Timing chain cover back on with the new harmonic balancer and the front motor mount bolted on. This mount will be welded to the cradle to support the front of the engine. The other mount points are transmission supports. It took a fair bit of effort to figure out how to support the engine onto the engine stand by the front of the engine; they are normally supported by the back end.
This is why I needed it supported at the front. There is an adaptor plate that bolts to the rear of the engine to mount the transmission to. The engine and transmission bolt patterns are not compatible since the tranny is a front-wheel-drive unit and the small block Chevy was never used in a front-wheel-drive vehicle. Yes, the Fiero is a mid-engine car, but this is really a front-wheel-drive engine and transmission unit that is just moved back a few feet. The Chevy engine will of course be mounted sideways from how it would normally sit in a front-engine, rear-wheel drive car.
The oil filter shown in the above pictures will be removed and a starter motor will be fitted in that space. A remote oil filter unit will be plumbed in where the existing filter attaches to the engine block. There is also a new alternator mount and a few other things to do before the engine finds its new home.
Transmission bolted to adaptor plate for a test fitting on cradle. Those very observant ones will notice that the adaptor plate is thicker now. This is the proper plate for the automatic transmission; the previous one was for a manual transmission. You have to use the original Fiero flexplate, the Chevy one will not clear the transmission where it wraps around beside the engine (guess how I know this). You can't see it in this picture, but the front-wheel drive transmission wraps around the far side of the engine.
Engine/tranny sitting on the cradle. The header dumps pretty close to the tranny on this side. The engine has to be moved a little to the left or the pulley will hit the frame in the car.
This will be the front side of the engine when it is mounted in the car. The starter and remote oil filter adaptor will fit in the space just behind the header exit.
Engine/tranny is now sitting on the cradle and showing a problem. The engine is too far to the right side, as it will hit the frame rail in the car. Has to be moved over to the left about 1 1/2".
A bit hard to see, but here is the other end (drivers side, showing the transmission). The transmission is actually touching the cradle here, and it hasn't been moved the 1 1/2" to the left yet. The engine cradle will be notched to allow the tranny to move over a little, and the frame in the car will be notched to clear the harmonic balancer pulley. Things have to be positioned just right, side-to-side, to get the engine/tranny to fit. But it will fit.
This is showing the header clearance with respect to the tranny.
Notice the position of the engine in the front mount. After this picture was taken I moved it up to use the upper holes, which moves it up about 1". This allowed the tranny to clear the mount cradle with less of a notch being required (want to keep things as level as possible side-to-side).
Header clearance from the back side of the engine/tranny. Going to be a bit tight for the exhaust exiting the header, but I think it will clear OK.
This picture shows a mocking-up of an exhaust pipe to see how much room there is (or isn't). This is a piece of plastic tubing from a dust collection system; it is 2 5/8" in diameter. With the bend shown it just clears the transmission. The bend could be tightened up a bit without being too restrictive.