You want pre-1979. !980 was the year that the gov got stupid with ineffective pollution controls and started changing fuel.
There was no actual loss of horsepower. What happened was that part of the gov pollution regs forced the manufacturers to become honest with their horsepower ratings. Previously they had run engines on the dyno with open intake and exhaust, external electric oil and water pumps, racing fuel, and wide open. The last reading as the engine exploded was the rated horsepower for that year. The feds made them test as run in the customer's car and hold the output for 15 minutes.
There was quite a bit of power lost due to lower compression and cam profile changes, I've ran several pre and post smog engines on the dyno and the results are telling. And yes the new standards were much more reliable than the old gross power ratings.
Really is too bad that leaded gasoline is so toxic, it did wonders for compression.
Ford made some real classics. Personalty I've always preferred the products of the offshoot companies: mercury, Pontiac, and Lincoln especially. I guess I like the weird stuff that you don't see as often.
Modern fuel injection and engine management systems make leaded gasoline unnecessary, and there are other alternatives like water/methanol injection for high compression or boosted engines.
That's really impressive, Ive always been scares of the concept of high compression boosted engines and always thought you should choose one or the other but that sounds fantastic. You mentioned dynos before, what kind of power does it make?
618hp @ 5600 at the wheels when ran on a chassis dyno, might have made more but the clutch started slipping bad at that point and it was nearly revved out as well.
I have the Fieros older brother, a Corvair Corsa Turbo, GMs first rear engined car and only air cooled flat six
I've always wanted a 1984 oldsmobile cutlass supreme in dark red or burgundy with the 305 v8
425f is normal operating temperature for a Corvair, air cooled engines run hotter than liquid cooled ones and are harder to overheat due to the temperature difference between them and the air temp. If they get enough airflow that is, otherwise they overheat like crazy and the Corvair was designed to cool at 95hp, not the 180hp the turbo models have so they heat up quickly while on boost.
I went to school with a guy who had a thing for the Cutlass, he had inherited one from his grandfather. Notchbacks aren't really my thing (with the Fiero being one of few exceptions) but I respect the style.
That's why I had wondered about overheating, them being mid-engined. Great for cornering, less so for airflow. That turbo model is no joke to be bumping up the horsepower that much.
The 180 horse turbo is just a 95 horse with ten pounds of boost, in stock form they would only make boost in 3rd and 4th gear to limit power output and heating, made them awesome for passing on the freeway though.
It would be the other way around if the Corvair is at full boost, while slow off the line they are insane once at highway speed. Or did you mean while driving the Corvair, if so yes it's awesome seeing the look on someone's face as you blow by.
Yeah a turbo Corvair sounds awesome, and that one is just plain nasty.
That's where I'm going with the Fiero. I swapped an overbored, high compression 460 into my Montego to be my big, loud, gas guzzling hotrod, but the Fiero has to stay mild enough to drive the 45 minutes to work everyday and go just fast enough to have fun doing it.
Sounds like my turbocharged 440 in my horse hauler, fuel mileage was not a concern, just brute power. Could have gone turbo diesel but I wanted something different. The Corvair is my play toy, mileage is decent if I can keep my foot out of the four barrel
A turbocharged LS is a monster, no matter what it's in
I don't think you can go wrong with an LS, they're super cheap if you can find a good one out of the junkyard. That's all I did and even with a big cam and stall converter I drive it daily to work on drag radials like 40 minutes each way. Gets about the same gas mileage as my newer truck that's still stock if I don't get on it too. A cam only LS in a fiero would be gobs of fun and still plenty driveable. Not to mention really fast and cool! The efi isn't a big deal, can tune it yourself or just take it somewhere. Holley's efi is super easy to use. Or, put a carb on it lol. I too put down many miles in 90's imports, they just don't die. That Montego sounds like a fun ride!
Oh yeah! I love naturally aspirated stuff but a boosted LS is just becoming too much to resist, especially since I put it in a heavy truck lol. Always chasing more and it'll probably handle it anyway.A turbocharged LS is a monster, no matter what it's in
If I ever get around to it I want to swap a hellcat hemi and 6spd into a '68 Barracuda fastback, why? Because I can
Yeah trucks can generally handle extra power without much issue, like mine being a one ton nothing in the driveline needed to be upgraded to take the abuse.
