My Fiero's

86 3.2 Turbo Project

My project car is an 1986SE automatic which has had about every 1985GT option put on it. It has also been modified with hood vents, mustang cowl on the rear deck and raised spoiler. It has Mr. Mikes leather seats and sun visors, Fiero store floor mats and a generally nice condition interior. It also has a remote starter/remote door locks, new dew wipes, factory sub enclosure with after market amplifier and of course rebuilt headlight motors! I am currently working on detailing the front and engine compartment, lowering the car and adding a turbo.

I have a goal of 300HP out of a the 0.030 bored 3.1. Before beginning this endeavor in 1999, I was already running Sprint exhaust manifolds, roller-tip rockers, ported heads, no catalytic converter and MSD ignition. I'm working now working on a 3.2 engine with hypertonic pistons, a big cam, and a turbo. The project is proceeding in two phases. In the first phase, which is nearing completion, I will get the turbo connected and running on my current 2.8 block. After testing the turbo setup on this block, I will eventually switch over to a blue-printed and balanced 3.2 block. I don't want to risk detonation on my new block until I have had the chance to experiment with fuel delivery and boost levels on my current block. (More below)
Hood

I got my turbo from a Chrysler Laser and had it rebuilt with an adjustable waste gate and a larger compressor wheel to better match the horse power I am looking for. That was the easy part! (Just $) The turbo project has involved several hurdles: physical placement of the turbo, connecting water/oil/air/exhaust to the turbo and fuel delivery.

To mount the turbo on the automatic bell housing, I used some old valve springs to create a sturdy but flexible mounting bracket extending from the top of the turbo housing to the frame of the vehicle. (I don't have pictures posted yet). The mounting needs to be strong but somewhat flexible to allow for expansion under the heat that the exhaust system and turbo will experience. The Sprint exhaust manifolds were connected to the turbo with a mounting bracket (see picture below). The connector replaces the normal y-pipe. My collector was made by my father-in-law and really helped get the project moving along. This turbo has the exhaust exit on the opposite side from where the Fiero exhaust normally runs. Other turbo projects I have seen have routed their turbo exhaust the same direction as the stock system. Since I am not planning on running a muffler (just a catalytic converter), I didn't see a problem running the exhaust directly to the rear instead of it winding all the way around the back of the engine compartment. This will require having a completely new exhaust system built, but I think it will result in a nice, simple exhaust system.

Also shown below are the autometer fuel ratio and boost gauges that I added just above and behind the normal auxiliary gauges.

Turbo

Besides exhaust in/out connections, the turbo also requires connections for air, water and oil. I used aeroquip fittings and hoses for most of the connections. They look nice, but cost a lot! Here is a summary of the connections:

Connection	Notes
Clean air in	I used the stock air filter to upper intake snorkel and mounted a K&N cone filter directly to one end (with the other end connected to the turbo). The snorkel runs through the opening the original air filter used and places the cone filter nicely behind the driver side air scoop.
Compressed air out	I used a 90 degree elbow from a salvage yard BMW to connect the turbo to the upper intake
Oil in	I relocated the oil pressure sending unit and used a T to allow me to run an oil feed to the turbo.
Oil return	I drilled a hole in the side of the oil pan and added a brass plug. The oil is gravity fed from the turbo back to the oil pan
Coolant in	Used the rear-most coolant drain plug in the side of the block to add a coolant line to the turbo
Coolant out	A T-fitting was added to the heater return line and a hose was run to it.

The last piece of the puzzle is fuel delivery. Since I don't have the turbo completely installed yet, I don't know if my plan will work, but I can tell you what I hope to do. I have some injectors for a Chevy 305 engine. These are brand new, but stock flow 305 injectors. A 305 cylinder is about 20% larger than the 3.2 cylinders I will have. The turbo will greatly increase the effective size of the engine, but I believe that the 305 injectors should be able to keep up with a fair amount of boost. The problem is that while the injectors could keep up, the computer may not tell them to keep up. I am trying to avoid getting a custom chip made, though I may still do that. For now, I am using a boost operated, fuel pressure regulator. It is a very simple device that restricts the flow of gas from the fuel rail back to the gas tank when boost is applied to it. Although the unit I have is not adjustable, I am hoping that I can make some adjustments to the unit to get it to behave the way I want. I am also using an MSD ignition with a Boost Timing Master that retards the timing under boost to avoid detonation. (See picture below). The MSD BTM and the fuel regulator take up residence where the battery once sat. The battery is now sitting in the "trunk". People like to mount the battery up front because of weight reasons, but I just wasn't that ambitious and I think my setup looks good! You can see that I also relocated the vapor canistor, vacuum canister and the cruise control unit to the trunk. This car is not going to be practical for luggage, but somehow I don't think I'm going to be using it for that!

MSD

Some miscellaneous detailing information: You can see from some of the pictures that I used braided covers for the coolant lines. The upper intake and valve covers have been meticulously filed and ground smooth and powder coated. The alternator is also a powder coated unit. Some guy on ebay sells them and he does great work! All the wiring harnesses have received new protective covers and I built a mount for the wiring harness to hold the wires on the right side of the engine. The reason I like this is that it allows me to drop the engine out of the vehicle much easier without having to disconnect the wiring harness mounts from the engine. It also makes it less likely that the wires touch the belts, a problem I have experienced in the past. I also relocated the air temperature sensor to the underside of the upper intake manifold, where the EGR used to connect. I have polyurethane on a 4 corners and on the engine mounts, rear swaybar, KYB shocks and struts, lowering springs and repacked front hubs.

87 Fiero GT

My other car WAS a silver 1987 GT, manual. It is all stock with power everything and I've added the Performance sound option. I decided to sell this car in 2004 as we have very limited parking space.