Cut springs

No more cappin on Mr. highboy flood rescue vehicle, the back may have to come down another 1/2 coil, the front looks good with the lower control arm almost level with the ground. for the front the inside coil spring compressor rented from Autozone worked like a charm, I did not have the disconnect the lower ball joint.

Some more shots of the Colorado Fiat

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!