Posted by ChuckRock on October 20, 2008

Simple how to on painting your car.

Every product mentioned can be bought at any local automotive paint store.

Here is a short list of what you will need for this project;

-Air Compressor with a minimum of a 30 Gallon tank (this is a must other wise you will not have enough air to complete a paint job, borrow one if you don’t have one)

-HVLP Spray Gun

-Point of use air line filter

-Good Clean Air Line

-DA sander

-Red scotch brite pads

-180-320 DA paper

-1000-1500 Wet sanding paper

-Masking tape and Paper

-Wax and Grease remover

-Lacquer Thinner

-Latex Gloves

-3M painting mask (A MUST, paint has not just been linked to cancer, it FLAT OUT causes cancer!! You want none of this in your lungs.)

To start out you will need a clean open area to work. Garages are best but will need to be cleared out. You need a minimum of 3 feet around your Fiero to work. Also this can be done outside but the results will not be as good. Keep your work area clean at all times, you never want any contaminants on or near you car when you are getting ready to paint.

Step 1- WASH THE CAR!

Often this step is overlooked but you never want to start any work on a car that is not completely clean. Spend time washing the car, don’t forget the under the skirts, under the front and rear bumper, along the wheel wells. Use only a very mild soap, nothing that claims to help shine. Dish soap works well but make sure to use something that will not leave a residue. Spend extra time on anywhere armor all has ever been, don’t forget it fly’s off your tires.

Step 2- Remove The Wax.

Now the car is washed, use wax and grease remover and wipe down the whole car. Once again a totally clean car before any work begins.

Step 3- Assess the damaged areas.

Well I’m sure if you are painting you car there is a reason. So any where there is damage repair it. For baked off clear coat use a DA sander with 180 grit and sand it out, but be careful you don’t sand all the way through the paint. You only want to remove the bad clear. In any areas where you break through a layer of paint you want to “feather” it back an inch. This means you should see a minimum of one inch of each layer of paint. If you do not do this you will have a lake in your paint. Also when using a DA sander ALWAYS HOLD IT FLAT other wise you will get waves.

Step 4- Primer areas.

NEVER USE SPRAY PAINT PRIMER! This primer is not catalyzed, so when you paint over it, the paint will reverse it back to a liquid from. This is not good if you are hoping to fill sand mark etc. with the primer. So spend a few bucks and buy good catalyzed primer from a paint shop. Now onto where you will need to primer, you will only need primer if you have body work on the car, if your have sanded all the way through the paint to fiberglass, or you have spider web cracks you are trying to fill. It is unnecessary to prime the whole car if you don’t have too much body work.

Step 5- Prepping the car for paint.

Now that you have a clean repaired car you will want to prep is so the new paint has something to attach to. Take a DA sander and sand everywhere with 320 grit, you only need to scuff it so there is no more shine you’re not trying to sand off the paint. Sand over any primer with 320 as well. If there is any areas you cannot hit with a DA sander, use a red scotch brite pad, like around the windows, under the door handles, etc. DO NOT SAND BY HAND WITH THE 320, this will result in straight sanding lines and will show up once painted. Always use a DA or scotch bright pad on final prep because they have a random pattern and will not show up when painted.

Step 6- Set up your painting area.

If you’re in a garage move everything out that you can, what you do not move will have paint on it forever after. It best to cover what you cannot move with plastic tarps, also line your walls with plastic tarps. Now make sure you have drained your air compressor, water and oil builds up in the tank and will ruin and paint job. Its best to buy a brand new air line for this job, that way there is no air tool oil in the line to screw up your paint job. Then put a point of use filter on your air line right at your spray gun to remove any water and oil before it gets to your gun. Lastly right before you paint the car wet down your garage floor, this keeps the dust down when spraying paint.

Step 7- Masking off.

Mask of everything you don’t want paint on, don’t forget your door jambs, wheel wells, etc. Your car should now have a dull clean look like in the picture. Any shiny spots need to be sanded and prepped before you start to paint.

Step 8- Final Cleaning.

Once again wipe down the whole car in wax and grease remover. Then just before paint wipe the car one more time with a tack cloth.

Step 9- Base Coat.

Mix the paint as the manufacturer recommends (ask the paint shop), use a filter and pour it in to your spray gun (filter are free at the paint shop). Now set your spray pattern, using a piece of masking paper taped to a wall set your air pressure on your gun and adjust your spray pattern. Normally 35-40 psi works well, and for your spray pattern you want a 7-8 inch tall 1 inch wide vertical oval. You need to spray holding the gun about 15″ from your work. Now lay on the paint, using robotic smooth overlapping sweeps go back and forth from the top of the car down painting the car. Put 2-3 coats, any place you get a run wait tell it dries and sand it out with 600 grit and re shoot that area. Once base coat is complete you can only wait up to 24 hours until you shoot the clear, but I would only wait about 45 mins.

Step 10- Clear coat.

Using the same painting method as the base coat apply the clear coat. Do 2-3 coats of clear, if you get a run or dust don’t worry about it can be fixed after the paint dries. Wait about 4-5 hours before removing the masking paper. Be extra careful to not pull the paint up with the masking paper.

Step 11- Color Sand and Buff.

If you have any runs, dust, or orange peel now is the time to fix it. You can color sand starting about 24 after you finish paint. The sooner you color sand the better, because the paint will not be as hard to sand. If you choose you can color sand at anytime after the paint job, even years later. For run wrap a stir stick in 1500 grit paper and have a hose with water running very slowly and sand with the help of the water until the run is gone. For orange peel, fold a piece of 1500 in to thirds and using a hose again wet sand the area by hand, make sure to use you palm not your fingers, finger will leave lines. Also rinse off you paper so it does not get dirt caught under it a damage your paint. Once all the problem areas a gone, take a high speed buffer with a wool pad using 3M perfect II compound and buff the car until it shines great, be careful around edges you don’t want to burn through the paint. Once its all buffed use a 3M swirl remover and a foam pad and polish out the car. Now your car should look like a show car!

Enjoy! Remember this is only a quick description, and is the way I have been doing it for 10 years. Everyone has there own way of doing stuff so please dont flame me!

The last Base-Clear paint job on a Fiero I did cost me $186.15 in materials. If you had a shop do it, you would spend $1500-3000

Posted under Painting

Posted by ChuckRock on October 20, 2008

How I painted my 87 Fiero GT

First thing I did was realized that my car needed a new paint job. I found this out by looking closely at the paint. It was hazy in places while others looked fine. Yet in some places I saw these little deep cracks in the paint. The roof was the worst part. All areas up there were heavily oxidized and cracking. So much that if you ran your knuckle along it…well lets just say Band-Aid. I will add photos later (need to develop some film) This is how I painted mine start to finish.

This is the paint system that I used. You will need to pick a color. I used a pearl metallic versus a flat color or a metal flake.

Here is a list of the Dupont Chroma Series part numbers:

• (1 gal) 3919S Prep-Sol solvent for de-waxing and cleaning / preparing the car
• (1 gal) 7175S ChromaBase Base maker This turns the 1KM into base paint
• (1 qt) V7585S Activator for the clear coat only
• (1 gal) V7500S Clear coat
• (1 gal) 1KM Base you pick the color (reds and blues are expensive) But they look great.
• (1 gal) Virgin lacquer thinner for clean up of gun only

I also purchased:

• (1) 32038 3M 400 grit wet or dry Imperial sand paper
• (2) 32023 3M 1500 grit wet or dry Imperial sand paper
• (2) 32044 3M 2000 grit wet or dry Imperial sand paper
• (1) 3M series 5000 respirator disposable Please use this. Isocyanates are a nasty thing.
• (2) Generic air line dryers and oil filters
• (3) 3M Scotch masking tape rolls of 3/4″
• (1) Roll of 1″ masking tape 3M
• (1) Roll of fine line tape 1/4″ vinyl very thin 3M
• (6) 10′ x 20′ 2 mil plastic tarps
• (1) Rubber sanding block
• (2) 39004 3M Super duty heavy cut rubbing compound
• (1) 05993 3M Liquid polish

I did not purchase:

• 1. Adhesion promoter 2322S for plastics because the car was already painted. The rep said that I did not need it for this reason. Just prepare the surface as normal.
• 2. Flex additive for ABS / SMC plastic bumper covers because mine did not have any cracking and they were already painted and the stuff would evaporate / harden after about 4 months anyway. (Actual quote from the Dupont representative). Not a bad idea to do though.
• 3. Urethane filling primer Rep said he recommended it only for warranty and my old paint if prepared properly would serve as a fine primer. I had no peeling issues and needed no body fillers.

Maker sure to get plastic stir sticks, filters / screens, a measuring stick that gives mix ratios. These items are usually free from the supplier. You will have to purchase disposable coveralls, safety goggles (use anti-fog on the inside) and plenty of lint free cloths. Wrap your coveralls with bands of tape to keep them close to you so they don’t brush against painted surfaces. Make sure you have plenty of light. I used (2) 4′ dual fluorescent shop lights per side of the car. Use caution if using a halogen because of heat and flammability reasons.

How to paint your Fiero.

Beginning

First wash the car. I used a lot of soap and a good sponge. As I washed it, I scrubbed every square inch very well. I then rinsed and dried the car. Then it’s time to remove all of the tar and bugs. So much for the easy part!

De-wax and degrease using Prep-sol.

You may want to do this step two - three times depending on how often you waxed your car. Reason being is that the build up can be pretty thick. I used the Prep-Sol by wetting a clean cloth and wiping over the entire car, bumpers and all rough and smooth paint. This was to remove all waxes and residues. I did this twice. It actually makes the car look great, until it evaporates. On the last application of Prep-Sol wipe on and wipe dry at the same time.

Wet sanding.

This will create a mess. This is where your arms get the work out. Use clear water in a bucket. Use 400 grit wet or dry sandpaper. I cut mine into strips 3 inches wide by 8.5 inches long. I folded it in half and half again. (abrasive side out). Dip the sandpaper into the bucket and get it wet. Wet the car as well. I found it works best to keep the panel you are sanding wet at all times. Just like you are waxing use circular motions about 4″ in diameter. You will have to rinse out your sandpaper as you begin to rough up the paint. As you start you will see a white foam start to form. This is the clear coat. As you proceed you will begin to see a foam the color of your car appear. At this point you are through the clear coat. It is not totally necessary to go through the clear but in some cases you need to know how deep you are going. Paint is not very thick. Watch out for curved areas and sharper corners as you can quickly sand through them and hit the plastic. Use your other hand to feel the surface as you go to see if it is smooth to the touch.

Wet sanding rough spots.

In some locations you will have heavily oxidized paint. Mine was the roof and hood. At this point I used a 320 grit wet or dry sandpaper. Be careful because this is more abrasive than a 400 grit. After it is smooth to the touch use a 400 grit to remove the deeper scratches left by the 320 grit.

Wash the car thoroughly.

After you are happy with the sanding it is time to wash the car. Use a good sponge and a little soap. Wash with the sponge in one hand and follow by wiping with your other hand to loosen any residue that may be clinging to the surface. Dry the car with a towel. Don’t let it air dry by itself. This will further remove any residue.

Prep-Sol the surface again.

Use the same procedure as before. Wipe on and leave it to air dry and then wipe on and immediately wipe off.

Inspection and preparation of your “garage”.

At this point you should see the entire car look very hazy. Inspect that the car has been sanded completely over every square inch. If you need to do some touch up sanding now is the time. The car will have basically the same color as before but there will be no shine. (Mine was black and after I sanded it was gray). This tells you that the entire surface is roughed up. I hung tarp’s all around the garage, on the ceiling and floor. Believe it or not the fumes from the paint kill bugs and they love to fall on the hood of the car you are trying to paint.

Body work / repairs.

If needed (mine did not) all repairs should now be performed. Instructions are on the container of what ever you use. Talk with your paint dealer on application techniques and working times and tools. Sand to smooth once completed and remove all dust and residue using Prep-sol.

Pre-masking.

Disconnect the battery! When you spray paint / primer goes everywhere, even into tiny openings. I don’t recommend removing the plastic trim around the windshield but if that is your preference then go ahead. Prior to masking you can remove all the trim, door handles, ornaments and mirrors. I did not remove any of these items. I used a product from 3M called fine line tape. This is a thin vinyl tape that stretches and curves to form to the contour of any surface. It is thinner than conventional masking tapes so it will leave less of a witness line (raised area where the paint stops). I used 1/4″ to cover all the windshield seal, around the mirror bases, around the antenna base, sunroof gasket that meets the roof, metal trim over the top of the windows. The purpose of this tape is to give you a place to stick the regular masking tape. You do not have to cover a whole item with this. I used one piece to run along the windshield seal just where it meets with the roof. It will take you some time to mask this off the way you want it.

Masking.

After masking with the fine line tape you can mask with the regular masking tape. You can purchase masking paper for large areas like the windshield or use a couple of layers of newspaper. It is your choice. With whatever you use, you will invariably run into a spot that curves. Simply fold the paper to follow the contour and stretch the masking tape to cover the rest. Yes, masking tape will bend a little. Just pull and press into place, it will stick. I recommend removing the tail light assemblies. Roll the wire harnesses up, twist tie and remove the bulbs. You may want to mask the sockets to keep them clean. Mask off and cover the engine. You can remove the trunk gasket but mine was brittle so I did not. You will be painting the underside of the hood and deck lid (if you are changing the color) so cover the labels, etc. with masking tape or fine line tape. If your labels are loose or peeling off you can use a heavy layer of Petroleum Jelly to cover it and then wipe it off after the car has dried. Be extremely careful if you use this because wherever the Vaseline goes the paint will not adhere. Mask off under the hood as well. Cover all with sheets of paper. Cover everything. Make sure the overlaps of paper are taped off so no overspray can get in there. If you are going to paint the door jambs as well, you will need to leave the doors opened so that they don’t get painted shut. (Disconnect that battery or it will be dead!) To do this you will need to mask off the entire door opening to the inside of the car. Hang paper over the entire opening and make sure it is tightly closed. Paint on an interior will not come out.

Prep-sol again.

Doing this will remove any oils left behind from your hands and lint / dust during the masking portion. Use one wipe on and wipe off immediately application.
Leave the hood and deck lid propped open with something. I used a pop can under the hood spring and left the deck lid down but still open. If your car has the spoiler remove it. It uses 10mm nuts in (4) locations to secure it. Hang it for painting. Note: the studs and nuts will probably be rusted. Use WD-40 if you need to but Prep-Sol after to remove any oils. Paint does not like oil. I also propped the headlight covers up about 1 inch to paint around the sides. I used a spark plug socket on each side to keep them propped up. (Don’t use the headlights to do this, you do not want them up that high) only enough to paint the sides of the headlight doors.

Spray equipment.

At this point you are ready to spray. I used a Binks Model 62 spray gun with a 66SD tip and a 1 quart cup. I rebuilt the gun prior to painting to make sure it would work properly. This is a conventional siphon spray gun. HVLP (High Volume Low Pressure) guns are expensive but you get less overspray. I used a 3/8″ diameter 25′ air hose. Set air at 40 psi for base coat application and 32-35 psi for clear (less overspray). These pressure values are set by the manufacturer of your paint. I set the gun to a 5 to 6″ fan spray vertical. I used a 20 gallon 5 HP air compressor. I installed a disposable air filter/dryer at the inlet of the gun along with a pressure regulator for quick access. There are other guns available but be careful of the lesser expensive guns. The paint will specify a tip size know this if you have to buy a spray gun. You can get a decent gun for around $100.00.

Spraying

(This is largely technique and requires practice for first timers). If you are spraying the car yourself then follow this closely. Practice without paint if you need to or if this is your first paint. Use air and an empty gun to get the feel of it. Whenever filling the cup always pour through a strainer. I mixed the basemaker with the paint in a 1:1 ratio (specified by manufacturer) in an empty clean gallon paint can then poured it into the paint cup of the gun. If you are using plastic flex additives, add them in the cup of the gun. For clear coat only, add your activator for the clear in the cup of the gun. Keep the spray gun at least 8 to 10 inches from the surface you are spraying. Follow the contour of the surface. If you get too close you will get a puddle or a nice run / sag in your paint. This is where the paint runs down the side of the car. Base coats are usually pretty tolerant to this. Don’t get in a hurry to apply. Use a constant motion with the gun. You will usually spray in a left to right and then back technique. Do it this way: start at the left (press the trigger as you begin to move right) continue to move to the right, once you stop at the right let off the trigger if you are going to go back left then press the trigger when you begin to move. In other words, do not leave the gun spraying as you switch directions moving right to left or vice versa. Go one arms length or off the car. If your arm stops moving, stop spraying. This will prevent spray from collecting at the stop and start points. You can effectively spray 3 or 4 ft wide on each pass. Overlap each pass about half starting at the top and working your way down. The way I painted my hood, roof and decklid was I stood on the side by the front wheel and started in the middle and went windshield to radiator working my way out (towards me). I spray the sides of the car first including the front and back ends then the hood, roof and decklid. In my opinion, this will prevent overspray from settling on the hood, roof and decklid. Check your work before you move on to the next application.
CLEAN THE GUN OUT WHEN YOU SWITCH MATERIALS. I used Lacquer thinner for this. Primer, clean gun, base paint, clean gun, clear, clean gun.

How many coats?

I sprayed (3) base coats and (3) clear coats. I use a mid-temperature paint (70 to 80 degrees ambient temperature). It had a flash time of 10 minutes. This means that I can re-coat after 10 minutes. I waited over night to apply the clear. The paint that I used allowed up to 24 hours for clear coat application. If you wait over night, then before you spray the clear, dust the car off with a dry lint free cloth. I used about 1/2 gallon of base paint and 1/2 gallon of clear coat.
DO NOT MIX BASE PAINT AND CLEAR COAT. The base paint uses an additive called basemaker and the clear uses an additive called an activator.

After spraying.

Give the car a week or two to cure. Delivery time (cured and derivable) will be specified on the particular product that you used. Mine was 24 hours, but I gave it a week. At this time you can do one of two things:
1. You can be tickled that you did an excellent job and un-mask everything and be done or
2. You can polish.

Polishing.

If you are like me and want a perfect mirror shine then read on. I used a 1500 grit wet or dry sandpaper and wet sanded the entire vehicle. This will take some time. I used a firm rubber sanding block to sand the large flatter areas. Don’t apply too much pressure but apply some. You should work up a light white residue. You will feel the paper grab when you are getting close. Dry the spot you are working on and look at the reflection from an angle. (While you are sanding you are looking 90 degrees to the surface), sight down the side or across the hood to see the images. Look at the way objects in the room appear. If they are not clear enough then continue sanding.
Once you are happy with that, I used a 2000 grit wet or dry sandpaper following the same approach. After you are happy with that, I used a Dewalt 90 degree (angle) polisher to buff the car at 1400 RPM. I used the hook and loop foam rubbing pad (made for polishers) it is about 7 inches in diameter, and 3M Super Duty heavy cut liquid rubbing compound. I followed this by buffing the car three times with a 3M clear coat safe liquid polishing compound and a new polishing pad at 1800 RPM. After this I was done. I waited 3 months before I waxed the car to give it ample time to dry out.

Please let me know your thoughts, questions and suggestions. I have photos for every step of the way. If I am missing one I will create one.
Thanks again.

Kevin

87 GT 5 speed

Posted under Painting

Posted by ChuckRock on October 14, 2008

4.3L S10 to Fiero Engine Swap

Old Engine Removal

Sorry, I didn’t have my digital camera when I started actually tearing into the car. But never fear, I still have some pics to share of the end result.

The car was backed into the garage to start teardown. Mind you, this is an un-heated garage and I am starting the swap in mid-December in Wisconsin. Do I get a point for that? Anyways, teardown pretty much followed the Chilton manual I have…pretty much. This is how I did it, some steps may vary on your particular car and patience level.

1. Remove deck lid & side covers - makes for much easier access when changing plugs, too…

2. Remove Battery and disconnect ground straps.

3. Soak cradle bolts with PB Blaster.

4. Drain coolant into suitable drain pan. Keep away from animals.

5. Remove air cleaner.

6. Disconnect throttle cables. My cable was shot and being a bi$%h so I just cut it.

7. Remove heater hose at intake.

8. Disconnect vacuum hoses.

9. Soak cradle bolts with PB Blaster.

10. Disconnect fuel lines and pump relay.

11. Disconnect O2 sensor. Try not to smash it into the firewall when removing engine….

12. Disconnect trans cooler.

13. Disconnect engine to chassis ground strap(s). Don’t forget this stupid thing.

14. Disconnect engine wiring harness on the engine.

15. Disconnect A/C Lines. I didn’t have to discharge it because it didn’t work anyways.

16. Wheel cherry picker over and position to lift car and engine.

17. Break lug nuts loose so they can easily be removed with wheels off ground.

18. Soak cradle bolts with guess what? more PB Blaster. You’ll begin to love this stuff later.

19. Attach chain to engine block and lift car high enough to knock florescent light down.

20. Lower car, fix light, raise car, paying more attention this time.

21. Insert jack stands under jacking points on rear of car. Wheel wells must be at least 45″ high.

22. Lower car carefully on jack stands, be sure they are stable.

23. Remove wheels and calipers, I took my brakes off entirely.

24. My park brake cable was rusted solid, so I had to cut it off.

25. Remove strut bolts.

26. Loosen front cradle bolts, but don’t remove yet.

27. Raise cherry picker just enough to support engine.

28. Remove rear cradle bolts. I got super lucky and mine didn’t spin.

29. Remove bolts from front mounts, and lower cradle assembly onto heavy-duty creeper.

30. Wheel engine out of right hand wheel well.

31. Miller time.

Air tools are very very handy for the cradle bolts, especially if your car is having its engine yanked out for the first time in 23 years. Above all, be smart and DO NOT work under a car supported by only the cherry picker or jack. If the Fiero falls, you WILL be crushed, there isn’t enough ground clearance to get lucky.

Engine Bay Cleaning

First of all, every Fiero owner-turned-mechanic is obliged by unwritten law to provide the “standing in the engine bay” picture upon successful removal of the engine. Here is my compliance:

Ok, time to get serious. One of the problems I had with the car was a badly rotted battery tray. Most old Fieros are going to have this problem. I had a bungee holding the battery down on the tray, which worked fine for a while. In hindsight though, it was pretty stupid since the battery sat about 2″ away from the spinning water pump pulley and belt.

So one hard corner later, guess what? The strap gave out, the battery slid into the pulley and sprayed energized hydrochloric acid all over my car’s engine compartment. nice! So needless to say, I later cleaned it out, sprayed a little paint over the bare metal to attempt to stop the rusting, and tacked in a spare battery tray out of an old Chevy truck my brother had lying around. That worked great and I was able to bolt the battery in place. But I still had a rusty mess in the engine bay.

Fast forward to today. I jumped in the engine bay and started pulling down the nasty old insulation to get at the metal.

With the old firewall insulation out of the way, I could start cleaning the engine bay out for the 4.3L to go in. What good is a swap if the engine bay looks like trash? I ground down the spot welds and removed all the old rusty remnants of the factory battery box.

I then proceeded to scotch-brite and paint the engine bay. I ground some of the old brackets off the firewall since they will no longer be needed.

That pretty much concludes the engine bay cleaning portion of the build.

Why The 4.3L V6?

I seem to get asked that question alot, so here I will go into length on the research I did regarding this engine and my own experiences.

The biggest question I hear on PFF is, “why a 4.3 when you have to do the same work to install a V8? why not just go with a SBC and get the extra 2 cylinders?” Well, here’s why. The 4.3L is lighter than the 350 Chevy, and it fits in the Fiero engine bay much nicer without having to run a goofy water pump setup. The TBI wiring is a piece of cake, and personally, I want to have some extra room in the engine bay for future forced induction possibilities. Yes, I could get more power per $ with a SBC, but again, these are MY reasons, if you don’t agree, then put something else in your car.

You can compare the dimensions of the SBC and the 4.3L V6 below:

I originally planned on installing a 4.9L Cadillac engine, as the power was phenomenal off low end and it bolted right up to the fiero trans. However, the wiring on the ‘84 cars is complicated because of the issues with the C500 connector’s location, as well as being confusing overall splicing the two harnesses together if you don’t have experience with these engines.

I used to own a 1991 K1500 Chevy truck with a 4.3L engine in it. That truck was amazing, it was a full-size truck, long bed 4×4, and that little V6 with 300,000+ miles could still light the tires. Torque up the wazoo! So having plenty of experience working on that 4.3L, as well as having done a swap on that truck and dealing with the wiring of the ECM, I knew alot about how the engine would wire to the Fiero: piece of cake. You can run the 4.3L on an engine stand, just plug the harness into the ECM and give it +12v.

A brief comparison of the two engines, in their respective vehicles:

————————-

1995 GMC K1500 (year I am getting my 4.3 from)

- 4,300 cc 4.3L V6

- 4″ bore, 3.48″ stroke, 9.1 compression ratio

- Overhead valve and two valves per cylinder

- Unleaded fuel

- Fuel economy Mileage (City / Hwy) 14/19

- Throttle body injection fuel system

- Curb Weight 4517 Lbs

- Power: 160 HP @ 4,000 rpm (CPI/Vortec Heads: 190HP @ 4,400 RPM)

235 ftlb @ 2,400 rpm (CPI/Vortec Heads: 250FtLb @ 2,800 RPM)

Pro: shares many perf parts with SBC (heads, cams, intakes, turbo syclone/typhoon parts)

Con: requires adapter plate and flywheel mods

1995 Cadillac Deville

- 4,893 cc 4.9L V8

- 92 mm bore, 92 mm stroke, 9.5 compression ratio

- Overhead valve, two valves per cylinder

- Premium unleaded fuel

- Curb Weight 3756 Lbs

- Fuel economy Mileage (City / Hwy) 16/26

- Multi-point injection fuel system (PFI)

- Power: 200 HP @ 4,100 rpm

275 ftlb @ 3,000 rpm

Pro: bolts right up to fiero trans, or 4T60/E

Con: very few performance hop ups besides reground cam & porting

————————-

The ‘95 Silverado (K1500) has a curb weight of 4,517 lbs, nearly twice that of the Fiero’s 2790Lb. A common rule of thumb is that every ten pounds of weight reduction is like adding 1 additional horsepower, so by that rule the Fiero will scoot as if it had an extra 173HP along with the existing 160, and anyone knows a Fiero with 333HP is going to be pretty damn quick. But enough with the shade tree math, its just a guesstimate. Obviously the same math applied to the 4.9L results in a Fiero equivalent of a 97hp boost on top of the 4.9L’s 200hp, which has the little 4.3L ahead by 36hp. Either engine will provide a nice quick Fiero!

Fuel economy is hard to figure, but seeing as that the engine is only pushing about half the weight of the donor vehicle, I am expecting something like 20/30. When I get the swap done, tuned and road tested, I’ll post my actual MPG.

I know a few TBI mods I did on the old truck I had, as well as the available cams, intakes and Vortec heads that will really wake up this little 4.3L. The TBI engines get a bad rap because of the crappy flowing pre-Vortec heads. Hot Rod magazine did a buildup of a 4.3L with ported non-vortec heads and only squeaked 300HP out of it. (they later did a 500HP supercharger on that same engine, but that’s a different story…maybe stage 5? hehehe…) I drive in the low end of the powerband, using the torque. I am a stoplight drag, 0-60 kind of Fiero Enthusiast. My engines rarely see over 4500RPM, so these torkie engines are my ideal platform.

I plan on adding 4 bolt mains to the 4.3L when I tear it down to install the cam and fresh bearings in the lower end. When my old 4.3L in the K1500 started to go, it was a bad rod bearing, so I will be pulling the engine apart to install high-quality Clevite bearings, and have the 4-bolt caps installed and the block line-honed at the same time. Seeing as that some form of forced induction may or may not be in the future, I like to have enough beef in the low end to do it.

There are FAR more performance parts available for the 4.3L than there will ever be for the 4.9L Caddy - partially because the 4.3L is 3/4 of it’s big brother 350 SBC, partially because of the 4.3L’s brief stint in the Busch Series cars. GM Performance Parts makes some nice 18° heads, and I think I recall Brodix making something as well.

So to summarize, for me and my purposes with the car, this engine is the ideal engine. Your opinions may differ, but don’t flame me saying I should just go SBC…I explained why I’m not, just read.

Posted under 4.3L, Engines