(G) uno 1.5i (75hp) lousy power delivery

The engine looks and sounds sweet, has only driven about 180.000km (110k miles?) I tried replacing the whole injection unit and put a new fuel pump on it, performance increased only mildly. Now I picked up an uno 70 with a weber carb (1.3 engine) but it has no registration. Well tested it a bit on the country roads and its like A LOT faster than the 75. Goes around 12 seconds to 100kmh I think. Since the blocks are the same should I try the weber carb/mechanic fuel pump on the fuel injected car? (cat is removed anyways) Should it work flawlessly with my electronic ignition system and stuff? Or do I have to install the alternator and wiring and ****e like that from the 70hp car?If I replace the intake manifold I think I can connect all the tubes just as they are on the old 70 model. Should work, I think. Then again I dunno whats the connection between bosch ecu and ignition electronics. And stuff..

btw, any ideas on what may cause the low power on the 75? Its really dreadful. Cam looks like brand new and compression is good.

You are sure it gets enough air? Take a test drive without the air filter box. This is hasardious to your cam, so only a short trip - not on a dusty country road.

And - the fuel filter. It's propably sized like a 25 cl cokebottle in plain metal color. It's on mine - an 1.1ieS. I change it every year, and it's full of dirt every time. Yours might be clogged. Also, check the oil breather so it isn't contaminated with old hardened oil, not letting pressure by.

Morten.

tnx but since if I bothered to change the injector and the fuel pump, I've tried all those.

Check that the cam timing is correct - sounds like a jumped tooth to me. Is there a pointer at top of cam cover mounting plate? Should line up with notch in (back of) cam pulley when engine turned to TDC (0 mark on transmission bellhousing), or rightmost mark as you look at front of cambelt cover.

Also check ignition timing by attaching a timing light to #1 or #4 spark plug lead assuming that you have leads and not coil packs. Should be approx. ten degrees with engine idling (leftmost mark as you look at front of cambelt cover).

Just a couple of ideas.
-Alex

BTW - I have never seen an Uno 75, must be awesome to drive, with same torque as my X1/9 1500 so acceleration to 100km/h should be well within ten seconds :-)

Sorry one more (obvious) suggestion - blocked catalytic converter, as I just remembered that Uno 75s have these? That would account for the symptoms. Can you get an exhaust shop to test the cat? There are some simple tests I have read - check temperature of cat after long drive - should be hotter after the cat than before it. Emissions check should of course display a not-working cat straight away. Probably about 0.3%-0.5% CO (guessing) with cat working, 1.5% to 2% without?

Best test though would be (temporary :-) substitution with piece of straight pipe.

-Alex

oh well tried a pipe (the whole set) from an uno 70 (1,3 carb) and the sound got a lot uglyer and there was even less power :P
Installed a weber carb from the uno 70 and noticed that when the spark plugs are out, the engine is "spitting" out coolant from ALL the cylinders...I'm not sure but its possible this was happening with the FI on. Any ideas? Is it likely on such engine that the head gasket has blown so that all the cylinders have about the same amount of coolant in 'em? Then again when I was driving the car it had no coolant loss I could detect. Damn, confusing.

Check inlet manifold (remove, clean, replace gaskets) as the inlet manifold has a coolant feed to it, and that would explain the coolant in all cylinders.

Otherwise it's some massive head gasket failure as you suspect :-(

Sorry that it wasn't the exhaust system, you obviously went to some trouble there.

-Alex