craig71188 Posted April 18, 2020 Report Share Posted April 18, 2020 The '88 Fiero ITA car is in the process of being converted to Champcar. Original plan was to rebuild the 2.8L V6 in the complete car so we could get some track time in while building the second chassis with an Ecotec 4. Last weekend I got the ventilated motor out of the car and this weekend started to tear down one of the "spare" motors that supposedly had a blown head gasket - well it only had an intake leak (good) but #6 rod bearing (at least) is long gone. I have another short block in storage to go check and a stock low mile engine in another '88 Fiero Formula that is really too nice to part out. In the original plan, the thought was to throw the "good heads" from the motor in the car onto the "good spare" block and just run it. As this doesn't appear to be workable now, I have a decision to make - do a full rebuild on one of the existing motors, or press ahead with the Ecotec in this chassis. I have an '07 Cobalt 2.2L 5 spd donor, but was rethinking that, I might just want to go ahead with a later 2.4L. My questions are as follows: 1) Does anyone have any 2.8 performance bits lying around they want to part with? Would be looking for a mild cam and some oversize pistons. 2) Does anyone want a LARGE stock of 2.8L stuff? (cheap!) 3) Does anyone have a stash of Ecotec stuff they want to get rid of? Headed over to check out the last short block that is in storage and then will have to make a decision.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallard Posted April 18, 2020 Report Share Posted April 18, 2020 Not sure any 2.8L performance bits will actually be worth it, but doesn't all the 2.8L top end bolt on to the 3.4L? People used to do that as a cheap upgrade all the time. Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig71188 Posted April 18, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2020 Yea, heads are the same and you need the Fiero intake because the 3.4 intakes are reversed and interfere with the distributor on the earlier motors. Trying either go with what I've got or liquidate and just move on to the "end goal". I've got some nice 2.8 bits, nice header set up, several custom chips and so on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck531 Posted April 19, 2020 Report Share Posted April 19, 2020 Even if you put a few $ into the 2.8 the 3.4 would be much better in your situation. about 40 more HP (stock for stock) as you probably know, bolts up, etc. A chip for a 2.8 is junk from what I've heard along with the cam. If I were you I'd stick an NA 3800 in it, make some mounts, put a 4t65e in it and call it a day. But then again that's me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig71188 Posted April 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 19, 2020 Even if you put a few $ into the 2.8 the 3.4 would be much better in your situation. about 40 more HP (stock for stock) as you probably know, bolts up, etc. A chip for a 2.8 is junk from what I've heard along with the cam. If I were you I'd stick an NA 3800 in it, make some mounts, put a 4t65e in it and call it a day. But then again that's me Yea, yea, yea... The 3.4 is the "easy button" if I wanted to go the V6 route. The plan is to go the "lightweight" route for Champcar to the V6 was a temporary fix until we got the Ecotec built in the other chassis. In digging through the spares, there are multiple chips from Sinister Performance including the one in the car - marked with the P.O. name and "1.1" - so not just an off the shelf Hypertech anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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