124 Spider 1800 - 130 TC head - IDF waffle manifold

[Abarthnorway - Remi L]

Hi!


About to finish of the details of the head and manifold destined for a 124 Spider belonging to Michel Ostovic - a fellow norwegian Fiat fan. Car is currently fitted with an 1800 engine, with a "tiny port" US 2000 head, reground cams with less lift than original, without timing up and with valve clearances more than double of what specified..(!).. IDF 40`s and original waffle manifold fitted


Will now be set up with big valve Abarth head, upgraded new billet fast road inlet cam with 10.65 lift, original 1608 exhaust cam, rejetted 40 IDFs with 34 chokes and new Ram Pipes. More pictures to follow as build continues.




Car at Holmenkollen ski jump in Oslo




Current setup with IDF`s 40 - 13/15 from 1600 sport with original waffle manifold




The new setup with big valve Abarth head surfaced 0.15 mm




New guides, modified ports and multi angle valve seats




Intake port now 36 mm parallel




Combustion chamber as original 130 TC




Manifold opened up for later conversion to 44/45 mm carbs - now 46 mm at entry




View from top....




Exhaust port with shortened bronce guide




Intake port looking out




Runners in intake manifold opened from approx 32mm to 35.5 mm for matching to head




Big intake valves / big bore manifold....


Looking very much forward to full days test drive - its a part of the deal:-)


Best regards

Remi Lovhoiden

[kremlingazette]

Remi your car & carbs look great !





Ivan

[Guy Croft]

Remi - you really need to get some ATA bands for finishing your ports!

Cosmetics count too.

Contact MGB - see links.

G

[Abarthnorway - Remi L]

Hi All!


Just a quick update regarding this car:

The 1800 "rebuilt" block have proved no good so were changed to a freshly built high compression 2 liter block. On stripdown this newly "rebuilt" 1800 engine had all (new) bearings scored, piston ring gaps miles out...... Quick cheap rebuild = no good. In US btw.

The carbs were changed to overhauled 44 Idf with 36 chokes.

Some info at:
http://guy-croft.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1957

Performance were much better with the new block with a lot of power from as low as 1300 rpm..... actually never had an engine with such bottom end pull before - quite fascinating. The downside though were that the power fell off quickly above 5500-6000.

Our guesstimate were that the weak/worn 1608 exhaust cam were to blame. (after GC tip - useful as always)

This resulted in a camchange using a GC3A as inlet, and a 280` billet with 10.40 true lift exhaust cam and 2.5 LATDC. The results were better than expected, with better power in midrange and a nice sneer at the top. Drivability has not suffered, although the tractor like pull at 1500 rpm is not the same..... but hugely compensated by the increased flexibility and power at midrange and up.

Its a quite a bit more "rascal" in behavior now, and just the way it should be.
One thing makes me wonder though.... I have had the same setup on an 130 TC Abarth, and that engine was wild all the way to 7500, but with a noticeble loss below 3000 rpm compared to this engine. Horizontal DHLA - 36 chokes, 130 header and ignition system only differences from this engine. The flexibility this 124 engine produce is just fascinating - must be the stock exhaust manifold and the longer inlet tracts of the IDF waffle manifold. Never too late to learn a thing or two..... I did not expect engine behaviour to respond so differently to a 130 TC just because of the exhaust and intake system.

Anyway both me and my friend Michel are now happy with the setup - just the characteristic what we wanted.


Best regards

Remi Lovhoiden




Just a picture of a GC3A profile vs 1608 - made me laugh.....!
Sorry no picture of new exhaust cam. It has the same true lift as the 3A but a milder profile(shorter duration and lower acceleration) from another quality cam manufacturer.

[Guy Croft]

Nice post that, made me smile.

Well done indeed for getting great results Remi and telling the story so well.

GC

[Fiat124ST]

Hi
Your Fiat Spider is nice. I would just like to know, is your distributor running from the head or the block?
I own a Fiat 124 Special T which I am putting a Fiat BC Coupe head on, but finding a cam box with a place for the distributor to run from the cam is so scarce in South Africa.

[Abarthnorway - Remi L]

Hi Fiat124ST!


The distributor is run from the exhaust cam - and placed on the cam-tower. Scarce in Europe too, but can be found dirt cheap and plentyful in the US.....
Put up an ad in GC for sale/wanted ...!?

Good luck!


Best regards

Remi Lovhoiden

[Guy Croft]

You should look up the blcok mounted distributor setup (...'distributorless ignition' ..) Mark Allinson sells at:


http://www.allisonsautomotive.com

I propose to use one of these (for the first time) on a TC build now in progress at GCRE.

Mark - if you read this drop me a line please at guy.croft@btconnect.com with all-in cost to me could you please?

G

[Fiat124ST]

Hi Remi!
Thanks for your replay and I will have a look there.
Attached is a photo of the head I am preparing for my car. It's got 40 IDF's on and 10.2 mm lift cams and the head is skimmed 1 mm to increase the compression ratio. The head is also completely overhauled with new valves put in. Can’t wait to get it on the car!
Neil