2ltr Fiat Ritmo / Lancia Beta engine

Road-race engines and ancillaries - general discussion
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Squadracorse
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Joined: July 29th, 2006, 8:12 am
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2ltr Fiat Ritmo / Lancia Beta engine

Post by Squadracorse »

Finally the time has come to overhaul the engine of my Lancia Beta.
about ten years ago the engine broke because of overreving in Liege - Belgium and since then I did not see any fun in restore the engine.

I think the best way is to buy a Fiat 130TC engine to put in the Beta, but what problems do I have to concur? Is there anything special what I should or NOT should do?

Please help.

Jan-Cor
the Netherlands
I cavalli sono sempre pochi, I Kg sono sempre troppi!
Guy Croft
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Post by Guy Croft »

Because of the incline of the Beta unit the only part of the 130TC unit you_should_be_enthusiastic_about is the actual cylinder head itself.

Read carefully. Not the camboxes. I have remarked upon this a thousand times, the Beta oil drains in the cam boxes are set for the 20 deg incline...

Sure, FWIW - maybe the cams. Except that I suppose you could use the entire 130TC block with pistons rods, crank if it is in superior condition in terms of bearings, rings and the mountings etc marry up. The Beta sump water pump and oil pump (with O ring - that the 130TC doesn't have) must remain. The 130TC sump won't fit the Beta chassis.

You should know that I have to say I am no fan of engine 'swaps', all these motors are 30years old or so. Forget about it, I do this stuff for a living. Much better, this being a race engine website, where the thing should end-up way better than it was before (if you follow my meaning) :- full_rebuild with race rods, pistons and reface/bore the block, reface the head.

One nice thing about the 130TC unit is it's lightened flywheel, but if you use this with the 130 crank you must retain the position of the fw relative to the crank, ie: mark them up before you unbolt them. On no account bolt the 130TC fw to the Beta crank without a balance op. Once you split an OE factory crank fw combo you have to do re-balancing.

I have emphasised certain issues here. You asked wisely for advice and now you have some to start with. I hope you'll do this conversion 'properly' and not 'skip a few steps' to 'save' money. If you have located a good 130TC unit strip it dwon, publish some photos and I will do my best to talk you thru the way forward. It may not be cheap, but it will last and 'do the business'.

GC
Squadracorse
Posts: 5
Joined: July 29th, 2006, 8:12 am
Location: Netherlands
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Post by Squadracorse »

Thanks,

I have your "modifying" book for many many years but I have to admit it is not easy to read while translating it into dutch ;-)

On many occasions I have talked to people and almost everybody tells me to take the 130TC unit for more power. I am more fan of the 1800 unit to be honest. It is good to read about the camhousings but if I am read it correctly, can I use the "bottem block" from the 130TC without having trouble? (it is almost finished). Guys from Schrick GmbH have my original "Guy Croft" intake manifold for the Beta but it seems they have lost it somewhere. This might be an issue if they cannot find it. :-(

Some pictures you can find on my internetsite http://www.racingteamsquadra.tk but this is mainly about the Fiat Uno Turbo which I am using for international rallycross and grasstrack. I do not want to race the Beta although I had many plans like rebuild it like a Group 4 rallycar. But now these days I think only a fast road engine would be fine.[/img]
I cavalli sono sempre pochi, I Kg sono sempre troppi!
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