General Harry's Garage 594 Engine Rebuild

[fiat500]

You know mw Tom, I know nothing about tuning, but I had assumed that the engine had shorter conrods and that a spacer wasn't appropriate. But it does seem odd that Proetti appeared to have been on a first time encounter with this issue. The engine seemed to achieve what Harry was seekeing, and he is a very demanding client.

I hope Harry now turns his attention to the bodywork. The lower parts of the driver's side, particularly the door, look like they would benefit from one of his legendary restorations.

 

[the hobbler]

You know mw Tom, I know nothing about tuning, but I had assumed that the engine had shorter conrods and that a spacer wasn't appropriate. But it does seem odd that Proetti appeared to have been on a first time encounter with this issue. The engine seemed to achieve what Harry was seekeing, and he is a very demanding client.

I hope Harry now turns his attention to the bodywork. The lower parts of the driver's side, particularly the door, look like they would benefit from one of his legendary restorations.

My kit also came with the required con-rods---lovely kit, dead easy to work with. Also. I meant "Squish" height, not 'swish' height---this is amount that the piston stops BELOW the top of (in the Fiat's case) the barrels----1mm with my kit, which gives me a compression-ratio of about 10.3:1 (so they say!)

 

[KurtVerbose]

Does seem strange that it took so long and cost so much and was so difficult, when as you say there are kits available and it's fairly standard practice.

Stranger still when that garage are known as experts in this field.

 

[the hobbler]

Does seem strange that it took so long and cost so much and was so difficult, when as you say there are kits available and it's fairly standard practice.

Stranger still when that garage are known as experts in this field.

The classic car workshop where I work has Harry as a customer, and when he was in last time (about 2 weeks ago) I had a chat with him regarding the conversion done on his engine. His crankcase is a 500 variant (110 engine), not the 126 variant which is a stronger crank-case and better for the 695 (and bigger!) conversion. Abarth realised the limitations of the '110' crank-case so for his '695' variants he only went to a 76mm bore, but used a 76mm stroke crank (the standard crank has a 70mm throw) to bring the capacity up to 695cc (or, 689.54cc to be exact---but '695' rolls off the tongue better!) I was surprised (and told Harry so) that Proietti didn't use one of the proprietry kits to carry out the conversion. With the 'kit' that I bought, the only machining required (carried out by my local engineer) was to the crank-case---to open up the barrel apertures and to "flat-face" the top of the crank-case to enable the spacer-plate to sit correctly. By using a proper 'kit', the only reason that I had to play 'silly buggers' with the fan shrouding (and it was a LOT of buggering about!) was because I decided to fit a Panda30 4-port cylinder-head---if I had fitted a 'normal' cylinder-head. the shrouding would, with just a bit of fettling on the securing-bolt holes, have been a very simple 'bolt-on' job, as per normal. I also pointed out that having a (plastic!) fuel filter just above the alternator was NOT a good idea---he will be taking it off. Next time Harry is at the workshop, we have agreed that we will organise for my car to be at work so that he can have a drive of my car---his opinion will be interesting (to put it mildly!)

 

[KurtVerbose]

Yes, will be interesting to read that.

 

[fiat500]

The classic car workshop where I work has Harry as a customer, and when he was in last time (about 2 weeks ago) I had a chat with him regarding the conversion done on his engine. His crankcase is a 500 variant (110 engine), not the 126 variant which is a stronger crank-case and better for the 695 (and bigger!) conversion. Abarth realised the limitations of the '110' crank-case so for his '695' variants he only went to a 76mm bore, but used a 76mm stroke crank (the standard crank has a 70mm throw) to bring the capacity up to 695cc (or, 689.54cc to be exact---but '695' rolls off the tongue better!) I was surprised (and told Harry so) that Proietti didn't use one of the proprietry kits to carry out the conversion. With the 'kit' that I bought, the only machining required (carried out by my local engineer) was to the crank-case---to open up the barrel apertures and to "flat-face" the top of the crank-case to enable the spacer-plate to sit correctly. By using a proper 'kit', the only reason that I had to play 'silly buggers' with the fan shrouding (and it was a LOT of buggering about!) was because I decided to fit a Panda30 4-port cylinder-head---if I had fitted a 'normal' cylinder-head. the shrouding would, with just a bit of fettling on the securing-bolt holes, have been a very simple 'bolt-on' job, as per normal. I also pointed out that having a (plastic!) fuel filter just above the alternator was NOT a good idea---he will be taking it off. Next time Harry is at the workshop, we have agreed that we will organise for my car to be at work so that he can have a drive of my car---his opinion will be interesting (to put it mildly!)

Very interesting;...now we know where you work Tom, I expect to see you on a future video.

 

[the hobbler]

Be carefulof what you wish

Very interesting;...now we know where you work Tom, I expect to see you on a future video.

Be careful of what you wish for Peter!

 

[fiat500]

Be carefulof what you wish

Be careful of what you wish for Peter!

Maybe better if we could get you on one of Harry's videos discussing the 500. Here's his rundown of the costs for the engine rebuild....completely crazy pricing...

 

[the hobbler]

Maybe better if we could get you on one of Harry's videos discussing the 500. Here's his rundown of the costs for the engine rebuild....completely crazy pricing...

Holy moses! That was one VERY expensive engine job; I accept that various gearbox repairs were also required, but with the engine out, the gearbox is, at most a hours work to remove, and renewing the drive-shaft boots (I couldn't see any parts that required the drive-shafts to be removed), is again not a very long job. However, having met Harry, I got the impression that he is NOT the sort of guy that one teases about costs, so I won't! Knowing what I do with regard to the problems one can suffer with the electronic ingnitions (he had a "Hall effect" ignition fitted---it is in the parts list) I wonder how long before he has a problem with that?

 

[lazylobster]

Nearly 10K spend (parts & Labour) on the 500, that is crazy money . . .

 

[the hobbler]

Nearly 10K spend (parts & Labour) on the 500, that is crazy money . . .

Unless my maths are 'all to pot', his total bill (and I do understand that not all of it was spent on the engine) was just OVER £10,000! Looking through the bill, and knowing roughly what the the "non-engine" work should come out at, that is still about £9,500 on the engine---that is one expensive engine.