131 Trans in the Fiat spider

The shifter location with the 131 transmission is further back from stock but it works for me, it took my daughter and I took about 1 hour to install. I will probably loose both the lower consoles and just go with a carpeted tunnel.
I like the way the 131 trans shifts, very direct and positive, I see why most of the racers use this trans. I used the Redline GL-1 mixed with 20-50 motor oil.

Somewhere in Wyoming

From the middle of Wyoming to Oakland, Ca. in 14 hours, I drove 75-80 MPH until California then slowed to about 70.

Oakland short shifter

Simple and quick modification for shortening the shifter in a 124 spider, it won't work with the stock shifter knob on the 2000 spiders, whick I personally don't like anyway.

Colorado Fiat

Taking Delivery

Mayu getting her spider back, she just barely made it home due to ignition wires making poor contact.
I also removed the old tail pipe before the axle and had a new one fabricated to fit the pretty rear end.

There's another Fiat in town

Like daughter like father

Pretty front end

Very tight fit

I forgot how tight the fit a Fiat motor is,we spent about 5 hours shoehorning the motor in, it almost got Mayuko ready to blow a gasket, she did the rough work under the car and looked like a real grease monkey at the end of the day.
The hard part is done, we will get things connected and the timing best installed tomorrow, hopefully burning gas before noon.
P.S.
After struggling for a couple of hours trying to mate the engine and trans, I removed the motor mounts from the engine block allowing just enough room to wiggle it home.

More engine shots

Jalopnik Engine of the Day!

jalopnik.com/319783/workhorse-engine-of-the-day-fiat-twin+cam

Mayu polishing and porting the head

Supervisors

Buck and dirty nose Diamond making sure all the parts match up properly

Aux. shaft mod on Fiat TC engine

The aux. shaft tip was cut off to avoid damage by #2 rod in the event of a cam belt failure or improper cam timing, (The shaft tip is used to power a block mounted fuel pump on older models) I used a high speed cut off grinder then tapped the oil hole and plugged with a 1/4 " bolt then ground off the bolt head. I also will replace the plastic aux. shaft gear with a metal one.

Engine ready for install

I put the head on today and initially could not get the head bolts torqued properly, ended up using Turbo spider bolts that have a hardened factor or 10.8, the head isn't going anywhere now! A shout out to Joe at Joe's Fiat in Redwood City, Ca. Couldn't be a nicer guy and he really knows his Fiats. He has many hard to find parts and does excellent work.

Foggy

Intake and valve covers

Hot Grill

New complete short block

Details

Super Fly

Details

The devil is in the details, that's me workin the cherry picker, here is the build list:

We will use a 1800 Fiat head it has smaller combustion chambers that will give a compression boost it will be polished, ported and blueprinted with 30 degree seats and valves background to match, and 70 dergree throats, and gaskets matched on the intake side. The machine work and porting will follow a famous Fiat engine builders techniques who we will name later after we have his permission.

The stock FI cams will be utilized as well the stock FI system. We will modify the fuel pressure from about 42 psi to about 46-48 psi, a simple mod for more power. The cat will be removed and replaced with a tube after passing smog.

I will grind off the tip of the aux. shaft and tap it so there will be no collision with the crank in the event of a cam belt failure.

The biggest performance upgrade will be a aluminum flywheel from Millers Mule in Texas a beautiful piece that weighs 8lbs. vs the stock unit at 22lbs., giving better throttle response and acceleration.

Finally the front brakes will be upgraded and possibly convert the radiator to a aluminum 240 Volvo unit.

I will post some photos soon of the head work and flywheel.

Engine Out

Fiat Talk

Well our Triumph racing exploits may be over but now I will begin updating on a new project. You may have read a few of my previous posts on the Fiat and now I have more time to devote to it. Get ready for Fiat time! Originally we had really high aspirations but as usual there are budget and dreaded SMOG constraints. Now mind you there was nothing particularly wrong with the car when I bought it. In fact apart from an oil leak it ran beautifully. Then my dad and I found a brand new never been fired 2L short block in the junkyard. It was too good to pass up. The possibilities were endless, find a pre-75 spider with a blown engine and dump the new one in? Only problem is all the Fiats on CL have running engines. These damn things do not blow up. So its on to door number 2, build a higher compression performance motor and put it into my Fiat. We had all these wild fantasies about high compression pistons, re-profiled cams, fancy head rebuilding, adjustable cam gears...blah blah blah but we are in a recession people! I cant really sleep in my Fiat, plus I have a dog so concessions were made. Here are some photos of the removal. You'll see my dad in these photos but I did most of the knuckle busting under the car including those &%!*^$#@uckin' bolts on the top where the transmission meets the engine that needed a total of 3 extensions to get off.

RIP

Mayuko and I will say goodbye to the Wedge, I think I can speak for her and say we would do it all over again. We were sent home early on the last day of Thunderhill because of numerous black flags. I got the first one for two wheels off, after that I got my groove goin. In the end we had 7 or 8 black flags, (two wheels off, 4 wheels off, 2 spins, and 3 passing under yellow) the only reason we didn't get kicked out earlier was the fact that our car was a Triumph and the Lemons peeps liked out car, having a cute bulldog didn't hurt either. The car was purchased by a team mate and hopefully will go on to compete, 1:40 was our best time at thunder hill but I think if the brakes were optimised with a bias valve so the rears would not lock up prematurely, that time would improve my several seconds. And when Mike converts the car to a 5 speed, look out!

lemons action

Stressin over the rain

100 shitboxes goin around a track in the rain bumper to bumper with speeds up to 80-90 MPH??!! I actually don't mind a little weather, I started driving at 13 on the farm in northern Minnesota. But what about all the noobs that are goin to be out there at any given time? Go fast inthe straights and slow in the corners and NO rubbin! The long term forcast is saying over cast with chance of rain Sat. and Sun. Stay tuned!

Jalopnik post

We are in serious contention for the Index of Effluency award with our car. Here is a round-up of all the crap heaps in contention. Scroll down to #10 for our car. Unfortunately not many people are giving us much of a chance...but something they don't know is that all the Lucas Electrics on our car has been replaced by SAUL Electrics. He's the little known Norwegian bastard stepchild of Mr. Lucas. HA!

Odds and ends

Finishing up all the little stuff before the race including installing the air cleaner, roll bar padding and kill switch.

A trip down memory lane

Here's a pic the former owner gave me when we picked up the car. Sorry about the poor quality but it's a photo of a polaroid. I imagine it was taken some time in the early 80's just after the conversion. This is probably the maiden voyage with the new 231. Happy times. The owner has just picked it up from the garage and he's getting a pic with his buddy in the passenger seat. His buddy is rockin' a serious feathered hairdo and a printed shirt. He's looking down because he's busy chopping some lines or rolling a joint for the ride. Little do they know the owner is gonna throw a rod in the next couple of days. But for now it's summertime and life is good. In the background is a lady standing next to her busted Ford Pinto? wearing a tube top. Maybe one of these guys got lucky with Pinto lady since they have such an awesome ride.

Yellow thingee

Some bright yellow thingee that Mike bolted on...

5 speed manual install

My dad got busy with the all important 5 speed gear shift knob installation. (Note: The transmission itself pulled out of a '79 Olds Sunfire to be installed at a later date.)

Engine Mounts

Mike got the engine to mount properly and now it's level and sits further back and lower. The painted L brackets in the pic were fabricated to hold the 231 when the car underwent the conversion sometime in the 80's. When we replaced the engine last year we never could get the mounts to catch the L brackets properly so now we got mad Mike to get all crazy on that shit.