(G) Power? What power.

I have a 1.0 ie Uno. the engine runs smooth and as quiet as a mouse but has very little power, even for a 1 litre. Does anyone have any ideas what i should do to make it pick up a little quicker. when it does finally get going its fine but doesnt want to know at low revs. Its not juddering at all and temp is fine. Definately not head gasket. Any ideas?

..cleaned out the carb on mine and seems to be running much much smoother at low revs now...there was another post here by John in the last week which kinda covered this...Dave:)

Well, don´t know if my example will be a good idea for you...

I have a Uno Mille EP 1996, i.e engine, with 58hp from factory (here in Brazil)... I could boost the little power installing a 1.5 i.e valves, camshaft... well, the upper part of the motor...

My car have now about 65hp... I´m satisfied, but running through a injection upgrade...

I don´t know much of the Uno history in Europe... did you have this 1.5 liter engine there? Some parts suits perfectly the 1.0 liter engine.

Hei.

The 1,5 litre engine exists in Europe, at least in Norway. It is very rare though, and I think it's only deliverd as mkII. Interesting that the parts suit the engine.

Morten.

HI, i had a problem like that with my uno 1.0 i.e and after trying loads of things that didnt work, i put some injector cleaner in with a fuul tank of petrol and it sorted the problem!

Had the same results last week. A bottle of injector cleaner seems to have sorted most of my worries but mine was not running very smoothly and even a tin of carb cleaner sprayed in did not help.

Cleaners will help make the engine run smoother, but you're not really likely to get much in the way of extra power by just adding some cleaner to the injectors/carb.

If it's a sudden drop in power, then there's something wrong somewhere:

I'd look at the basics first - Airfilter, leads, does she need a full service, etc.

Then maybe look at compression testing, if that's low that may will lead to a drop in power.

If the power loss hasn't been sudden, but you're noticing that it's lacking. It could just be you're getting used to the relatively low output from a 1litre unit. And in which case the only way to get more power, is to get a bigger engine. Speaking from experience I wouldn't waste your money on "upgrades" for your engine. (K&N airfilter, performance exhaust, etc). You're really only going to see a few more horsepower, and, honestly, you'll hardly notice a difference. This, of course, is different for the more performance based Uno's, like the Uno Turbo.

Excellent answer Circolo

Ignition timing being off is a major power sap for the 1-litre, I've found. Usually because of the vacuum advance capsule being leaky and the static timing being played with to compensate, usually making the idle rough as a bonus.

I don't like performance air filters myself, mainly because they usually don't filter as well as the standard types, and even on the Uno Turbo there's little difference. I'd say on the 45 the difference would be less than one horsepower 'Car Mechanics' magazine put a cone filter on a Nova a few years ago and actually noticed a tiny drop in power, within the error of the measurement process though!

It would be a different story if the carb(s) were bigger, cam a bit hotter etc. I reckon.

-Alex

on older/high mileage cars i find that an additive to remove the water from the fuel tank works great

Thanks Alex

When I used to run the Uno Turbo owners club in the UK, we found exactly the same issue with K&N's, particularly, (and rather strangely) more so on the Mk1 1301cc units. Our conlusion was the airfilter location, (on the end of the airflow meter). Which effectively meant the air being drawn through the filter was as warm as the engine bay area.

A solution that some of my members used was to doctor the injector fan, and add ducting from that to the filter, and have it permantly switched. But even then the power increase was marginal. Personally I'd say a good clean standard panel filter, is as good as, if not better than a K&N cone filter strapped straight on the airflow meter. As for a replacement K&N panel filter, we found these were generally a little better than the standard panel filter, but again only by a small margin.

Hi circolo what uno turbo club was you running was it turbo collective, if so what was your screen name, Ant!

We were called "Circolo", hence the username.

I ran the club through mail, as it was prior to the internet boom. Operated from an address in Buckhurst Hill, Essex.

We had several features in Revs, and Fastcar at the time. One of which featured a MK1, with Mk2 wings, bonnet and bumper. (The best of both worlds, in lots of peoples eyes).

I had one of only a small number of MK1's with the "Taifun" twin headlamp conversion in the UK. Not the more common and dodgy looking small square lamps either side, but the much nice, and rarer twin round lamps, with complete grill.

We use to use a performance parts company called "Auto sensation", who supplied all manner of performance parts, from 80mm lowering springs, that didn't de-seat when on full jack, to uprate metal rear mounts, to uprate camber adjustble top front mounts. Unfortunately they're no longer trading.

But who knows I may just be re-visiting my Uno Turbo days, if I can source some re-conditioned parts, and I have the time to do so....