Right so you want to give your cinq/sei a bit of oomph

1st thing to consider over the standard 1108cc engine is an upgrade to the 1242 unit

Engine upgrades


Now if that doesnt satisfy your power needs or you already have a 1242 then you need a turbo: D

At this point no company makes an off the shelf or fitted turbo conversion for the Cento


This guide will mainly focus on the SPI (single point injection) engines for turbo’ing.
With the MPI (multi point) you could turbo it but it has a bit more work involved on the fuelling but follows the same basic principles.

Now the easiest option was to go to Van Aaken however unfortunately these have now been discontinued completely and VAD offer little or no support/info on these now

There low boost conversion provides an increase from 54bhp to 85bhp and 63 to 92 lbs ft on an 1108 engine.
The turbo kit includes:

• Garrett T15 Turbocharger
• vAD Custom Exhaust Manifold
• vAD Custom Stainless Steel Exhaust Down pipe .
• vAD Stainless Steel Boost Pipe
• Silicone Connecting Hoses .
• Steel Braided Oil Feed Line
• van Aaken MF2 module
• custom plenum chamber/2nd injector

Prior to discontinuing it, it cost around £1100 for the kit alone excluding fitting or postage if you’re to far away. remembering the whole thing would need to be set up on a rolling road after fitting adding at least another £100

Van Aaken used to provide a high boost conversion though this was discontinued as it proved a little problematic for them.this had the same parts as the low boost kit but also an intercooler and low compression pistons or a compression lowering head gasket plate.
This put out in the region of 100bhp

If you want a high boost you will either need to buy a cinq already fitted with one or convert a low boost kit to high boost.

The low boost kit doesn’t involve low comp pistons etc and runs at 0.3 bar.it can be fitted to either the 1108 or 1242 SPI units fairly easily by anyone handy with the spanners.

Novitec did do a 1.1 & 1.2 turbo conversion but these along with a lot of cento parts have been discontinued
Novitec


there 1.1 kit puts out 101bhp and the 1.2 puts out 118bhp. Although the 1.2 costs 5099 euros, and the 1.1 3399 euros. This includes fitting through novitec only and is not available as a DIY kit.

All of these kits are a bit pricey, what if I was to make my own?
Well forum member smokeme is the expert here.
Check out his site Smokeme
some info on pistons if you plan to high boost your cinq




Now that’s alright but what turbo engines can I just drop in?
Well the short answer is none

The 1.4 uno turbo engine will go in but requires serious inner wing mods plus lots more to make it fit.
It cost a forum member in the region of £3000 for an uno turbo conversion
some handy info here re: the 1.4
and is reputed to ruin the handling of the cinq/sei.
great in the straghts but terrible in the corners

The punto GT engine whilst very similar to the uno sits a little higher so would need even more work!

Whilst you are doing the sums for a turbo conversion don’t forget the implications on insurance!

now dont forget other factors such as brakes,suspension,oil cooler etc
see the other FAQ's and guides for more info

turbo discussion thread here

and some people are using megasquirt as a low cost MF2 alternative
megasquirt discussion thread can be found here

nice thread on preparing an engine for turboing
https://www.fiatforum.com/cinq-sei-technical/115502-1242-8v-spi-preparing-engine-turboing.html

and the burple thread
https://www.fiatforum.com/cinquecento-seicento/178435-turboing-burple.html

how about 167BHP from a 1250?

nice link for turbo specs/info/part numbers in the PDF's here
http://www.btnturbo.com/ (thanks to Arc for this)