I am new to the Fiat world and am taking on a fairly major task. I have a 68 850 sport spider and am going to swap the angine out for a new one. This is where it gets tricky. I have heard of people putting Mazda RX7 engines in these things, also my dad told me of others putting Porsche engines in these bad boys. Any info on engine swaps in these wonderful cars would be great. I am a very capable welder, and am a pretty capable mechanic. Thanks

Welcome to the forum!

What you have to bear in mind with the Fiat 850 is that, whilst the engine is identical to that fitted in many later front wheel drive fiats such as the Panda and 127, it acutally physically turns in the other direction. This means that if you want to fit a donar engine from another vehicle, you will have to take this into consideration.

The beauty of fitting the Porsche engine (and other engines from rear engined stuff) is that it will be turning in the right direction. The problem you face is that the 850 engine has quite a short block and head. Again, this is where the Boxer layout of a Porche motor would be good.

I have seen images on the .net of these cars fitted with Fiat Twincam motors although I don't know what is involved in this.

Your best bet might be to talk to some VW Beetle owners who have fitted Subaru engines and ask them how they got round the "turns in the wrong direction" issue...

You are joking about the engine turning the other way to a standard 903cc aren't you? Wouldn't it be much easier for FIAT to sort out the drive direction through the gearbox rather than creating new engine peripherals, oil pump, water pump etc so that the engine could go the other way?

With the X1/9 they just took FIAT 128 running gear and moved it backwards - the only real change being the gear linkage.

I've changed my mind about the engine swap thing for now. Right now I just want to make it a nice weekend cruiser. Now here's where I'm at.

I want to make it a little peppier( i.e. cams, carb) stuff like that. I would like to know what parts I could get off of other Fiats that would fit onto my car to pick up some power. Also, I would like to know where I could get some new performance products.

I'm also very interested in upgrading the suspension system. My ultimate goal is to autocross this bad boy. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

My father was a FIAT Service Manager in the 70's and 80's so I asked him about the sport spider. Image my surprise when the first thing he commented on was the engine turning the other way to when they then fitted it to the 127's . Looks like FIAT are completely bonkers after all !

Sorry for not believing you Alfa Delta !

I built and autocrossed (SCCA) a 69 Fiat 850 spider for 35 years and won 2 national championships in 79 and 80. The car was known as "Mighty Mouse".
If you want more detailed info e-mail me. I have tons of pics and a complete list of info and mods.

I built and autocrossed (SCCA) a 69 Fiat 850 spider for 35 years and won 2 national championships in 79 and 80. The car was known as "Mighty Mouse".
If you want more detailed info e-mail me. I have tons of pics and a complete list of info and mods.

Fiat8501 said:

If you want more detailed info e-mail me.

Click to expand...

Unlikely as the thread is over 15 years old.
.

My brother and I are building out the engine on a 1970 Spider. What is your email so I can ask you for a list of mods/ideas?

thanks,

Dave