Hi fellow Cento enthusiasts!

Some of you may remember Chii a 1.4 16v Cinquecento running megasquirt 1 which I bought from another forum member called arc around 4 years ago. Well the shell was pretty scabby underneath when I bought it but the plan from an early stage was to re-shell into a Black Seicento Abarth named 'Nero'. Life in general has got in the way since and Chii has sat in my workshop for 4 years... until this past week!!

Tasks this week have included;
- Removing the Cinquecento dash
- Carefully stripping out the wiring loom inside and in the engine bay whilst labelling all the connections from the Cinquecento ready for install into the Seicento
- Removing the front bumper, radiator and all cooling pipes
- Removed supersprint 4-2-1 manifold and exhaust system including a supersprint back box
- Removed gearbox
- Removed engine
- Reading up on the install arc did, studying the notes arc made and the wiring loom diagrams from the Haynes manual.

There are quite a few things I'll be changing with the install into the Seicento, such as the perished engine mounts to Polybush type items, 6 speed Stilo gearbox, Quaife ATB-LSD etc. A lot of the parts I already have but I'll try to document the install and changes as best as possible on here.

Thanks for reading,
Tom

Good to see Arc's old car getting a new lease of life inside a newer body.

I'm going to like this! Specialy because i'm back to the Cento life

Tom!!!! Your back welcome back buddy

should be a good build, i can't help but shed a tear fro Chi though, loved that car :'(

Hi All,

Good to see some familiar users still on here after all these years.

Unfortunately I've not had a chance to get in the workshop much since my last post. When I have been down there it's mainly been for work on my MR2 daily driver which takes priority.

Last week however I had a chance to start removal of the loom from the engine bay and the sections where it passes through the bulkhead, just a couple more wires to remove until liberated! Removing parts of the dash and heater matrix slowed removal down a little bit.

I plan to have at least a couple of days cracking on with it over the Christmas Hols. I'll try to remember to keep taking pics as I go along.

Cheers,
Tom

Good to hear from you!

Given the amount of time that had passed, I did think the shell might be in poor state. Real shame, as Chii :'(

If you need to help wrt the wiring, or anything - lmk - I'm still about. I think I did give you a copy of all the notes I made, if not - I do have copies still. (can't let go).

Subscribed

Finished off the loom removal from Chii and investigated the engine not turning freely without the spark plugs in. Now looking a bit bare.

Noticed no movement at all from the alternator on first inspection so slackened off the bolts to remove the belt and surprise surprise the alternator wont turn at all.

Do you remember which alternator you used Arc?
I notice the Belt is very narrow too... I seem to remember reading it was for clearance. 1108 alternator on the right hand side.

Also been looking at upgrading to MS2 from MS1. Anybody else done this? A local rolling road suggested MS2 to improve driveability.

Aww Chii

https://www.fiatforum.com/cinquecen...cinquecento-development-thread.html?p=1898010

arc said:

one of the problems was that the TDC sensor is in a different location. On the cento, from the crank it goes;
"cam belt | aux belt | TDC trigger ring" This is because its a bit tight with the engine mount. On the 16v's it goes "cam belt| TDC Trigger ring | aux belt". This means if you use the cento alternator and pulley, the TDC sensor is looking at the aux belt, not the teeth. But if you use the 16v alterantor and pulley then the belt fouls the engine mount.

Options are, grind away some of the mount or move the TDC sensor.

Now i know how finicky TDC sensors are and the nightmere it can cause if they're not bob on.. so i chose to leave it alone and attack the mount.

Click to expand...

The engine came from a Stilo and had AC. I sold that alternator as the pulley was different. I can't remember exactly where that one came from, likely a non-AC Stilo (or some other 16v).

edit:

https://www.fiatforum.com/cinquecen...nquecento-development-thread-3.html?p=1902704

arc said:

ah, the 1242 has the TDC in the same place as the 1368 tho - in fact im using the 1242 pulley on the 1368 engine as the 1368 pulley had too many grooves and was slightly larger diameter, so would overdrive the (1242) alternator and with it being bigger it was not helping with the clearance issues!!

Click to expand...

I remember I had a scrapped Brava (1242 16v) engine in the garage, so the alternator maybe came off that.

Cheers Arc. Sounds like a 16v non AC version should be just the ticket!

I've spent some time looking into the engine mounts this evening.

Forward Gearbox Mount
Should be fine, I installed one of the Strongflex inserts (red one) on the mount originally fitted in the Seicento so will re-use that.

Rear Gearbox Mount
Red Strongflex inserts ready to install. Need to dig out any info on how to remove all of the original rubber in the mount. Looks like it re-uses the tube down the middle...

Cam Belt Side Engine Mount
Red Strongflex inserts came with a tube but the inserts themselves don't fit the engine mount when all the rubber is removed, they're too big. I removed the mount from Chii and set about removing a metal collar with tabs holding the rubber in, side by side the rectangular hole is larger on the mount removed from Chii so I'm thinking I have the Cinquecento inserts rather than the Seicento versions (Need to check part numbers against listing on Strongflex website). I must have bought these over 5 years ago.

Also investigated mating the 1.4 16v engine to a Stilo 6 speed gearbox I bought from Matt_Cento years ago, mainly to fit the Quaife ATB LSD. Out of the 5 fiat gearboxes I have in the workshop one was different but quite a bit different, comparing them on the work bench it took me a while to realise one was from an 899cc and the Stilo gearbox must be back at my parents place. DOH!

Cam belt side there are two different types.

Think the sei one is bigger, but you can find the info on their website!

Ming

Reconditioned alternator sourced and on it's way. Hope it arrives for fitting this weekend!!

Back to work!

I managed to get back onto this over the Christmas break and ended up stripping back all of the front wheel arch fittings including springs and dampers as there was some surface rust starting to bubble through under there. Looks like Fiat primered the bare metal then covered with a thin layer of seam sealer before a dark top coat so not as easy as first thought and quite a time consuming task even with a wire brush drill bit. Plan to clean, POR15 prep, POR15 piant and you've guessed it... POR15 chassis paint. Should give some decent protection for years to come.

When removing the front spring and damper units I noticed the RHF suspension coil spring was broken (now in two bits rather than one), a great excuse to order a full set of the Bilstein B4 Gas shocks with Eibach Pro lowering springs (-30mm from standard). Correct me if I'm wrong but I understand the Sportings to be -20mm from standard models making this overall a -10mm drop on a sporting if that makes sense... hardly any change from the standard sporting set up so should be good for everyday use and not too low for the bloody speed bumps around Warwickshire!

I've also started removing a lot of the engine bay wiring to the original 1108 engine working with the Haynes Cinq manual, I quickly noticed it was different in areas and the relay layout was quite different. Thankfully I've just spotted the Seicento Technical manual in the downloads section complete with wiring diagrams so that should speed things up nicely!

Looking to tidy up the original wiring which which needs to stay and then make up a custom megasquirt loom. Not decided on whether to ditch the MS1 for an MS3 yet. Anyone got any suggestions on this? Lastly, does anyone have, or know where I can get the fiat Stilo engine loom diagrams? A Fiat Stilo technical Manual like the Seicento one would be perfect.

Cheers,
Tom

yes if the springs are sold as s/sx ones then they will lower a sporting 20mm less that advertised. Its a personal thing ride height but tbh i have found i never caught anything with -40/40 sporting springs, was only when i went to 60/60 i had issues but even then it wasn't that bad really, hard and uncomfortable yes but rarely caught anything really but i was careful not to at the same time if that makes sense.

I agree Blu, I always thought lowering and stiffer springs was the way to go until I put my Mk3 MR2 on coilovers with vastly reduced ride height. Great for smooth tarmac, not so good for the patchwork quilt road surfaces around here at the moment.

Springs, dampers and strut top mounts have all arrived Just need to get some dust boots for the front dampers, should be good for few years then on the suspension side of things.