Posted by Jncomutt on May 21, 2010
So I used to have this plain jane 1984 fiero SE. It came with no power windows, no power locks, not even a tilt wheel. I think the only fun option this thing has is the sunroof, which I wish it didn't come with. In anycase, i'll just get to the build...
First off, this was my interior, after having removed everything, redid the headliner, cleaned all plastic, and reassembled... I thought that's as far as I was going to take it, and well, it was. Well, for the FIRST time that is...
So I start off pulling the front harness out, to replace it with an 87 harness... It took a few hours to get done, but it wasn't too bad.
Here's the 84 setup, it was dirty, and ugly, the new wiring runs much neater:
Next up is the interior harness..
Notice the 84 blue dingy thing mount was different..
Tight space to get the wiring by..
Here you can see 1 screw mount on top. Removing that screw allowed me to take off the plastic bulk underneath, giving room for the harness to come through.
You must drop the Steering column to get to a bunch of the wiring...
Most of the wiring out, ALMOST DONE...
And finally, this stage complete..
I started pulling off the rear clip. I didn't take many pictures as its fairly straight forward, and nothing specific to this car. But to sum it up, I pulled out the interior plastics, pulled the refinished headliner back out of the car, unbolted the sunroof bolts on the roof section, and the rear clip. Went around the rear clip removing the bolts and the TWO rivets that hold it on. After figuring out that the black foam stuff was holding the clip to the frame, I managed to pop the rear clip off without much sweat.
So I get the rear clip off and I notice there are a bunch of leaves, etc in the driver's side frame rail. I pop out the 3 plastic 'covers' and it appears as though I had a guest at one point. Considering the car is completely torn down, I don't think he's still around, but if so, his house is now gone..
I went through the taillight harness and cleaned up all the wiring, re-taped it, etc. It looks really nice now. Also, I got the rear upper trunk/frame rails POR15 so that I can now install the wiring and get the rear clip back on it. Next up is to finish filling the holes where I ground off the battery tray, and POR the wheel well/engine bay...
The wiring harness has all been pinned out and labeled by wire. The TB has all its conections paired up, and I've started trying to figure out how I'm going to lay the harness on the engine. Once I get that figured, I can finalize the wiring and be done with it. My 1994 Bonneville PCM is already programed by Darth Fiero for EGR delete, 160 stat, and a few other goodies.
The engine in the foreground of the pic is from a 03 bonneville that got totaled with 1,189 miles. Engine, tranny, wiring, PCM, etc all came home from that car. That swap is going to be OBD2, with the auto.
Got the engine most cleaned up. I'm going to keep it the stock gray and metal color. Perhaps I'll coat the charger with a clear just to keep the metal from oxidizing..
I got the front end put together off of the car with Rodney lower BJ and outer Tie rod ends.. Also, here's my 'pre-modded' rear struts..
I got my order of poly trailing arms bushings from summit, autolite 103 plugs, drilled stat, and oil volume kit from ZZP, as well as the Spec stage 3.. SWEET!
My rear trailing arms were all good from the POR and so it was time to reinstall..
and the finish products...
Well I put the front cross member and other POR parts in so that I could get rid of the front Jack stands. In doing so, I was now able to make my FIRST test fit. I wasn't sure how well everything would line up since the tranny side has sliding ovals, and I customized my own front bracket. I am using Rodney's Poly replacement mounts for the 88cradle V6. So far they seem to fit and work perfectly. I also bought his adjustable dog bone because I knew the stock length wouldn't be perfect. When I got the engine in, it appears as though there is still some minor tweaking to do, but it fits fine. I need to finish up some of the wiring to the C500, but the rest of the harness is fairly set. I have a spare set of fuel rails now so I decided to try bending the stock ones, as u can see below, my first attempt didn't work.
Pic of the cut up Konis....
Picture of the modified strut towers for 88 cradle...
Engine in the car with revised fuel rails and cleaned up a bit..
Finally on to building the exhaust...
I had been driving the car at this point until I had a problem with the dogbone mount. I am using rodney poly lower mounts, and his adj dogbone with a modified GTP bracket. Due to the machining req'd to fit right, it weakened the bracket. I had it welded once, and it snapped again. I decided to just go ahead and weld one up out of 1/4" steel. So far, its been perfect.
Old broken mount..
Mocking up a new one..
and painted..
LC-1 Install...
And now for some fun upgrade parts: XP Cam, 105# springs, Mod'd retainers, CC locks, CC OE-R Lifters, Double Roller, etc....
105# valve springs, modded retainers, CC locks and Viton valve stem seals
The stock cylinder is on the left, the modified on the right
Front cover removed..
New double roller....
OE-R Lifters going in place...
Aluminum intake gaskets and welded intake
All done!
This thing idles solid at 1000rpms. The lope is really mean sounding. I disabled the balance shaft and the vibration is noticeable but not overwhelming, the car was already rough as it is.
I'll put some dyno info/track times etc here...
Decided to detail the engine bay and clean up some wiring..