Hi, first of all I'm brand new to the site. I joined because I'm currently in the process of getting an 84' Firebird base model. It has a 4cyl. 5spd Engine. The only real question I had was... The guy who I'm getting the car from told me that the engine listed above is rare in these cars, I'm just wondering if it is true or false... It's not like I plan on keeping that one in there anyways, I'd want a 350 or a 383 Stroker. Please help! Thanks

 

Yeah it was kinda rare; nobody wanted one.

That's a good way to pick up one of these cars for cheeeeep though. People look under the hood and laugh. The 4-cyl cars tend to be the strippers with ZERO options. But for making a race car out of, they're fine.

 

Well thats good to know... thanks for the quick reply! I'm trading my 89' Toyota Supra Turbo for it, which is probably worth less than $1000... thanks tho

 

Anyone else have anything to add? It's much appreciated, Thanks

 

The 4Cyl engine is not rare. I can remember seeing a lot of them. You have to remember that in the early 80's we were just coming out of a fual crasis, so a lot of cars were produced with small motors.

There are ways that the 4cyl can be built up to produce a lot more power. The 4cyl engine was a Pontiac. And Pontiac had a lot of performace parts available for it in the form of Super Duty.

 

Oh ok, well I'd still rather go with probably a 305 or bigger

 

Before you give up the Iron Duke, you should do some reserch on the Iron Duke. If you do this just right, you could end up with the best street performace machine around. The worst part about having an v8 in these cars is that they become very front heavy. What you are shooting for is near perfect weight distrubutin between the front and rear wheels

Turbocharge that four and you will release a killer.

 

He has a point. But I would say it depends on what you want. If you want a torque monster that will smoke the tires forever then put in the v-8 but if you want an all round street machine despite me being a serious fan of v-8s (I am spoiled ) I will have to admit that a four cylinder turbocharged sounds like a blast. You will BLOW imports off the road.

 

Hi,
By the why, my firebird started life as a base model. It came with gauges, v8, auto(200c), power windows, tilt wheel, ac, plastic wheel covers, and AM/FM radio. And that was it. Now it has Power door locks, delay wipers, rear spoiler, 350 TPI, 4L60e trans, alarm system, remote hatch release, power driver seat, STB, SFCs, Wonder Bar, Spohn suspension parts, big front/rear sway bars(WS6), 245/50VR15 tires, custom wheels, and 12 speaker stereo system.

So starting with a base model is not all that bad. Pick up some tools and go to work. You can make it special!

Some infor about the Iron Duke:
http://www.answers.com/topic/gm-iron-duke-engine

 

Hi All
Some part numbers for the Super Duty 4 are contained in this posting
http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/055858-2.html

 

I have also seen a guy on the web who sells adapters to replace the iron duke with a 2.3L Quad 4. It's pretty cool as well...

You can also upgrade to a V6 pretty easily and your transmission will bolt up. Just a few more things to think about...

Have fun; that's the most important part!!!

 

I think on this car I just want to go for raw power... I'll soon have another Supra Turbo for a street car, and if not that, I'll turbocharge my neon...

 

hey im buying this car ...

 

The only rare part of a 2.5 thirdgen is if it's still original and running. GM 2.5's of that vintage are one step above absolute garbage. If they're well maintained they sorta work. They're really slow, maybe even dangerous slow by current standards. 10 years ago, you could walk through the fbody section of the junkyard and it wasn't uncommon to see nearly mint condition cars with 'blown motor' scribbled on the windshield and the 2.5 under the hood. The SD Iron Duke is pretty much a completely different engine, and has been obsolete for so long it's unlikely you can find much of anything for it anymore.

The part that people like about the 2.5 is that it's rediculous for a Camaro or Firebird to have a 4 cylinder. The 82-85 cars are the only ones that ever offered a 4 cylinder as an option. If it still runs right, it's a good conversation piece, but not much else. It's a novelty.

The last one I saw was a nearly mint condition bright red 84 Camaro with like new red interior, dealers tags and warranty disclosure still in the windows, and a blown motor.