Thinking Northstar Conversion?

[aaron88]

Battery Tray:

The headlight and motor assembly were removed the size of the hole calculated then cut out.  The battery tray was bent up on a brake press, then brackets were added to the tray so the battery could be fastened to it.  The tray was then bolted into its new location and cables run.  The depth of the tray was carefully calculated so that the support for the front facia could be simply modified.

Aaron

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[PBJ]

Cool, thanks for the pics.  I may have missed it...but what gage aluminum/steel did you use?

Pete

[aaron88]

I used 1/8” thick 5052-H32 aluminum sheet to make the battery tray and 3/16” thick aluminum (same) sheet to make the bottom bracket that sandwiched the front bumper facia to the bottom of the battery tray.  The unit is very light.  I also used a spiral cell battery which is 20% lighter and will produce more power for my monster starter.

For those that don’t know, 5052 alumium is a high corrosion resistant aluminum, often used for marine applications where high salt water resistance is required.  H32 is a finishing process that basically means the material has been stress hardened and treated.

I should also note that the routing of the power cable to the positive terminal on the battery could have been done better.  There is barely enough room to clear the headlight assembly.  It might be better and easier to rout the power cable up though the opening made for the battery tray.  It would have been much easier for me to see this if I had put in the battery tray before I routed the cables.

The ground cables however work well the way they are shown in the photos.

Aaron

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[BootMachine]

Car looks GREAT!

[aaron88]

Throttle Cable

I used the stock Fiero throttle cable.  It’s a little tight but will work.

For this I got two pieced of ¼ inch aluminum and carved out the shape as can be seen from the photo.  One of the center hole cut-outs are wider than the other, this is so the cable lock will work with the new bracket. On the photo showing the back side of the brackets you can see the inside notch that retains the Fiero cable lock.  The reason I used two pieces of ¼ inch alumium instead of a half inch piece is because it’s much easier to make the notch if the pieces are thinner (I used a hammer and chisel after drilling out a hole).  Also using the bracket in this manner meant that no modification would have to be made to the cable itself.  The hole in the Northstar steel bracket had to be opened up a bit to accept the Fiero cable.  The Northstar throttle operates from idle to WOT without having to modify the peddle travel.

In the photo you can see that in a pinch a machine screw can be used to retain the cable wire however, I later made a proper pin with retaining clip to hold the cable in place.

Alternately; if you were to just make a square hole 14mm by 14mm, in the steel bracket you could just plug the cable in there, but you would then have to alter (or adjust) the length of wire to get the right actuation length.

Aaron

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[aaron88]

The back of the brackets.  From here you can see the notch that retains the cable.

[aaron88]

The hole had to be opened up a bit and the bracket was bolted on.

[aaron88]

The bracket and cable installed.  At the bottom you can see the screw used to hold the cable wire in place wile testing was done.

[GSXRBOBBY]

Wow Aaron!!!

[hellfish87gt]

its all coming together nicely now
i cant wait for mine

[aaron88]

Here is a closer look at the motor mounts, not yet installed.  Rubber on the top and bottom.  The bottom part of the bracket is welded to he cradle and a large bolt hole is then drilled through everything to accomodate an M10, 10.9 bolt and Locking nuts (or equivelant).  I used two nuts on each bolt and locked them together.  this is because there shouldn't be much compression on the rubber but I wanted a good solid lock on the nut.

Aaron

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[hellfish87gt]

oh man i have a feeling christmas will eb coming early this year, 11.5 month early

[BootMachine]

Hey Aaron!

What stage is your car at now? Does it drive yet? Is it ready for a 1/4 mile test? MAN....I cant wait until you start testing this machine.....your gonna die man...its too powerfull!  

LIKE....its gonna be a pure drifting machine with the torque your gonna have!

I show all my friends this section of the site (even my friends out in BC) and they wanna see some results too. YOU HAVE A FAN CLUB NOW!

Can I come and join you when you decide to bring the monsto-machine to the 1/4 track? I wanna see it in action! I'll bring beer for the victory dance.

Dont forget ....there is a guy with a Prelude who runs 15's who thinks its the fastest thing on the road...he disses Fieros to the point where it pisses ME off....after you have everything tuned I will invite him out!

(I will tell him its stock)!

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!

[aaron88]

Boot;

My car is running but the computer still needs to be tuned.  I’m waiting until the spring to give it a good run somewhere so that I can tune up the fuel tables.

The exhaust is being routed now, after which all that is left is proper routing for the air intake.  I have a temporary setup for the air intake now, but I’d like to route it into the original Fiero location in order to catch some colder air.

Although this is all that’s left for the Northstar conversion, I’m not even close to being done with my car.

At some time as well I’m going to gain another 50 to 80 hp by putting new cams and valve springs in.

I expect to be running low 12’s with my power to weight ratio, so your buddy with the 15 second yawner better have some good excuses ready.  Dan also should be running in the high 12’s or low 13’s as well as Brian in the spring.

I’m not sure why your buddy thinks his car is so fast since there are many Honda’s in Ottawa on the bottle.  Any one of them should be able to make short work of a 15 second car.

Aaron

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[GoFast85]

I see that propane injection is becoming popular. Could it be because of some localities outlawing nitros? Will do more investigating