'67 Fiat 124 Berlina - build and maintain

[chrisg]

oooh, i like the bluetooth amp idea, though radio for news is nice for morning commutes (does anyone else do that in their Fiat any more?)

[grrrdot]

oooh, i like the bluetooth amp idea, though radio for news is nice for morning commutes (does anyone else do that in their Fiat any more?)

I would totally commute, but living in the city I need to go past my office to get to the car!

Great observation, news is great! There are some streaming news apps ( BBC comes to mind ) but radio is more reliable and cellphone data costs money!

-G

[chrisg]

I'd rather ride a bike for my 10 mile commute, but most often I drive a car. local radio in the morning & afternoon is a simple way to keep in touch with any major traffic issues (rare here) and general local news when I drive. not a big deal. In fact, only one of my Fiats even has a radio in it at the moment. Whatever the case, the concept of a discretely located amp w/ Bluetooth is nice. Ideally, an on/off button & volume knob on the dash would finish that up perfectly.

[grrrdot]

Since I put in the new trans I've noticed a leak on the garage floor.


After my drive upstate I figured its time to find out where the leak is coming from. I suspected the large hex plug on the newly installed transmission (ugh) but its pretty high up and I'm not sure how oil would get up there.
I didn't want to buy a UV oil leak kit and mess around with the dye and oil changes so I went googling around until I found this gem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aab-Ss-odtw

So, I cleaned off the trans with break cleaner, covered the side with spray on foot powder and left it overnight. Next morning found this:



So, clearly a leak coming from the front right where the bell-housing meets the transmission and one of the pan nuts. It looks like the top of the leak is where the bell-housing dips inward and exposes the front gasket. So, out comes the trans once more, ugh.

It is weird how the bell-housing does this, its a 1438DOHC bell-housing. Anyone know if it needs a different gasket or something?

[djape1977]

just tighten all the bolts and nuts

[grrrdot]

So I haven't dropped the trans yet to fix that oil leak... I keep putting that off.
I did pull up some of the old tar and fiber soundproofing and replaced it with DynaPad on the floor then added some Luxury Liner Pro to the doors. Big difference, the doors sound like real car doors and the decibel meter on my phone the car dropped from "Average Blender" to "Average Motorcycle" at 70MPH. Still not at "Average car" but at least the car is OSHA compliant on the highway.

Since the holiday season I've put over 3000 miles on the car road tripping upstate, down to DC and up to Vermont. I hit a few issues like; distributor pickup getting loose ( caught that when I noticed the tach bouncing at cruise ) the fan belt sequels on startup ( I think that 95A alternator is too much for the belt ) and a drive-line rub on bumps with the car fully loaded.

I just returned from Killington this weekend, here is a pic from the slopes:


Going over the car after the trip I manged to loose one of the throttle linkage ball socket clips.
Anyone have an extra?

-G

[Ramzi]

Excellent pix

Good on ya

[grrrdot]

Its been awhile since I posted but I have been working on the car!
I may have mentioned it in another thread but I put a 2.25" stainless exhaust system in. The Sedan has some slightly different dimensions than the Spider so I went the completely custom route.
Building off the 2L FI manifold and down-pipe I bought: Summit kit of polished mandrel bent tubing pieces, 6" stainless flex tube, two stainless band clamps, Borla free flow muffler for the back, small Magaflow muffler to go in place of the resonator. I went with two mufflers because I want the car to be tolerable for long trips.
All the pieces are slip fit and I decided to weld it all up rather than invest in a bunch of clamps. From what I read stainless MIG requires Argon shielding gas but I managed to find some Blue Demon flux core mig wire. One type of was to weld the stainless to the steel down-pipe and another to weld the stainless together.
The system was night and day over the old one. At around 3K the engine would start to really pull and continue all the way up past 5K which it never did before.




-G

[grrrdot]

So,
I bought a used Allison header from geospider a number of weeks ago and this last weekend got around to installing it. I wanted the Allison header because the FI manifold hangs really low when attached to the 1608. With New York City roads ground clearance is a must!

I wasn't sure if it would fit a Sedan but I'm happy to report the only issue I had was at full steering lock the heat shield covering the bottom of the pitman arm hits the header collector, its not too bad. Everything else tucked up under the car nicely.


In terms of drive-ability I've only had the car out once but I was a little disappointed. With the 2L FI manifold the engine would wake up and start pulling just after 3K, it was a blast. Since installing the Allison header that kick in the pants at 3K is gone. This isn't to say the car is producing more/less power or being faster/slower its just the feeling of sudden power was so much fun and I miss it. Maybe I should get a turbocharger...

That magic 3K did get me wondering if there was something special about it with these engines. I found this thread http://www.fiatspider.com/f15/viewtopic ... hilit=dyno with two graphs showing the torque dipping and starting to climb out around 3K and a whole lot of talk about tuning.

I have a 32/36 DFEV carb and 1800 intake. Would going from the 2L FI manifold to the Allison header need re-jetting?

-G

[grrrdot]

So after a number of more trips around town, like to rent this 32ft ladder for some home repair:



The engine does pull better at low RPMs with the new (to me) header. This lets me shift earlier without bogging which is nice for cruising around.
The header also throws off a lot more heat than the cast iron manifold, the radiator fan comes on more frequently and stays on longer. After a short drive the battery was too hot to even touch and the car felt like it was losing power. Can't be good.

So, while its a shame to cover up a piece of art I picked up some heat shield material and put it over the header. The shield does not wrap all the way around it only sits on top and sides so, from what I read, shouldn't hurt the header.
Its not going to win any awards for beauty but neither is the car and it seriously cuts down on the heat in the engine bay.


If I was going to do it again I think I would cover the individual pipes, something like they did in this article.
http://www.offroadxtreme.com/engine-tec ... -products/

[eddie124]

Hello grrrdot,

I'm currently starting to plan a few mods for my early '68 Familiare (still on torque-tube prop too), and I came across your mod for using a CV joint while researching transmission mods.

Could you please explain in better detail how you incorporated the Niva bits into the original prop assembly? The CV replaced the U-joint, but how was the front bit of the prop built? Did you have to modify the rear section of the prop in any way?

I have considered swapping the rear end complete for a later assembly, but I like the handling of this early design. I don't like the vibrations or the lesser choice of diff ratios, but I'll work with it for now.

Cheers, Eddie

[grrrdot]

Hello grrrdot,

I'm currently starting to plan a few mods for my early '68 Familiare (still on torque-tube prop too), and I came across your mod for using a CV joint while researching transmission mods.

Could you please explain in better detail how you incorporated the Niva bits into the original prop assembly? The CV replaced the U-joint, but how was the front bit of the prop built? Did you have to modify the rear section of the prop in any way?

I have considered swapping the rear end complete for a later assembly, but I like the handling of this early design. I don't like the vibrations or the lesser choice of diff ratios, but I'll work with it for now.

Cheers, Eddie

Not sure which of the two shafts in the drive-line your referring to so I will explain both.

This picture has the front shaft. On the left is the original Berlina shaft and on the right is the new one that works with the CV joint.


So the parts that make up the new front shaft on the right:

• Bottom of the shaft was cut out of a mid to late 70's Spider driveshaft. ( The spline end that fits into the three finger slip yoke ) The Spider driveshaft is wider than Berlina so you need it. You can kinda see in the picture that the new shaft is wider than the old one.
• The tube is a new piece of steel from a driveshaft shop.
• The top of the shaft was cut out of the niva driveshaft. Its the part that inserts into the CV joint.

* NOTE its ESSENTIAL that this shaft be straight ( .011" is MAX spec ) and balanced. This is not the same as your typical 2 piece drive-line, if its not straight you will have vibration.


For the rear shaft. ( The solid shaft that fits inside the torque tube )

• The flange off the new niva driveshaft

Pull the original nut and yoke off the solid shaft and then put the new flange and nut on. The CV joint bolts to this flange once its all installed.

This is the shaft that has both the CV end and the flange end that you will need: http://max-autohelp.ru/catalog/vaz/zapc ... s-promval#

Let me know if I can clarify any more.

-G

[baltobernie]

So, clearly a leak coming from the front right where the bell-housing meets the transmission and one of the pan nuts. It looks like the top of the leak is where the bell-housing dips inward and exposes the front gasket. So, out comes the trans once more, ugh.

Your photo shows where the leak emerges, but is that where it originates? Wouldn't an oil leak from the engine rear main seal also appear here, the lowest point?

[grrrdot]

Your photo shows where the leak emerges, but is that where it originates? Wouldn't an oil leak from the engine rear main seal also appear here, the lowest point?

Totally agree! Not sure on other bell housing but with the 1438 the lowest point is a few inches toward the front of the car where the bell housing surrounds the flywheel. So, I imagine an engine rear main seal leak would show up at the lower front inspection cover.
It may be hard to see in the photo but the oil soaked powder starts up higher along the seam where the bell housing meets the transmission. I circled it in this photo:


I'm finally getting around to pulling the trans to fix this so I will know more in the next few days.

-G

[geospider]

Oh man, you had to cover that cool header..
my project is way more everything than when we talked.

great to see yours moving along

George