azzurro

^this. Bloody things are seemingly forever in need of a tutu.

Is #3 plug oily (engine ) or carbon (rich )?

I assume 1 & 3 are fed from the same barrel or it it a plenum/shared job? if the former #1 plug should be in similar state?

If its just the one plug it may be #3 valve not sealing properly and blowing oily crud back up the manifold?

What about pcv valve? It may be puffing oily crankcase fumes just at that side.

It may be that the white one is the problem and is running lean due to a blocked jet or summat.

In any case a clean out and reset floats and idle/balance cant be a bad thing.

haha, finally the truth is close to my half imagined stories!

here my first set 13x6 close enough to 0 offset, roundy trident style.

rub in the outside inner arches, but probalby becasue 185/60 tyres are too phat

new set, 13x5.5 +15ish offset, 125T fitment, 'sharp' & ultra classy style, and so hopefully no rubbing when i swap the tyres over from the other ones:

NZDM yo!

giz centre caps

thx

Ward was a wheel/ aluminium casting company in the 60s and probalby later, i think based in Palmhole Nth. Probably absorbed into Steelfort at some stage.

I have just got some 13" x  5 1/2" as were fitted by Torino Motors to the 125T and was super stoked  - like tridents but slightly different - i have some others which are exactly like tridents too. Other NZ special models from other manufacturers may also have used Ward?

So they may be worth something to someone, but only specific model wierdos probably.

I think the dude from rim-rite? may have worked there, or in my mind, may even be Mr Ward. (#lies)

Bums. Massive oil leak on mway. Massive smoke cloud and all. Turned around at rosebank. At BF Lincoln having a solo meet

keen,

have some wheel bands to pick up and some to drop off.

Hillman1 you coming?

There is a nice pic of both in that sweet prefect thread.

Was thinking about this the.other day too. What about OS branded oil change stickers?

Oil dont come with them any more . Be hard? to printvdouble sided tho i guess.

This is relevant to my interests even if my attempts are a bit agricultural.

My preference is to steer clear of moving parts, and remember oil starvation is generally from oil having difficulty returning back to the pick-up position rather than sloshing away from the pick-up.

bumhats. That is the opposite of my thinking behind this attempt - oil pump angles down from the gap in the upper left with pick up in the 'pot'

- basically extended the factory 'baffles' to direct most of the returning oil to the 'pot' around the oil pump which is to keep the oil around it instead of the front left corner (oil starvation on LH bends), the usual appraoch with Fiat twin cams is to run an extra quart of oil over the max dipstick mark.

I was thinking of an extra bit to fold under the pump and maybe a swing door in the pot but its think its so low (15mm maybe) that it wont matter anyway?

This is for my 1600, but i have a 2L im slowly collecting bits for that i want to do better on so comments please

smashed 'buy now!' on these on friday and picked them up today.



Five 13" x 5 1/2" Ward Alloys as fitted to the 125T, originally fitted to a long gone T if the seller is to believed, only one cap tho.

Also came with 6x 13" steelies, so im quite keen on making a set of widened steels from them, one day when i get a lathe.

Cleaned up ok with a bit o scotchbrite but i will probably get these ones polished up properly before fitting them.



They are in much better overall condition than the other ones I have (from red oxide), and they have much more detail in the lips and face than the other ones too.

I also suspect they are a bit lower offset and 1/2 an inch narrower, so should not rub on the outer arch like the other ones too.

Yay, new shoes
 

SUMP:
Ive also had a go at a baffle for my spare 1600 sump, as i have oil surge/pressure drop on left hand bends.

I messed up the slot  for the dipstick, but otherwise im pretty happy.



Based on my extensive fluid testing (ie some water and 'white guy doing the hula' dancing with my sump), i think the 'pot' at the bottom is the most important part (for my application/problem), to keep the oil that is in the sump around the pickup as far as possible, instead of slopping away uselessly into the far corner way under the oil pump on left handers. Any oil that is over there can return to the pot via the gap on the right under the factory baffle (on right handers/straight). I am thinking of sealing up the base of the pot to the sump slightly better, (but not 100%) but not welding it, as i have only used about 6x spot welds on the sump wall itself so far to minimise warping.

The other factory baffle extensions are more to direct most of the returning oil into the pot, and act as a bit of a crank shield, and thats what other ive seen have, so I did that too.

Suggestions welcomed, as version 2 will be going into the 2L sump (which has a badly repared hole, and many dents so may receive more drastic alterations).
 

DIFF:

Dropped my diff off last week, and got a call today to say crown and pinion are worn due to insufficient backlash, so its not worth fixing really.

Stink! Only good news is that it wasnt actually me who wrecked it, it was who ever put it together last time.  

Diff currently in the car is also noisy, but also keeping the car mobile & drivable, so my other option is getting the (unknown condition) diff from Red Oxide, to drop off which basically means I should probably strip it right down and get rid of the rest (paging Army124!).

Either way its going to be a mission.

5 SPEED GEARBOX:
Meanwhile, gasket set for the 5 speed gearbox gasketset/seals and shifter bushings have shown up, so i can put that back together and its ready to go in when i get around to it.

CARBS:
Ive also pulled the sideys out of the spot they were 'carefully put' after OS nationals, to have another look over, and to put the rest of the full gasket set in i got a while back.



I cant see any reason why these should not work as designed, they are in all round exellent condition,
and are also now a bit shinier on the outside, which as everyone knows is a sure sign the internals are just fine.


However, i am a stipid egg and went and done this removing the floats to replace the needle valves:


I 'fixed it' with JBWeld, which should be ok (assuming JB weld wont be affected by petrol?) as this just holds the pin from wobbling,
 but I am now on the lookout for a spare cover.

Ive also been doing some reaseach on jetting for these emissions carbs - these are originally from a 2L Alfa Nord, and my last jettings were to richen it up (smaller main air corrector, larger idle jet) wjoich obviously was the wrong direction.
So ive ordered the Main Jet, Air Corrector and a slightly smaller idle jet to match the factory 1.6 Nord settings (but with 32 chokes instead of 30 as fitted to that engine)


 

Yeah, was a sweet way to spend sunday morning. Lots of different stuff which is cool.

Results of wandering round with my camera pointing and clicking and mashing the settings:

this had a very punny number plate 02COOL


Not sure it needs the lights! Otherwise awesome.

so sweet


I really liked this. Stole Richies steering wheel!

and im spent.

Just realised they are mostly Fords for some reason. How the...

solar-rez is hard(er than wood) and will continue to yellow/harden on exposure to UV, but i used it for a stock fiat bakelite/resin wheel that i was going to but a lace up cover on.

Not sure it would be so good for wood, tis strong tho

In my latest parts order, I got a shim tool a, a diff pinion crush washer, and a 2L gasket set and timing belt kit/waterpump.

And finally, on thursday (day after Burger Fuel )  my new shims arrived too.

With the new shims the engine is much smoother and quieter now, and I also seemed to have fixed the high pressure cam box gasket oil leak (yay for hylomar blue), however i think the oil cap and cover gasket on the exhaust side is the source of the (minor) puddles in the spark plugs and valley now.

But, car is still not as rev happy as before i changed the cams from the ground jobs, i rechecked the cam timing, exhaust is spot on, but i think the inlet may be 5 degrees out (too advanced) , AND the carb (godammit!) feels like its got a flat spot on accelleration thats getting worse and has a miss (leaning out?) about 5000 - 5500 rpm.

Next job it to whip the carb off (again) and give it another clean out. Maybe its time to give the sideys another chance

Seriouly pondering taking it to a shop and paying some guy to get all the fiddly things (cam timing, ign timing, jetting) sorted, as for wahtever reason I cant seem to get it dialed in as well as im sure it should be.

Before i go to such crazy and drastic measure$ there are a few other annoying things to sort out first, cause even if the engine is sorted, the car wont be 100%

___

The original diff i put back in after ruining my 'new' one on the way down to Nats is shunty on overrun, noisy and shudderly at speed and clunky when changing direction/startng off, so i pulled the 'new' one out of storage to see if it is worth getting fixed up before the current one blows up.

The oil was transparent/cleanish still (should be after only about 1500km!) but with some powdery metal mixed though it, and that metallic crap shouldnt be there:


However, on removing the head a visual inspection nothing seemed untoward (ie no missing teeth or other visually obvious damage), so im hoping its just the pinion sleeve thing (which is a common failure apparrently?) and/or its in need of some readjustment, neither of which I can do anything about myself so ill take that in this week to GDS near my work, they did a good job of sorting my driveshaft, along with the new pinion sleeve thing  to get looked at.

If that doesnt work out or is going to be crazy expensive, I will look at upgrading to a Hilux or something similar for running with the 2L in the longer term + LSD etc
___

I have also cleaned up the 132 steering box for the adjustable steering and put new oil in, but it was nice and clean (on the inside) anyway, but now the outside matches:


The 2 piece steering shaft that goes with is all stripped back of wiring and stuff and painted all ready to go in when im ready.

Ill install the new steering shaft/box, along with new carpet, fix the heater matrix/controls, put in my spare uncracked dash, replace the rear main seal (and probably the clutch ), and fit a baffled sump (yet to make) when I install the 5 speed box.

Obviously theres more than a few weeks off the road there, so ill do all that after summer.

___

speaking of gearboxes:

5 speed is same length as the 4 speed (reuse the driveshaft) and looks like the mounts will be in the same spot so that good


only problem is the tunnel, which needs to be cut and extended to make room for the extension (vertically), but the stick remains in the same position/hole and i can reuse the orignial console (i think - the special had a slightly different one):


Happy days, all is nice and clean in there too:

I had to sawp the bell housing over from the fourspeed as the fork comes out the other/drivers side on the 125 (this box is from a 124) - I could have cut an extra hole (the casting are there for it, and the fork is the same) like the one in the fourspeed. Glad i didnt in the end, as the oil seal was in backwards on the 5 speed, and is bent up in the 4 speeds, which i would have never seen otherwise, so i need to get one of those, but otherwise its looking good to go once i chop chop the tunnel

Anyone got a spare 125 Special tranmission tunnel?? 

Pictures would be a great help too, as ill probably end up constructing one

___

And today went to coffee and classics


there were a couple of other Fiat group cars there too




took quite a lot of photos of all sorts that ill upload to the thread once ive had a tidy up but i quite like this one:

I reckon shes considering it 

 

ill be there because i will hopefully have run out of excuses

(i mean, hopefully shims and shim tool will have arrived from thier respective corners of the earth, man i love burgers)

Well, didnt make it to BF, cause of the weather and because the engine was pretty tappy.

I have also been a bit slack with this lately, with work and all, and i havent got much to show for what i have done either.

Mostly I have been trying to dial in the new head - shims and cam timing/timing belts.

It seems to be good, with the new cams it idles much smoother, tho i do miss the silly idle it may have just been the cam timing on the old ground ones was all out as I had them setup on the factory cam marks on the standard cam wheels when maybe they needed a different alighnment based of full lift degrees. One lobe (4 inlet, which i alwas had trouble with fouling spark plugs) was also a bit worn and sharp on the top.

I have mostly been faffing around with shims, trying to get them dialed in just right, which given i dont (yet) have a shim tool has been tricky.

I also messed up and put the wrong ones in when i borrowed a shim tool and some shims at my new fiat buddies place, so cam boxes have been off more than once to change them around, measure what ive got accurately and order teh correct shims (and a tool!)

Ive also regasketed the cam boxes and used some sealant as well to try to keep the oil in them (had another big oil blow out giving it some on the way back from swapping shims) and cleaned up some fancy lookin Lancia ones, as my old ones might be warped and not be sealing?

Anyway they look pretty cool.



I also cut down a cam cover - seems daft that the radiator partly drained and then remove the hose to get at the cam wheels.

This means i can remove the cover really easy to just stare at the cam wheels, adjust the cam timing and stuff. 







Shims are pretty close now and ive got 4 new ones on the way to make them perfect, along with a shim tool so looking forward to getting rid of the tapapapapapapap from the couple of wide ones, so i can drive it without paranoia about the state of the cams.

_____

I managed to pick up a steering box with a short shaft to suit the 132 adjustable column, so thats all the bits collected to bolt that coversion on.



The standard 125 one has a long shaft that goes all the way to the steering wheel boss, which is

1: less than ideal in an accident, and

2: puts the steering wheel slightly off centre.

It also also a pain to remove, as you have to draw it out the bottom of the engine bay and remove the sway bar.

Looking forward to having a more comfy and safe drive Ill be getting onto that eventually, along with a buch of other 'while im there' stuff - new dash, heater, wiring, carpet etc.

____

I also took the Wards off for the recent WoF and enjoying the 131R steelies again which dont rub or wobble, but are heavy as all hell.

Repainted the insets whicn i think looks better, tried a couple different 'styles' but meh.




pondering going darker grey all over like the 131R.

perhaps with a bit of this thrown in too:

Anyone got some 14" beauty rings for sell?

Hoping to make this one pending lack of catastrophic failure in key vehicle systems due to error in major service proceedure.

On saturday i got up early to pull the 'brass shim' head off and drop the tidied-up one on.
I was thinking i would just drop the other one i just rebuilt straight back on, and id be all done by lunchtime.
LOL.

Anyway, pulled the original head off, began stripping it for manifolds and thermostats etc to put on the new 'cleaned up one.
However, once the manifolds came off i realised that i should probably try to reuse this head 

I knew the posrts were smoothed a bit maybe, but i had nothing to compare it to before.
It has had soem pretty serious porting done, to match the gaskets, no idea if its the ideal shape or not, but its definitly been opened right up.

Inlet, ported head top, std bottom

Exhaust, ported head top, standard bottom


Decided id better open up the exhaust manifold to make the most of the port matching on the head. Panda-eyes from the gasket to show where to grind to, i had to take about 3-4mm off on the worst bits, so that should flow much better.

About and hour and many belts on the powerfile later (well one wide one for a belt sander cut up into lot of power file sized ones  ) the exhaust manifold was all opened up, including on the head side too. no photos but.
The next bit in the exhaust, the secondaries are already a good match to the gasket, and the inlet has already had a tickle from when i was mucking around with the carbs last time.

So now the eingine has 9,5mm lift cams, adjustable camwheels and a ported/gasket matched head and manifolds on new pitsons, rings and rebore.



Put the cam boxes with the BC cams and shiney camwheels from the 'clean' head onto the ported one, and matched as good as i could with the few shims i have - about 14 out of the 18 where all the same size. I briefly pondered reusing the brass sheet, but luckily I punched my self in the dick before i could.

The block cleaned up nice too, the new piston tops (ive only seen thir bums) came up nice and clean after a razor blade and a wipe, and has obviously been rebored, with no scoreing or lip!
Stoked.


Sepnt the day today puttting it all back together and tourqued up, and fired it up just before just to warm it up and check for leaks and stuff.
Goes great, much smoother idle and the exhaust seems grumblier. Its probably my imagination (and only mildy reving it in the garage) but it may be a bit less 'angry', on these factory cams but feels like it will drive much smoother. I guess we will see soon.

Im going to get a shim tool and some more shims from my 2l engine guy to set the tappets perfect (closest match from the 16 i had is not close enough and shes a bit tappy!), but otherwise i think i will sit on this engine for now and take my time with the 2l build (pending a test drive of course!).

All going well should be at BF on Wednesday

yeah

at the front for sure, back is ok/too low compared to front

should lop maybe another 1/2 coil off, + 2L for more weight up front but need those special things of yours

was suck to drive just after i painted it, when it was on bumps at the front and ass high,

handles real good now but looks funny with its big nose up

2L block now looks like this:



Oil was in very bad condition and the PCV was coked up with a lot of carbon thoughout and outside, but underneath is low milage/late model 2L goodness. It appears to be rebuilt not long before being run with some problems for a while, probably related to the rebuild.
Head is a big valve Regatta 100s or Lancia one that looks like it will clean up very nicely but havnt got to that yet.

Pistons:


I guessed right - the top ring on #1 and #2 were snapped, you can kind of see a small bit of ring overlapping the other one 

On closer in spection it looks like the small champfer ledge on the ring which is supposed to go facing up at the top (to avoid rings hitting the ridge and you know, snapping) was fitten in the lower ring position, with the camfer facing down.

Accordingly the 2 out of 4 top rings snapped, the other two bores have a small but sharp ledge at top. I think this will be why the engine looks like its been chewing/burning oil.

The pistons themselve, bores and everything else seems pretty good and all std sized and looks near new, except this big end bearing  which is worn on the very edge like its been on an angle:


the pistons seem to be able to 'wiggle' just a touch when they were bolted up too.
Could this be a sign that the bearings are slightly under sized (too much gap)? they look pretty new otherwise.
I think i can feel (my calipers are untrustworthy) the journals to be slightly higher in the middle wher the oil holes are so maybe its that?

This is the crank main seal - has a groove worn in it?
Also the main bearing has a slight hump where the oil passage is.


Should i be on the lookout for a new crank or will that be ok? all measurements seem to be within spec, but i can feel slight notches with my fingernail, the 1608 ones were smooth as.

So Im giving iving up on that engine for a while.

I decided to cheer myself up by fittting the ajustable cam wheels in th emeantime, and replace the leaky cam housing gaskets on the fitted engine to reduce the flow of oil a bit.


It turned into a bit more of a mission than i thought!


THen i noticed something funny about the valve buckets, and there was flecks of metal on one
(OHHH NOES!):


Hang on. Wait what.
W.
T.
Actual
F.


The previous cheapskate engine builder (even cheaper and skatier than me!) used thin brass? sheeting cut out with scissors to build up the tappets for the ground cams instead of re-shimming. Now they are disintegrating.

So of the 3 fiat engines i have, all 3 are in bits now, including the one in the car.

So screw it, Im going to pull the whole head and use head I just cleaned up with the nice BC cams on it with nice new gaskets and seals so i can just drive it

that car is awesome, stance or no.

here is his build thread:

http://www.turbo124.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=8336&start=200#p130277

basically took about 3 months to do what i still havnt managed to get done in over 3 years

ive also been looking out for one of these, this is the one i was pondering but it looks like you need to by the base as well (+$46):

http://www.testntools.co.nz/rok-dial-test-indicator-dti-0-25mm-0-01mm-and-inch-p29888.html

i had a similar problem on my van, but only one headlight not working

Cleaned the swtich out, rewired spotlights, new (sealed beam) headlamps, etc etc, still nothing.

Ended up being a sketchy fuse (or, more correctly changing the fuse lead to them working fine), it let enough juice though for the multimeter to pick up the correct voltage, but under load, no go.

worth a go, swap a fuse and see? Might save you from a heap of fault chasing and unnueccessary parts replacement?

But yeah, i would suspect headlight relay of some sort from your symptoms, might be under the bonnet on the fender somewhere?

yeah nah. Same casting numbers on each cam. This is a fairly common number cam,

The cams are individual castings, but they come as a pair with a factory 'part number' without any discernable relationship between casting numbers and factory part numbers.

Interstingly in and ex cams are interchangable, but the word it is better to have a slightly 'hotter' cam on the inlet side (if you had to choose).

That point was more for the Fiat forum im on as the casting numbers come up all the time, and they are very wierd.

Pretty much the only way to check them is to measure them.

Dowel for the timing wheel varys a bit too to change overlap and stuff between various models and between Fiat and Lancia versions of the same engine.

I took my camera out of its bag for once, and here are my least bad photos.

Was a worthy reason to get up early on a sunday.

I lolled at this one. She didnt even like the Toyota Coupes Club enough for a thumbs up IRL.

Clints engine bay. I was not the only goorking drooler.

.

Love the colour combo. Am pondering a white roof now:

so much car for only 2 people:

Looks like those wiseguys are having a chat about who to whack next

jaaaaag

Porsches for courses

And another shot of that 356, with different wheels this time:

Alpina

proof it left the garage today:

more photos here:

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