Scary quick?

[pwd72s]

Had my pickup at a local shop for some minor work today. When I showed in the afternoon to pick up my truck, I noticed "Dave", a mechanic at the shop washing an old Pontiac Fiero...it had a huge coffee can sized exhaust tip. It also had a huge tailpipe behind that tip. Dave lifted the lid to reveal an aluminum block Cadillac V-8, telling me the V-8 weighs 60 pounds less than the original V-6.

Gee, I'll bet it's pretty quick, mister. Quicker than most wannabe fast & furious rice cars. (edit) Has anybody else here seen this swap?

[Jays72T]

Never really liked Fieros but that does sound pretty quick.

[TerryBPP]

I saw it in a GM tech magazine at a doctors office. The swapped in a Northstar 300hp motor. This was 5-6 years ago.

[IROC]

The Northstar-Fiero swap is pretty common. I've seen a number of them. There is a shop a few miles from my house that specializes in Fieros - the place must have a 100 of them out front in various stages of disassembly. They do these Northstar swaps all the time.

Mike

[pwd72s]

Thanks guys. This was the first one I'd seen. Yeah, sounds like a cheap ticket to a thrill ride to me. Leave it to the southern guys, nascar country, to do a lot of them!

[svandamme]

you can bolt a chevy V8 to a bloody go-cart
and it will be even more scary fast

or you can put 5 JATO rockets on a fiero , even scarier

but in the end , it'll still be an ugly POS Fiero with the interior, and the exterior look of a worn out vegas showgirl with a 80 buck a day heroine habit

[trekkor]

Tell us how you really feel!!

I don't know why you need to pull any punches


KT

[Nostril Cheese]

I have seen a 350 mounted in one. Was still ugly

[red-beard]

There are a lot of people who do Chevy small block into 914s. 350 hp cheap. One guy here in Houston has 2, one for his wife (only 300 hp) and his "race" car which is closer to 400. However, I believe he did a lot more work than most of the swaps, upgraded tranny, axels and brakes.

It puts my 914/6 to shame in the $/hp and lbs/hp departments. And at 240 hp, my 914/6 is plenty scary fast!

[M.D. Holloway]

Originally posted by svandamme
you can bolt a chevy V8 to a bloody go-cart
and it will be even more scary fast

or you can put 5 JATO rockets on a fiero , even scarier

but in the end , it'll still be an ugly POS Fiero with the interior, and the exterior look of a worn out vegas showgirl with a 80 buck a day heroine habit

I just sprayed diet coke outa my nose reading that! Good one!

[dd74]

The later Fieros were cool cars. All they needed was more power, but I think GM was afraid the Fiero might surpass the Corvette in sales, interest and as a showcase car if it had more power.

[IROC]

I thought the Fiero GTs were pretty good looking. Too bad it suffered from typical GM problems... I read once that they were considering putting Quad-4 engines in them. That would have made them more fun. I drove a GT with the V-6. Horrible.

Mike

[dd74]

BAE or Garrett Air Research had a turbo for the late V6, and it made the Fiero as fast as the Corvette, at least then.

[tabs]

Auto Insurance rates killed the Fiero...because of the plastic body they cost alot to repair collison damage.

[IROC]

Originally posted by tabs
Auto Insurance rates killed the Fiero...because of the plastic body they cost alot to repair collison damage.

Well, maybe. Other cars have plastic bodies and insurance didn't kill them? I actually heard it was because they all caught fire and burned to the ground. I remember hearing - on the radio - a report about how many Fieros caught fire and burned up. It was a *huge* number. That was the reason given for the demise.

Mike

[dd74]

Originally posted by tabs
Auto Insurance rates killed the Fiero...because of the plastic body they cost alot to repair collison damage.

Hmmm...interesting. I would have never thought that. Wouldn't be the same with the Corvette? I know the body is f/g, but even so...

[IROC]

From an Autoweek article "back in the day":

"By the middle of 1987, the fire count for 1984 Fieros hit a rate of about 20
blazes a month. Fieros were blowing up at a rate of one for every 508 cars sold.
No other mass-market car had ever come close to this rate of fires at least, as
far as the federal safety watchdogs knew. If the Fiero fire rate was applied to
all the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike at rush hour, there would be burning hulks
every quarter-mile and hundreds of people running around in panic."

[artplumber]

Originally posted by IROC
I thought the Fiero GTs were pretty good looking. Too bad it suffered from typical GM problems... I read once that they were considering putting Quad-4 engines in them. That would have made them more fun. I drove a GT with the V-6. Horrible.

Mike

I distinctly remember the R & T issue with the 3.0l Fiero (143 hp) and the F40 (478 hp and a whole bunch of other things). That is why GM is/was going down.

[dd74]

Originally posted by IROC
From an Autoweek article "back in the day":

"By the middle of 1987, the fire count for 1984 Fieros hit a rate of about 20
blazes a month. Fieros were blowing up at a rate of one for every 508 cars sold.
No other mass-market car had ever come close to this rate of fires at least, as
far as the federal safety watchdogs knew. If the Fiero fire rate was applied to
all the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike at rush hour, there would be burning hulks
every quarter-mile and hundreds of people running around in panic."

Hence a Nader-Baiter.

[dagriff]

Actually..... don't believe everything you read. There are thousands of Fieros on the road right now, so if all the fire stories were correct they would be visible on Google earth.
It was mostly the original 84's that had the problem, it was fixed, but due to owners not getting the fix (there are still people going in to dealers to get it done) it persisted longer than needed. Plus what a great story for the media to hype out of all proportion.

Yes I do have a Fiero... and yes I am putting in a V8.
It has been a long term project for me and my two boys.
The idea being
* It's cheap so if they screw stuff up, it's all part of the learning process.
* They learn a lot (engine rebuild, converting from EFI to Carb, etc etc).
* It's fun.
* In their peer group it's "WAY KOOL".
* Until we put the V8 in it's a manual four cylinder so they can learn to drive properly without damaging the 911!
* In the same vein it's odd rear engine crappy suspension handling with just a 4 cylinder will put them in good stead for the 911 without (hopefully) killing them.
* When the v8 goes in it's off the road and they learn AutoX in it.

Then and only then, they get to drive the 911 !!!!