Remember when you used to hear that the Pontiac Fiero had the engine behind the driver “just like a Ferrari?” And remember how that engine was either the gutless, fire-prone Iron Duke four-cylinder or the slightly-less-gutless, iron-lump 2.8-liter V6? Yeah, those were real things, but the Fiero crowd figured out not long after the end of its production run in 1988 how to put engines into the car that would make it less of a glorified mid-engined Citation and more of a low-rent Ferrari. By this point, I’m sure the Fiero Mafia have gathered their pitchforks and are marching on BangShift headquarters—sorry/not sorry, Lohnes—(March cancelled when the Iron Duke cars incinerated and the 2.8 cars got stuck on an uphill at a traffic light – ed.) but among those engine swaps were both GM’s torquey 3.8-liter V6 and Cadillac’s “High Technology” V8s. This Fiero up for sale on CraigsList in Florida has the latter swap and it’s cheap.
The engine is the 4.9-liter V8 from a front-wheel-drive 1995 Cadillac DeVille, which was the last DeVille year before it received the much more powerful Northstar V8. And while the 4.9-liter HT engine doesn’t have perhaps the most incredible power numbers attached to it—200 horsepower and 275 lb.-ft.—given that the stock engines were pretty weak, those numbers are a nice improvement. While the seller suggests the HT swap has been bulletproof for more than 20,000 miles, there is the added bonus that junkyards remain brimmed with HT-powered Cadillacs.
For a long time, the HT was the most sensible V8 swap based on performance, affordability, and availability. However, one has to wonder if the front-wheel drive version of the LS engine, the LS4 used in the Pontiac Grand Prix GXP and others, is the next paradigm for eight-cylinder Fieros.
The seller admits that the car is rough around the edges and needs a bit of work, but for $2,000, is this V8 Fiero a steal? If you add a Ferrari bodykit to this one, you’d pretty much have a Ferrari 308, right?
So, nice that authors do research..
only a few cars caught fire, and it wasn\’t just the fiero.. any g.m. with an iron duke that got the bad run of rods.. had this problem..
The Fiero had the pellet converter under the engine so, it didn\’t help..
Automotive writers.. keep feeling that wives tales..
It makes you look ,well…………………
OH and FYI the torque v6 is the 3800 super charged series II and III..
Also the ls4 is a big swap
the genI sbc
the quad 4 HO
If you ever happen to drive a Fiero conversion using a V8 Archies kit and a healthy SBC/5 speed, You`ll be impressed.