NickJ's Lada Niva TwinCam

[NickJ]

Not sure where a car like this exists in the world but figure you lot would be the most understanding of all automotive forums!



Here it is, my 1980 something Lada Niva, I brought it about 8 years ago and haven't had many things not go wrong with it, Short list, electrics, front diff, gear box, drive shafts, oil leaks and engine mystery illnesses but luckily, a life spent in central otago has meant no rust, until I took her north, so 3 years ago she had a re-spray, a year later the 1600 gave up and an 1800 fiat twin cam was offered to me, without better options that was in and certed.

After a few years happy service the gearbox once again gave trouble, most likely a bearing. with that out and confirmed I thought hey, why not drop the engine and sort out the oil leaks? good idea, bad idea! anyhow stumbling on Azzuro's fiat thread reminded me how nice these engines are and so the mission began.

The 'Before' shot



To put the twin cam in a lada needs a few quick alterations, engine mounts shifted an inch rearwards and the sump modified to fit around the front diff, engine mounts were easily fabricated and the sump, well my initial attempt was a touch dodge so the plan was to re-do that as well to a standard a wee bit nicer on the eye. I also wanted to finally fit a pair of downdrafts that this lovely piece of italian engineering deserves. I'm hoping that with the few other fiat guys on here any questions I may have will have a solution!

Cheers

Nick

[NickJ]

Lada jokes go here :

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[NickJ]

Manky block out of the car and ready for a good scrub, anyone know of a alternative to that 90deg rubber hose to the oil separator? scared to ask what a genuine replacement is worth!



got onto solidworks to design the new sump



and screwed the flange to a solid piece of lumber to resist warping

[NickJ]

Here's a few more on the sump, 

After 4-5 iterations I settled on a design, main design change was to make sure I could fit it on the steel I had and that it could be bent with minimal welds, this is also my learn to tig project, less welds, less holes! Capacity is just over 4l at max, with drop to the plug to help with oil changes, printed out full size and glued to the steel. 

5min in the sheet metal bender and a big lesson in tig welding later.

The clearance between the diff and the crank, far to close but just enough to sneak through.

Had to trim the oil pick up also, not ideal but keep her full of oil and it should be sweet, hence the 4l min capacity.

[NickJ]

Finally, add a coat of bunning's finest,



Ready and waiting to go

[NickJ]

Stripped the head down for inspection and a clean, quite surprised with how good condition it's in, with a bit of care I've bead blasted the cam boxes and sent the head away for a decent clean and surface.

Closer look at the exhaust valves and they're necking a bit, so a new set obtained, old and new....
Spent a bit of time with a wire wheel on the block, with the bottom end giving me no reason to doubt it I made the call to leave it alone, could easily be another grand in bits if I started poking around



 

[NickJ]

With the engine rebuilt its now time for a real challenge, fitting downdrafts........... With the distributor mounted on the block, the factory manifold won't fit and with the motor being in a lada, aftermarket manifolds that fit will need the firewall cut into, so back to solidworks.

after spending far too much time researching manifold design all I can work out is with all the variables you don't know til ya try, so i'm hoping this will work! the plan is to fit 30mm chokes and with the longer runner lengths push for torque, after all it is a 4wd!

[NickJ]

Few tasty bits back from laser cutting, big bonus, all the holes line up!

Tacked the first runner in and checked for clearance, this mad idea may just work.

 

[NickJ]

Well thats a pain in the arse, ordered gearbox parts from Europe a few weeks back and due to a 'clerical error' they haven't left yet, right now I have the motor ready to go back in but figure its easier to drop the two in together. The pain of just wanting to take your car for a burn.

Nice and clean without a home


Have machined up some 30mm venturi to try, in need of a polish but fingers crossed they work 

[NickJ]

Still waiting on parts............. come on postie   

With the engine sitting in the lounge I had to put all the bits together and stare at it for a bit

Can't help but think its too nice for a lada! 

All going well i'll have the gearbox bearings this week, get the engine and gearbox mated up and back in the hole.... Hopefully! 
 

[NickJ]

Yay!!!

Goodies from mother Russia         



Full set of gearbox bearings, seals and a 'made in the USA' tube of gasket goo, soviet/american relations must be getting better   

Biggest score was the brake master cylinder, anyone who has played with a lada/fiat master knows the stupid plastic fittings some have for the header tanks, I've broken a few just removing the hose    this one came with metal fittings!! but I also picked up a few new fittings to try repair my broken cylinder....



And a pile of brake & clutch grommets/o-rings/seals/thingys, only whats what.....  

Now, Friday night, time for a beer and hopefully a good weekend of tinkering!

[NickJ]

The general rule of owning an old car, don't look too close, there's always something to fix/$$$ to spend....

I Had planned to drop out the front suspension and give it a paint, but thats a whole other mission in it self, so I made the call to just focus on the engine and gearbox, but the years of leaking oil had made a decent mess on the front diff so I took the chance to remove & clean it, mainly because to remove the diff sucks arse and is much easier with the engine out, I could then make sure I had the sump built up right. With the diff out, why not replace the seals? sounds fair, so I removed the front drive shafts, popped the seals and that afternoon had a new set thanks to SIL, only to find the cv gumboots are stuffed, bugger, will be back on the phone monday morning hopefully to get them sorted, but still a delay after hoping to have the engine in monday.

Then I found this:

Somehow I've dented the side of the oil filter casting, is this repairable? or does anyone have one they feel like letting go to a lada? 

Thoughts/suggestions

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[NickJ]

Stunning weekend in the open air workshop, finally the gearbox is back together, just waiting on the cv boots and the whole lot goes back in the hole, it all seems like I'm building towards one great f*&k up, fingers crossed!

Also tidied up a few other things, tacked up the carb sync linkage, will have to wait until its in the car then work out the design for the rest of the throttle cable/link system. Flywheel back on, will wait til we put it together for the clutch, make it easier for us to carry out and get onto the crane. Also turned a nut down on the lathe to replace the pulley nut I mangled at the start of the tear down.

Gearbox bits


Almost, check those nuts are tight boy!


Ready to go


This little sucker didn't want to budge, 3 blokes with a 3/4 socket and 3ft bar couldn't move it, took the grinder 2min   
New nut turned down to fit and a washer opened up, hope that will do the trick

[NickJ]

Another push today, new brake master in, steering box striped, cleaned and new seals, cv boots replaced along with front diff seals and all is back in ready for the engine to be lifted sometime soon!

I'm still stuck on how best to build the intake for the carbs, trumpets and socks seems the way but the price is pretty up there, for now I'm thinking just an air box folded up from sheet metal with a pod filter hanging off it, then once she's running i'll get into bell mouth design and sort something proper, have put up a wtb if anyone has a suitable pod filter lying about? 

[NickJ]

Brilliant Canterbury weekend, with a healthy forecast of sun I had a mate call over on saturday with an engine hoist and we mated the block and gearbox and lifted er' in, seemed a good plan but with that bloody rubber donut on there was little space to shuffle, next time, leave the cross member on the box, not pre-fitted, that left a long afternoon in the sun working on my tan refitting bits and pieces.

Almost deserves to be left in the lounge just to look at


If it don't fit, force it!


Its in! dry fit to check clearances for the carbs..... no trouble, about 100mm above before the bonnet, just not enough for the battery, considering moving it to behind the passenger seat, but for that effort I'm thinking of finding a smaller cell that fits, heaps of room there, just not for the current mount....

That leaves time for a few beers and smiles, not much left to go to get her running.

Spent today (Sunday) at the workbench finishing off the inlet manifold confident in knowing that it all fits, also got back onto solidworks and drew up the airbox, picked up a pod filter from GuyWithAviators which will take care of the intake until I work out the best way to tackle it, that and I needed the car running two weeks ago! 

Not the prettiest, but for only first picking up a Tig 3 months ago, i'm pretty happy, the quality of welds on the left, the final runner are much better than the first, I must have learnt something!



 

[NickJ]

Had a hole in the radiator, its been bugging me for some time, the solder around the top hose had a crack and needed re flowing, only trouble, I don't own a torch of any sort, but I had an idea, a few weeks ago when we had a stuck nut, we used my gas cooker to apply a bit of heat, figuring as solder has a low melting point it should be hot enough, with a roll of electrical solder I cranked it up to full and the darn thing worked bloody well, another use for the primus multifuel! 


 

[NickJ]

Was meant to be an easy day, managed to prime the oil pump last night, just needed to tighten up the spark plugs, set the ignition timing and she should run, turned the key, nothing     bloody starter must be poked, I checked the electrics which came out sweet, only thing left was to pop out the starter, an hour and grazed knuckles later and I found the trouble, when I rebuilt the starter I didn't quite seat a bush all the way, this jammed her up solid, so back together correctly with a quick test on jumper leads I had it back in, now the nerves! I fired it up without the coil plugged in to double check oil pressure, all good, plugged in the leads, two pumps of gas and.......... its alive!! unbelievable, not often it would start that easy, stoked, plenty of smoke as the fresh paint does its thing, and the idle, steady and smooth, this is with only a baseline set up, things are promising     

A quick top up of water and I had it coming out everywhere, sh*t! whats wrong?? nah all good, just a few loose nuts on the waterpump and a hose clamp on the heater line but hopefully now watertight.

Then there was trouble, a knock appeared just on gaining temperature, sounds like something clashing   just to be extra  unhelpful it started raining, I quickly packed up the tools and I'm now sitting inside wondering what the issue is, option 1, I set up the aux shaft wrong, option 2, the sump had a slight clash under #3 during fabrication, so I hit it out with a hammer, I'm hoping its just shrunk back with the heat, easy to diagnose, hopefully. option 3, look at removing the engine   

 

[NickJ]

Proof, before the rain

Discussion

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[NickJ]

Well do I feel lucky, spent a good hour this morning checking and rechecking everything I could before gaining the courage to turn her over, with the cambelt cover off the problem was obvious, the exhaust pulley was loose and wanting to part company, a quick turn of a spanner and she fired up nicely, no noises        Counting my stars it could have been alot worse.

Spent the rest of the day hooking up and checking, bled the brakes and took her for a spin, drives but nothing amazing, idles nice but rough to climb above 3000, then kinda ok, pretty sure a proper tune and balance and she should be a runner, pity I have to work tomorrow, could do with another day!

Took her for a wash, felt right after 4 months of sitting in the drive!

[NickJ]

Bugger, went to adjust the carbs this evening and the air bleed screws were seized up solid, only managed to free one while I broke half the head off another, from the one I managed to free I've balanced with a notable improvement in running but I can't balance the whole lot   I've sprayed a good dose of crc into each one, any ideas on how to free them with out busting the heads?

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