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Custom Products For Extreme Offroad
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Deciding On An EngineThis page is still under major construction but I'm trying to include pictures and comments about putting a 3.4 TDC into my 1986 Fiero GT. The car started off as a normal 5 speed GT with 95,000 miles on it. After owning it for several years I began to look into options for adding power. My planning was moved ahead several months after letting my brother borrow the car. He called the next day to say he was stranded with no clutch. BAD NEWS!! After pulling the engine I found that I needed a new clutch arm and clutch. Well why stop there? I figured now was as good a time as any to get the ball rolling. The one thing that has made this whole project possible (besides an understanding wife) is the fact that I have Glen MacMasters as an employee. I believe he's forgotten more about engine rebuilding, assembly and general engine knowledge than most people will ever learn in a lifetime. He has over 30 years experience as a snowmobile mechanic and as a dragster and dragbike mechanic. He also makes billet parts for his son, Michael, (bowtiekid79 on the 60degreev6 site, also at www.fastfwdperformance.com) at our shop in his spare time and also manages to find time to help engine idiots like me put 3.4 TDC motors together and into a Fiero. Also after riding in Michael MacMasters' killer 5 speed Z34 (retarded exhaust, chip, underdrive pulley and dozens of other mods) my decision on using the 3.4 TDC was an easy one. Michael and Glen have pulled the motor out of his car several times for modifications and they have also tested several different mods that have added serious power. I followed their advice when I had the motor rebuilt and so far so good.
My 3.4 TDCThis motor was bought about a year ago from a guy on the 60degreev6 site. The motor was pulled from a 70-80,000 mile Grand Prix 5 speed that had been wrecked. For a very short while I considered just freshening up the motor and putting it in, but finally I decided to go all out and rebuild it correctly. Motor Machine Work1. Had motor bored and honed. 030 over 2. Had crank turned .010 under 3. New valve seals and had the seats re-cut 4. Shot peen and recondition all rods 5. New cam bearings and freeze plugs. 6. Complete engine rebuild kit from EPW including Sealed Power Pistons, timing chain and belt, gaskets and seals.
Performance Work
Glen spent about 10 hours porting and polishing the heads and matching all the intake ports with the gaskets.
We machined .020 off the heads (done on our own Haas mill) to raise compression to almost 10:1
Billet underdrive pulley
Michael is custom tuning and burning a chip just for this motor.
Complete 2 1/2" exhaust routed exactly like the stock Fiero setup. This is using a Flowmaster race only muffler where the cat was located as a resonator and one of WCF's Spintek mufflers in the stock location. Exhaust is wrapped with aluminized heat wrap all the way to the resonator.
Retarded exhaust cams 13 degrees. This mod is well documented on the 60degreev6 site and has been dynoed by Fastfwdperformance. This should add around 25-30 HP on top end. The only drawback is a loss of low end torque (not a problem in a light 5 speed Fiero) and a louder exhaust sound.
Since we are not subject to emissions we deleted the EGR on the chip and made a blockoff plate to cover up the hole.
Re-Assembly Pics
Here is the bottom end with our turned crank and new bearings
A shot of the pistons (excuse the hand)
Pistons in the block
Glen's head porting
About this time we decided since we had a billet underdrive pulley we might as well make a few of the other pulleys billet also. Here are some shots of the water pump pulley in progress and finished.
Next we turned our attention to the power steering mount. We decided to try and make an idler pulley that could also extend around to the engine lift eyelet and be used for our dogbone. Here is what we can up with. We have made an bushing that fits in the lift eyelet and converts in to fit a 1/2" bolt. We are going to drill out the ear of the idler pulley mount and run a bolt through it and through the lift eyelet to sandwich the dogbone. Even though many people say the cast is not strong enough to hold the torque, we're hoping that if used in combination with the eyelet it will be beefy enough. I guess we'll see in a few more weeks.
Here is a shot of the motor with more goodies bolted on including the idler bracket. Hopefully you can see what we intend to do by drilling through the ear of the idler mount to sandwich the dogbone. You can also see that we spent lots of time cleaning and bead blasting all the aluminum parts of the motor.
Somewhere along the way we misplaced our front cover for the cam belt. Instead of writing a big check to our friendly GM dealer we decided to take a different approach.
Here is the motor with our custom 13 degree cam timing tool clamped on it. Simply doing this was worth over 25 HP on top end in Michaels Z34.
The motor is almost done in this shot. You can see what we were doing with the custom timing belt cover.
Here is another shot with my lovely wife, Deb, in the background. This was as much of a photo of her as she wanted posted on the internet for the world to see. Women!!
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