Alas, it appears that my Fiats really enjoy being worked on by me, so each of them has developed some sort of major engine problem which requires a lengthy amount of time, and a fair sum of money in order for me to get them back on the road again. Two years ago it was my 124 Spider with its blown head gasket; this year it was my 128. I'm not going to write a complete How-To like I did for the Spider, since a lot more work went into the 128 engine build, and that's what the Haynes manuals are for anyway.
The little trooper hadn't idled right for nearly the entire time it was in my possession. Even with a Yugo electronic ignition and a carburetor rebuild, it still idled rough. It also lacked the torque that could be found in my friend Jason's stock 1300 motor. I chalked it up to be one of those Fiat mysteries and just drove the thing. It provided reliable daily transportation for me, plus a fair amount of weekend fun in the mountains, and even survived the Napa Tour with Fiat America.
A couple of months ago I began noticing an unusually large amount of oil coming out of the crankcase breather hose. Again, it still ran and I had no idea what would cause that so I kept driving it. Time went on and the problem didn't go away (naturally) so I began consulting Eli and Dave Voss about it. A compression test hadn't been done on the car since I bought it, so I picked up a compression tester and ran a dry and wet test. The results were a little upsetting:
As you can see, compression on the #4 cylinder was just a bit on the low side. Those figures, combined with the excess of oil in the blow-by from the breather hose (which probably meant increased oil pressure) told us that I probably had a cracked piston ring on #4. It was time to build a new engine.
The original plan was to build another short-block at Eli's so I could continue to use my car to make parts runs and make the 1.5-2 hour commute from school to Eli's house. Then once the engine was complete, I could drive my car to his house and we could do the engine swap in a weekend, or two if need be. Destiny (or maybe just bad luck) had other plans in store… On the day before we were to build the engine, I was making the return trip from Napa to Davis on a parts run, when with about 30 miles to go, my car began smoking like crazy. I had been noticing some power loss before, and the car had stalled once and took some time to get started, but it kept running. A fair sized cloud of oil smoke was coming out the back of the car and filling the cabin as well! I pulled over at the next call-box, and discovered a decent amount of oil spilling out the bottom of the engine. I guess the oil pressure had become great enough to blow some seals. Knowing the engine was pretty much toast, and not wanting to deal with the hassle of a tow truck, I poured an extra quart of oil in, fired it up, and drove on up the freeway. About half way home I added another quart to be safe and made it the rest of the way. That little engine was NOT happy when I arrived back at Davis.
I pulled the head that day, knowing the car wasn't going anywhere anymore, and discovered what had really happened to the engine. The #4 piston was thoroughly pitted, as was the head. There was even a piece of ring protruding from the top of the piston. It looked like the ring had cracked and somehow worked its way up into the combustion chamber, hammering the piston and head before the bits worked their way out the exhaust ports or embedded themselves in the piston.
I was left without any means of transportation, so I phoned my faithful pal Jason, who picked me up the next day so we could go to Eli's to begin building the new engine. He picked up some spare parts from my home, including a cylinder head from our parts car. Due to missing parts and time constraints, it took a couple of Sundays to build the short-block, but eventually it got done.
The new (used) 1300 short-block was supplied by Kelly Dicker at Wine Country Motors. Dave Voss fully dismantled it and inspected it before it was handed over to me. It was in such good shape it probably could've been run without a rebuild, but since I was going through the trouble to do this, I wanted to do it right. I wouldn't have succeeded in this endeavor were it not for Kelly, Dave, Eli, and Jason. From advise, to parts, to tools, to manual labor, these guys were always there to help. I owe them BIG!
Well now that I was without any means of transportation (too bad I sold my Spider huh?) I had to find a way to get to and from Wine Country Motors, my home, school, and Eli's. Eli graciously lent me his 128 Rally to get around in with one strong word of caution, "Don't wreck it." Despite growling wheel bearings, the little beast carried me all over on this errand and that, carrying more than its fair share of cargo at times (you'll see later).
During the weeks between the Sundays when we worked on the short-block I attended to the rebuilding of the cylinder head. I took the head to Del's Machine Shop in Sacramento where they cleaned, pressure-tested, and surfaced the head. Once I got it back I was inspecting it and decided I couldn't let the head go back on the motor without smoothing out those awful cast runners! They were quite rough and it looked like the factory guys had just knocked down the high spots from the casting with a grinder. I borrowed Jason's Dremel and purchased some fine-grit sand paper. The Dremel was used to clean out all of the carbon deposits and to do a rough smoothing of the runners. Then I used progressively finer and finer sand paper (ending up with 400 or 480 grit) to give them a silky smooth surface. I considered port matching, but didn't have the proper cutting bits to take off that much metal, so I settled with making the runners nice and smooth and doing the same to the intake manifold. I think everybody in my dormitory thinks I'm crazy now, since I did all this work in my dorm room. Not to mention all the other parts that have made their way up there at one time (wheels, grille, carburetor…).
The Monday after finishing the short-block I took the 1.5 hour trip from my home to UC Davis: where I go to school and the resting place for my car for the time it was out of commission. Somehow I managed to drop the engine and transmission by myself. I didn't have a big floor jack, nor an engine hoist, so I had a hell of a time but finally cleared that hurdle.
My prize!
I returned home with the engine and transmission. Then the next day I made yet another trip to Wine Country Motors for more parts. After acquiring those, Jason and I continued assembling the long-block.
Here's Jason doing his best Vanna White impersonation...
Wednesday we loaded both the old and new engines into the trunk (another testament to the excellent space utilization and load capacity of the 128s) and set out for Wine Country Motors again. This time I was seeking some help in removing the crank pulley (which took a hub-puller and oxy-acetalyne torch to remove).
After finally getting that crank pulley off the old engine, we continued on our way to Davis. Once there we put everything else on the engine that could go on before installation (crank pulley, alternator, water pump, thermostat housing), put on a new timing belt, and adjusted the valves. By the time we finished with that it was getting late, so we were going to have to make another trip back up to Davis the next day. After stuffing the new engine and transmission in the trunk of my car we returned home.
Thursday was the Day of Reckoning. I had been working on this car my whole Spring Break and, quite frankly, was sick of it. Jason and I bolted the clutch and tranny to the engine. Showtime! We shoved the engine under the car, and then using a pair of scissor-jacks, spare tires, jumper cables, and a lot of muscle, began the slow process of lifting the engine and tranny into the car. Standing atop the strut towers, one of us would lift the engine with the jumper cables while the other positioned jacks and spare tires to support the engine. It was NOT fun! Jason suffered from a nasty gash when the tranny fell on his hand.
The two of us spent a couple of hours maneuvering the engine and transmission before we finally got everything in place. Once that was done, and all the engine/transmission mounts were in place, we began the slow process of hooking up electrical accessories, fuel, vapor, and water hoses, putting the suspension back together, mounting the manifolds and carburetor, etc.
Earlier in the afternoon we were visited by the UCD Transportation and Parking Services people who said we shouldn't really be working on our cars in the parking lot. I promised it was the last day we'd be working on it and that we'd clean up afterward. A little while later the Davis Police showed up as well. I explained the situation and they seemed a little stunned. They asked for some identification so they could check to make sure the car belonged to me (as if we'd be stripping some poor guy's Fiat in the middle of a big open parking lot, while it was still light out!). Once the dispatch radioed the registration info from my license plate #, they wished us luck and departed.
The trouble was well worth it when, at 3:30AM the little beast roared to life once again. It seemed happy with its new "heart" and idled happily and smoothly. Finally!
This page last updated: January 12, 2001
This page created: April 10, 1997
