Fiat 127 Abarth replica

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127
Posts: 6
Joined: September 19th, 2008, 2:47 pm
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
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Fiat 127 Abarth replica

Post by 127 »

Hi everybody.

Im new to this site and would like to introduce my self (and my car) a bit.
My name is Brian, I'm from Denmark and race a Fiat 127 mainly in the historical hillclimb-championship (those who know Denmark might find the term "hillclimb" a bit of a contradiction in terms, but we have fun with what we got ;-) )

Engine
  • 1301 ccm
    282 degree C&B fast road cam
    2 x 40mm Weber DCNF double carburator with electric fuelpump
    Luminition electronic ignition with mechanical distributor and OMEX limiter, launchcontrol and full-throttle-gearshift.
Transmission
  • 4 speed close ratio
Suspension
  • Front : MacPherson w. AVO 2.25" Coil-over, adjust. rebound and hight. Anti-rollbar
    Rear : 2 layer transversal leafspring/anti-rollbar. AVO shocks w. adjust. rebound.
    Lowered about 50mm front and rear.
Brakes
  • Front : 227mm Brembo disc w. Kevlar-pads
    Rear : 227 mm disc w. hydraulic handbrake
Thar car drives pretty well and is plenty fast due to a very low gearratio (about 140Km/h @ 7000 RPM).

I have a few pictures of the car while it was still running as per design.
Nice, pretty and ready for race.
Nice, pretty and ready for race.
fiat01.jpg (42.97 KiB) Viewed 6839 times
Interior
Interior
fiat02.jpg (38.33 KiB) Viewed 6840 times
Still going - last picture before blown engine
Still going - last picture before blown engine
DCP_0059.JPG (22.03 KiB) Viewed 6839 times
After 1½ year of racing with no problems and the only service needed was oilchanges I decided to go for a bit more "hrumpf" and changed the cam to a C & B 302 degree cam. Which should move my powerband a bit up the scale which fits my gearratios better.
After mounting the new cam and checking clearences we went to the final race of 2007 - and pretty soon we found our selfs on the way home again. Right after launching from the startline for the first testrun i saw white smoke in the rearmirrors and just before the finish line a rattle was heard followed for very loud expensive noises, smoke and the smell of hot oil and water.
Just rolled into the pits from the specialstage - not looking good...
Just rolled into the pits from the specialstage - not looking good...
blow1.jpg (53.57 KiB) Viewed 6836 times
Hmm.. Two pistons is facing the wrong way
Hmm.. Two pistons is facing the wrong way
old_block1.jpg (41.88 KiB) Viewed 6837 times
Hole where none shoud be - matching holes on the other side of the engine
Hole where none shoud be - matching holes on the other side of the engine
old_block2.jpg (15.29 KiB) Viewed 6830 times
Found this under the radiator and one more on the shield under the engine
Found this under the radiator and one more on the shield under the engine
old_block3.jpg (66.14 KiB) Viewed 6831 times
After some research I found the two things could have happend. Failure of the bolts in the end of the pistonrods or bigend-bearings failure due to the piston hitting the valves after fitting the new cam.
I tend to lean towards the latter because of the smoke i saw at the launch. It could have been oils leaking into the inlet from the valves getting bend.

This has put a stop for us racing in 2008 when putting together a new engine which is about finished now.
The engines are not easy to find, but I was lucky to get one for free - but did'nt look too nice. But after a bit of overhaul which meant honing the cylinders "ghetto-style" it all seems fine. We are biulding on a shoestring budget here so we try fo do as much our self.
Here is the engine as it looked when we picked it up.
Is it an engine or a birdsnest?
Is it an engine or a birdsnest?
new_1.jpg (48.36 KiB) Viewed 6822 times
Needs a bit of cleaning.
Needs a bit of cleaning.
new2.jpg (50.01 KiB) Viewed 6826 times
Ready for cleaning and overhaul
Ready for cleaning and overhaul
new3.jpg (40.76 KiB) Viewed 6821 times
After some hours of stripping down the engine and some cleaning I send the engine out for service, but the firm that was supposed to rebore it never got it done, so after 6 weeks of waiting I decided to take a shot at it my self. The only thing we got after waiting for 6 weeks was that he had steamcleaned the block which was no ready for internal cleaning, paint and assembly.
The bores was cleaned with fine sandpaper, steelwool and plenty of oil. After all it looks like it went well, but we dont know until we get the head finished. It needs a fresh set of valves and a carefull recheck of the valve to piston clearence and if needed a recut of the valvepocktes in the pistons. Guess vi can do that our self, we'll give it a try and se how it goes.
As of now the engine looks pretty nice and is fitted in the car with only the head missing.
Hopefully it'll be done in the next few weeks.
Voila - a new engine.
Voila - a new engine.
new4.jpg (35.62 KiB) Viewed 6814 times
Besides the engine I also need to tighten up the front end of the car. The rubberbushes is way too soft. Might look into something to replace the anti-rollbar with some controlarms with rosejoints between the trackcontrolarms and the front of the car.
Also a breakservo is on my todo-list.

More photos and some video can be found on my website (link by permission of GC)
http://Fiat-racing.dk/index.php?lang=en
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