Fiat engines are renowned "abuse taking", high revving engines. basically i have seen them survive quite a lot of punishment and still fair well. however.
Time gets the better of all things eventually and things such as rubber hoses and electrical connectors do suffer, all things that go to making an engine run sweet and keep purring. (and the MOT tester at bay!)
so here is my list of things to occasionally check (every month or so) on your Fiat engine.
so if you have a carburettor driven or early fuel injected (with distributor) FIRE engine (999cc) here are a few things to look out for:
The big disc shaped thing on the distributor. this is a vacuum controlled solenoid actuator. its job is to make sure that at the correct engine RPM it delays or advances the spark making the engine run well, burn the fuel correctly and keep the emissions down. every Fiat FIRE engine that i have come across in the scrap yard has had this part FAILED (possibly resulting in the scrapping of the car!). dont let this happen to you!
a simple test can check to see if this part is working as it should.
get a bit of hose the same size as the one that is connected to the vacuum actuator. remove the original hose from it, and connect the hose that you have on it. now simply suck on the pipe. if you get to a point where you just can not suck any more then this part is working fine! however if you can just keep sucking on the pipe then this actuator has failed.
this will cause hesitant engine pick up / acceleration and a raised emissions level.
on the 903cc OHV push rod engine this whole system does not exist! no vacuum controlled actuators, as it is all done mechanically in the distributor by a centrifugal spinning weight system.
also look out for split hoses. split hoses are a major cause of a lot of emission problems with all older cars. they can cause the same problems as above as they are often the things that control key engine running items.
on the carburettor driven FIRE engine there are 2 vacuum hoses that commonly fail. one is easy to spot connecting the back of the carburettor to the disc shaped object (the vacuum actuator) on the distributor.
the other is a little hard to find but it is again on the back of the carburettor connecting it to a smaller vacuum actuator on the carburettors choke system. this is only a short pipe about 4cm long. this usually splits down the pipe on the underside of the pipe so you dont see it until you take it off and check it.
on the early fuel injected FIRE engine (with distributor) you have the same vacuum pipe which leads to the vacuum actuator on the distributor to check, but you also have a emissions control system that has a vacuum pipe going to it.
if you follow this pipe from the back of the throttle body injector assembly, it will eventually connect into an electrically driven solenoid. sadly it is common that the plastic of this solenoid becomes brittle over time. in which case just blank off the pipe that connects to the back of the throttle body and 9 times out of 10 you should be fine with leaving the other hose open.
however if you notice a fuel smell, consider replacing the solenoid with a generic 12v solenoid with the correct size hose connectors.
on most older petrol engines it is advisable to just check over the fuel hoses. again like vacuum hoses they do like to split with age, and you really don't want them to actually fail and spill fuel when you are out in the car.
a good thing to check is the condition of the timing belt on the FIRE engine. this can be done by undoing 2 small 10mm bolts at each side of the cover (if the plastic has not snapped already.. this is common but not an issue).
once undone, just pull the cover away from the engine at the top and give the belt a visual check. if it is looking all cracked and old i would advise in replacing it, but dont worry however. if the belt ever did snap while the engine was running it would cause no damage as often heard about with other engines as the fire engine is non-interface. this means that no matter where the valves and pistons are, they will never come into contact. (unless the head has been skimmed.. a lot!) you will however be stranded and need to be recovered if the belt ever does snap.
the 903cc OHV push rod engine uses a cam chain. i have -never- heard about this ever failing even on 903cc engine with well over 250,000 miles on the clock.
(if you ever did need parts for this engine, note that the 899cc engine found in the cinquecento is almost identical! everything but the fuel delivery system is the same.)
it is advisable to check over some of the electrical connections, just to make sure they fit tight and not loose causing "interesting" readings on the temperature gauge and random lights flickering on the dash.
it has been known that a small solenoid on the front of the FIRE engine's carburettor can fail causing the engine to not run well at all. this valve is in place to stop over run (where the engine keeps running even when you have turned it off - an issue caused by carbon build up).
the valve fails to open when the ignition is on causing a large fuel starvation and often making it so you can only start the engine with the throttle pedal pressed to keep it from stalling.
to check this, first of all check to see if the little white cable is connected to it on the front lower side of the carburettor. with the ignition on, unplug this cable and touch it on the connector again to see if you can hear a small click sound. if you can this should be fine, however if you hear nothing it could have failed. you can simply undo this from the carburettor and cut the plunger end off with a pair of wire cutters. then replace it back into the carburettor. doing this effectively bypasses the solenoid valve. it is something i have had to do myself and years later still have nothing bad to report about it. however if you ever do have it where the engine runs for a second or two after you turn it off, consider taking the car for a nice long run out somewhere to burn off all that nasty carbon.
i hope this helps anyone in the future, be it problem solving or just for fun
Time gets the better of all things eventually and things such as rubber hoses and electrical connectors do suffer, all things that go to making an engine run sweet and keep purring. (and the MOT tester at bay!)
so here is my list of things to occasionally check (every month or so) on your Fiat engine.
so if you have a carburettor driven or early fuel injected (with distributor) FIRE engine (999cc) here are a few things to look out for:
The big disc shaped thing on the distributor. this is a vacuum controlled solenoid actuator. its job is to make sure that at the correct engine RPM it delays or advances the spark making the engine run well, burn the fuel correctly and keep the emissions down. every Fiat FIRE engine that i have come across in the scrap yard has had this part FAILED (possibly resulting in the scrapping of the car!). dont let this happen to you!
a simple test can check to see if this part is working as it should.
get a bit of hose the same size as the one that is connected to the vacuum actuator. remove the original hose from it, and connect the hose that you have on it. now simply suck on the pipe. if you get to a point where you just can not suck any more then this part is working fine! however if you can just keep sucking on the pipe then this actuator has failed.
this will cause hesitant engine pick up / acceleration and a raised emissions level.
on the 903cc OHV push rod engine this whole system does not exist! no vacuum controlled actuators, as it is all done mechanically in the distributor by a centrifugal spinning weight system.
also look out for split hoses. split hoses are a major cause of a lot of emission problems with all older cars. they can cause the same problems as above as they are often the things that control key engine running items.
on the carburettor driven FIRE engine there are 2 vacuum hoses that commonly fail. one is easy to spot connecting the back of the carburettor to the disc shaped object (the vacuum actuator) on the distributor.
the other is a little hard to find but it is again on the back of the carburettor connecting it to a smaller vacuum actuator on the carburettors choke system. this is only a short pipe about 4cm long. this usually splits down the pipe on the underside of the pipe so you dont see it until you take it off and check it.
on the early fuel injected FIRE engine (with distributor) you have the same vacuum pipe which leads to the vacuum actuator on the distributor to check, but you also have a emissions control system that has a vacuum pipe going to it.
if you follow this pipe from the back of the throttle body injector assembly, it will eventually connect into an electrically driven solenoid. sadly it is common that the plastic of this solenoid becomes brittle over time. in which case just blank off the pipe that connects to the back of the throttle body and 9 times out of 10 you should be fine with leaving the other hose open.
however if you notice a fuel smell, consider replacing the solenoid with a generic 12v solenoid with the correct size hose connectors.
on most older petrol engines it is advisable to just check over the fuel hoses. again like vacuum hoses they do like to split with age, and you really don't want them to actually fail and spill fuel when you are out in the car.
a good thing to check is the condition of the timing belt on the FIRE engine. this can be done by undoing 2 small 10mm bolts at each side of the cover (if the plastic has not snapped already.. this is common but not an issue).
once undone, just pull the cover away from the engine at the top and give the belt a visual check. if it is looking all cracked and old i would advise in replacing it, but dont worry however. if the belt ever did snap while the engine was running it would cause no damage as often heard about with other engines as the fire engine is non-interface. this means that no matter where the valves and pistons are, they will never come into contact. (unless the head has been skimmed.. a lot!) you will however be stranded and need to be recovered if the belt ever does snap.
the 903cc OHV push rod engine uses a cam chain. i have -never- heard about this ever failing even on 903cc engine with well over 250,000 miles on the clock.
(if you ever did need parts for this engine, note that the 899cc engine found in the cinquecento is almost identical! everything but the fuel delivery system is the same.)
it is advisable to check over some of the electrical connections, just to make sure they fit tight and not loose causing "interesting" readings on the temperature gauge and random lights flickering on the dash.
it has been known that a small solenoid on the front of the FIRE engine's carburettor can fail causing the engine to not run well at all. this valve is in place to stop over run (where the engine keeps running even when you have turned it off - an issue caused by carbon build up).
the valve fails to open when the ignition is on causing a large fuel starvation and often making it so you can only start the engine with the throttle pedal pressed to keep it from stalling.
to check this, first of all check to see if the little white cable is connected to it on the front lower side of the carburettor. with the ignition on, unplug this cable and touch it on the connector again to see if you can hear a small click sound. if you can this should be fine, however if you hear nothing it could have failed. you can simply undo this from the carburettor and cut the plunger end off with a pair of wire cutters. then replace it back into the carburettor. doing this effectively bypasses the solenoid valve. it is something i have had to do myself and years later still have nothing bad to report about it. however if you ever do have it where the engine runs for a second or two after you turn it off, consider taking the car for a nice long run out somewhere to burn off all that nasty carbon.
i hope this helps anyone in the future, be it problem solving or just for fun
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