eXpanding my horizons - Fiat content

Great looking shop.  oh, hey look, insulated ceiling.

Was good to meet you last night. Always fun to put faces with screen names and toss some wrenches.

One day Travis will be our age and insulation will climb the priority list I bet. Or maybe just fire the kiln to heat the shop! 

I did get some tail light bits ironed out before heading off to the maschinenbau meet.

I moved the slicks off the turbines last week and got the street tires mounted up

Gonna need some flares if I wanna mount up the autoX wheels from the truck 

Man, all these X1/9s make me want to get one of my own, even tho the AW11 MR2 is basically it's brother who weightlifts instead of doing cardio.

I don't know about doing a 4AGE for an engine swap- they're a little heavier than people think. I'd honestly go a 2AR or 1ZZ/2ZZ engine for dat aluminum block, yo.

Finished up the tail lights this week

And then finally, finally today, back on the engine part of this project. I ordered gaskets and tools from MWB, Vick, and Aircraft Spruce. All three packages showed up today!


I headed out to the shop with my new parts, pushed the pistons out of the bores, and decided I should paint the block real quick. 2hrs later...



Then I started deburring pistons.

Not knowing who built this engine, and having never been run, I felt that I needed to treat it as though I had just bought a bunch of parts and was assembling fresh; glad I did. I pulled the rings off the pistons and found the end gap was way too tight when fitted in the bores. 0.006-0.007" on all top and second rings. Time to phone a friend. He brought over his ring filer and we got end gaps set proper. We also popped a couple valves out of the BVH, inspected the pockets where the larger seats were cut in(needs work), and checked valve spring pressures.

There will be a lot of grinding/sanding going on this weekend and next week to blend everything in nice. Then lots of cleaning before assembly. I will check lower bearing tolerances after everything is cleaned up and ready to go back together.

When a chassis guy wants to play engine builder, it is nice to have a friend with a serious motor program. No 'making due' with screwdrivers and hammers this time

Awesome dude!

Moving along, I spent a few hours blending the pockets behind the valves into the larger seats and general smoothing in the combustion chamber area. Nothing too crazy, but there was some ugly that needed eradication. Apparently I don't have a before pic...I am calling this good enough

While messing with the head, I got to thinking about the goofy half bolted, half studded connection to the block. I am not a fan of mixing hardware like this for headgasket clamping; doubly so when they are different lengths. There is a documented ARP solution that involves a 4g63 stud kit and a little machine work. I figured if I would have to do machine work either way, why not use the studs from both my engines and fix up my own solution? The ARP studs need about ¼" taken out of the tall bosses on the head. The factory studs are shorter than the ARPs, and I needed to remove a bit more material. The X might not ever make it to FL, but I would like to keep it under Challenge budget and, $100 is $100.

Looking at the casting, I could see where my plan might hit water but I decided to send it anyhow. In the words of NOHOME, "God hates a coward."

So, yeah, there's that. Welded up the boo-boos, re-machined those locations, and ended up with this

Fingers crossed, I should be final cleaning parts and hope to begin reassembly tomorrow.

[strategic stud placement to obfuscate weld repairs]

Ha! Nice work on the head so far. I'd love to see flow bench data for this head. Actual dyno data for these engines seems pretty thin on the ground, but I'll be sure to share mine when I get roller time.

Mezzanine said:

[strategic stud placement to obfuscate weld repairs]

The block determines the stud locations, and the hardware determines the clearance needed. It is what it is. If you don't weld, go the ARP 4g63 route! Head flow data isn't happening here unfortunately, but maybe some pulls on a chassis dyno eventually.

Shortblock is back together. Rod bearing clearance is good, mains are toward the loose end of tolerance. That will be something to keep an eye on as far as hot oil pressure goes.

Rolled over next to the car so they can get acquainted

I put a light smear of epoxy over my welds on the head, just in case any minor porosity from the casting or dirty junk from inside the water jacket tries to rear it's head.

This will get sanded and smoothed for hardware clearance and I should be good to start valvetrain assembly!

Nice work.  Your pics are showing up for me on my mobile phone, or home computer.  bummer, because I'd like to see your progress.

Indy-Barely Functional-Guy said:

Nice work.  Your pics are showing up for me on my mobile phone, or home computer.  bummer, because I'd like to see your progress.

None of them? Some are uploaded direct to the forum and some are linked. I may need to address the linked pics.

In reply to gumby :

None of you last pics are visible. I can see previous ones though. 

Fixed, I hope.

In reply to gumby :

Yes!

The head is reassembled. It is almost time to do a mock meeting of the head and shortblock, then setup the cam.

While cleaning the oil pan I figured I better put this someplace....for later......ya know, just in case....

Because you never know when you might need to add some whistle ponies

I got this cute lil' guy from whiskey_business shortly after the car was delivered; before I pulled the head off the spare motor and saw the high compression pistons. After having those slugs out of the bores and in my hands, I think they are safe for a bit of boost. It may take corn fuel to keep all things happy, but that's fine too.

This is not happening right away. HRPT is still the goal, and adding boosty things will not fit the time table. I need to get the motor back in the car in the next couple weeks so I have time to shake out any other bugs that may pop up. I have dispatched an email to keys4classics in an attempt to have door keys in my possession before we leave. It doesn't need bumpers to make the trip, but I really want them on there. Etc, etc.

I made the first attempts to set up the cam tonight

It's not looking too bad. I will go another round tomorrow and see if I can't nail it down.

Milestone morning!

I was able to achieve proper lash clearances with this mish-mash of parts using shims on hand and no back-up contingencies.

Now to lift the head one more time and install the new headgasket. Then timing and bolting junk on the outside.

I'll need to adjust valve lash on my engine too. Haven't done it yet on a Lampredi engine. Any tips or advice?

It's more a fiddly nuisance than difficult. I grabbed a tool from Vick. I thought it would be better than taking Burrito up on an offer to ship his across the country. Turns out it was less than effective anyhow. I just removed the cam box multiple times to swap the shims. If you do it this way, glue the gasket to the head so you don't need to wrestle it each time.

Since you and Burrito are tighter than two coats of paint and he has a tool and a collection of shims, it should be no sweat!

gumby said:

 

Since you and Burrito are tighter than two coats of paint and he has a tool and a collection of shims, it should be no sweat!

We probably should have done this job yesterday! [facepalm]

She's almost ready to prime and time!

Looking really good Gumby! You'll beat me to running because I still have to wire the whole thing, but my engine is approaching a similar state of readiness. Can't wait to hear this thing breathe.

Love the X!