128 Race Car

[Abarthnorway - Remi L]

Hi!

I am giving a helping hand to a good friend of mine Stian Gundersen to build the engine of his hopefully fast Fiat 128 destined for a tarmac racing series in Norway:

Specs so far:

Chassis:

Rust free 128 2-door newly painted Ferrari Red
300Lb front springs
Customised front strut to accept VW Rabbit Koni inserts
Extra rear spring layer
Poly bushes all around
Yokohama 185/50-13 slicks on 13/7 alloys
Full roll cage
Fuel cell
Strengthened suspension mounting points
Lexan windows
Stripped out doors now weighs in at less than 10lb!!!
Uno Turbo front brakes

Engine: 1290cc
Using mostly new parts for rebuild - all parts polished, washed and oiled before fitment

Crank:
Crankshaft fully balanced
Flywheel lightened from 7kg to 5 kg
Crank plug removal for oilway cleaning
Oilways modified a la GC
Crank polished with 400 to remove highspots

Piston/Rods
Rods balanced and slightly lightended
Small end bronce bush honed with 400 grit
Big end bearing housings polished with 400 grit
New pistons/rings - washed

Block:
Cylinders finished honed with flex hone
Top end of cylinders chamfered for easy piston entry
Cylinders washed 7 - seven - times
New freeze plugs
Block decked 0.8mm to make pistons protrude 0.6mm over block face

Head:
Race head gasket - 1.6 mm depressed
Inlet port taken from 25mm to 32 at face tapering down to 28.5 at port venturi. Material removed from port roof/sides only
Exhaust port taken from 27 to 29mm
Intake valve seat internal diameter taken from 30 mm to 32.5 mm after GC advice see: phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1285
Exhaust valve seat internal diameter taken from 28 to 28.5 mm
Valve seats fully modified
Combustion chamber cleaned up/deshrouded
Skimming to achieve 10:1 compression

Cams and valvetrain:
Inlet valves back cut 30` to remove nasty edge and help low lift flow
Exhaust valves back cut 30`
Bronce guides - shortened to 42 mm and rounded off - finished off with flex hone
Catcams steel billet 284` - 10.75 lift - 106 lobe separation angle - 3.5 mm lift at TDC
Guy Croft triple valve springs
Teflon valve stem seals
Piper adjustable cam wheel
New tensioner and belt

Carburation:
Facet silcer top pump
2 * 40 DHLA with 32 chokes
Pipercross 30 mm Rampipes
DCOE manifold ported to 31.5 mm at head face

Exhaust:
4-2-1 unknown brand finished up with straight pipe to 2" back box - a bit uncerainty here regarding length / size of tubing in header. Only testing will tell if it works or not.

Some pics:

My old 130TC ended up as a race car with Stian Gundersen and thats how we got in touch. Last years season ended up with a 2nd place in his class. Lots of adjustments/tweaking neccessary for best performance. Lots of "special" solutions added after me needed to go, and car was put back to optimised original..... long list of work done!!!



Marking out inlet port face of 128 head using old 31 mm exhaust valve



1st intake port opened out in stage one



Porting tools



Measuring tools: 128 ex valve 31mm - A112 Abarth 29 mm inlet valve - coin 27mm



Inlet ports opened out - polishing next



Increasing the bowl area and short side radius



128 ready for paint



DHLA Manifold in process of being opened out to 31.5 mm



Crank oilway mod



New oil pump with uprated spring at left



Checking piston height in bore prior to machine shop work



Stian measuring up



Crank plugs removed - lots of 30+ years dirt inside!!!



Oilway mod



Closeup



Before



After



Polishing crank to remove high spots



A112 project underway to recieve newer uprated (and flowed) engine combo and coupled with a modern engine management systems.... details so far not official:-)
Engine will be under 1000cc revs close to 10.000.....



Closeup of coilovers, and highly lowered suspension. Class allows for 5cm ground clearance - this is close to it. Matching 7inch wide alloys..... Car fully caged and strut braced.



Oil pump springs closeup



Crank with new oil plug



Crank installed



New pistons - cleaned



Rods lightened slightly - fully balanced - new nuts/bolts



Small end bush honed with 400



Big end housings finish honed and lined up



Broken secong compression rings (2pcs) - these were extremely brittle like nothing I have ever seen!!! Take care or learn the hard way. New rings ordered - in a set of 16!!



New "butted" and shortened bronce guides for head - will barely protrude into port at all!



Original 1290 head vs modified



Flex honing cylinders



Pattern left



Washing



After 4 washes still dirty!



Some serious scrubbing!!!



After 7 washe and rinse sessions finally clean and shiny. 5-56 seals the surfaces



Measuring ring end gap - perfect within specs on all 14(....!) rings.



Rear end 128



Stian posing!



Cage



Dash installed

More info and pictures to follow


Best regards

Remi Lovhoiden

[Acki]

Model post would guy say!
Very nice car and work.

With this tool you also can modify your channels in the head (with a smaller one)..


Do you have some pictures about modify the crankshaft?

Regards, Martin

[Abarthnorway - Remi L]

Hi Martin!

Here is some more pictures of crankshaft mods:



More pics of Stians car and engine here:



Some pictures of car now lowered. Header, oil cooler, clutch cover and adjustable camwheel by the car in the last pictures. Tires will be changed for 185/50 13 slicks....




Parts, some serious lowering, and wheel arches now very close to tires...




Engine work pictures - final wash and build next!!


Best regards

Remi Lovhoiden

[Abarthnorway - Remi L]

Hi All!

Build is going forward fast!

First race is Sunday 21. april.

Some more pics:




Valves back cut 30` - worn blades on Neway Gizmatic ... so had to be redone when new blades arrived - but You get the idea.




Oil baffle plate and new oilpump with uprated spring.




Newly painted oil pan, new longer bolts to compensate for baffle plate and double gasket. Sandwich plate for mounting oil cooler.




Bottom end torqued up and ready. Bronce guides ready for fitment in head.




Stians son, and me as "build supervisor" - Stian owner posing with car.




Head now in its proper place - and manifold test mounted - looking good!! Genuine Dellorto Jets according to Guy Crofts advice:
Choke 32
Idle jet holder 9,
Idle jet 40
Pump jet 40
Emulsion tube 5
Main jet 120
Air corrector 190




Engine just looks soooo cool




Dellortos married to manifold with spectacle type Misab type rubber - aluminium gaskets, fitted on studs with locknuts and rubber and cup anti vibration washers. Carb back plates for fitment of Pipercross Filters.




Header has to be insulated - carbs are just centimeters away - as all ports on same side of head.




Engine in car - cam timed up and ready. Fitting of aftermarket manifolds etc a real hassle, as nothing matches up completely and it is a very tight between inlet/exhaust. All mods always cause a certain degree of headache .... unless done properly the first time:-) hmmmpf




Carbs test fitted along with exhaustmanifold. Looking good.




Engine ready for startup ..... car ready fitted with lexan windows and just some small detail work left.


Wish us luck!


Best regards

Remi Lovhoiden

[Acki]

Nice car! Nice work and perfect post :)

I have some questions.
Why you don't use the oil cooler adapter from uno turbo and his oil pump (more flow)?

Where did you by the oil baffle plate?

Did you checked the distances from the new water pump? I measured more diffrence than allowd from Fiat.

[Guy Croft]

This is an excellent feature and I don't want it hijacked Martin.

As far as the Uno Turbo oil pump goes, this engine doesn't need a higher capacity pump! I speak from experience. It's not pumping oil round a turbocharger for a start and and I have prepped these units at big valve race level many times on the standard pump so I would have published it if there was a deficiency in that department.

If you have absolute prood that the Uno pump has higher capacity and not just a strongger relief spring I should like to have seen your follow-up on the subject at:

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1230&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=15

GC

[Abarthnorway - Remi L]

Hi!


During this engine build, I have tried to keep as much as possible standard - Tends to save both time and money :-) ---- and we were on a tight budget on both....

Regarding the oil pump it is most importantly new - and I have checked clearances and installed a stiffer spring as recommended by a company with experience in racing these engines.

The oil cooler adaptor, this item was reasonably priced and does the job.
The radiator though comes from a UTurbo as it is bigger, and will hopefully be sufficcient even in race conditions.

Regarding the new water pump - I must admit that I have not checked it closely. Will do next time.

It is quite a few things with the engine bay etc that is still not ideal/optimised, but time is short and the "to do list" is still very long - First race is Sunday 21st april. 3 days to go in other words....

I will keep You updated.

Best regards


Remi Lovhoiden

[Acki]

Sounds good. I would be glad when I had a engine like this :)