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Cinquecento N246 UCF Mighty Mouse The First Van Aaken Turbo

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Introduction

Some may already know of this car. It was first registered to van aaken themselves and was their development car for their turbo kits. It was used as their press car and has so far featured in auto italia, an unknown French magazine also is in the small fiat book.

When I first saw this for sale I wanted it but didn't think that I would actually come to own it. To me it is such an important piece of cento history so has to be saved. Pics are to come I haven't got the car yet should be with me Tuesday when I'll be like a kid at Christmas.

The plan for now I'm going to give it a thorough service. Ill put on a new crank sensor and put a new engine loom on that ill mod to the turbo application as I believe current loom has been hacked about a bit this will also mean that a new lambda will plug straight in. That will get it running I'll chuck some new tyres on it to get it mot. Then I've got a mate who will hopefully spray the rear quarter for me then I'll treat it to a full machine polish, new graphics and a few bits under the bonnet re painting, re jigging etc. in the end I'd hope for it to look exactly like it did when it featured in auto italia.

The eventual plan is a full rebuild incl engine, stainless mani, oil cooler etc but that's to come once my 1.4 is finished to the spec that I want it

I've never owned a turbo petrol before so it's going to be a bit of a learning curve so there'll be plenty of silly questions appearing at one time or another:rolleyes:
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Yep it's resting on the mani so something is up gets hot that you can't touch it nearly. is yours a steel or Ali pipe? Still tempted to make something up better for it and the air filter needs sorting.something's up with it doesn't seem particularly fast at all think that's mainly the brake being stuck and this issue of inlet pipe. Think there'll be more bits and pieces on this car that'll freeze and unfreeze no doubt just because it's sat needs driving really
 
I'm surprised there are not more people looking at the Cinq rather than at that dreadful MR2 replica! ;)

A peek through some of J333EVOs or foxyemz pics should show a better route for the intercooler pipe. At one point I thought about double skinning the pipe and ducting air through it, in between the skins..............
 
Would it be possible to get a one piece "T" to replace all of those pipes, and jubilee clips? Not really on topic I know, but....

Also, maybe (once the pipe's moved a bit) use some exhaust wrap on the intercooler pipe, to keep the temps down?

Good to see it on the road :)
 
fingers99 said:
I'm surprised there are not more people looking at the Cinq rather than at that dreadful MR2 replica! ;)

A peek through some of J333EVOs or foxyemz pics should show a better route for the intercooler pipe. At one point I thought about double skinning the pipe and ducting air through it, in between the skins..............
Click to expand...

It got so many positive comments it's quite strange people were interested in the Ferraris then were equally interested in the cinq
 
Razman said:
Would it be possible to get a one piece "T" to replace all of those pipes, and jubilee clips? Not really on topic I know, but....

Also, maybe (once the pipe's moved a bit) use some exhaust wrap on the intercooler pipe, to keep the temps down?

Good to see it on the road :)
Click to expand...

That's the other issue too many joins in the pipe work. I'm hoping it'll be alright without the wrap once its in Ali the temp should change for the better
 
I think I might have it if I move the intercooler over around 70 odd mill then I can lay the pipe over bringing it well away from the exhaust mani. I'd need to change the towing eye to a screw in type but that's no issue already got one to make for the 16v. It will also mean that I can cut the other slot out and put the other gasket on so its equal. and some slats on the bumper out to aid flow to the inter cooler.

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These thoughts come from two blokes standing around it at Bristol who ran a garage specialising in delta coupe etc their knowledge on turbocharging was brill so a good 1hr was spent poking, asking questions etc given me lots of ideas about it
 
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You could probably -- never tried it -- move the towing eye to the other side (although it might mean popping a hole in the bumper). If that makes things easier. Others have moved the radiator to the passenger side.

I think it may be possible to pop the i/c pipe through the driver side wing and out again.

Again, I never got the chance to try this.
 
that t-piece for the dump valve makes me laugh everytime i look at pics of this car - its so Heath Robinson its untrue lol.

When you get that far, samco do lovely DV Tpiece ;) one of these https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/s/samco-hose-kits/samco-t-piece
which depends obviously on what size boost pipes you run - from driving mine and comparing to my old one (similar spec, but larger intercooler and wider boost pipes) i would highly recommend slightly larger than the VA pipework if your getting new stuff.
 
Currently looking at 50mm pipe work current is 38mm. Yeah that Dv pipe work is interesting its 50mm so various bits of silicone slipped over to make up the difference such a bodge

Current thinking is bigger intercooler,make up me plenum to accept 50mm pipe work and an off shoot for dv and 50mm pipe work. I have an AC tig welder and slowly learning Ali tig so this would be a nice project
 
my old one had PGT Intercooler with matching sized boost pipes, which has 51mm in/outlets iirc (i can see it from here will measure in a min)... if you find one complete with its oil cooler and you not got one thats also a nice tidy solution, its hangs off the back of the IC (y)

edit: yep 50mm OD the in/outs on the IC for a PGT
 
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Cheers definately something to look at. Calipers all done drives and brakes better still not that fast at all so something's not right think it's all quite tired needs freeing off/replacing. The pipe work and intercooler is next on the list along with engine mounts as there's quite a bad knock on acceleration from standstill

They're definately infectious. My dad seems to be quite taken with it (neither of us has dabbled with turbos at all before) he's even talking about building a 1.2 up that we have for turboing for maybe my 16v
 
Not really much to report done over 300miles now and the car seems to be getting a lot better. A lot of fun to drive. This coming week will see new engine mounts and the inlet tract sorting as I'm sure it's leaking I might also see if I can free up the dump valve a bit more seems to be quite slow to close
 
dump valves are inordinately expensive for what they are!! I had a baileys one fail once - they have an o-ring inside and it needed replacing - seemed to be some random size i couldn't find and Baileys wouldn't sell me a rebuild kit, said i had to send it off so they could do it :rolleyes: like its some kind of highly complicated part lol.

As a side note to that, the baileys one made a crap noise compared to every other one i ever owned - so not worth the money!
 
Well after the previous issues one leading me stuck at the side of the road for 6 hours which turned out to be a short causing the fuse to blow in the engine bay.the other issue was at brooklands when it kept stalling and struggling to restart which turned out to be a dodgy crank sensor if fitted when investigating the above issue.

All is now good been running this everyday 50 mile round trip and it's been awesome currently reading 94200 so done over 1000 miles since purchase. Got a leak on the cam cover and a blow on the down pipe but rest is all ok. Since fitted a camera system and cut out some of the slats out of the front bumper to get more air to intercooler also wound the dump valve in a bit and a lot of the lag that I was experiencing has gone hopefully get a bit more done before stanford
 
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