Fiat cinquecento turbo.. It's alive😁

Great start. 😊
That’s going to be a whole barrel of laughs ,once repaired 😊

So I went to the scrapyard and bought an 8v 1.2 punto engine.. And after I pulled it apart and fitted a set of 16v pistons and rods (drops the compression ratio to 7.8:1) and fitted a steel head gasket (05 on 8v grande punto head gasket).. Again.. Budget scrapyard build.. I bought a new head gasket and timing belt and oil and filter.. The bearings. Rings etc all got cleaned up and reused.


You can clearly see the dish in the 16v piston vs the flat top 8v piston I posted earlier 


 

I also made a new exhaust manifold and front mounted the intercooler at this stage :







At the same time I finally chopped the front panel to allow room for boost pipes. 




And fitted which is probably the rarest thing on the car.. A van aaken second injector equipped boost hat


This is where things get interesting.. I knew that I'd been getting away with just cranking the fuel pressure up for too long.. I also knew that I had to add some sort of controller for the injector.. I also didn't want to buy one.. So a few components off ebay later I set about building my own.. A hobbs switch was screwed into the boost hat and wired into positive of the battery and the new second injector.. This allowed the injector to come on on boost and.. Flood the engine.. So I needed a way to pulse the injector.. So I figured if I could get it to mimic the standard single point injector but only come in on boost I might have a chance.. So one pnp transistor tapped into the injector earth and into New injector earth.. And back to an actual earth.. We have an injector that comes in above 1 psi of boost and pulses matching the factory system.. Fine tuning could still be done through the fuel pressure regulator and I actually had to turn the boost up to 0.6 bar to get it close.. Was way rich..


In this spec it made 97 bhp and 148 nm of torque and was an absolute riot to drive.. It would regularly shoot the diff out of the back of the box though 

So, I had taken a 35 bhp car and made a 97 bhp car from it.. And spent about €2.50 in the process.. But 97 ain't 100.. I was chasing those magical 3 figures.. I'd had it on the road in that format about 3 years.. It was getting a little bit tired.. Now in fiat circles there is a camshaft known as the 866..this is the camshaft fitted to the mk1 punto 75 and is regarded as the hottest cam fitted to the fire engine from the factory.. I knew my engine was struggling with airflow on the Top end as on rge rollers my mixture was bang on the money.. Until 5500 rpm where it would go rich.. I needed more valve lift and bigger valves.. So punto 75 cam and head it is.. Bolt it on and go right? Wrong.. See the punto 75 was a multipoint engine and the cinquecento was single point.. When I built my low compression engine I fitted the cinq head with its little valves and mild cam.. Why? Economics.. The bolt pattern for the inlet manifold between the single point head and the multipoint head is different.. So unless I wanted to convert the engine to multipoint injection I was stuck with the small ports and valves.. If I converted it to multipoint I'd have to get the associated ecu from a donor car.. And I'd still be left with the problem of driving my extra injector on boost.. Easy to mimic the signal from 1.. 4 injectors not so much.. My only option then would be to use a standalone management system.. Now I'm not in the habit of spending money I don't need to spend.. Another solution was needed.. Enter my friend John Staunton.. Ex cosworth engine builder.. Race car engineer and all round knowledgeable bloke.. I explained my conundrum.. And he promptly welded bosses into my head to take single point manifold.. Game on.. Engine goes back together.. We make 103.7 bhp and 178 nm of torque and I'm happy.. Smokes like a good thing on boost but we know the rings are TIRED 😂


As you can see the front end is very busy looking by this point.. The rest of the year was spent doing track days and generally being a nuisance round our local lanes.. I knew that she was starting to get tired so I found a fresh turbo and pilfered a few engines from the scrappy.. Bought.. Yes bought with money.. Gaskets, piston rings and bearings and built this.. 

 




After so long proofing concept with scrapyard parts I figured she deserved a "proper" engine..so I built one.. All the good bits.. Ported the head and inlet.. Lightened flywheel, 16v pistons, 866 cam, 40 mm throttle body.. I knew I was on the road to at least 110 bhp.. But then something happened that would change this little car's destiny forever.. Strap in folks because its about to get interesting... 

I waiting to be entertained. Only ever driven one cinc..a knackered hire car example on zante about 20 years ago. But it was epic , i wanted to put it in my suitcase and bring it home!

They are brilliant to drive.. So chuckable and terrifying in standard form.. The body roll is epic but once you get over it they really hang on

I was lucky enough to learn I a volvo 240 so I know all about body roll😂 when it's something the size of an aircraft carrier body roll can be unnerving to say the least

So I now had a turbo position where the bonnet would close.. But I still had a hole in the top of the manifold.. And a holey manifold won't do.. So out with the welder again.. 

To weld a patch onto the redundant hole and generally make it functional.. I know the flow won't be optimal but it will do for now.. I figured I might as well sign it:


And fitted up with the turbo, oilfeed (an fitting and hose are expensive 😱) and a downpipe I'm not actually meant to show you yet but I can't find the original photos :

More later thanks for looking 😁

NICE

Wonderful stuff. A great read.

Keep it coming please!