheap to mod that the 3.8, especially with the 3.8 getting canned by GM and the EcoTec taking off.

Ecotecs are very impressive motors, some of them making well in excess of 1000HP in race engines, more powerful than most race 4g63s and SRT engines, in fact I read an article somewhere that GM wrote a pretty thorough "how to make 1000+HP with an ecotec" article, all in all a very stout engine...definately a world class 4 cylinder...my favorite 4 bangers...

1.FE3(because you barely ever see one....oddly enough forged pistons, rods and crank stock even though there are no stock boosted FE3s, also even odder you can find an FE3 in a 98 Kia Sportage...whom Mazda gave permission to use the engine in a slightly lower compression form....even better for boost...stock block proven 450+HP capable)
2.KZE(SRT4 engine) but I am kinda partial there...actually having one, its proved to be solid as a rock
3. Ecotec 4 cylinder(insane potential here with some internal changes)
4. 4g63/4g63T(very good potential, the only reason its not higher on the list is because of certain reliability issues I ran into when I owned them, in stock block configuration that is )
5.SR20DE/SR20DET good potential here...but getting more expensive all the time

note: I am talking stock or modified 4 cylinder engines here, not full race engines....which of course would include Super Dutys and Cosworths

as for torque...most of these engines have plenty of torque...just not the extreme low end end torque...which really only tends to tear up trannies faster...for instance my KZE made 240HP@10psi@5500 RPM, but made 260FT/LB@3500 RPM....and there are plenty of torquey 4 bangers...such as the F2T...which at 200HP actually produces 300ft/lbs...of course the only one of these 4 cylinders that is relatively easy to get into a Fiero is the Ecotec...but it would kick ass to see the others there...all the engines btw are fairly light...fully dressed my KZE weighs in at 250lbs...mine is actually closer to 200 since it has no balance shafts and only an alternator for accesories

[This message has been edited by wicked93gs (edited 09-13-2006).]

I made quiet a bit of process, i got the trans,cradle and motor all apart and seperated. The motor and trans were only connected
by the lower dog bone and I only wish I knew it early as it had to come off to get the tranny off.


Camera really doesnt like the lighting in the barn for some reason

looks cool to me

curious as to the weight of the engine...have a scale by any chance?

We dont have a scale but I will say the tranny and cradle weight count for over half the weight, Im going to find a way to weight this, as I am very interested as well.

Bump cuz everyone should see my fiero

nice looking notchie.when you go shopping for your tranny ,do yourself a favour and get as much of a wiring harness as you can.when i got my pieces ,they sent the wiring harness from the whole 2004 cavalier .all the sensors , ecm, bcm and other stuff that i still dont know about .i also got the steering collum and ignition set.i cut the ignition switch out of the collum and it now occupies my centre console glove box.i turn the eco on there and turn the rest of the car on with the fiero switch.works fine.the stock fiero fuel pump seems to work ok for the eco.i bought a cavalier fuel pump but could not adapt it to the fiero tank.the cavalier pump is about 9 psi higher than the 2.8 fiero pump.this was the first engine swap i have ever done and i thought it was easy and fun.there is an 88 notchie for sale in town .......

Im curious to whether the 2.2 Ecotec will bolt up to the 84 4cyl cradle.

Looks good so far.

it doesnt bolt up to any cradle ,you have to weld up your own mounts .not that hard to do i cant weld so i cut bent and bolted mine on to the cradle and got a friend to finish weld for me.the neat thing is fiero manual transmission axles fit into the 5 speed manual cavalier tranny.

bump.

I have the ecotec auto tranny and a spare isuzi mk7 out of my '98 cavailer sitting here and by the looks of it the bolt pattern is identical. I still cant confirm this but I beleive the isuzi in fieros are the same as my cavailers. If thats the case I will be using my fiero's isuzi with the ecotec, or at least a cavailer's isuzi, I know these transmissions first hand, never cracked the getrags...

I know for sure now I will be megasquirting my ecotec. It will cost more but will allow alot more upgrades that stock.

Havent really had much time to work on anything, been busy cleaning the work area out and selling stuff on ebay to pay for the megasquirt crap, which i still dont completely understand.

according to my haynes repair manual ,isuzu ,muncie(4 speed) and getrag fiero trannys have the same bolt pattern and the same mounts .according to other threads they do not bolt up to an eco without an adapter plate .none of the stock mounts lined up with any of the mount points on the cav. 5speed(and there are lots of them) .it took 4 hours with a chop saw ,grinder ,and vise and hammer to make my mounting brackets .30.00 for the steel,and now i have a 5speed tranny that can actually handle some torque.

quote Originally posted by wftb: according to my haynes repair manual ,isuzu ,muncie(4 speed) and getrag fiero trannys have the same bolt pattern and the same mounts .according to other threads they do not bolt up to an eco without an adapter plate .none of the stock mounts lined up with any of the mount points on the cav. 5speed(and there are lots of them) .it took 4 hours with a chop saw ,grinder ,and vise and hammer to make my mounting brackets .30.00 for the steel,and now i have a 5speed tranny that can actually handle some torque.

wftb,

Since the Fiero driveaxles fit your Ecotec transaxle I think it would be worthwhile to try to indentify exactly which transaxle you have. I think there are more than one that fit the Ecotec bolt pattern. What year was the Cavalier donor car?

i had the 4 speed muncie transaxle (still have it sitting in the garage) .my ecotec is from a 2004 cavalier.i think i am correct when i say that all manual transmission fieros have the same axles , so what manual transmission your fiero came with does not matter.as far as using an old isuzu cavalier tranny with a 2.2 ecotec all i can say is try it and see if it works.the more options for drivetrain swaps we have the better.

Well at least the top 2 bolts line up, but the where the starter is about 3 or 4 inches lower on the isuzi, but I beleive that any Cavailer getrag ( for the 2.4L Twin Cam 96-02) will bolt up.