The other day, I had the "privilege" to drive my dad's '17 equinox home from his buddies house after beer night... and honestly, that car summarizes everything that I dislike about newer cars. Its tall and you cant see out of it and its dead silent and you cant feel the brakes or the steering or the accelerator, and everything is controlled through a cheesy feeling touchscreen. Yuck.

However!!! The one thing that left an impression on me was the engine. There were the two of us in the car, at a stop sign, and I decided to floor it just to see what would happen. And that 4,300lb SUV just sort of said "okay" and all of the sudden, we were going about 35. I had a hard time believeing what'd just happened, so I did it again, watching the tach this time. And that little motor just yanked us along straight from 1,200 rpm like it was nothing. I remember saying out loud to my slightly inebriated dad, "this stupid little car has an innapropriate amount of torque".

I had to see a dyno chart when I got home, and goodness. The torque curve is ridiculous, for a naturally aspirated 4cyl. You can hardly even call it a curve! Its more of a straight line.

And I looked into it a little further. Ours has the LEA, which is the E85 compatible variant of the LAF. Its an undersquare motor, and its got 11.2:1 compression and direct injection which lets it run on 87. Its got VVTI on both cams, which must be what gives it it's 182hp@6700 and 172lbft@4900, which doesnt sound super impressive until you consider that its got 120lbft at 1200 rpm, and 155@2300, and keeps revving all the way to 7k. And it manages to accomplish 34 mpg highway in that armchair with 4 wheels that my dad drives to work. With the compression ratio that its got, I dont have a hard time imagining 200whp with just a tune. And this is the base engine... Makes me feel bad that its trapped in an equinox

So the gist of it is that I cant stop thinking about buying a 4cyl auto Fiero from craigslist and a totaled Equinox from Copart and mishmashing the two into a 50mpg-getting-mustang-suprising daily driver... I cant afford it at all right now what with my current fiero projects and trying to save up enough to move, so this is just me sharing a thought. Maybe one of you are interested now after reading this. Maybe someday Ill be not poor Thanks for listening to my rambling!!

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quote Originally posted by Frank2: here's the goal: Build a mid engine car 1/2 as good as a Lotus Elise at 1/10 the cost.

I have no idea what Im doing, but Im doing it.

IG: @giveintogravity

[This message has been edited by Boot (edited 08-21-2017).]

There are better versions of the Ecotec to choose than one set up for a truck. That engine has 182 bhp @ 6700 and 172 Tq @ 4900.

The turbocharged LNF used in Cobalts, Solstice, Skys and HHRs has this curve:




It makes a killer transplant in the Fiero, although several people have gone for non-turbo versions. And anything up to 500 bhp or so is available with a few engine mods (I run a Solstice with 375 bhp 375 Tq).

Look at the LE5. It's a much simpler port injected engine, and still makes 175 HP and 165-175 TQ. Came in the Cobalt SS, HHR, G6, and Solstice/Sky, among others.
Seems like it would be a much easier swap, than the DI version.
Probably available with an F23 bolted to it, if that's what you want.

LE5, replace plastic intake manifold for aftermarket equal length runner/large plenum aluminum one. Replace exhaust manifold with short runner 321 stainless that has a turbo flange. Replace camshafts for a pair ground for a turbo application. Set up fueling system for E85. Dial up 24psi of boost and you should easily get north of 400HP.

[This message has been edited by lateFormula (edited 08-21-2017).]

I would like to nudge this conversation in the direction of computers.
Lifting the OEM computer with the engine, one would have to take everything, body, fuel, brake computers etc.
But going aftermarket ECM, the VVT is not something that is a popular feature.
Many that swap in a VVT will pin the cam phaser to one spot.. but alas, those lovely curves look more like a fat old lady.
Did you have some thoughts on your swap in this respect?

I bought an ECM from Ecotec Marine, at the time in OZ, I believe now in N, for this exact purpose. Have not run it yet, but harness, documentation supports full VVT operation. They have dyno sheet posted on their website, 200 HP, pretty flat torque curve. Looks loke it will work fine, just have not got a round tuit.

Mike W

Below 4500 RPM this 2.4 L Ecotec has a torque curve similar to that of the Fiero 2.8 L.

I wouldn't call that low-end grunt...

quote Originally posted by fast40driver: I bought an ECM from Ecotec Marine, at the time in OZ, I believe now in N, for this exact purpose. Have not run it yet, but harness, documentation supports full VVT operation. They have dyno sheet posted on their website, 200 HP, pretty flat torque curve. Looks loke it will work fine, just have not got a round tuit. Mike W

200 HP from an otherwise stock LE5 engine? That's impressive. Please keep us posted. I'm interested.
Good luck with yours.


Edit - When I first started looking, I came up with with a bunch of results for aquarium supplies.
Here's a link to the correct site, if anyone else is interested.
https://www.jetboatbase.co.nz/ecotec/

2nd edit - What accommodations are they making for the VSS (or lack of VSS) ?

[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 09-02-2017).]

Right? They pretty much built a Fiero out of a cavelier.

quote Originally posted by jmbishop: Right? They pretty much built a Fiero out of a cavelier.

Sounds like the hard way to do it...

Joe

It's an old project that's pretty much been abandoned, looking over the build, they really butchered the car to the point they should have just built a tube frame. It was a 1-ton car and I think they had plans to start over and not finish the hacked up car.

quote Originally posted by jmbishop: It's an old project that's pretty much been abandoned...

I believe they instead went big tyme scoring sound tracks for YouTube car videos.