the cam locking tool from the timing set i bought didn't quite fit either - ever so slightly to big.. I was in a rush and found 10mm allen key did the job, but you just reminded me i was gonna trim them slightly for next time.
General Not giving up.
- Thread starter Pirus
- Start date
Currently reading:
General Not giving up.
OP
OP
Been away for a while but slowly getting back on with the rebuild, taking my time as i want everything to be just right.
Set of double valve springs, courtesy of Whitz. Missing two of the retaining caps, so looking to source some replacements, Fiat no longer produce them so going to go to a local engine builders and see if they have any of a similar size, if not get some turned out on a lathe and get them heat treated / hardened.
Gave them a quick clean in a tub of petrol and use of an old toothbrush, just to check the quality and if any rust hs set in, as the history is unknown.
The pistons from the engine were covered in carbon, not sure of the history of engine and when i had it running it was running very rich due to my lambda sensor fault, as well as a possible leaky inlet gasket casuing it to compensate.
Dedicated cleaning products are generally quite expensive, so what household cleaners can be used to use similar results?
Acetone - nail polish remover
Sodium Hydroxide - Drain cleaner and most oven cleaners.
So mixed them up in the plastic tub, 4 parts acetone to one part sodium hydroxide and left them to soak for 5/10 minutes. Sodium hydroxide can dissolve aluminium so be careful when doing this as it can then start eating into the pistons. Started bubbling away and used the scourers and a tooth brush to remove the majority of the carbon build up, just came straight off.
Then using an airline i blew off the remaining liquid and gave it a wipe over with spirits, another blow over with the airline and a light wipe with some fresh oil, just to stop an corrosion forming and to add a layer of protection.
Im afraid i dont have any before pictures but if you scroll up and have a look at the pictures of the pistons within the engine they were just covered in carbon and very black, couldnt see any of the stamping on the crowns either.
Pistons one and two were given the treatment in the chemicals, whilst three and four i did previously with a brass rotary brush. Brass being a very soft metal took the carbon straight off and caused no damage at all, as it is so soft though you go through the brushes very quickly. I bought a large replacememt 'brass' wire brush and set it up on the rotary tool, turns out it was a real wire brush coated in some kind of cheap brass looking coating. Scored piston number 3 lightly with it when first removing the carbon, so stopped and ordered some more small brass brushes. Shouldnt cause any lasting damage as its only just lightly on the piston crown, the only down side i can see is if it now allows an area for the carbon build to form again.
Piston Number 1 - given the chem bath.
Also cleaned the grooves with an old snapped piston ring.
Piston number 1 bearing
Piston number 1 bearing
Piston Number 2 - chem bath. Was left in a little longer than number 1.
Piston number 2 bearing
Ignore the dirt, just oil a bits of grime, will be given a good wipe down with fresh oil and treatment with the airline.
Piston Number 2 bearing
Piston number 3 - given the wire wheel. Can see the slight score marks.
Piston Number 3 bearing
Piston number 3 bearing
Piston Number 4 - brass wire wheel. First one done, tempted to give it a wash in the chemicals, tidy it up.
Piston Number 4 bearing. Ignore the little spots on it, just bits of carbon that have come off the crown, will be given a blast with the airline and fresh oil.
Piston number 4 bearing.
Getting along slowly, next job is to get the crank out and get it balanced with the fly and new clutch.
Pirus
Set of double valve springs, courtesy of Whitz. Missing two of the retaining caps, so looking to source some replacements, Fiat no longer produce them so going to go to a local engine builders and see if they have any of a similar size, if not get some turned out on a lathe and get them heat treated / hardened.
Gave them a quick clean in a tub of petrol and use of an old toothbrush, just to check the quality and if any rust hs set in, as the history is unknown.
The pistons from the engine were covered in carbon, not sure of the history of engine and when i had it running it was running very rich due to my lambda sensor fault, as well as a possible leaky inlet gasket casuing it to compensate.
Dedicated cleaning products are generally quite expensive, so what household cleaners can be used to use similar results?
Acetone - nail polish remover
Sodium Hydroxide - Drain cleaner and most oven cleaners.
So mixed them up in the plastic tub, 4 parts acetone to one part sodium hydroxide and left them to soak for 5/10 minutes. Sodium hydroxide can dissolve aluminium so be careful when doing this as it can then start eating into the pistons. Started bubbling away and used the scourers and a tooth brush to remove the majority of the carbon build up, just came straight off.
Then using an airline i blew off the remaining liquid and gave it a wipe over with spirits, another blow over with the airline and a light wipe with some fresh oil, just to stop an corrosion forming and to add a layer of protection.
Im afraid i dont have any before pictures but if you scroll up and have a look at the pictures of the pistons within the engine they were just covered in carbon and very black, couldnt see any of the stamping on the crowns either.
Pistons one and two were given the treatment in the chemicals, whilst three and four i did previously with a brass rotary brush. Brass being a very soft metal took the carbon straight off and caused no damage at all, as it is so soft though you go through the brushes very quickly. I bought a large replacememt 'brass' wire brush and set it up on the rotary tool, turns out it was a real wire brush coated in some kind of cheap brass looking coating. Scored piston number 3 lightly with it when first removing the carbon, so stopped and ordered some more small brass brushes. Shouldnt cause any lasting damage as its only just lightly on the piston crown, the only down side i can see is if it now allows an area for the carbon build to form again.
Piston Number 1 - given the chem bath.
Also cleaned the grooves with an old snapped piston ring.
Piston number 1 bearing
Piston number 1 bearing
Piston Number 2 - chem bath. Was left in a little longer than number 1.
Piston number 2 bearing
Ignore the dirt, just oil a bits of grime, will be given a good wipe down with fresh oil and treatment with the airline.
Piston Number 2 bearing
Piston number 3 - given the wire wheel. Can see the slight score marks.
Piston Number 3 bearing
Piston number 3 bearing
Piston Number 4 - brass wire wheel. First one done, tempted to give it a wash in the chemicals, tidy it up.
Piston Number 4 bearing. Ignore the little spots on it, just bits of carbon that have come off the crown, will be given a blast with the airline and fresh oil.
Piston number 4 bearing.
Getting along slowly, next job is to get the crank out and get it balanced with the fly and new clutch.
Pirus
Nice to see it moving along.
For cleaning you might try Panel Wipe. Very effective degreaser (smells very similar to carb cleaner) and about the same price as Acetone. Doesn't have the corrosive properties of caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) but don't use in a confined space.
For cleaning you might try Panel Wipe. Very effective degreaser (smells very similar to carb cleaner) and about the same price as Acetone. Doesn't have the corrosive properties of caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) but don't use in a confined space.
minimadsean
New member
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2014
- Messages
- 22
- Points
- 15
Hello I'm looking at converting my sei to a 1.2 16v is it hard to wire the 1.2 ecu into the mpi loom? Any help you could provide would be brilliant
TheShadows645
New member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2014
- Messages
- 22
- Points
- 7
He's got a lot of personal life commitments going on at the moment. He will have some free time again in the new year. I'll probably be swinging round to help him out moving things forward again.
He has some plans for this year that I think he's aiming for so progress will more than likely be made soon ish.
Thanks
X
He has some plans for this year that I think he's aiming for so progress will more than likely be made soon ish.
Thanks
X
Last edited:
YOU will be helping him towards completion? ....we're all still waiting for updates on Chalky
Two of the decent builds on the forum & everybody is stuck in limbo waiting for some sort of progress.
TheShadows645
New member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2014
- Messages
- 22
- Points
- 7
Ahh kay good luck to him n thanks for the update todge
Shadows
x
Shadows
x
OP
OP
Im sure you'd all like to see a little update of where the project is currently at?
The project is once again on hold, no more deadline dates have been set or are going to be, as looking back over this thread I've made far too many.
For the good news though, the car is once again reinsured! Back in october it was coming up to two years since it had last been insured and i didnt want to lose my no claim. So after ringing up a lot of different modified insurance brokers, lots of time spent on the phone. It is again reinsured with all future mods i could think of covered, like for like cover for all mods and an agreed value that im happy with. Bit of difficulty sending off pictures for an assesor to make a value, as they want pictures of the car in its finished state. Lots of paperwork to fill in and sort as well. Listing all mods and approx value, which means i worked out (roughly) what I have spent on mods, just since the 16v conversion. I dont recommend people do this, not a good thing to know but this is my hobby and I enjoy it
Bit amusing ringing up one specialist brokers:
Me: Hi there, im looking for an insurance quote for a heavily modified Fiat Seicento.
Them: Im afraid we dont often insure cars with such a small engine or low bhp.
Me: Well it's a 1242cc 16v engine, should be running approx 100bhp.
Them: Ah okay, we might be able to give you a quote then. What's the modified engine and approx bhp going to be?
Me: That is the modified engine size and power.
Them: Oh..... Hold please.
Five minutes later.
Them: Sorry just had to speak my supervisor, as were not sure that we'd still be able to cover it.
Me: That does work out as approx an 80% increase in power over a standard car though.....
They did give me a price, I think it was a 'go away price' tbh.
Still concentrating on getting the engine rebuilt, had a few difficulties so far. The shell is sat in the garage, front end up in the air, all the wiring for the 1108 engine disconnected ready for it to be removed. Only issue is I have a lack of space again. The plan is to finish the 16v engine rebuild off, then move all the crap out of the garage into where im working on the green engine currently. I then should have the space to work on the car in the garage.
After my previous post and showing the conidition of the big end bearings, i decided that as all the pistons were getting new rings, i might as well replace the bearings too. Got myself a set of SM rings and King bearings.
Could i fit the new oil scraper rings? No chance, admitting defeat, I went over and asked Todger to do it for me. Thought i'd fit the new big ends when they were going back in the block, so i could cover them all in oil to prevent any oil on the piston crowns.
Next job was to remove the crank, as i wanted to get this all balanced with the flywheel, as when the car was originally buit the flywheel was lightend with one of Todgers spare cranks, so was custom for this engine. Sure it worked fine and probably wouldnt of noticed but not good enough for me.
Had one issue with removing the crank though, the sprocket for the timing belt.
To take off the oil pump housing i needed to loosen off the bolt on the end of crank and remove the sproket. Looking at the haynes manual this shouldnt actually be that tight, on my engine though i couldnt move this at all. Even a big bar on the end of it and trying to shock it loose just spun the crank backwards. If you need to remove this in future its another job i'd suggest loosing it with the timing belt still on the engine.
In the end i wedged a piece of wood in the bottom of the block to prevent the crank from turning over and this allowed the crank to stop spinning so it would loosen.
I removed the oil pump and water pump, both still look in good condition and i dont fancy going to fiat to buy a new oil pump as i know its quite pricey.
Water pump was replaced just before the engine was put in my cento, so only done about 500 miles. No point replacing.
Crank was then removed from the engine and a bit of Jizer cleaner and degreaser added to clean off the oil, ready for it to be taken to be balanced.
Had to dig out the new pressure plate to get it all balanced up.
This box with the clutch has been sat in my house for about two years now (been collecting lots of parts for a long time). It's a black diamond stage 2 kevlar clutch.
Local machine shop that does balancing and lightens flywheels. Good little place and always some interesting stuff there.
Should of put my clutch and flywheel next to this for a comparison. I'm assuming its for a truck?
Did a nice job and all balanced up for me. Few pictures of where small bits of material have been removed to balance it.
Put the crank back in the engine. Resealing the bottom block face and torquing everything correctly. Then i started to refit the pistons. I replaced all the big ends as well, with liberal use of oil on everything.
I was using a small cheap ebay special piston ring compressor. Was compressing the oil scraper rings fine but struggling to compress the top two rings. Had to push these in the bore with my fingers, while gently tapping the piston crown. One, two and four went in okay. Number three however didnt go so well.
I thought it was fully compressed and i started to tap the piston in and wasn't moving. New rings i thought, the others had been a bit stiff at first as well. Undid the piston ring compressor to see the above. The compressor wasnt sitting flush with the top of the block and the ring had slipped between the two.
Quite annoyed with myself and couldnt find anywhere that would sell an individual ring set for a good price. I decided to email SM in Germany. I explained what had happened and asked if they could sell me one individually. They said they'd send me one free of charge. Awesome.
A week later I recieved not just a single ring but an entire set of four. So top marks to SM.
Then i started to torque up the big ends. Whilst checking I had alligned the bearing correctly I dropped one down the block and on to the bottom of a piston. I fished it back out with a magnet and noticed it now had a nice score mark on the bearing face. I decided to just buy another new set of bearings, they're cheap enough.
Cleaned up the sump, gave it blast over with the da sander and repainted it. Slight dent from the crash but should be fine. Also bought myself a magnetic sump plug but im in two minds about whether to use. I dont know if i'd rather any swarf to be just be caught by the filter. Any thoughts?
The magnet is strong enough and wont protrude into the crank as it spins.
The issue is that its quite bulky and means that the plug is lower than the bottom of the sump pan now. Will probably stick it in the vice and get the grinder on it, dont need such a large head on it but I'm not sure how the magnet is attached to the plug body and dont want to cut the magnet out of the plug and have it come loose in the engine.
Head is ready to start being ported now and had a tidy up of my work space as well, nice and neat now.
Got a spare mk1 16v head to have a practice at first and will come up for sale once it's done.
Was tempted to also build a DIY flowbench as instructed in David Vizard's 'How to build horsepower' but figure ill just it a go, smoothing off any casting marks and try to remove as little material as possible.
Im afraid that's as far as the engine currently is, just waiting for me to finish porting both heads, then off for new valve seats, three angle valve cut etc. Then it will be reassembled.
Also got some different cams to go in but ill reveal more in a future update.
As i mentioned in a previous post i managed to get a set of double valve springs off of Whitz but missing two of the retaining cups. Well i managed to get hold of a 2012 copy of EPER and found the part numbers, minimum order quantity and a likely price.
I rang up one fiat dealer (wont mention any names) and they were crap. Parts department couldnt of been more rude or unhelpful if he wanted to.
Rung up another fiat dealer and the parts guy couldnt of been more helpful, gave him the part numbers id got off eper and said there was some stock in the UK and some would have to be ordered from italy. Only issue is the minimum order quantity was 20. Nevermind four spare.
All the double valve spring components are still available from Fiat. If you use the part numbers listed on forum's eper though they will be classed as discontinued, if anyone wants the new part numbers just ask.
Turns out on of the people down my road is also a horologist (had to google for that), basically his hobby is mending and taking apart clocks. So he has a few ultrasonic cleaning tanks and let me borrow one of his larger tanks. Would of been big enough to throw a piston in one at a time. But the set of double valve springs in, just to clean up all the crap off them and gave them a dry with the airline.
So handy to know if i need some parts cleaning he said i could borrow it again.
Found an old SU carb in the garage, checking the part number turns out its from a 69 Morris 1300. So as i've never had to rebuild a carb and be interesting to know i took it all apart and started to rebuild it.
Just something that kept me busy for a few days back in the summer.
Currently got a lot of work to do but should have some more time in a month or two to get back on with the car. Hopefully to be back out for Stanford (i've heard that before though)
Pirus
The project is once again on hold, no more deadline dates have been set or are going to be, as looking back over this thread I've made far too many.
For the good news though, the car is once again reinsured! Back in october it was coming up to two years since it had last been insured and i didnt want to lose my no claim. So after ringing up a lot of different modified insurance brokers, lots of time spent on the phone. It is again reinsured with all future mods i could think of covered, like for like cover for all mods and an agreed value that im happy with. Bit of difficulty sending off pictures for an assesor to make a value, as they want pictures of the car in its finished state. Lots of paperwork to fill in and sort as well. Listing all mods and approx value, which means i worked out (roughly) what I have spent on mods, just since the 16v conversion. I dont recommend people do this, not a good thing to know but this is my hobby and I enjoy it
Bit amusing ringing up one specialist brokers:
Me: Hi there, im looking for an insurance quote for a heavily modified Fiat Seicento.
Them: Im afraid we dont often insure cars with such a small engine or low bhp.
Me: Well it's a 1242cc 16v engine, should be running approx 100bhp.
Them: Ah okay, we might be able to give you a quote then. What's the modified engine and approx bhp going to be?
Me: That is the modified engine size and power.
Them: Oh..... Hold please.
Five minutes later.
Them: Sorry just had to speak my supervisor, as were not sure that we'd still be able to cover it.
Me: That does work out as approx an 80% increase in power over a standard car though.....
They did give me a price, I think it was a 'go away price' tbh.
Still concentrating on getting the engine rebuilt, had a few difficulties so far. The shell is sat in the garage, front end up in the air, all the wiring for the 1108 engine disconnected ready for it to be removed. Only issue is I have a lack of space again. The plan is to finish the 16v engine rebuild off, then move all the crap out of the garage into where im working on the green engine currently. I then should have the space to work on the car in the garage.
After my previous post and showing the conidition of the big end bearings, i decided that as all the pistons were getting new rings, i might as well replace the bearings too. Got myself a set of SM rings and King bearings.
Could i fit the new oil scraper rings? No chance, admitting defeat, I went over and asked Todger to do it for me. Thought i'd fit the new big ends when they were going back in the block, so i could cover them all in oil to prevent any oil on the piston crowns.
Next job was to remove the crank, as i wanted to get this all balanced with the flywheel, as when the car was originally buit the flywheel was lightend with one of Todgers spare cranks, so was custom for this engine. Sure it worked fine and probably wouldnt of noticed but not good enough for me.
Had one issue with removing the crank though, the sprocket for the timing belt.
To take off the oil pump housing i needed to loosen off the bolt on the end of crank and remove the sproket. Looking at the haynes manual this shouldnt actually be that tight, on my engine though i couldnt move this at all. Even a big bar on the end of it and trying to shock it loose just spun the crank backwards. If you need to remove this in future its another job i'd suggest loosing it with the timing belt still on the engine.
In the end i wedged a piece of wood in the bottom of the block to prevent the crank from turning over and this allowed the crank to stop spinning so it would loosen.
I removed the oil pump and water pump, both still look in good condition and i dont fancy going to fiat to buy a new oil pump as i know its quite pricey.
Water pump was replaced just before the engine was put in my cento, so only done about 500 miles. No point replacing.
Crank was then removed from the engine and a bit of Jizer cleaner and degreaser added to clean off the oil, ready for it to be taken to be balanced.
Had to dig out the new pressure plate to get it all balanced up.
This box with the clutch has been sat in my house for about two years now (been collecting lots of parts for a long time). It's a black diamond stage 2 kevlar clutch.
Local machine shop that does balancing and lightens flywheels. Good little place and always some interesting stuff there.
Should of put my clutch and flywheel next to this for a comparison. I'm assuming its for a truck?
Did a nice job and all balanced up for me. Few pictures of where small bits of material have been removed to balance it.
Put the crank back in the engine. Resealing the bottom block face and torquing everything correctly. Then i started to refit the pistons. I replaced all the big ends as well, with liberal use of oil on everything.
I was using a small cheap ebay special piston ring compressor. Was compressing the oil scraper rings fine but struggling to compress the top two rings. Had to push these in the bore with my fingers, while gently tapping the piston crown. One, two and four went in okay. Number three however didnt go so well.
I thought it was fully compressed and i started to tap the piston in and wasn't moving. New rings i thought, the others had been a bit stiff at first as well. Undid the piston ring compressor to see the above. The compressor wasnt sitting flush with the top of the block and the ring had slipped between the two.
Quite annoyed with myself and couldnt find anywhere that would sell an individual ring set for a good price. I decided to email SM in Germany. I explained what had happened and asked if they could sell me one individually. They said they'd send me one free of charge. Awesome.
A week later I recieved not just a single ring but an entire set of four. So top marks to SM.
Then i started to torque up the big ends. Whilst checking I had alligned the bearing correctly I dropped one down the block and on to the bottom of a piston. I fished it back out with a magnet and noticed it now had a nice score mark on the bearing face. I decided to just buy another new set of bearings, they're cheap enough.
Cleaned up the sump, gave it blast over with the da sander and repainted it. Slight dent from the crash but should be fine. Also bought myself a magnetic sump plug but im in two minds about whether to use. I dont know if i'd rather any swarf to be just be caught by the filter. Any thoughts?
The magnet is strong enough and wont protrude into the crank as it spins.
The issue is that its quite bulky and means that the plug is lower than the bottom of the sump pan now. Will probably stick it in the vice and get the grinder on it, dont need such a large head on it but I'm not sure how the magnet is attached to the plug body and dont want to cut the magnet out of the plug and have it come loose in the engine.
Head is ready to start being ported now and had a tidy up of my work space as well, nice and neat now.
Got a spare mk1 16v head to have a practice at first and will come up for sale once it's done.
Was tempted to also build a DIY flowbench as instructed in David Vizard's 'How to build horsepower' but figure ill just it a go, smoothing off any casting marks and try to remove as little material as possible.
Im afraid that's as far as the engine currently is, just waiting for me to finish porting both heads, then off for new valve seats, three angle valve cut etc. Then it will be reassembled.
Also got some different cams to go in but ill reveal more in a future update.
As i mentioned in a previous post i managed to get a set of double valve springs off of Whitz but missing two of the retaining cups. Well i managed to get hold of a 2012 copy of EPER and found the part numbers, minimum order quantity and a likely price.
I rang up one fiat dealer (wont mention any names) and they were crap. Parts department couldnt of been more rude or unhelpful if he wanted to.
Rung up another fiat dealer and the parts guy couldnt of been more helpful, gave him the part numbers id got off eper and said there was some stock in the UK and some would have to be ordered from italy. Only issue is the minimum order quantity was 20. Nevermind four spare.
All the double valve spring components are still available from Fiat. If you use the part numbers listed on forum's eper though they will be classed as discontinued, if anyone wants the new part numbers just ask.
Turns out on of the people down my road is also a horologist (had to google for that), basically his hobby is mending and taking apart clocks. So he has a few ultrasonic cleaning tanks and let me borrow one of his larger tanks. Would of been big enough to throw a piston in one at a time. But the set of double valve springs in, just to clean up all the crap off them and gave them a dry with the airline.
So handy to know if i need some parts cleaning he said i could borrow it again.
Found an old SU carb in the garage, checking the part number turns out its from a 69 Morris 1300. So as i've never had to rebuild a carb and be interesting to know i took it all apart and started to rebuild it.
Just something that kept me busy for a few days back in the summer.
Currently got a lot of work to do but should have some more time in a month or two to get back on with the car. Hopefully to be back out for Stanford (i've heard that before though)
Pirus
Yay update
Interesting read :thumbup:
Interesting read :thumbup:
Terrific post.
But
The REAL way to do it (and really the only real way) is to use (or make up) a simple flywheel locking tool. I've used the "do it with the cam belt attached way" and snapped the faux woodruff key on the crank pulley.
But
The REAL way to do it (and really the only real way) is to use (or make up) a simple flywheel locking tool. I've used the "do it with the cam belt attached way" and snapped the faux woodruff key on the crank pulley.
OP
OP
Yeh I probably should of drilled some holes in two strips of metal, bolted them into opposite holes on flywheel end of the crank and joined them together (if that makes sense), to grab hold and stop it spinning.
Jamming in a piece of wood was quicker and easier though
Jamming in a piece of wood was quicker and easier though
Easier on these engines than the coupe 20v crank bolt.
Had to cut mine off in the end. Opposite thread and over 400nm torque from factory apparently. As soon as I cut the head off it came out with my fingers :bang:.
Glad you done an update bud.
Thanks
X
Had to cut mine off in the end. Opposite thread and over 400nm torque from factory apparently. As soon as I cut the head off it came out with my fingers :bang:.
Glad you done an update bud
. Thanks
X
OP
OP
Long post ahead, this is what i've been up to for the past few weeks.
Taken me a while to organise, upload and make sure I've got the right photos
Started porting my heads. Just a basic gasket match, smoothing any casting marks and removing the 'step' around the valve guides. Hopefully this will help flow and make a bit more power.
When i originally saw Todger's thread and all the pictures of his porting I had no idea what i was looking at, they just appeared to be pictures of big blocks of metal. So if anyone wants an explanation just say so
I've uploaded copies of David Vizard's 'How to Build Horsepower' and Graham Bell's 'Modern Engine Tuning'. If anyone wants a link to these, just send me a PM.
I may even make a guide on how to port an 1108 head, as I have two spare ones sat in my garage. It's really not as hard as you think, bit of patience and a little practice anyone can do basic porting.
I've already have a few people ask me what tools I've been using to carry this out and where i bought my materials from. I'll give you a list below.
Air tools are really the best idea to use for this. I know Todger used an electric dremel for Chalky and ended up burning it out.
I bought myself the bigger compressor that ALDI had as a special buy last month. A 50L 3hp V twin, bascially a cheaper rebranded version of what you can get on Amazon or Machine Mart. The 34L 2.5hp compressor I have been using just didnt have the tank capacity or power to keep up with my die grinder and I was a pain to have to keep waiting for the tank to refill.
Brass Wire Wheels to remove carbon build up / rust.
A big bag full can be gotten cheap from china on ebay / amazon. - http://amzn.to/1BVTJJI
To remove the majority of the materal and shape the ports I got a big set of P80 Cartridge rolls. I've seen these advertised on some websites as a porting kit, for a lot more money but this is the cheapest I managed to find it. - http://bit.ly/1CtZP4q
I had a set of small grey grinding stones in my shed, no idea where they are from. There are plenty available on ebay etc. I've mainly used these to remove material quickly or in diffcult positions, such as the 'step' around the valve guide. Areas that I didnt want to do with cartridge rolls, especially close to the valve seat.
Multiple grades of flap wheels to then smooth and polish after cutting. . The mini set from Cromwell is good but only goes up to 120 grit - http://bit.ly/1Cu0SkP
I bought multiple grades of flapwheels from amazon, mainly to start polishing the exhaust ports.
120 Grit - http://amzn.to/1FBGZJD
180 Grit - http://amzn.to/1BVWomC
240 Grit - http://amzn.to/1DB7yz9
320 Grit - http://amzn.to/1DB7Mqb
I'd still recommend getting that small flap wheel kit from cromwell. Good kit and includes a lot of stuff. Plus the flap wheels on amazon arent as good quality but they are cheaper.
Practice Head
I managed to get a spare mk1 16v head and used this to practice on and it will be up for sale when it's finished. So far I've only done the inlets and these are the pictures below.
There appear to be quite a few differences in the casting techniques that FIAT used between the mk1 & mk2 heads. Very noticeable with the quality of the seams and where the casting flashes occur on them.
First I used brass wire wheels to remove any carbon or rust, to get a better idea of the casting of this particular head.
I couldnt be bothered to go and find some studs or some bolts, so i improvised instead.
Starting removing any casting marks. You can see this on the left of the port in this picture.
Looking at the two photos, you can see the outline of a casting flash and then where I have smoothed it.
Inlets all finished on the mk1 head. I went up to 240 grit here as I wasnt happy with the 120 grit finish.
Close up of inlet number 1. This picture isnt straight, the port is semetrical.
I also knife-edged the middle.
My Head
With the mk1 inlets done and I was happy with them, i decided to start on my own head.
Carbon build up was very bad inside the combustion chambers.
As I've said before, I dont know the history of this engine and it had apparently only done approx 26k miles. The wear on the bearings does seem to support this. It may have done lots of short journeys in a stilo and it was overfuelling badly when i was first running in my car
The combustion chamber on the left was given a buzz over with a wire wheel.
Looking a lot better now.
I do try and get my money's worth out of the brushes. Went through 3/4 to remove the carbon build up.
They are just the perfect size to put straight down the exhaust ports and clean them out quickly too.
Started cleaning up the exhaust valves. There is no carbon build up around the valve stems on inlet or exhaust
valves.
Inlet Ports
The casting flashes on the mk2 head are different to the mk1. The 'seams' inside the ports are also neater, with barely any raising off the surrounding surface.
This flash was consistent across all ports, with a similar shape. I would like to know how FIAT changed the process.
These appear to almost be scorch marks and were inside every inlet port. Not sure why is occured.
Over fuelling, injector's spray pattern or an odd heat spot in the water jacket?
After the first pass with the cartridge rolls.
Another shot after the first pass
Different angle of inlet port out in the sun, after the frist pass
Can see where i have smooted the inlet bowls.
Mainly to remove the 'step' around the guide.
All sorted and happy, just needed to take them up to 120 grit
120 grit. Keeping them rough still and not going higher
120 grit around guides in inlet bowls. Here you can see the casting marks of the 'steps'.
Exhaust Ports
Next it was time to move on to the exhaust ports
One exhaust port after carbon removal, lots to smooth and shape
Another exhaust port, very similar
Step on the exhaust side really isnt as prominant but very sharp and steep at the sides of the guides
First i had to remove the studs. I had to use 3 nuts on this and this was only the first stud to try and remove.
The nuts just kept spinning reguardless of how tight they were together. I ended up stripping the the threads out of these nuts.
I put my impact wrench on one night and held the other nut in place with a spanner. This worked but stripped the threads out of another set of nuts. Plus i had to go to my vice. Clamp the stud as hard as i could (between some wood) and managed to ease the nut off with a spanner.
After struggling and not wanting to destroy even more nuts, i gave my dad a ring (ex engineer, has tools coming out his ears).
Said he'd got just the thing in his shed somewhere.
Took all of about 2 seconds for each stud with the extractor above.
However this extractor does bite into the threads and they would need to be recut.
I will recut the threads in my die but I've also ordered a full new set off of ebay.
Also managed to find somewhere that sells M7x1 32mm studs for the inlet manifold. As standard on the Mk2 heads you only get two but the Mk1 is a full set of studs for the inlet.
I remember Kritip had a similar issue trying to find some studs. He ended up having a set made for him.
So if anyone wants to know i can send you a link of where they're from.
First pass on the exhaust ports with 80 grit rolls
Used grinding stones to smooth around the exhaust bowls. Just wanted to get rid of steps around the guides and smooth out the step at the back.
Exhaust port after taking it up to 320 grit with flap wheels
320 grit around the exhaust bowls
I was going to polish the exhausts by hand up to 1200 grit with wet and dry. This was mainly as i had no way of mounting the paper in my diegrinder with enough reach.
So i decided to cut one of the stone heads off and make a groove. Then folding the paper around it.
Well it took me a little over half an hour to do up through the grits to 1200 for every port.
Saved lots of time but going to go over them all again and tidy them up.
The pictures below show where the the paper has been worn away quickly in the die grinder at the opening of the ports and hasnt sanded further in.
Here you can easily see the line the paper has gotten to.
Everything around the guide has been tricky to reach
Here is a good shot of the cast line throughout the head.
You can again see how far i can easily reach with paper and flap wheels as it is rougher around the guide
Still looking pretty good though.
The step may look steeper in these but that is just where it was quite sharp. It has been smoothed and a gentle angle added.
I'm happy with what I've managed so far and I'm busy at work next week so wont be able to repolish the exhausts.
They'll be sorted and done in the next two / three weeks though.
Then the head is going off to a local machine shop to have new guides, three angle valve cut, skim, pressure tested etc.
I've still go to repaint part of the cam box. The green paint was chipped on fitting and removal of the engine. That shouldnt take me a day to do though.
Then i'll be able to finish rebuilding the engine and clean out the garage to get the swap under way!
I've finally ordered my Megasquirt system today and should hopefully be here next week
It's an MS2 v3 kit version and want to build it all myself (where possible). Sei16v / Cov69 has offered to help and let me use his jimstim to check it over.
I've already messaged craig and asked him a few questions and will no doubt ask him more yet.
Kritip isn't about much anymore but i'm sure he remembers some bits if i get stuck.
It's just so much to read and learn. I figure i'll do it as i go along and hope for the best.
So will probably be posting lots of annoying questions
Also This is one other thing I've had for a while. It's my small toolbox. Managed to pick it up brand new from homebase or something about two years ago. I saw it on HUKD for around £15 complete with the tools you see.
I'm going to keep this in boot (strapped down!) to carry out any maintenance whilst im on the road. I'm wondering what other tools should i put in itl?
Bigger set of stubby spanners
Couple of screwdrivers
Extension bars
100ml can of WD40
Mole grips
Better pliers
More Zip ties
Tub of assorted nuts / bolts
Nylon covered socket for wheel bolts
I'm tempted to take the top tray out to make more room. I know as soon as i use those sockets most are going to break.
Before anyone says, "just ring up your recovery service". That's my last resort, plus i doubt the car will easily make it on a low loader once it's done. If i can't fix it at the roadside, then it will need recovering,
Also picked myself up another little set the other week. A 12v scissor jack and impact wrench, one that can plug into your cigarette lighter socket. Both work fine and i was surprised at the impact wrench. I used it to remove 100nm wheel nuts that have been removed in months and to remove caliper mounting bolts on a peugeot to change discs and pads. I couldn't find my 2' breaker bar and still dont know where it is.
Also i am working on information on a FiatForum trip to Centozlot 2016. Been looking at ferries, times, cost, hotels, routes etc etc. should hopefully have that done in the next month or two.
Sorry it was a long post.
The aim is once again to get it finished by June 28th for Stanford Hall. We'll see though. This year it definitely looks like it might be done though.
Pirus
Taken me a while to organise, upload and make sure I've got the right photos
Started porting my heads. Just a basic gasket match, smoothing any casting marks and removing the 'step' around the valve guides. Hopefully this will help flow and make a bit more power.
When i originally saw Todger's thread and all the pictures of his porting I had no idea what i was looking at, they just appeared to be pictures of big blocks of metal. So if anyone wants an explanation just say so
I've uploaded copies of David Vizard's 'How to Build Horsepower' and Graham Bell's 'Modern Engine Tuning'. If anyone wants a link to these, just send me a PM.
I may even make a guide on how to port an 1108 head, as I have two spare ones sat in my garage. It's really not as hard as you think, bit of patience and a little practice anyone can do basic porting.
I've already have a few people ask me what tools I've been using to carry this out and where i bought my materials from. I'll give you a list below.
Air tools are really the best idea to use for this. I know Todger used an electric dremel for Chalky and ended up burning it out.
I bought myself the bigger compressor that ALDI had as a special buy last month. A 50L 3hp V twin, bascially a cheaper rebranded version of what you can get on Amazon or Machine Mart. The 34L 2.5hp compressor I have been using just didnt have the tank capacity or power to keep up with my die grinder and I was a pain to have to keep waiting for the tank to refill.
Brass Wire Wheels to remove carbon build up / rust.
A big bag full can be gotten cheap from china on ebay / amazon. - http://amzn.to/1BVTJJI
To remove the majority of the materal and shape the ports I got a big set of P80 Cartridge rolls. I've seen these advertised on some websites as a porting kit, for a lot more money but this is the cheapest I managed to find it. - http://bit.ly/1CtZP4q
I had a set of small grey grinding stones in my shed, no idea where they are from. There are plenty available on ebay etc. I've mainly used these to remove material quickly or in diffcult positions, such as the 'step' around the valve guide. Areas that I didnt want to do with cartridge rolls, especially close to the valve seat.
Multiple grades of flap wheels to then smooth and polish after cutting. . The mini set from Cromwell is good but only goes up to 120 grit - http://bit.ly/1Cu0SkP
I bought multiple grades of flapwheels from amazon, mainly to start polishing the exhaust ports.
120 Grit - http://amzn.to/1FBGZJD
180 Grit - http://amzn.to/1BVWomC
240 Grit - http://amzn.to/1DB7yz9
320 Grit - http://amzn.to/1DB7Mqb
I'd still recommend getting that small flap wheel kit from cromwell. Good kit and includes a lot of stuff. Plus the flap wheels on amazon arent as good quality but they are cheaper.
Practice Head
I managed to get a spare mk1 16v head and used this to practice on and it will be up for sale when it's finished. So far I've only done the inlets and these are the pictures below.
There appear to be quite a few differences in the casting techniques that FIAT used between the mk1 & mk2 heads. Very noticeable with the quality of the seams and where the casting flashes occur on them.
First I used brass wire wheels to remove any carbon or rust, to get a better idea of the casting of this particular head.
I couldnt be bothered to go and find some studs or some bolts, so i improvised instead.
Starting removing any casting marks. You can see this on the left of the port in this picture.
Looking at the two photos, you can see the outline of a casting flash and then where I have smoothed it.
Inlets all finished on the mk1 head. I went up to 240 grit here as I wasnt happy with the 120 grit finish.
Close up of inlet number 1. This picture isnt straight, the port is semetrical.
I also knife-edged the middle.
My Head
With the mk1 inlets done and I was happy with them, i decided to start on my own head.
Carbon build up was very bad inside the combustion chambers.
As I've said before, I dont know the history of this engine and it had apparently only done approx 26k miles. The wear on the bearings does seem to support this. It may have done lots of short journeys in a stilo and it was overfuelling badly when i was first running in my car
The combustion chamber on the left was given a buzz over with a wire wheel.
Looking a lot better now.
I do try and get my money's worth out of the brushes. Went through 3/4 to remove the carbon build up.
They are just the perfect size to put straight down the exhaust ports and clean them out quickly too.
Started cleaning up the exhaust valves. There is no carbon build up around the valve stems on inlet or exhaust
valves.
Inlet Ports
The casting flashes on the mk2 head are different to the mk1. The 'seams' inside the ports are also neater, with barely any raising off the surrounding surface.
This flash was consistent across all ports, with a similar shape. I would like to know how FIAT changed the process.
These appear to almost be scorch marks and were inside every inlet port. Not sure why is occured.
Over fuelling, injector's spray pattern or an odd heat spot in the water jacket?
After the first pass with the cartridge rolls.
Another shot after the first pass
Different angle of inlet port out in the sun, after the frist pass
Can see where i have smooted the inlet bowls.
Mainly to remove the 'step' around the guide.
All sorted and happy, just needed to take them up to 120 grit
120 grit. Keeping them rough still and not going higher
120 grit around guides in inlet bowls. Here you can see the casting marks of the 'steps'.
Exhaust Ports
Next it was time to move on to the exhaust ports
One exhaust port after carbon removal, lots to smooth and shape
Another exhaust port, very similar
Step on the exhaust side really isnt as prominant but very sharp and steep at the sides of the guides
First i had to remove the studs. I had to use 3 nuts on this and this was only the first stud to try and remove.
The nuts just kept spinning reguardless of how tight they were together. I ended up stripping the the threads out of these nuts.
I put my impact wrench on one night and held the other nut in place with a spanner. This worked but stripped the threads out of another set of nuts. Plus i had to go to my vice. Clamp the stud as hard as i could (between some wood) and managed to ease the nut off with a spanner.
After struggling and not wanting to destroy even more nuts, i gave my dad a ring (ex engineer, has tools coming out his ears).
Said he'd got just the thing in his shed somewhere.
Took all of about 2 seconds for each stud with the extractor above.
However this extractor does bite into the threads and they would need to be recut.
I will recut the threads in my die but I've also ordered a full new set off of ebay.
Also managed to find somewhere that sells M7x1 32mm studs for the inlet manifold. As standard on the Mk2 heads you only get two but the Mk1 is a full set of studs for the inlet.
I remember Kritip had a similar issue trying to find some studs. He ended up having a set made for him.
So if anyone wants to know i can send you a link of where they're from.
First pass on the exhaust ports with 80 grit rolls
Used grinding stones to smooth around the exhaust bowls. Just wanted to get rid of steps around the guides and smooth out the step at the back.
Exhaust port after taking it up to 320 grit with flap wheels
320 grit around the exhaust bowls
I was going to polish the exhausts by hand up to 1200 grit with wet and dry. This was mainly as i had no way of mounting the paper in my diegrinder with enough reach.
So i decided to cut one of the stone heads off and make a groove. Then folding the paper around it.
Well it took me a little over half an hour to do up through the grits to 1200 for every port.
Saved lots of time but going to go over them all again and tidy them up.
The pictures below show where the the paper has been worn away quickly in the die grinder at the opening of the ports and hasnt sanded further in.
Here you can easily see the line the paper has gotten to.
Everything around the guide has been tricky to reach
Here is a good shot of the cast line throughout the head.
You can again see how far i can easily reach with paper and flap wheels as it is rougher around the guide
Still looking pretty good though.
The step may look steeper in these but that is just where it was quite sharp. It has been smoothed and a gentle angle added.
I'm happy with what I've managed so far and I'm busy at work next week so wont be able to repolish the exhausts.
They'll be sorted and done in the next two / three weeks though.
Then the head is going off to a local machine shop to have new guides, three angle valve cut, skim, pressure tested etc.
I've still go to repaint part of the cam box. The green paint was chipped on fitting and removal of the engine. That shouldnt take me a day to do though.
Then i'll be able to finish rebuilding the engine and clean out the garage to get the swap under way!
I've finally ordered my Megasquirt system today and should hopefully be here next week
It's an MS2 v3 kit version and want to build it all myself (where possible). Sei16v / Cov69 has offered to help and let me use his jimstim to check it over.
I've already messaged craig and asked him a few questions and will no doubt ask him more yet.
Kritip isn't about much anymore but i'm sure he remembers some bits if i get stuck.
It's just so much to read and learn. I figure i'll do it as i go along and hope for the best.
So will probably be posting lots of annoying questions
Also This is one other thing I've had for a while. It's my small toolbox. Managed to pick it up brand new from homebase or something about two years ago. I saw it on HUKD for around £15 complete with the tools you see.
I'm going to keep this in boot (strapped down!) to carry out any maintenance whilst im on the road. I'm wondering what other tools should i put in itl?
Bigger set of stubby spanners
Couple of screwdrivers
Extension bars
100ml can of WD40
Mole grips
Better pliers
More Zip ties
Tub of assorted nuts / bolts
Nylon covered socket for wheel bolts
I'm tempted to take the top tray out to make more room. I know as soon as i use those sockets most are going to break.
Before anyone says, "just ring up your recovery service". That's my last resort, plus i doubt the car will easily make it on a low loader once it's done. If i can't fix it at the roadside, then it will need recovering,
Also picked myself up another little set the other week. A 12v scissor jack and impact wrench, one that can plug into your cigarette lighter socket. Both work fine and i was surprised at the impact wrench. I used it to remove 100nm wheel nuts that have been removed in months and to remove caliper mounting bolts on a peugeot to change discs and pads. I couldn't find my 2' breaker bar and still dont know where it is.
Also i am working on information on a FiatForum trip to Centozlot 2016. Been looking at ferries, times, cost, hotels, routes etc etc. should hopefully have that done in the next month or two.
Sorry it was a long post.
The aim is once again to get it finished by June 28th for Stanford Hall. We'll see though. This year it definitely looks like it might be done though.
Pirus
Great post as always defiantly worth the read.
Lovely job there
Nice to see someone who didn't have a vast amount of knowledge to begin with take the time to learn and experiment and ultimately do a damn fine job. Rather than give it to someone and get them to do it.
I have no doubt the megasquirt will turn out just fine with you're attitude to work.
I polished up the ports on an old GSX400f I had years ago. Not a huge difference in ultimate power, but just ran so much nicer. A lot smoother and seemed to pull cleanly up the revs. I remember it being 2am listening to john peel on the radio introduce the Cuban boys with hamster dance, which I believe was Christmas no 1 that year. Shows how long ago that was.
Nice to see someone who didn't have a vast amount of knowledge to begin with take the time to learn and experiment and ultimately do a damn fine job. Rather than give it to someone and get them to do it.
I have no doubt the megasquirt will turn out just fine with you're attitude to work.
I polished up the ports on an old GSX400f I had years ago. Not a huge difference in ultimate power, but just ran so much nicer. A lot smoother and seemed to pull cleanly up the revs. I remember it being 2am listening to john peel on the radio introduce the Cuban boys with hamster dance, which I believe was Christmas no 1 that year. Shows how long ago that was.
OP
OP
Thanks
Cheers. Yeh I'm learning as I go. This is very far removed from my day job and is simply my hobby. The megasquirt will hopefully turn out fine, just need to keep my hands steady, which as Todger will tell you it looks like i suffer from parkinson's (intention tremor when carrying out delicate work). Anything I can do on this build myself i am trying or at least trying to do myself.Lovely job there
Nice to see someone who didn't have a vast amount of knowledge to begin with take the time to learn and experiment and ultimately do a damn fine job. Rather than give it to someone and get them to do it.
I have no doubt the megasquirt will turn out just fine with you're attitude to work.
I polished up the ports on an old GSX400f I had years ago. Not a huge difference in ultimate power, but just ran so much nicer. A lot smoother and seemed to pull cleanly up the revs. I remember it being 2am listening to john peel on the radio introduce the Cuban boys with hamster dance, which I believe was Christmas no 1 that year. Shows how long ago that was.
Porting the head - I dont think they'll be much gains to make, i've seen that Guy Croft has said similar but with the supporting mods it may make a slight change. Again it was a case of 'could I?' and as I had the time and space it I've tried it.
Looked at the Hamster Dance song , I'm glad i'd forgotten about that (stuck in my head now. Thanks!
)It was #4 in December 1999. Called 'Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia'.
For those that don't remember:
Anyway back on to the car.
A few more bits have arrived and I'm waiting until payday again until work can continue. Cylinder head is now finished and just needs to be taken to the machine shop. Then i can reassemble the engine and clean out that work space.
Thought I'd share a few pictures of the bits that have arrived in the last couple of weeks.
M7 Studs and nuts for the inlet manifold. Also have got myself an M7 tap as well.
Nuts are copper plated, tapered and have an oval outer edge. Also got a full set of copper plated ones for the exhaust manifold as well.
I'm thinking of running a little bit of white grease or copper grease onto the threads of the studs that go into the block. An ali block with steel studs, i dont want them seizing together, any thoughts?
Innovate MTX-l Wideband. If im going for an aftermarket ECU i should have a wideband, plus who doesnt like an extra gauge. I've just no idea where im going to mount it yet.
Box of expensive goodies from the USA. Megasquirt II v3
Was held in customs for a few days as i had to pay charges, plus it was over the easter weekend so would of been here a lot sooner otherwise.
MS wiring harnesses. I was advised against using these but it seems like a cost effective solution. I know the shielding on the crank sensor wire is meant to be rubbish but i can easily replace that one and double check all joins to the main connector.
I am also tempted to buy myself a circular connector for the bulkhead and run all wires that currently run through into the engine bay. Be neater and hopefully allow easy fault finding if there are even any issues. Plus easy to remove or replace anything.
A connector like this for example: http://bit.ly/1IZEcZS
BIP373 Ignition module and a spare.
Case and end plates. I may order a second heatsink and double them up.
The PCB itself with all the money i've got left.
The 50p is there for an idea of scale. With soldering the components onto it, it's a case of keeping a steady hand and knowing that if i slip and solder goes over the board it would probably cause a short and whole thing would be scrap......
All the components are all wrapped up still. Just a quick check over to make sure it appears i've got everything i need.
Been busy at work and waiting until i have some free time and not stressing to start putting the MS together.
Still got a lot to read but just dont have the time at the minute. Around the end of the month i should have made a start though
Pirus
Great read, will be interesting to see how you get on with the MS2 as I was considering one for my long term 8v turbo project.
Would you mind sharing where you got the studs and copper plated nuts from?
Would you mind sharing where you got the studs and copper plated nuts from?
OP
OP
Plenty to choose from but im happy with the quality of these nuts - http://ebay.eu/1EGTGDf
If someone looks at this in the future and that link doesnt work, a simple search of M7 Copper Nuts or in this case 'BMW E36 manifold nuts' on ebay will allow you to find them.
That same seller i've linked above also supplies M8 copper plated nuts as well.
The correct length m7 studs i managed to find from a lambretta scooter parts place based in cardiff called Twisted Rods - http://www.twistedrods.co.uk/
At the time of writing they dont have a working shop on their website but sell through ebay as well. - http://ebay.eu/1ys5rMo
They list multiple M7 studs at different prices but are the same length, slightly different model number for the scooter by the looks of it. Just find the cheapest one they offer.
A search of 'Lambretta M7 x 31mm Studs' and you should be able to find them if the above link stops working.
For a full set for the head you need 10, so order five packs of the two. At the time of writing this should be approx £20 + £3 postage.
M8 Studs should have a pitch of 1.25 and an approx length of 37mm. Loads around on the net.
Going to go to the Leicester branch of BAPP and see how much various nuts and bolts will be. I'd like to replace the bolts for suspension system, engine mounts, engine / gearbox and grab a few odds and sods while im there. Will let you guys know how i get on. Should be cheaper than Fiat and I have priced already tried to price replacements using my copy of Eper and I really dont want to spend that much
OP
OP
Right my Fiat friends, I know i haven't updated the thread in a while but that doesn't mean there hasn't been any progress.
Project is, as always, on a slow burn but things have sped up in recent weeks.
[Also now going to post a description of what i've been doing and then the picture, makes for an easier read i think. Though this is the opposite of what I have done in the past]
Another long post but I'm sure you'll like the read
Gathered all my various different valves I've acquired over the last few years.
Wanted to talk to the machine shop and get their opinion of the different makes, which to use, which to avoid etc.
Back from the machine shop. 3 angle valve cut, skim and pressure tested.
I did ask them to replace the valve stems but they said it really wasnt worth it, unless i just liked to spend money.
Still all wrapped up, hadn't been touched in months.
As i mentioned in an earlier post; the reason i hadn't sealed the sump back on is because when i was installing new bearings, i dropped one down the bottom of the bore and stratched the surface. Another set of bearings were ordered, this was just to replace a single one but as i said, I dont mind having spares.
Can see the scoring on the bearing face in the picture below. Though they may only be faint marks, they could well induce further wear / failure, especially with a crank potentionally spinning over 133 times per second (8k rpm).
Sealed the sump back on using Loctite 5980 and bolts / nuts tightend to 10nm.
Still not sure about the ground clearance with the magnetic sump plug. Though it will be put in the car dry and filled up with fluids before being started. If it's too tall, then i may just stick in the vice and get the grinder on it.
Started to reassemble the head and put the inlet valves back in first.
Using an ebay special valve spring compressor still, find it very easy and does the job fine.
Using FAI exhaust and inlet valves for this. I do also have a set of OEM exhaust valves but decided to use FAI one's in both.
As you can see from the pictures, the inlet valves went in fine.
The double valve springs were installed, with a brand new set of lower retainers. Every spring was once again cleaned in white spirits and then plenty of assembly lube was used on the valves / springs.
Installing the last exhaust valve and I'd been using a 9mm socket to gently tap the oil seals on.
It was all going so well...... then i split a seal. (you can see the top retaining spring is missing and a small split.
After a quick search of the net, i couldnt find anyone that would sell individual seals for a good price. I didn't particularly want to buy another complete set.
I rung up the machine shop (Nuneaton Rebores) and they said to come over and see if any of the spares they have are the right size. They had one and let me have it for free, top blokes
Though the inlet valves all had the same part numbers you can see a slight variation in the heads here. One are slightly larger in diametre but are shallower that the one next to it. Assuming this is so they still have the same volume in the combustion chamber.
Can also see where i started to polish the combustion chambers but i'd had enough of sitting there with my die grinder and I was happy with how far i got.
Head reinstalled back on the block and all torqued to spec.
The inside of this end plate, covering the cam wheels, it was so filthy. This picture is after about two solid hours of trying to clean it out. The amount of oil sludge was something else. Every a brass wire brush on the die grinder was just clogging up the brushes in a matter of seconds.
Tried soaking it in petrol, white spirits, meths, scrubbing with various brushes. In the end i used the small screwdriver to the right and just scraped most of it out.
The cambox was damaged on the initial installation and subsequent removal. I just wanted to give it a quick blow over to neaten it up.
Gave it a rub down with wet dry up to 1200 grit.
Dusting of white primer and back over with 1200.
Applied a layer of colour. In this shot you can see tape marks but I was going to lightly sand this out and blend it back in.
Similar damage to other end of the cambox, this time for the crash, due to the slam pannel hitting the engine.
Same process as the other side, sand up to 1200 grit, primer, sand, primer, sand, colour.
Was happy with the results but thought, i might as well give the entire cambox another coat of colour.
Went a bit more than that though.....
I was happy with the end results but I'd had enough of primer, sand, primer, sand, primer, sand, colour, sand, colour, sand.....
Todger painted it for me for the first time and he did a good job but wasn't quite as thick or as bright as it could have been. I was struggling to take pictures of the painting, it was just too green
It was time to reinstall the camshafts. They'd just been sat on the side for the past year, all wrapped up and just waiting to be reinstalled.
I'm sticking with the original 1242 stilo exhaust camshaft but using a 1368 'Starjet' inlet cam.
I measured the to the 1368 inlet cam it has an additional 0.8mm of lift compared to the stilo inlet cam.
I've plotted out the cam events on a degree wheel below (click it for a very high res image).
The data listed is from the stilo and grande punto elearn software.
I've only plotted the exhaust cam for the stilo, not added the star jet exhaust. I can talk through the reasoning of this is you like but looking at the data i believe this is the best choice.
An extra 0.8mm of lift
The higher lift does mean the duration will be longer, the cam lobes can't be too steep.
An extra 8 degrees of duration. 220 vs. 212.
With the lobe centre being a further 8 degrees before BDC,the higher lift and longer duration allow more air to enter the cylinder.
Dissapointed there wont be any scavenging due to a lack of overlap, no different from standard though.
I know that's just a basic premise of trying to explain some of the benefits and if I'm wrong at all, let me know.
The cambox was rinsed out with meth and white spirits multiple times and given a blow over with the air line each time.
It was the final time i was going to clean it out that i noticed the damage below....
This scoring is above cylinder no. 4, the 7th tappet on the exhaust side.
I can't believe I'd missed this before but it was because I always flipped the cambox over the other side to clean it.
Luckily I still had the tappets bagged up as exhaust / inlet ones. After inspecting each exhaust tappet, i couldn't see any scoring on any of them. No small pieces of grit or anything that have caused the damage in any of the oil holes / galleries.
Looking at the pictures above though, note how the damage is very localised. Surely any foreign material that would of been caught between the tappet and the wall would of left scoring over the entire circumfrace of te clyinder?
How would any material have entered and exited the cylinder and not leave any scoring above or material this single area?
I couldnt justify it to myself that any debris would still be in the cambox.
I'd washed it and cleaned with the airline so many times already. I thought the best thing would be just to reassemble it and hope for the best.
Though this may have explained the slight tapping that the top end suffered from when it was last running, i dont know.
I may just put a mechanics stethoscope to the affected tappet once it's running again.
With nothing i could really do and believe the damage was too localised, i decided to reassmble.
A new set of tappets were going to be installed anyway.
Lots and lots of assembly lube was used here and when installing the cams.
I coated everything i could and i was still unsure how long the engine would be stored for.
Luckily all that assembly lube is very sticky and allowed the tappets to reamin the cambox whilst i placed it on the head.
Torqued the cambox back down and all the caps.
Though im not 100% with the rocker gasket, on the original one that i removed, each of the spark plug holes were seperate from the rest of gasket, yet on this replacement they were all connected and i wasnt sure if i should of cut them out.
What should i do? it's easy enough to take the cambox off and cut it out if i have to
After seeing what happened to Whitz's cambelt at Stanford in 2014, i decided to not buy a cheap one and ordered one from Shop4Parts.
Reinstalled water pump and bottom pulley. This time holding the crank via some bolts and bar on the flywheel holes.
Cams also locked still locked.
Timed up the engine, spun it over twice and rechecked the timing.
Left it for 20 minutes and rechecked the timing, which was slighly out.
Corrected it, spun it over twice and left it again.
Timing was still correct so i set the tensioner.
Close up of the trigger wheel on the crank.
When the crank and flywheel were balanced i also asked them to turn up the broken edge of the pulley and they also balanced this with the bottom end.
The reason for the double ribs on the pulley is due to the engine originally having air con and the trigger teeth for the crank sensor and then on the opposite side of the pulley.
The old spark plugs went back in with the old HT leads.
NGK Iridium plugs and a new set of magnecore leads are going to be put on once the engine is back in the car.
So that was the engine finally back together and sorted (hopefully). Taken over a year but i can say that i did everything on it that i could.
I wasnt happy with the engine mount for alternator, it was squealing and the belt was catching slightly, though this may have been due to the badly spaced alternator.
As I still had the compressor and my die grinder nearby, i shaved off some extra material from the mount to allow slightly more clearance for the alternator. (I even cleaned up the cast lines, i know you'll never see it but i'll know).
Even after removing material from the mount, clearance is still tight but a lot better than it was. The mount was then given a few coats of black hammerite.
The alternator is an older model from a mk1 16v punto and i wasn't too happy with the condition of it and i did have plans to rebuild it. Plus as you can just about see on this picture, the pulley wheel is damaged.
You didn't think that would be all that was in this update did you?
Bear with me, there's still more
Well my car had actually gotten buried with all the crap that had surrounded it and been placed on it whilst i wasnt using the garage. So i spent an afternoon cleaning it all out so i could actually get to the car.
Unplugged and removed the engine loom. Also decided to remove the bonnet to make access easier. Also measured up bonnet bolts and distance between wing bolts for bonnet struts.
A delivery from Poland, though my cat was more interested in the box it came in than the car parts themselves.
Nothing nicer than Magneti Marelli boxes.
Complete set of new coolant hoses and a new expansion tank. The set from Shoebox or Paws are getting on for 15 years old, the rubber is starting to slightly hard and dont want them to perish. Besides if I'm going to all this effort, i best keep the cooling system in top condition.
Brand new upgraded alternator. Should give out 70 amps.
I set about removing all the suspension components, driveshats etc.
Fraid i dont have any pictures here, nothing really to show. Everything is going to be replaced anyway.
New FK coilovers are going on, new ARBS, new ARB brakcets, new bushes etc etc.
The only bit i had real had any trouble with was removing some bolts. Even with lots of plusgas used it was a struggle. My air impact wrench is made of chinesium, much cheap, very good! Wouldn't even touch any of the bolts for the shock to the hub. It did loosen one about two turns after hammering it for a while though. Going to buy myself a decent one in future.
I tried my battery impact gun on it and I have to say I'm very impressed with it, I bought a cheap chinese one off of ebay for about £80 and didn't have much hope for it but it's done everything i've wanted so far. It's nothing compared to a decent air impact gun but for it's price and portability I'll be using it again in the future.
Looking back through this thread, you'll see i removed the N/S hub and replaced it with a non-abs one. The bearing in it was shot and i knew i'd be binning off the ABS system anyway, plus the bearings in the Shoebox were quite new.
Could i remove the O/S hub nut though?
Nothing i had touched it. With the car up in the air, I didn't really want to stick a bar and a scaffold pole on it either, for fear of the car moving around on the stands.
Various punches and chisels were used to break the tabs and most of the outer ring, then stuck the cordless impact on it.
I couldnt break the bottom ball joints on the hubs to wishbones either. Much hammering, plus gassing, levering with a big bar and plenty of swearing were inaffective. In the end I went out and bought a 'forked' ball joint seperator, my scissor one being too wide to fit. Couple of hits with a large hammer and it was all apart.
ARB was removed, as usual, snapping the studs on the lower arm brackets. The mounts for the arb to underneath the car were rather crusty and badly corroding as well. I didnt have a set of spares off of the shoebox and to be fair, they'd pretty much disintigrated anyway.
So i was going to do the tried and tested Edd China method - brush it back to bare metal and paint it a smooth black.
With everything out of the way, I set about removing the engine and gearbox.
I originally wanted to borrow a hoist but i couldnt get one locally, well not without hiring one and refuse to do that for a job that will take less than an hour.
After the last time of using a jack with Todger to remove my last engine i wasn't too happy with using one to remove the engine.
However I'd since acquired a 3 ton industrial jack, went in to the garden and got myself a large piece of wood to balance it on.
Came out easily this time, the real fun was getting it round the back of the house and seperating the gearbox. The trolley that i put it on was rated for 150kg, well that then bent in half and buckled two of the wheels but still managed to drag it round.
The cordless impact gun came out again and buzzed off the bolts.
We coudln't seperate the gearbox though, all the bolts were off and we were pulling at it but just couldn't see where it was catching.
Those little 10mm bolts for the splash shield can't be holding it together can they.....?
When removing a gearbox from these cars, remember to remove splash shield as well, as it's placed around the flywheel and then bolted to the gearbox.
I'm probably going to use the five speed gearbox whilst the engine is on it's break in period, i do have a six speed box sat in the garage waiting to go on though. Just think i'd rather have greater steering lock and wont be reving it much yet. One day in the future i'll swap it out and try the six speed and let you know which i prefer.
Whilst dismantling the engine and gearbox, there seemed to be a lot of white powder or some kind of residue covering the majority of the metal parts. On removing the starterm you can really see the ali corrosion that's seemingly been eating at part of this front end.
Don't know why it has affected this block so badly. I mean it's only light surface corrosion but appears to be everywhere.
It's not my garage enviroment either, as there's still lots of ali components stored in there and they havent rusted at all.
Any ideas?
One piece i will be removing and changing, the standard fuel pipe to the inlet manifold.
I ended up cutting it as i couldn't take it off of the fuel rail. I'm not happy with them and would like a nice braided piece.
I'm going to see a local hose and fittings place and see what they suggest, I might cut the fuel pipe furter down and buy some nice high pressure fittings and run braided from where it enters the engine bay.
Crusty gerabox mount was also removed, along with the ARB brackets and gearbox mount.
Gearbox mount will be painted green (as the old one was).
They were then sanded back with a rotary wire brush and a few brass wire wheels.
The amount of crap that went everywhere was crazy.
Given a few coats of hammerite. Yes there are lots of runs and areas where it's pooled but i really dont care. As these will be under the car, they were literally smothered in hammerite.
Stone guards were removed from the hubs, they'd gotten rather crusty too.
The one on the left is how it came off of the car and on the right after being given the treatment with the wire brush.
Never even knew they had Fiat stamped on them, not that you'll be able to see it again when im done.
Didn't go that thick with the paint but enough to give a nice even coverage.
The hubs were given the same treatment; brushed back and painted black.
Painted several thin layers of paint here and just need a few bits touching up now.
With the paint drying, I set about the one job i wasn't really looking forward to. Starting to strip out all the wiring from conduit and trying to remove the dash.
Sorry about the picture quality, camera appears to struggle to focus inside the car, bad lighting and lots of colours.
All the conduit has been removed from cabling, crusty old cloth tape has also been taken off (that's what is covering the windscreen in one of the interior pictures above).
Firewall removed, dash removed, 'crash bar' (useless thing) has been removed. Brake servo, clutch cable, throttle cable
all gone.
That's where the project is at currently.
I still haven't built any of my megasquirt and it's what i'd like to have done before i tackle the wiring. I could plumb in wiring etc before it's built but that just doesnt seem right to me.
Just need to sit down and get soldering, it's not that hard just dont want to go wrong and have to order more bits from america.
Once it's together it's just a case of rewiring it all.
I just need to sit there and start tracing wires back and labelling everything.
Might do a wire tuck as well, plan where all the cabling will be going and keep it nice and neat.
Comments, questions, queries welcome as always
Project is, as always, on a slow burn but things have sped up in recent weeks.
[Also now going to post a description of what i've been doing and then the picture, makes for an easier read i think. Though this is the opposite of what I have done in the past]
Another long post but I'm sure you'll like the read
Gathered all my various different valves I've acquired over the last few years.
Wanted to talk to the machine shop and get their opinion of the different makes, which to use, which to avoid etc.
Back from the machine shop. 3 angle valve cut, skim and pressure tested.
I did ask them to replace the valve stems but they said it really wasnt worth it, unless i just liked to spend money.
Still all wrapped up, hadn't been touched in months.
As i mentioned in an earlier post; the reason i hadn't sealed the sump back on is because when i was installing new bearings, i dropped one down the bottom of the bore and stratched the surface. Another set of bearings were ordered, this was just to replace a single one but as i said, I dont mind having spares.
Can see the scoring on the bearing face in the picture below. Though they may only be faint marks, they could well induce further wear / failure, especially with a crank potentionally spinning over 133 times per second (8k rpm).
Sealed the sump back on using Loctite 5980 and bolts / nuts tightend to 10nm.
Still not sure about the ground clearance with the magnetic sump plug. Though it will be put in the car dry and filled up with fluids before being started. If it's too tall, then i may just stick in the vice and get the grinder on it.
Started to reassemble the head and put the inlet valves back in first.
Using an ebay special valve spring compressor still, find it very easy and does the job fine.
Using FAI exhaust and inlet valves for this. I do also have a set of OEM exhaust valves but decided to use FAI one's in both.
As you can see from the pictures, the inlet valves went in fine.
The double valve springs were installed, with a brand new set of lower retainers. Every spring was once again cleaned in white spirits and then plenty of assembly lube was used on the valves / springs.
Installing the last exhaust valve and I'd been using a 9mm socket to gently tap the oil seals on.
It was all going so well...... then i split a seal. (you can see the top retaining spring is missing and a small split.
After a quick search of the net, i couldnt find anyone that would sell individual seals for a good price. I didn't particularly want to buy another complete set.
I rung up the machine shop (Nuneaton Rebores) and they said to come over and see if any of the spares they have are the right size. They had one and let me have it for free, top blokes
Though the inlet valves all had the same part numbers you can see a slight variation in the heads here. One are slightly larger in diametre but are shallower that the one next to it. Assuming this is so they still have the same volume in the combustion chamber.
Can also see where i started to polish the combustion chambers but i'd had enough of sitting there with my die grinder and I was happy with how far i got.
Head reinstalled back on the block and all torqued to spec.
The inside of this end plate, covering the cam wheels, it was so filthy. This picture is after about two solid hours of trying to clean it out. The amount of oil sludge was something else. Every a brass wire brush on the die grinder was just clogging up the brushes in a matter of seconds.
Tried soaking it in petrol, white spirits, meths, scrubbing with various brushes. In the end i used the small screwdriver to the right and just scraped most of it out.
The cambox was damaged on the initial installation and subsequent removal. I just wanted to give it a quick blow over to neaten it up.
Gave it a rub down with wet dry up to 1200 grit.
Dusting of white primer and back over with 1200.
Applied a layer of colour. In this shot you can see tape marks but I was going to lightly sand this out and blend it back in.
Similar damage to other end of the cambox, this time for the crash, due to the slam pannel hitting the engine.
Same process as the other side, sand up to 1200 grit, primer, sand, primer, sand, colour.
Was happy with the results but thought, i might as well give the entire cambox another coat of colour.
Went a bit more than that though.....
I was happy with the end results but I'd had enough of primer, sand, primer, sand, primer, sand, colour, sand, colour, sand.....
Todger painted it for me for the first time and he did a good job but wasn't quite as thick or as bright as it could have been. I was struggling to take pictures of the painting, it was just too green
It was time to reinstall the camshafts. They'd just been sat on the side for the past year, all wrapped up and just waiting to be reinstalled.
I'm sticking with the original 1242 stilo exhaust camshaft but using a 1368 'Starjet' inlet cam.
I measured the to the 1368 inlet cam it has an additional 0.8mm of lift compared to the stilo inlet cam.
I've plotted out the cam events on a degree wheel below (click it for a very high res image).
The data listed is from the stilo and grande punto elearn software.
I've only plotted the exhaust cam for the stilo, not added the star jet exhaust. I can talk through the reasoning of this is you like but looking at the data i believe this is the best choice.
An extra 0.8mm of lift
The higher lift does mean the duration will be longer, the cam lobes can't be too steep.
An extra 8 degrees of duration. 220 vs. 212.
With the lobe centre being a further 8 degrees before BDC,the higher lift and longer duration allow more air to enter the cylinder.
Dissapointed there wont be any scavenging due to a lack of overlap, no different from standard though.
I know that's just a basic premise of trying to explain some of the benefits and if I'm wrong at all, let me know.
The cambox was rinsed out with meth and white spirits multiple times and given a blow over with the air line each time.
It was the final time i was going to clean it out that i noticed the damage below....
This scoring is above cylinder no. 4, the 7th tappet on the exhaust side.
I can't believe I'd missed this before but it was because I always flipped the cambox over the other side to clean it.
Luckily I still had the tappets bagged up as exhaust / inlet ones. After inspecting each exhaust tappet, i couldn't see any scoring on any of them. No small pieces of grit or anything that have caused the damage in any of the oil holes / galleries.
Looking at the pictures above though, note how the damage is very localised. Surely any foreign material that would of been caught between the tappet and the wall would of left scoring over the entire circumfrace of te clyinder?
How would any material have entered and exited the cylinder and not leave any scoring above or material this single area?
I couldnt justify it to myself that any debris would still be in the cambox.
I'd washed it and cleaned with the airline so many times already. I thought the best thing would be just to reassemble it and hope for the best.
Though this may have explained the slight tapping that the top end suffered from when it was last running, i dont know.
I may just put a mechanics stethoscope to the affected tappet once it's running again.
With nothing i could really do and believe the damage was too localised, i decided to reassmble.
A new set of tappets were going to be installed anyway.
Lots and lots of assembly lube was used here and when installing the cams.
I coated everything i could and i was still unsure how long the engine would be stored for.
Luckily all that assembly lube is very sticky and allowed the tappets to reamin the cambox whilst i placed it on the head.
Torqued the cambox back down and all the caps.
Though im not 100% with the rocker gasket, on the original one that i removed, each of the spark plug holes were seperate from the rest of gasket, yet on this replacement they were all connected and i wasnt sure if i should of cut them out.
What should i do? it's easy enough to take the cambox off and cut it out if i have to
After seeing what happened to Whitz's cambelt at Stanford in 2014, i decided to not buy a cheap one and ordered one from Shop4Parts.
Reinstalled water pump and bottom pulley. This time holding the crank via some bolts and bar on the flywheel holes.
Cams also locked still locked.
Timed up the engine, spun it over twice and rechecked the timing.
Left it for 20 minutes and rechecked the timing, which was slighly out.
Corrected it, spun it over twice and left it again.
Timing was still correct so i set the tensioner.
Close up of the trigger wheel on the crank.
When the crank and flywheel were balanced i also asked them to turn up the broken edge of the pulley and they also balanced this with the bottom end.
The reason for the double ribs on the pulley is due to the engine originally having air con and the trigger teeth for the crank sensor and then on the opposite side of the pulley.
The old spark plugs went back in with the old HT leads.
NGK Iridium plugs and a new set of magnecore leads are going to be put on once the engine is back in the car.
So that was the engine finally back together and sorted (hopefully). Taken over a year but i can say that i did everything on it that i could.
I wasnt happy with the engine mount for alternator, it was squealing and the belt was catching slightly, though this may have been due to the badly spaced alternator.
As I still had the compressor and my die grinder nearby, i shaved off some extra material from the mount to allow slightly more clearance for the alternator. (I even cleaned up the cast lines, i know you'll never see it but i'll know).
Even after removing material from the mount, clearance is still tight but a lot better than it was. The mount was then given a few coats of black hammerite.
The alternator is an older model from a mk1 16v punto and i wasn't too happy with the condition of it and i did have plans to rebuild it. Plus as you can just about see on this picture, the pulley wheel is damaged.
You didn't think that would be all that was in this update did you?
Bear with me, there's still more
Well my car had actually gotten buried with all the crap that had surrounded it and been placed on it whilst i wasnt using the garage. So i spent an afternoon cleaning it all out so i could actually get to the car.
Unplugged and removed the engine loom. Also decided to remove the bonnet to make access easier. Also measured up bonnet bolts and distance between wing bolts for bonnet struts.
A delivery from Poland, though my cat was more interested in the box it came in than the car parts themselves.
Nothing nicer than Magneti Marelli boxes.
Complete set of new coolant hoses and a new expansion tank. The set from Shoebox or Paws are getting on for 15 years old, the rubber is starting to slightly hard and dont want them to perish. Besides if I'm going to all this effort, i best keep the cooling system in top condition.
Brand new upgraded alternator. Should give out 70 amps.
I set about removing all the suspension components, driveshats etc.
Fraid i dont have any pictures here, nothing really to show. Everything is going to be replaced anyway.
New FK coilovers are going on, new ARBS, new ARB brakcets, new bushes etc etc.
The only bit i had real had any trouble with was removing some bolts. Even with lots of plusgas used it was a struggle. My air impact wrench is made of chinesium, much cheap, very good! Wouldn't even touch any of the bolts for the shock to the hub. It did loosen one about two turns after hammering it for a while though. Going to buy myself a decent one in future.
I tried my battery impact gun on it and I have to say I'm very impressed with it, I bought a cheap chinese one off of ebay for about £80 and didn't have much hope for it but it's done everything i've wanted so far. It's nothing compared to a decent air impact gun but for it's price and portability I'll be using it again in the future.
Looking back through this thread, you'll see i removed the N/S hub and replaced it with a non-abs one. The bearing in it was shot and i knew i'd be binning off the ABS system anyway, plus the bearings in the Shoebox were quite new.
Could i remove the O/S hub nut though?
Nothing i had touched it. With the car up in the air, I didn't really want to stick a bar and a scaffold pole on it either, for fear of the car moving around on the stands.
Various punches and chisels were used to break the tabs and most of the outer ring, then stuck the cordless impact on it.
I couldnt break the bottom ball joints on the hubs to wishbones either. Much hammering, plus gassing, levering with a big bar and plenty of swearing were inaffective. In the end I went out and bought a 'forked' ball joint seperator, my scissor one being too wide to fit. Couple of hits with a large hammer and it was all apart.
ARB was removed, as usual, snapping the studs on the lower arm brackets. The mounts for the arb to underneath the car were rather crusty and badly corroding as well. I didnt have a set of spares off of the shoebox and to be fair, they'd pretty much disintigrated anyway.
So i was going to do the tried and tested Edd China method - brush it back to bare metal and paint it a smooth black.
With everything out of the way, I set about removing the engine and gearbox.
I originally wanted to borrow a hoist but i couldnt get one locally, well not without hiring one and refuse to do that for a job that will take less than an hour.
After the last time of using a jack with Todger to remove my last engine i wasn't too happy with using one to remove the engine.
However I'd since acquired a 3 ton industrial jack, went in to the garden and got myself a large piece of wood to balance it on.
Came out easily this time, the real fun was getting it round the back of the house and seperating the gearbox. The trolley that i put it on was rated for 150kg, well that then bent in half and buckled two of the wheels but still managed to drag it round.
The cordless impact gun came out again and buzzed off the bolts.
We coudln't seperate the gearbox though, all the bolts were off and we were pulling at it but just couldn't see where it was catching.
Those little 10mm bolts for the splash shield can't be holding it together can they.....?
When removing a gearbox from these cars, remember to remove splash shield as well, as it's placed around the flywheel and then bolted to the gearbox.
I'm probably going to use the five speed gearbox whilst the engine is on it's break in period, i do have a six speed box sat in the garage waiting to go on though. Just think i'd rather have greater steering lock and wont be reving it much yet. One day in the future i'll swap it out and try the six speed and let you know which i prefer.
Whilst dismantling the engine and gearbox, there seemed to be a lot of white powder or some kind of residue covering the majority of the metal parts. On removing the starterm you can really see the ali corrosion that's seemingly been eating at part of this front end.
Don't know why it has affected this block so badly. I mean it's only light surface corrosion but appears to be everywhere.
It's not my garage enviroment either, as there's still lots of ali components stored in there and they havent rusted at all.
Any ideas?
One piece i will be removing and changing, the standard fuel pipe to the inlet manifold.
I ended up cutting it as i couldn't take it off of the fuel rail. I'm not happy with them and would like a nice braided piece.
I'm going to see a local hose and fittings place and see what they suggest, I might cut the fuel pipe furter down and buy some nice high pressure fittings and run braided from where it enters the engine bay.
Crusty gerabox mount was also removed, along with the ARB brackets and gearbox mount.
Gearbox mount will be painted green (as the old one was).
They were then sanded back with a rotary wire brush and a few brass wire wheels.
The amount of crap that went everywhere was crazy.
Given a few coats of hammerite. Yes there are lots of runs and areas where it's pooled but i really dont care. As these will be under the car, they were literally smothered in hammerite.
Stone guards were removed from the hubs, they'd gotten rather crusty too.
The one on the left is how it came off of the car and on the right after being given the treatment with the wire brush.
Never even knew they had Fiat stamped on them, not that you'll be able to see it again when im done.
Didn't go that thick with the paint but enough to give a nice even coverage.
The hubs were given the same treatment; brushed back and painted black.
Painted several thin layers of paint here and just need a few bits touching up now.
With the paint drying, I set about the one job i wasn't really looking forward to. Starting to strip out all the wiring from conduit and trying to remove the dash.
Sorry about the picture quality, camera appears to struggle to focus inside the car, bad lighting and lots of colours.
All the conduit has been removed from cabling, crusty old cloth tape has also been taken off (that's what is covering the windscreen in one of the interior pictures above).
Firewall removed, dash removed, 'crash bar' (useless thing) has been removed. Brake servo, clutch cable, throttle cable
all gone.
That's where the project is at currently.
I still haven't built any of my megasquirt and it's what i'd like to have done before i tackle the wiring. I could plumb in wiring etc before it's built but that just doesnt seem right to me.
Just need to sit down and get soldering, it's not that hard just dont want to go wrong and have to order more bits from america.
Once it's together it's just a case of rewiring it all.
I just need to sit there and start tracing wires back and labelling everything.
Might do a wire tuck as well, plan where all the cabling will be going and keep it nice and neat.
Comments, questions, queries welcome as always
