This is my attempt at documenting a 3800SC swap into my 88 GT.  Hopefully I'll be able to stick with this and fully document the swap and restoration.  The plan is to swap in the complete drive train from a 99 GTP using the OBDII PCM and harness.  My goal is to end up with a vehicle that is capable of being driven daily, fuel mileage in the upper 20's, and a 1/4 mile ET in the low 12's.  Yes, I want to go really fast and get great gas mileage in a well mannered streetable car.  Can I have it all?  We'll see...

This is the second Fiero I've owned.  At the risk of dating myself, I had an 86 SE back in 86.  Fun car!  Drove it a few years and 60k miles, then sold it *kicking myself*.  Now in January 2005, I spotted this 88 GT on eBay.  I thought the price and condition was fair so I jumped on it.  Well, I live in St. Louis and it was in Phoenix.  I caught a plane to Phoenix International where the seller met me with a full tank of gas, looked it over, did the deal, and drove it home.  Now, this is a 17 year old car that I really know nothing about and is 1400 miles from home.  Yes, it was mid January and they were calling for snow along my path home.  Some say it was brave, but most say it was stupid.  Luckily I beat the snow and the Fiero and I made it home without incident.  It vibrates a bit above 80mph, probably needs bearings, bushings, alignment....  I'm going to focus on the swap then worry about the rest later.

Here's another eBay item.  I bought the complete drivetrain from a wrecked 99 GTP.  3800SC with about 65k miles, 4T63e-hd 4 speed auto, wiring harness, PCM, axles.  The guy pulled the whole GTP cradle.

For now, I'm going to stay mostly stock except for the cam and headers.  Once installed and running I'll start modding to reach my 12 second goal as my wallet will allow.

List will go here.....

Gathering parts (read spending money)...

My welding skills are pretty much non-existent, so I decided to go with custom brackets and poly mounts from West Coast Fiero.  They appear very well made and should locate the engine and trans correctly.  We'll see more on that later.

I sent a v6 Fiero alternator mount, the 3800 alternator mount, and the 3800 driver side dogbone mount to Loyde at Fastfieros.  After some cutting and welding he sent this work of art back to me.  It will relocate the alternator close to where the power steering pump used to be so I wont have to cut the deck lid to clear the alt, and provides a dogbone mount that should line up to the Fiero mount.

More poly.

Since the cradle and rear suspension will be out, I decided to replace all the 17 year old rubber with poly from The Fiero Store.  I will probably also pick up some struts, shocks and wheel bearings at a local parts store.  I'm a little worried about all this poly.  The 88 Fiero cradle is solid mounted to the car, poly engine mounts and suspension bushings.  I hope I don't end up with a teeth chattering experience. 

I ordered a VS cam and install kit from ZZ Performance.  They were out of stock but since I'm moving pretty slow on this project, that was no problem.  When they came in I got a call from ZZP.  Their latest batch of VS cams came in ground with an exhaust duration of 220 instead of 216.  All other specs are the same as the VS.  He said it should be very similar to the VS, slightly more lope at idle, and a little more power in the upper end.  He also offered me a $50 discount so I took it.

Custom headers from West Coast Fiero.  I ordered the larger of the two available sizes.  1 5/8 inch primaries.  The W-body guys are using 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 inch so it sounded right to me.  These were pretty pricey, but it should allow me to route the exhaust similar to the factory setup using a cat and muffler in the stock locations.  I ordered them bare steel.  After a test fit, I will send them to Jet-Hot for ceramic coating.

At this point I should have everything I need to get the engine and transmission mounted on the Fiero cradle.  So I guess the work is about to begin.  Next steps:  Label all connectors on the wiring harness and remove from engine.  R & R cam. Some painting, cleaning and sandblasting.