Cuz I gained 150 pounds. For anyone thats interested 3800 Series II s/c & 4 speed manual out, 06 N* & 4T80E into an 85 GT makes for a net weight gain of 140-150 pounds. Now coming in at 3212 with half a tank of fuel and my 250 pound carcass.
Y'up, my N* got a fat arse too! It does help a little bit to move the battery up front and jettison the spare. Mine is in an 87GT and weighed 3068lbs with 3/4 tank of fuel. Honestly though, I love the way mine drives. It sounds great and that Cadillac power-train is smoooth...
You went from a manual to the 4T80 and that is where a good deal of your weight gain came from.
[This message has been edited by jediperk (edited 05-06-2014).]
Ya I knew I'd be adding a bunch of weight with that monster tyranny but this thing is amazing. It just keeps pulling. I was always happy with the 3800 but I'll take this any day and with DarthFiero aka Ryan able to tune the 06 & 07 Northstar this becomes a viable swap option.
Try adding another 100 pounds for turbos, IC , and exhaust tubing.
Did you have to do anything to your 4T80/axles to handle the extra power? I ask b/c once I no longer need to use mine as a daily driver I plan on upgrading the heads and cams and adding NOS and I know the 4T80 is as stout as they come but just want to make sure...
Ya I knew I'd be adding a bunch of weight with that monster tyranny but this thing is amazing. It just keeps pulling. I was always happy with the 3800 but I'll take this any day and with DarthFiero aka Ryan able to tune the 06 & 07 Northstar this becomes a viable swap option.
DF
Y'up, this engine comes alive above 3500rpm. Around town it feels just like a 4.9, then you get on the gas and at the point where the 4.9 hits the wall the N* comes to life! The way it pulls harder and harder all the way to redline is incredible.
Y'up, this engine comes alive above 3500rpm. Around town it feels just like a 4.9, then you get on the gas and at the point where the 4.9 hits the wall the N* comes to life! The way it pulls harder and harder all the way to redline is incredible.
That's it exactly. I keep expecting it to hit that wall but it just accelerates and accelerates and accelerates and........well you get the idea and suddenly you're doing 100 +.
can any of you point me to your, or any good N* builds with all the needed info? I've done plenty of searching but haven't found a good complete one yet. I found a few that started off great but then just ended. I want to do a swap and would prefer the v8 vs the L67/L32 just because it's different.....the whole reason i got into Fieros. Thanks.
can any of you point me to your, or any good N* builds with all the needed info? I've done plenty of searching but haven't found a good complete one yet. I found a few that started off great but then just ended. I want to do a swap and would prefer the v8 vs the L67/L32 just because it's different.....the whole reason i got into Fieros. Thanks.
If you want to do a V8 Fiero and are starting from scratch I'd recommend going LSX. They are way less complicated, expensive and have more power potential than just about anything. Plus, if you want to have a high revving V8 it can do that too with some titanium push rods...
can any of you point me to your, or any good N* builds with all the needed info? I've done plenty of searching but haven't found a good complete one yet. I found a few that started off great but then just ended. I want to do a swap and would prefer the v8 vs the L67/L32 just because it's different.....the whole reason i got into Fieros. Thanks.
I don't have build thread and I agree that there aren't a lot of complete N* swap threads. What I did was kinda glean some from a bunch of different threads as far as any cradle mods are concerned. I was lucky in that I started with a cradle that had already been modified for a N* manual swap so the front cross member had already been relocated but since I was using the 4T80E I did have to fab all new mounts. DarthFiero provided a lot of the info I needed for the wiring and I doubt if I would have figured it all out without his help. Darth also tuned my ECM/TCM. One thing I would strongly recommend if you want to go Northstar is to go with an 06 or 07 just for its tunability compared to the first gen and y2k Northstar. I still have a couple of bugs to work out but I am pleased as heck with this. I do have some pics of how I did my mounts and exhaust which I'd be happy to post if anyone is interested.
Street Legal Friday night at St Thomas Drag way tomorrow. Will I see you there?
Pete
Nah. Like I said I still have a couple of.bugs to work out. I keep going lean at lower rpms and I think I still have air in the cooling system cuz it runs hottish at low rpms too.
I know, I know. No low rpms at a drag race. I do want to try this out at the track sometime this summer. Probably Grand Bend tho. I popped in at Port Franks thinking you guys might be there the other day but no boats in the water yet.
Street Legal Friday night at St Thomas Drag way tomorrow. Will I see you there?
Pete
Nah. Like I said I still have a couple of.bugs to work out. I keep going lean at lower rpms and I think I still have air in the cooling system cuz it runs hottish at low rpms too.
I know, I know. No low rpms at a drag race. I do want to try this out at the track sometime this summer. Probably Grand Bend tho. I popped in at Port Franks thinking you guys might be there the other day but no boats in the water yet.
I started with a cradle that had already been modified for a N* 4spd manual swap but since I wanted to go with the 4T80E more mods were necessary
Sizing things up for mount locations
Front trans mount and ya my welding sucks!
I thought I had pics of the other mounts but I guess I deleted them already
My cheapo exhaust
Since this was a manual car it had no trans cooler in the rad so this is what I've used. Its a frame rail trans cooler I got from Summit Racing. I just used compression fittings to attach to the existing 4T80E lines
Since I was using the stock 2006 ECM/TCM as tuned by Sinister Performance aka Darth as well as for other reasons I had to add 6 new electrical circuits. This involved adding an addtional fuse panel which I hid where I used to have a console glove compartment. The blue thing is a Bluetooth adapter thats plugged into my OBD II socket. This sends engine trans info to my android tablet and since I the CAN bus doesn't interface with the Fiero speedo or tach I'm getting that info thru my tablet too. There are wiring mods that should make my tach and speedo work, I just haven't gotten to that yet. I'd like to add that Darth has been an incredible resource for me particularly in matter of wiring and of course tuning. Many thanks Ryan
Notice I have 2 coolant filling locations. I started out just using the modified Fiero T-stat housing but was afraid I wasn't getting all the air out of the system so I have since added the pressure tank from a 2000ish Saturn with the air bleeder. So far I'm not sure its made a difference. I still get up to 210-220* at idle. Getting the rpms above 2000 and the temps drop immediately. At some point I will get rid of the modified Fiero T-stat housing.
I have been chasing a lean code that only shows up at low rpms and my Torque app also shows crazy short term fuel trims at idle or low rpms. Once I get above 2200 rpms or so everything settles out just fine. After doing some research on line I have thought I'm chasing a vacuum leak, however just for convenience sake I eliminated the pcv fresh air inlet hose and replaced it with one of those little filter type vents on the front valve cover but since in stock applications the pcv draws air out of the inlet duct post MAF I now wonder if there is metered air not being drawn out as the ECM is used to. Don't know if that makes sense but thats my theory for now. Anyway if you look at this next pic closely you can see where I plugged the hole in my air inlet duct that the pcv tube used to connect and you can see the filter vent thingy on the front valve cover.
If anyone is looking for particular info just holler
[This message has been edited by Dave E Bouy (edited 05-13-2014).]
When I first read the title I had flash backs to my ex asking if a dress made her look fat and all I could think of was the dress was not the problem. As for the engine being so big well I would say it does not waste any space in the engine bay that's for sure.
Yes, everything is mounted steel on steel. I really had no hesitation doing this since I had previous experience with a N* mounted this way and it is very smooth. Much smoother than the 3800 mounted on poly that used to be in this car.
When I first read the title I had flash backs to my ex asking if a dress made her look fat and all I could think of was the dress was not the problem. As for the engine being so big well I would say it does not waste any space in the engine bay that's for sure.
As Al Bundy said once "it's not the dress that makes you look fat. It's the fat that makes you look fat."
Since this was a manual car it had no trans cooler in the rad so this is what I've used. Its a frame rail trans cooler I got from Summit Racing. I just used compression fittings to attach to the existing 4T80E lines
OK as it turns out this transmission cooler wasn't cutting it and I have since added a more typical tube and fin type trans cooler up in front of the read that so far seems to be doing the trick.
The wiring was carefully routed to minimize clutter and then was wrapped in this http://www.delcity.net/stor...dable-Sleeving/p_278 stuff and where tape was required I used good old fashioned hockey tape.
This thread sucks, just when you think you've decided what your next swap will be a thread like this pops up.
I've actually wanted too do a Northstar for a long time but when I've looked I've had trouble finding anything I'd trust to be a good engine, rebuilding them has to be done right and it's not cheap. No matter what swap is next I plan on doing Megasquirt and there is plenty of info from people who have already done it on Northstars.
That northstar looks absolutely amazing with purple! Any big differences besides the noise/money from a 3.8SC to a 4.6L Northstar?
I find that the 3800 had more torque down at the low end but the N* will snap your neck when you kick it down at cruising speeds. I may be comparing apples and oranges however. I also swapped in the caddy transmission in place of the 4 spd manual that was in the car when I had the 3800.
This thread sucks, just when you think you've decided what your next swap will be a thread like this pops up.
I've actually wanted too do a Northstar for a long time but when I've looked I've had trouble finding anything I'd trust to be a good engine, rebuilding them has to be done right and it's not cheap. No matter what swap is next I plan on doing Megasquirt and there is plenty of info from people who have already done it on Northstars.
I've been kicking around the idea of selling this N* as a complete drop out if you, or anyone else is interested. I would sell it as is or work out a deal to do the installation into your Fiero......... My life has gone thru some interesting changes in the past 6 months and I'm looking at going in a different direction. Would still want to keep a hand in the Fiero world but likely use this car as a daily
[This message has been edited by Dave E Bouy (edited 12-18-2014).]