78 spider restoration in progress

[So Cal Mark]

removing the smog equip would only be a benefit if it's still functioning. If the egr is working, that will cut fuel mileage by about 10%. Other than that, no huge difference with the smog stuff installed. Most people just want to clean up the engine compartment

[kimu]

Haps...
Where the heck is Athens, Ontario?

I am in Markham and have a couple of Spiders and a buch of parts.

Stop by if in the area...

http://fiat.nng.ca

[Haps93]

Athens is a small village (pop. 1000) located 20 minutes Northwest of Brockville or 45 minutes northeast of Kingston.




Haps (Chris)

[dwcars0]

Nice job on the engine detailing. I am going to try and clean up my engine soon. How do you get the valve covers and aluminum looking so good? Is it polished or painted? If you painted, did you spray or brush? Thanks Dan

[manoa matt]

I used any readily available engine degreeser, spray it on and let it soak for a minute then go at it with a small toothbrush size wire brush. Repeat that several times till its clean.

In stubborn areas or inaccessable to a brush, use fine steel wool, or a synthetic steel wool. Make shure to use compressed air to blow out any holes or passages. You don't want little bits of steel wool in you engine!

On some delicate parts(Carburator) you will have to use a brass wire brush. After that, wipe all excess engine degreeser off of parts, and use a solvent like Goof off, or MEK, or Naptha,

Use a solvent that will take away the residue of the engine degreeser, and not leave its own residue.

Or you could just take the parts to a shop to have them bead blasted. My cylinder head was bead blasted by the machinist, but I cleaned the cam towers and the valve covers, and other parts.

The head looks like new, but you can tell that the cam boxes, valve covers, and other parts were'nt cleaned as well as the shop could do it.

Any of the painting that I did was with spray paint.

good luck

Matt

[dwcars0]

Thanks Matt. I am going to carefully remove as many obstructions as possible and try to clean up the aluminum valve covers, etc. I think I may also replace the valve cover gaskets and retorque the cyclinder heads because there is oil puddling around the spark plugs. I am also going to replace the timing belt, belt tensioner bearing and water pump so I should be able to clean up the front of the engine.

[manoa matt]

I'm not shure how far you are going to go with replacing the timming belt. Some people take the crankshaft pully off, but I found a way to get the belt on and off without taking the pully off.

One advantage of taking the pully off is that the front main crankshaft oil seal tends to leak and the oil that comes out tends to pick up dirt and gum up the toothed timing wheel. All this crud then gets on the timing belt and as we all know, rubber parts and oil don't mix well. But if your oil seal is in OK shape, and there is'nt much gunk down there then just spraying some cleaner in there and blowing it out with air and maybe a few q-tips will do just fine.

I responded to a post awhile ago about repacing the timing belt without removing the pully. I posted pictures of the process look in "Engine and tuning" look for "Replacing the cam belt--how to get the front pully off"
bottom of page one.

matt

[dwcars0]

Thanks Matt. I found your post in the forum and will use it for reference when I get at the timing belt. I hope our weather warms up soon. Dan