’87 Duke to 2.8 Conv.
Printed From: West Coast Fieros
Category: Technical Topics Forum
Forum Name: Technical Questions and Discussions
Forum Description: Got a technical question about your fiero? ask it here.
URL: http://www.westcoastfieros.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2961
Printed Date: 28 April 2024 at 11:24pm
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Topic: ’87 Duke to 2.8 Conv.
Posted By: 87FieroSE
Subject: ’87 Duke to 2.8 Conv.
Date Posted: 22 June 2012 at 1:51pm
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How hard will the swap be from a 2.5L Iron Duke to the 2.8L
V6? Would I need a whole donor car to match everything? Or should I just buy a 2.8 that's been pulled out? I have a 1987 Fiero SE, Automatic. |
Replies:
Posted By: Dr.Fiero
Date Posted: 23 June 2012 at 5:04am
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'87s are an "easy" (cough) year to swap, as a lot of the parts were the same. It's the first swap I did, about 12 years ago. Having a wrecked donor car is the easiest, but.... You'll ideally need the WHOLE harness. I'm talking everything except the front (underhood) compartment. You can bodge it, but I prefer doing it the right way. ECM, engine, exhaust, mounts, fuel tank (or just the pump, and some feel it's the same pump, but they are different part #'s), cooling crossover pipe.... the list goes on (see why I say donor car is easier?!). Technically, the L/H main coolant pipe is also wrong, but that CAN be modded to work, and it's such a huge pain to swap. Ummm... still wanna do it?  |
Posted By: 87FieroSE
Date Posted: 23 June 2012 at 11:32am
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I can find a wrecked donor to do it.
But what would you suggest? Rebuilding my Duke or swapping to a 2.8L? I love my performance, but there are no real mods/upgrades for the duke. |
Posted By: Dr.Fiero
Date Posted: 23 June 2012 at 3:53pm
Well, frankly... just give up on modding a duke. Short of tossing a 150 shot on it, and remembering you'll probably never see the bottom of the bottom before you're picking up the bits.  With a donor car of the same year (87/88 makes it MUCH easier, and gives you a better source of spares like headlight motors -- but at worse use an '86, just don't use an '85) it shouldn't be that bad. It's pretty much a bolt in (except for that l/h coolant pipe). You can gut the whole interior and swap the harness in about 4hrs. Then take your time, clean it all up and reassemble. The engine... just yank the complete cradle, tranny and all. Mod the l/h coolant pipe to the same rough length as the V6's one. Stuff the assy into the hole where your duke lived. Attach wires, hoses, etc. Done. I'm over simplifying of course, but not much! Just remember... someone put it together by hand at the factory. Just use common sense and reverse the order of what they did. Don't take shortcuts, don't cut anything, etc. |
Posted By: 87FieroSE
Date Posted: 23 June 2012 at 5:18pm
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Thanks Dr.
I'm looking to find a feesable 86-88 to use, don't want to spend too much on just a donor, if I can get away with dropping the Duke into the donor and just selling it off without losing too much, that's fine. I like it and all, but as you said, Just give up on modding a duke, they're good engines, I keep up with modded Civics just stock, with a 2.8 and some of the mods I have access to, it'll be no problem. I'll do all my learning on this one, but in the future I plan to get the Fiance one, and maybe another to build up just for track use. |
Posted By: Capt Fiero
Date Posted: 24 June 2012 at 12:16am
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Read this thread in its entirety, this is the exact swap that Dawg did we swapped in a V6 into his 87 Coupe 5spd. There are parts lists and 3 pages of photos and updates. He loved the V6 5spd combo so much he went and bought a send Fiero to play with. Then took his first car apart and used it to maintain the 2nd car. Going from a Duke to a V6 will be the best thing you can do if you want to keep the car for a long time. In the end rebuilding a dead duke is more costly than installing a V6. Don't get me wrong, you do end up opening up a can of worms, you WILL find a lot of little jobs to do while you are in there, as you will see in this other thread. Rust that you didn't know about, wiring that might need to be repaired and so on. Its not hard at all, just time consuming. Link to the thread. http://www.westcoastfieros.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1596&KW=dawg - http://www.westcoastfieros.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=159 6&KW=dawg ------------- Capt Fiero 88 Fiero GT 5spd V6 Eight Fifty Seven GT V8 5spd. |
Posted By: 87FieroSE
Date Posted: 24 June 2012 at 7:50am
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Well, I know I have more side projects when I go in and do
it all. In Idle my 'Ro likes to sputter every once in a while. I've talked to my neighbor who owns an 86 GT, he said that one of the wires could be exposed, and grounding out (Happened in his GT), so when I do this, I'll find it. |