all right who else has one and isnt planning ona v8 swap

 

The 4 banger GM made back in the day that they used in car's like the chevettes? What about it now?

 

Ah I learned something new today, they used the Iron duke in the base camaros. Didn't know that.

 

yeah they made them between 82 and 85 or 86.nobody bought them and everybody swapped in a v8.
i bet there is only a handful left .

 

Wonder why someone wouldn't keep something as wonderful as a 4cyl firebird in stock form....

 

well some of us arent 4 cylinder bigots.your v8 acualy had less hp and torque for its displacement in 83!

 

That's usually the case. The higher in size you go, the less effiecient it is. But efficiency of a motor is ric*r logic. There is no replacement for displacement. It doesnt matter what motor is more efficient, all that matters is power. More power = faster car. For these heavy-*** cars, you need more power.

But to answer your question, billsfirebird, who is a member here, has the iron duke. Theres maybe another person or two, but I dont know who.

because they are weak. 90hp isnt going to move these cars very fast. I personally would leave it though, just because they're more rare.

 

well evryone always dumps on 4bangers out of habit.
ferrari won sevral world championships in the early sixties using big 4cyls instead of small v12s.
and i have seen some dukes with 150 hp and 250 ftlbs of torque,it was in a rockcrawler. the super duty duke can keep up with any stock v8 .



http://webpages.charter.net/imsa_gtu...SD4article.htm




http://www.off-road.com/rock/dknight/




http://www.inliners.org/race/race5.html

 

well, in the '60s things were different... mack trucks use 6cyls and get more torque then pretty much any V-8, what's that prove? nothing, totally different application.

You can get any amount of power out of any engine, depends on how much you want to spend. It's a lot easier and cheaper to get big power out of an SBC, then an iron duke, plus it'll last longer. Trying to get max power out of a dinky small engine is ric*r logic...


The way I see it, there are only a few types of vehicles:
-big, comfy, roomy highway cars (ie. Delta 88), bad mileage
- trucks, hauling vehicles, bad milage
-sports car, ie z-28 or such, bad milage, goes fast
- and for the.... ahem, other crowds, economy cars, crap like a mazda 323.... good mileage, not much else...
Then there are combinations of the above, spend enough money and you can have it all...

But a 4cyl F-body? that's none of the above, too heavy to get great mileage, the 4cyl F-body in my eyes is the equivalent vehicle of a honda civic DX.

Sorry.


I remember a member picking up a 4cyl f-body a few weeks ago, and asked if there were any issues with that motor... and billsfirebird... do a search there are probably more out there...

 

the firebird isnt realy that heavy . mine is like 3300 or so
give or take a 300 pounds. the v6 never had much on the duke
in power or milage ,15 more hp maybe.and i would like to dump some weight from the car but i dont want some stipped down junker ,back seats are worthless any way .and the ttops are realy heavy.

with a little work the duke can be 150 hp 175 ftlbs of tq
and be just as reliable.

and seeing an 8 second duke gives me hope.

 

Is that a selling point?

With NO work L03s make more than that.

 

so?

 

Okay, let's chill out here for a second or two and remember to breathe. It's your car - of course you're going to defend it's strong points, using whatever logic you can come up with. Personally, I wouldn't mind having an Iron Duke f-body, but trust me, it would be only for the odd-ball aspect. I simply do NOT care about the mileage of whatever I'm driving, and Hawaii doesn't have very cheap gas prices. I have to put premium in the TTA, and it's getting only 20 MPG. The GTA, when I drove it, with a 350 and all that goes with it, got just shy of 20 MPG, and had some pretty stout off-the-line acceleration. Running the A/C didn't bog the motor down a single bit. Plus, both those cars coudl care less about going up a hill. I've also owned a ragged-out 2.8 Firebird, and it didn't like hills very much. Sure, it has a bit more torque then the 2.5, but not by much. Weight will totally kill that small motor, and unless you put it on a very strict weight-loss program, the engine will have to work hard just to get out of it's own way, basically. Yeah, you have steep rear gears. Imagine what those gears will do for you if you have a more stout powerplant inbetween the front fenders.

Yeah, you can spend some cash and improve the Iron Duke. It's your money, go right ahead and do whatever you like.

Considering I own one of the (arguably) fastest production third-gens ever made, I would probably hate to drive an Iron Duke third-gen. I already hate driving my wife's Grand Prix, and it makes DOUBLE the horses and a good bit more torque then the Iron Duke did. (Yeah, I'm spoiled...) If it was in a Fiero, I wouldn't mind so much, as the Fiero is super-small and lightweight. One guy out here autocrosses his, and he still has the stock 2.8 V6 in it, only mods are in the suspension and some MSD stuff.

But in an F-body? Like everyone is trying to tell you, it's a bit overworked trying to haul that car around, that you really can't call it a performance car anymore. It's a sheep in wolf's clothing. Can you make it faster? Sure - slap a turbo on it, if you're dead-set against an engine swap. Rebuild with boost-compatible innards, and you could run a bunch of boost reliably, and pretty much DOUBLE the output of the engine. Think about it. If you're easy on the gas, the turbo doesn't come into play and you still get decent economy, if that's what you want out of it, and when you mash the hapy pedal, you'll get the power you want. (In theory, anyway.)

I'm really trying to be open-mided here, can you give us the courtesy of being open-minded and realistic as to what you want out of your car?

 

This thread is not in compliance with the intent of this forum. If you want to extol the virtues of an Iron Duke 3rd gen, find somewhere else to do it.

If you want to know how many there are amoung TGO participants, search.