General Parts Review from Mr. Fiat (EverythingFIAT)

[usafstud]

Hey guys,

My latest purchase just arrived today and I just wanted to inform potential customers of particular parts.

Aluminum Oil Pan. The pan is not flush and has a small wobble on the glass table. The oil return pass is not completely clear. I would need to get my dremel and grind away some metal to completely clear the pass.

It is quite heavy compared to the original steel pan. I think it'll be durable.

Aluminum valve cover. It does sit flush on the glass table. I read from other UK 500 forums that they don't tend to sit flush and there is too much metal on the inside causing the rockers to hit. I guess I'll find that out when I install.

This thing is quite heavy too.

 

[Bambino]

I got mine from Fiat 500 Ricambi in Holland - they are both branded Abarth and seem to be well made. The surfaces were true and the finish very good. The rocker cover is as thick as the one above but there is no fouling of the rocker/valve gear. One advantage of having thicker metal is a quieter engine - less top end noise.
Chris

 

[disgusted]

The casting finishing quality looks a bit rough to me. It reminds me of my "metalwork" classes in the 1970s.

 

[marcus550]

I'm installing the Mr Fiat aluminum oil pan this week. The stock M6 screws are too short, leaving only a thread or two to hold the pan on to the engine. This thing is much thicker than the stamped steel part that came off. I ordered M6 x 1.0 x 25mm long screws from a fastener company in Mass. (www.belmetric.com) Not easy to find these things, especially in cad plating.

How do I handle the air duct with the aluminum oil pan installed? Just leave the final piece off and let the air dump out? Or fabricate a blank-off plate? I don't see any way of utilizing this cooling feature of the Fiat 500 with an aluminum oil pan.

 

[the hobbler]

The aluminium sump that I obtained (from Leo Van der Laan) seemed to be well made, with very little fettling required, and flat---I have had no oil leakage from it. I used stainless-steel cap-head bolts and the small 'tension' washers that Fiat used on the steel sumps. I was also still able to use the small ducting that goes between the sump and the fan-cowling--the 2 bolts that secure the ducting in place were initially fitted without the ducting, all the bolts tightened up (so that it was even all the way round), the 2 bolts then taken out and the ducting fitted.
The rocker-cover required quite a lot of fettling adjacent to where the carb fits (a polite way of saying grinding away) so that the carb, standard 28IMB, could fit, but I have since learned that this is normal.

 

[marcus550]

No complaints of the quality of the piece, just working out the installation. Never seen one in person (not sure I've ever seen another Fiat 500 in person!) so wasn't sure about the ducting. In the end, the air flow would just terminate against the side of the aluminum sump, correct?

 

[RogerNZ]

I used the same rocker cover (although sourced from Europe and with 'abarth' cast into the top) and found the brass breather was way too fat. You can see in the pics posted above how thick the walls are. In that form you would need to use at least a half inch diameter breather pipe, which is ugly and offers no added benefit since the breather itself has an internal diameter of only about 1/8 inch. I bored mine out a little and then turned the outside down to a more reasonable diameter, maybe about a quarter inch or so.

Also, I found that there was not enough length on the studs to bolt this cover down on the 126 head, so I had to mill out a few extra millimetres to get enough thread to sit proud of the cover. That may have just been because I was using non standard barrels and base gaskets etc.

These things aside the part is well worthwhile, offering substantial extra ability to absorb and dissipate heat.

Cheers
Roger