Boost - Swaps - Reliablity.NEED ADVICE - PLEASE HELP

hey, i had a ferrari f355 kit car built for me and next summer plan on boosting the 2.8l to run a significant amount so i can hit about 320hp.

i looked at an engine swap but the 3800 s/c, the dohc 3.4, the northstar and the archie corvette V8 consersions were nothing inpresive or too expensive for such little performance, the only 350 i liked was the lt5 zr1 motors and theyre not cheap by anymeans, increasing rear weight and drag, cutting up my rear frame and trunk wall, nothing would come close to sounding like the 3.5l 40v 8 they have in the real f355 anyway. so no tricks. just more go to match the show if you get me? i take the money i save from the swap and buy WCFs 6Speed transmission. bout $5000 for the tranny unless i can get one cheaper someplace else, if anyone knows of a place they sell (i promised my buddy the next car i buy would be a 6 speed and i'm gonna keep the promise)

my question is: to get to the performance i'm looking for, the turbo system i'm going with is from KFG Performance. its $2990.00 plus alittle extra for the intercooler setup. does anyone have this kit?? is it reliable, etc. etc.????

i was also looking to reprogram the ecu so i can get a higher rpm rev, a higher top speed and keep such a high amount of power up as safe as possible. is there anything that can do this??

and to all the fiero lovers out there, are the 2.8l engines strong enough for these aspirations??? do you think i should go a different direction? how would you all do it if you had the money

i tried the same approach, i didnt swap because i wanted to save money, so far it has cost me more replace the 2.8 then to swap in a v8 or something. that being said, the KFG turbo does look sweet, if i had the money i would get it...

As far as the 2.8 Seeing 320hp, be ready to pay DEARLY to build it strong enough, even then, I don't know if there are strong enough internals out there to hold that power for any period of reliability. (I think anything over 230hp out of the 2.8 would make the motor lose its streetability) You're going to have to run insane amounts of boost to get that motor to see that power. As the saying goes; Fast, Cheap, Reliable. . . pick two.

I dare you to sit behind a N* or a SC3800 and tell me you don't get a slight grin. While there is little aftermarket for the N*, any series II 3800 (L67) has plenty of aftermarket (just check out www.intense-racing.com or www.zzperformance.com)
Theres a guy out there named fierox (www.fierox.com) who built and turbo'd a L67 and is putting over 500hp to the rear wheels. A turbo setup on a stock L67 can yield usually around 380 hp and 450tq.

No matter what motor you put in the car, you're not going to get that ferrari sound, plain and simple. And out of all those motors you listed, all can be installed with no frame/trunk cutting but this accounts for how much time you want to put into the swap.

As far as going 6 speed, I think even WCF tells you that you're going to have to modify your subframe and wheel wells to get theres to fit. The new Pontiac G6 GTP has a 6 speed manual thats being done. This trans can be had from the dealership brand new for $2200. You're going to have to do some guinea pigging as this setup hasn't been installed yet but from others experience, the trans will bolt up. You can check this out at http://www.clubgp.com/newforum/tm.asp?m=2526392&p=2&tmode=1&smode=1 .

I have a video of my L67 w/o any exhaust on that can be seen here.
http://videos.streetfire.net/Player.aspx?fileid=DA641E69-FB57-4A3E-B03D-E7A4FDB2D734&term=Fiero&p=0

and here

http://videos.streetfire.net/Player.aspx?fileid=5F934731-17A4-4B85-B4FF-188C0293195B&term=Fiero&p=0

what is the average price for a 3800 II SC engine swap and what are some performance specs.

Average price, complete setup (accessories, wiring harness, Ecu) around $850-950 for anything decent. Stock motor specs: 240HP 280 TQ. Do some minor mods (cam, exhaust, pulley, lifters) and pump that up to a RELIABLE 300hp 350tq.

*Or sell your kit car and buy this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4578786660

My last speedway catalog had Northstars with 315hp for $2500. That is damn cheap HP for the price and no mods....Northstars are all over Ebay for 500 to 1000 used with low miles. THEN throw on a forced induction system .....seems reasonable to me...

Unless you do all the work yourself and find a free a low milage 3800 SC engine, built up with ECM and wiring harness and transmission, you'll never get the cost for under $1K.

Anytime you want reliability and performance, you will pay for it.

You would be a fool to use "the paper weight" as a high horse motor. I would do the v8 swap because it is very strong and the aftermarket is stupid. You could build a 500-600hp/tq 350 for half the price of a 350hp/tq 2.8..i mean "paper weight".

Hello gentlemen, I am new at this and looking for help...I just bought a 86 fiero auto and intend to have this as a project. By all mean, I have all the intention to due 2000 model northstar with VIN "9". Now, I know that Year One company have all the tricks under their sleeves for this project swap. Unfortunately, I couldn't down load the instruction. Bottom line is what does this swap consist beside motor and transmission. Any little info. would help, Please....
If you have any instruction/manual of "how to" for this swap, I'll be more then happy to pay for it...
Thanks guys....

You may try [email protected] (Chris Moore) who has done several Northstar swaps.

Go to www.fiero.nl and they have way more answers. Many have done it other their. From what I hear there are 39 modifications to the just the cradle. Not to mention everthing else you have to get it to work. N* sounds sick but it is very expensive.

Hey, My thought would be to do the chevy 350 swap on it man. Then either fix up the engine or try to fit a turbo/sc on it. Either way, its not going to be so cheap, but there is not much of any option to get power out of a fiero for little money. maybe under 10k if you consider that cheap performance. Check out V8 archies for the swap, this article for some great info on modding a V8 cheap, http://www.carcraft.com/projectbuild/116_0310_clash/ ,
and here http://www.northernautoparts.com/index.cfm for some of the cheap but very usefull mod parts for the 350 they talk about. Just search for whatcha need. I've got a 350 on my firebird, and I'm workin on throwing it in an 88' fiero gt, with archies swap. I've gone over all of this so far, and what with my 350 pushing 600hp in my TA, and only 7k or so miles on it, it should get some decent power into a fiero. And for me its all under 5 grand. Course I've still not found a way to fit a Supercharger onto the engine while in the fiero, but I'm sure there is a way.

i tried the same approach, i didnt swap because i wanted to save money, so far it has cost me more replace the 2.8 then to swap in a v8 or something. that being said, the KFG turbo does look sweet, if i had the money i would get it...hambone82 i just had my 2.8 rebuilt and have a 9to1 commpression forged pistons crane cam roller rockers and free flow exhaust and its real fast got the engine kit from www.fierostore.com (http://www.fierostore.com) perty good deal for the money

Remember when you go the V8 route that you are mating an engine to a transaxle that is absolutely not designed to handle it. There are quite a few newer options to go with then the Chevy motor. If you want a boosted engine, you can't go wrong with the L67, or how about a nice turbo Ecotec? Both are good for very reliable 300+ hp with transaxles that were designed to handle them.