This one is mainly for fun, to see what we could achieve on the cheap**, test a few ideas. To build a company car which can be lent to customers when required and to not have to worry about where we leave it or how rusty it gets. A good motorway cruiser and a bit of a 'Street sleeper' I guess. Apart from being environmentally friendly It makes no sense whatsoever, it's hypocritical, worth bugger all and
but,
well,
I just couldn't resist having a go....
Fiat Coupes and I go way back. I still remember being in the back of fellow Yorkshireman, friend and Italian parts supplier Steve of well respected Alternative Autos 20vt many years ago, when they were new and immediately liking it. I've since had a 20vt and this is the second 16vt. I chose the 16vt because I am familiar with the engine and had all the parts in stock. It has everything I need:- Character (needs fixing every weekend), Italian flair, leather interior, leccy' windows and sunroof (which doesn't work) and is fast...
It also has Fiat's attempt at traction control, laughably known here as 'Discodrive', because when the old school turbo gets up and struts its stuff, the tyres light up and the front end dances all over the place. Proper LSD's are available, but cost 21 times the value of the car. As I pointed out earlier, making this FWD car more powerful makes no sense as the only place it is going to be able to use the power is on the motorway and even then only for about two seconds! There are a few cars running around with Lancias 4wd system fitted and these must be awesome beasts.
** Cheap to me means less than about £7k on an engine, it doesn't mean cutting corners or fitting crap parts, it includes taking a calculated and informed risk here and there or using something which does the job perfectly well, but doesn't look very shiny - something which you would do to your own car, but not a customers. People like to see new, clean and shiny things which is why they buy useless Chinese exhaust manifolds and 'Port n polish' cylinder heads etc, ignorance truly is a blissful place to be.
For this project,I am not concerned with what something looks like, I just want it to work, properly and for a long time.
Project Sausage was bought for a few hundred pounds locally, with a seized engine, the cause of which could be traced back to a bent towing eye, hole in undertray and broken oil cooler pipes fixed back together with bits of tube and jubilee clips... It looked like at one time it had maybe hit a brick in the road or a high kerb which had caused said damage, leading to oil starvation.
Whilst it has the same engine as the 16v integrale it has loads more room up front for 'goodies' such as a decent FMIC, exhaust manifold, large radiator etc so we'll see what we can do.
The engine was dropped out, stripped, cleaned, de-rusted and yeah, that is really what was left of one of the big end shells.
A rebore followed, along with:
-Forged pistons and rods
-Standard CR
-Re-ground crank
-Steel flywheel
-High torque road clutch
-Full btm end balance +
Balancer shafts removed.
-25mm cambelt kit
-Gasflowed head, uprated valve springs to take future high lift cams
-Integrale 16v T3 turbo
-Ceramic coated tubular manifold
-3" exhaust with race cat
-Manual boost controller.
-Stock map and ECU.
At the moment it's pretty lively and also in dire need of a re-map with a slight raise in boost pressure, which would yield about 270bhp.
Other mods due are a front mounted intercooler, bigger turbo, bigger rad/oilcooler, cams and possibly an uprated intake manifold/plenum/throttle body combo which should add another 200bhp easily enough. I might put a fibreglass or carbon fibre bonnet on it too to reduce some of the weight and it will also get some bigger front brakes.
I'm delaying fitting the intake manifold because the inlet of which will clash with the ABS unit, being a primarily a road car it needs to keep this, although we may be able to move it around to where the battery was, as this now resides in the boot. One of the many advantages of modifying a cheap car is that you don't have to worry about cutting bits up and throwing them away when not needed.
If I was to advise someone on what to do with a Coupe engine (and I do have to on a weekly basis on the tuning of the 16v engine) the above would be pretty much it - apart from the turbo (I would fit a ball raced GT item), stock valve springs, remap and possibly FMIC, this would see around 300bhp which is enough for an old school Fwd car, much more than that and you need gearbox strengthening, Rwd or 4wd. All that power is pretty useless when you can't control the car. One of the reasons for this article is so I can point people in this direction when they ask the usual questions.
The words 'Re-ground crank' will no doubt stir up some conversation and raised eyebrows, especially from the armchair experts who have no practical experience whatsoever. There have been theories and experiments over the years, all of which (to me) have been largely inconclusive, lacking in complete information and not all avenues explored, so I decided to do my own practical experiments. Quite a lot has been learned. What works and what certainly does not.
I like learning new things.
The Coupe is ideal for this kind of experiment as the sump is easily dropped and the bearing shells readily accessible for inspection. No such luxury on an integrale. There is method in my madness ;-) and the results will then be passed on to future customers.
The shiny oversized dustbin stood crying on the floor whilst its stylish 3" slash cut replacement looked on.
Project S is currently being used to test the new BC Racing suspension set up.
This is just the protoype, there are still issues to iron out.
I will add more chapters to this as we progress.
*Sausage: Tasty, but unhealthy, addictive, generally made up of bits swept up from the floor after a long days work.
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