Fiat 1800 Head Rebuild

[harrinad]

I am working on rebuilding the heads on a 72 Fiat Spider 124 and I am wondering what a good place would be to get some performance parts for the rebuild. I am looking to get larger valves, new springs (maybe honeycomb springs, any thoughts?), replacement head studs, gasket kits, etc. I already got new carbs and am working on retrofitting those to the intake manifold with some careful cutting and welding. Any hints or watchouts would be much appreciated.

[So Cal Mark]

honeycomb springs?

[narfire]

Where do you hang your hat?
All the vendors carry everything you are looking for.

Yea...what were honey-comb springs? brand name??

[LIQUIDLOUNGE]

I think he means "beehive"...harrinad, you owe me; these guys were getting ready to have some fun

[Kevin1]

I believe the OP meant to say "beehive" valve springs.

[harrinad]

Wow, tough crowd, thanks LiquidLounge. Has anybody ever used these for a Fiat 1800 engine?

[BEEK]

what type of carburators are you trying to adapt to what manifold? pictures please

[So Cal Mark]

one issue with beehive springs is getting retainers that will fit the Fiat valves. Not impossible, but not off-the-shelf items either. It will take some research to get the right spring and hardware combination

[BEEK]

i thought the reason for "beehive" springs was to use a larger diameter spring where a smaller seat and retainer was the norm. for a fiat a larger diameter spring is not going to happen due to lifter/follower bucket size. a beehive spring in a fiat application would hurt, rather than help. imho

[So Cal Mark]

the advantage to a beehive spring is smaller top diameter to reduce weight, hence the need for new retainers

[LIQUIDLOUNGE]

Anytime you can gain more control of the valve with less spring pressure is good. This is one of the major benifits of a beehive spring. A beehive spring really has an advantage when you just get into 2 spring territory with normal springs, where only a single beehive is needed. The reduction in friction, heat and increased longevity can be remarkable. I would think these advatages might be somewhat less apparent on OHC engines as opposed to a pushrod valvetrain. Beehives for our motors probably wouldn't be worth the effort unless someone developed and offered a kit for their cam.

[BEEK]

if a smaller retainer is a weight issue, then why not just get titanium retainers for available springs? valve float has never really been an issue with these engines below 7000 rpm. i would ask guy croft for his recomindations as he has probably the most experiance with building performance fiat twin cams. im sure there are other "experts" out there, guy is the one who comes to mind first, not intending to shun anyone else.

[So Cal Mark]

it's not just the weight of the retainer, but the weight of the spring also. The beehive springs are much lighter. I asked Guy his opinion of beehive springs over a year ago and at that time he wasn't familiar with them

[harrinad]

So, I'm also looking to build a custom intake manifold to adapt my carbs to the head and I am planning to have it cut out of stainless steel plate. Does anybody know of a CAD drawing for the actual plate that would connect to this that I could pass to a machine shop? I can take .dwg, .prt, .stp, etc files but was hoping to not start from scratch if possible. This is a 1974 1800 engine.

[Daniel]

is this what you meant ?




the retainers are stock fiat milled down i weighed them before and after i'll need to check them
again to see what the difference between stock and modified springs and retainers weighted.