88 Fiero GT
 

I just bought a rebuilt motor and transmission , to feel what my car was like from the factory to see what changes I really want to make. Performance and economy.... the engine had engine knock at 110k from what the seller said , I figure the cost for my to rebuild it after I spend the time on it and see what I need to do. With the good price and 3 year 100k warranty I got along with the seeing what it was like to start with. I figure I got a good deal with also my limited time during the week.

So I have basically to start with body modifications because I do not know how long before I get done with all of my ideas for body mods before I move onto the engine. But I will do cheap mods to it to improve power and efficiency. That way if things go wrong with my engine after my 3 year warranty and im not covered I will know what I want to do as far as another swap power wise , so then its just finding a good combo of motor and transmission + computer and wiring harness....

I have a 3 speed auto right now , still waiting for the motor and transmission to come so I can start gathering specs and ideas on stock improvements for performance and economy.

But for starters...

48,000 volt ignition upgrade
iridium spark plugs
heavier duty spark plug wires
full fastback conversion with a fino v8archie mod.

change my front bumper to one that lets less air under the front of the vehicle and has a flatter nose also for looks, my preference.

light weight wheels and tires , 185/65/14's vs the 60's cause the 65's are actually 2lbs lighter at 15lbs each instead of 17 and is a great tire from the specs I seen on tire rack. and keeps me around the same speedo calibration.

6.39lb a piece volk ce28n racing wheels lightest in production from what ive seen 14x5.5

hoping I can do front and rear wide fender flares and covers without looking disproportional and still be able to turn my front wheels all the way. If not then back to the drawing board.

Then from their its just figuring out what to do next... thinking about a warm air intake which I have no been able to find any info on the fiero.....

a cooler thermostat 180 vs 195 no ECM changes needed.

upgrade the cooling system

maybe try smaller injectors or since it would be easier if I cannot find smaller injectors or have some machined for cheap .... change computer settings to supply less fuel to give me a leaner burn. hopefully the cooling system and upgrades can prevent premature detonation after the warm air intake and lean burn mods.

improve breathing for the fiero whether new aftermarket intake manifold and exhaust or grind out areas to improve. I dont really care about restoring the car because even though its an awesome car and I have respect for it. I feel im not going to the extreme like most people do with all these conversion bodykits and etc... Im still going to try to keep all the old parts just incase I do sell it in the future DONT PLAN ON IT... and since its not a mera or the T-tops version which way less were made.... even though its still pretty rare.. I'd rather it be mine than pontiacs.

OOO yahh... under body pan , it seems like a fairly easy mod for the fiero because its pretty flat all over due to the design.

lower to 3-4" instead of 5.4" stock.

... Opinions please and sorry for the disorganised post.

Also ive watched a youtube video of a guy having his fiero's EGR blocked off , I dont know how much of a difference the EGR makes on the fiero.... performance / economy... since its also not a really high compression engine. I think 8.5:1 or somewhere around there. and the guy stated pretty significant mpg improvements from his short list of mods , which egr block off was one of them. he also had a 5 speed so... I dont know. depends how he drove it.

search hot stock fiero in youtube.

The 85 model year got 40 mpg stock with 5 speed and iron duke 4 cyl.

I have the V6 and if I do any engine swap , Im not going to anything other than V6 , Flat6 , V8 gas mileage sacrifice for smoothness.

But all goes to show you how great the fiero is of a platform to start with 40mpg highway is still alot , and back then they didnt even use the quad 4 which was more efficient and had more power.

The EGR removal does not gain you anything.. it helps control combustion chamber temps, keeping them below 2500 F and preventing bad NOX emissions. The v8 in these actually got decent MPG as they could zip along on the highway at barely more than idle.. The engine could overpower the little car so easy the only real factor is your foot.. I drove one in college when they were new,, the V6 got well into the high 20's and that was beating it like a rented mule..

88FieroGT -

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CarloSW2

Fueleconomy.gov says 21/33 for 25MPG combined and 2 user inputs average to 23.6 MPG so I think 40 is a bit of an exaggeration...


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I also don't remember a Fiero with a V8 factory option...

That point aside, if you put wide fenders on, you'll significantly increase frontal area, so much so that covering the wheel openings may only get you back to where you started in terms of CdA. (drag per unit area)

The 88 GT, AFAIK, ALREADY has the lowest bumper/air dam available as an OE option.

The spoiler is necessary for the shape of the car-don't remove it unless you build a fast back.

Start with a belly pan from front to at least 2/3 back, tapering the last 1/3 up by about an inch or two if you do the rear portion.

If you want to test a fast back before wasting your money on a kit, just duct tape cardboard from the roof a and side glass edges to the spoiler, which is very close to 15°. Taper in the top section so the edges line up with the feet of the spoiler at it's rear edge. This gets you close to 10° side taper, also optimal.

The v8 was a kit and rather common back in the 80's on the v6gt. Was an easy swap with the 5.7 from the IROC camaro. The last gen vt also has a fastback look. Would be easy to close it in with plexi glass.

the v6 dragged down the EPA mpg.

one of the first mods I will probably do is the under body pan , and I know im going to go for the full fastback guaranteed and I want something thats high quality and looks good. It would take me a while , and only producing one single hatch the work and time I would be putting in to make the quality look good enough that it doesnt make the rest of the car look like crap as a whole.

I think I would be better off spending extra money on a good quality kit , that bolts directly on with the hardware provided.

Ignition system upgrades will not help MPG unless your current system is rather borked. I'd skip the above in favor of normal stock-type replacement parts.


Be careful with lightweight racing wheels. They are typically designed for cars that are inspected thoroughly every week. They tend to be less robust than street wheels, and are more suceptible to damage from potholes.


Flares will increase the frontal area, and are very likely to increase the coefficient of drag as well. I would think that you won't need flares for 185-width tires, but I don't really know the Fiero very well. The rear skirts should be helpful, and if you can get front skirts that fit those will help as well.


Just reducing the fuel getting sent in will mean you run lean all of the time, and usually by an unpredictable amount (depending on temperature, load, etc.). If you want lean burn, it would be far better to use a wide-band O2 sensor and have the engine management set up to run at one particular lean mixture in cruise only when the engine is at operating temperature and everything is nominal. Leave the acceleration enrichment in as normal, warmup enrichment as normal, and most other circumstances normal as well.


Sounds good! I don't know how the fast-back kit you mention earlier looks or works, but it probably couldn't hurt. The flat rear window and projecting rear buttresses are likely less optimal than even a too-fast fastback.


Unknown about performance. EGR will help with emissions, and can help fuel economy. Depends on how it is set up and run.

One more thing: For fuel economy, you can also change the way you drive. In particular, slowing down to the speed limit can pay good benefits on the freeway.

-soD

The EPA ratings are specific to engine + trans combinations available for that vehicle, the numbers and link I posted are for the 4 cylinder 5 speed, which was the BEST combination for that year.

The tech4/ iron duke/ 2.5L engine is an archaic piece of equipment that is more comparable to a farm tractor engine than any of today's automotive motors. They are tough as nails but when it comes to efficiency they leave a lot to be desired (large bore/ short stroke = less efficient combo at low RPMs).

It may be an exaggeration I dont know , but it could just be people being in touch with their car and knowing how it should be driven , the ratings are only estimates and with manuals vs automatics greatly vary.

I was making a poor joke when I said the v6 dragged it down , I know a few people who like to average cars gas figures as a whole not separately when comparing cars. Personally I think thats nonsense but thats where the post came from.

Also I agree , I think the 2.8 is also I dislike anything that doesnt have variable valve timing :)

The Quad 4 / Dual Cam 2.4 was a POS! Every one I've unfortunately owned gave me problems. PRAY that your water pump never goes out on one. Why is that? Because it's driven by the timing chain! Not easy to get to or fix once you're in there! The coil housing plastic would crack over time causing a short. Bad design and a nightmare to work on.
VT247

Looks like a Kamm back would be a great mod for FE! Much like the del Sol on here.
VT247

That isn't quite the correct Fiero body to be using in the template...

Lots of engine have water pumps driven by the timing chain, or timing belt. My '01 Civic is like that. Every 100k miles, you change both.

Yah it looks like the early year GT's or the formula

http://www.calgaryfieros.com/memberscars/88ryan1.jpg

this is the fiero I already have , http://www.calgaryfieros.com/memberscars/88ryan1.jpg

this is the hatch I would like Fino

Thaty rear hatch kit looks good. The wide body that is shown on that car won't add much to frontal area, but the door section needs to be smoothed out, so that may also work for you.

Couple that with low offset front wheels, and you may have a good combo for front wheel skirts.

If you install that hatchand add ducts, build them using louvres, so theY actually do something at speed. The ones illustrated will only disrupt flow in those areas. It's actually best to vent the engine bay directly behind the car, just below the tail of the decklid, so it fills the wake void behind the car.

I wasnt actually planning on doing the wide bodykit on the fiero , extra cost but you do have a point.... So I just might , but first I will do a little calculating and testing to see how I like the covers proportionally to the body. Compared to what they would look like with the widebody.

Thanks for the idea.

Christ -

Yes, you're right. I blame tirerack, ;) .

CarloSW2