It's hard to believe, that I have been making progress... I just haven't been posting much

I installed the intermediate shaft and generally assembled things that already existed.





Here's a few shots of the cradle, trying to show some of the cradle mods required to install a NorthStar. The new crossmember is 2x3 rectangular tubing, IIRC 1/8" wall.





This ended up being a terrible photo, but it just shows the shim that came in the box with the urethane mount welded to the cradle on this flat spot



Old skool Rodney Dickman or WCF transmission mount



Not necessary to cut the entire engine mount tray



Rodney Dickman forward transmission mount



Can just barely see where the original cradle crossmember was



The (gross overkill) end treatment to support the remainder of the original crossmember



Forward engine mount just sits on top of the crossmember



Tiny car, huge engine



The only way to get a good photo of the intermediate shaft... and the flash shows off how shiny my engine still is!



OooOo0oops... I'll have to adjust the position of the oil pressure transducer



Temporarily removed the filter adapter to install this bolt. I usually don't like studs, but this is a decent candidate location for one.



I had previously been manhandling the built-from-scratch right rear engine mount bracket into place, but it didn't quite fit. This time I took the opportunity to "tune it up" so that it fit without any shenanigans.



Here's where it goes



[Insert photo of engine mount bracket here]


Weight of the complete powertrain and cradle



The back end of a Fiero weighs less than the cradle assembly that goes into it (Don't think about the fact that the hitch is rated for 200# of tongue weight... )



And I got the damned thing in place for a trial fit





The shift cable clears the MAF and coolant fill, which is good





Here's how much wire ended up in the cabin



A little oopsie on the hinge box clearance



Also did not have to cut quite as much from this angle as I did

Nice to see you are making progress Will! How come you have clearance issues on the back valve cover? You didn't have that problem before right!? Did you change the mounts?

Will had previously cut away the hinge box on the car to install the engine, since then he realized he had done so excessively and installed a new hinge box and is more methodically trimming the box for a cleaner fit.

quote Originally posted by ericjon262: Will had previously cut away the hinge box on the car to install the engine, since then he realized he had done so excessively and installed a new hinge box and is more methodically trimming the box for a cleaner fit.

Ah!!!

quote Originally posted by La fiera: Nice to see you are making progress Will! How come you have clearance issues on the back valve cover? You didn't have that problem before right!? Did you change the mounts?

One of the subtle aspects of GMs mounting for the decklid and hinges is that it allows 5-DOF adjustment of the decklid fit. This is solid production engineering that isn't super obvious. My original hinge box modification took away a couple of those DOFs... which I eventually wanted back. I snagged FieroGuru's old hinge box that he removed in favor of his smoothed hinge design and had the box welded into my car.

As Eric said, now I'm trimming it methodically, as I should have done originally.