jjhepburn said:
Or you can fit the cam shaft from an Uno 60 (1108cc). We did some sums and figured that the cam shaft must be better since from 999cc to 1108cc you are going up 10% in engine capacity will gaining 33% more power (also fit the carb from the 60). Or better still just fit the entire engine. You gain 33% on power while gaining stuff all weight
and the fuel economy is practically the same.
Interesting that. I was told that the heads and camshafts on the Uno 45, Punto 55 and Punto 60 were the same. Without the cam timing figures (lift and duration) it's difficult to say for sure.
The single choke 60 carb (on the 1108cc engines) is exactly the same as the 45 999cc engines. Also, though it's called a Uno 60 I think it actually only puts out 54 bhp. The earlier 1116cc engine with a Weber twin carb puts out 58 bhp. Only a few jets are different between the 999cc and 1108cc carbs. Therefore you can use the 45 carb and just change some of the jets to bring it up to 60 spec. Check the Haynes manual and you'll see the specifications for both 45 and 60 models.
Another thing worth noting is that the early 999cc FIRES (pre '87 roughly) had a slightly higher compression ratio than the later 999cc engines. This was achieved by the cylinder head having slightly smaller combustion chambers.
The key to liberating extra power on the small FIRE engines is to change the camshaft. The original design was meant for low down torque and economy, something it achieved very well! But the camshaft stops the engine from breathing at higher revs, which is why with the 999cc engines you don't really gain anything from revving much beyond 5000rpm. Maximum torque is way down at 2750 rpm so this is where you actually want the engine to be to get the best out of it. A higher lift camshaft will allow the engine to breathe better and will allow the engine to produce more power at higher revs. You will lose some torque at the bottom end though, but should still have a very tractable and nice engine to drive with.
Another thing, the Panda 4x4 (classic Panda) had 50 bhp from its 999cc engine compared with 45 bhp from the Uno and the standard Pandas. Again, this was achieved by having a different camshaft so if you can find a 4x4 Panda camshaft you will instantly gain 5bhp!
If I get the time and money I want to go the 1242 Punto 60 engine route and fit the camshaft from the Punto 75. The Punto 75 engine will physically fit (and has larger valves and inlet tracts in the head), BUT the inlet manifold stud spacing is totally different from the 60 engine due to the MPI system. The manifold from the carb FIRES will not fit unfortunately, and the 75 manifold is a 'dry' design that is not meant to have fuel entering from the throttle body area.
So there are many options available to uprate a 999cc Uno. Who's going to try and make a little road rocket out of their FIRE engine then?!!!!!!
