All cleaned up and ready for refit.

I know there are some forum mates who like to see Fiat part numbers. So especially for them:

I still think bashing the Bejeebers out of it would have been much more entertaining...
We could had had a whole thread on how you could repair it...
It's not like they are rare..

I have to retract any subliminal mockery that may have been implied by my previous comments. With those slots and raised fins I suspect that the early oil-spinner cover may be helpful as an aid to cooling.

All went well and, after giving everything a clean up, i was ready to put it all back together. I had a look through my manual for the torque setting only to find that the required torque figure is below the lowest setting available on my torque wrench so I’ve treated myself to a 1/4 inch drive wrench so I’m now delayed awaiting the arrival courtesy of Royal Mail.

When I removed the rear panel I was pleased to find that gaskets are in place where the captive bolts are to minimise abrasion of the paintwork between the panel and the rear wings. These gaskets are only the thickness of stiff paper and I’m now wondering whether I should renew them. What do you think?

Can the later type crankshaft pulley/centrifugal oil filter be fitted to the earlier engines?

AL.

F123C said:

Can the later type crankshaft pulley/centrifugal oil filter be fitted to the earlier engines?

AL.

Click to expand...

I can say yes... as I have an early engine with the later pulley, I'm sure Sean will know for sure as he has both early and late engines, however there are also differences between the early D engine and the N engine, so it may need a few other bits swapping...
I just don't have an engine in bits...


It is good to see more interest in the early cars.... and I hope that such contributions show how (yes I admit it) Fiat developed the 500 based on what they learned from the early cars...
lots of nice features that are just not practical.....


I hope we see a few more people taking the plunge...

Well they do say sh*t happens, and it did. Everything cleaned up really well including spending time doing some work behind the pulley that would not normally be accessible. Then greased and fitted a new o-ring, carefully fitted and torqued up the cover bolts followed by replacing the dynamo belt. Feeling everything was going well I refitted the engine mount and the rear panel. Next came the fresh oil, careful with the quantity. What a great time I’m having. Now checked over all the nuts and bolts before climbing in the car. I gave the starter lever a two or three second pull to prime the oil around, then ignition on and after a couple of seconds the engine fires and sounds sweet, great I thought BUT a niggling told me to turn off and have a quick glance to make sure all’s well and there I see it: there is oil coming through the cover! I can feel an edge. Somehow I now have a cracked filter cover! What the heck has happened I don’t know ?, I was super careful, the garage is always shut when I’m not there, I didn’t drop it, nothing.

Anyway, now the next job will be to strip it all out again and see where we go from here. Peter has said in the past how difficult it is to repair these covers. So the question on my mind is what to use? I’m thinking that having the cover welded without it being bolted to something solid is likely to cause distortion but whatever it was bolted to would have to allow access to the inside to weld. Ive heard a great deal about the supposed amazing properties of JB Weld, I’ve never used it but it has been suggested to me. Anyone got thoughts on this?

IanEmery said:

................... I can feel an edge. Somehow I now have a cracked filter cover! What the heck has happened I don’t know ��, I was super careful, the garage is always shut when I’m not there, I didn’t drop it, nothing.

Click to expand...

As the sun is shining..... I can imagine your frustration....
If you get desperate, I can pull a cover from an engine and lend it to you....
to repair, I would have someone tig weld it both sides, then someone could could true it up on a lathe, careful Tig welding would minimize distortion... especially if you could supply the steel part of the pulley that it could be bolted to and act as a heat sink... and bolt it to the other face using washers as spacers...

Us early Prototipi owners must stick together....

Bigvtwin996 said:

As the sun is shining..... I can imagine your frustration....
If you get desperate, I can pull a cover from an engine and lend it to you....
to repair, I would have someone tig weld it both sides, then someone could could true it up on a lathe, careful Tig welding would minimize distortion... especially if you could supply the steel part of the pulley that it could be bolted to and act as a heat sink... and bolt it to the other face using washers as spacers...

Us early Prototipi owners must stick together....

Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer, Peter, really appreciated but I’ve got the other car and, for the sake of a bit of work and a drop of oil, I can use the one from there for now.

But thanks again

Your idea for repair sounds good, I’ll visit some local companies.

IanEmery said:

,,,,,,,,,I’ve got the other car and, for the sake of a bit of work and a drop of oil, I can use the one from there for now.

Click to expand...

ahh yes I forgot the other benefit of Prototipi cars.. "Mitosis"...

but taking the pulley off the other car will limit your choice of driving experience

Bigvtwin996 said:

........ will limit your choice of driving experience

Click to expand...

With repairing all the other things around the house that keep breaking, plus getting the motorhome ready for the summer, my 500 driving has been, unfortunately, seriously curtailed.

Today’s episode involved trying to obtain parts for a, non sports model, Stannah! :bang: :bang:

F123C said:

Can the later type crankshaft pulley/centrifugal oil filter be fitted to the earlier engines?

AL.

Click to expand...

Yes you can fit the later pulley and oil filter cover.
They have the same fitting to the crankshaft and the journal is the same diameter so no difference in the crankshaft oil seal.
The later ones are more robust and allow the filter to be cleaned without removing the fan belt.


Ian I imagine your problem is more than likely a badly fitted oil seal or slightly raised areas where the two parts meet.
Hopefully all will become clear when you remove it.

Franko500 said:

Yes you can fit the later pulley and oil filter cover.

Click to expand...

I knew he would give a definitive answer....
All Sean needs is a 57 car to complete the set....

Advance warning - A Confession is coming from one of our older members with a slight eyesight problem :devil:

Franko500 said:

Ian I imagine your problem is more than likely a badly fitted oil seal or slightly raised areas where the two parts meet.
Hopefully all will become clear when you remove it.

Click to expand...

And the prize goes to.......Sean.

I have to come clean.

Today I’ve had ‘da boys’ round and the general opinion is that I’m mad :nutter:, no really, and that where I thought oil had come through a crack in the cover I had jumped to the wrong conclusion. Following good advice I’ve had acetone in the cover for days to see if there was any seepage and today we filled it with petrol and still nothing. So the next stage was to rebuild. Started the engine to find a fine spray covered the fan belt and dynamo pulley, etc. Stripped it down again and carefully checked everything over. One of ‘da boys’, big Phil, says “Give us yer vernier” and we’ve discovered what we think is causing the oil leakage: the O ring grove is between 2.7 - 2.8mm deep but the replacement O ringis 2.6mm diameter! All the suppliers sites list just one O ring, which I bought from Passione500, and I’m wondering if the early 500, Ns and early Ds, with this filter cover used a thicker ring. I’m going to order a 3.00mm Vitron O ring and gently face the filter cover on very fine wet and dry paper and hope that with this done the mating faces will align.

Red face but hopefully sorted.

Hi All,

An update on this situation: I carefully faced off the filter plate on very fine wet’n’dry and awaited delivery of the 3.00mm O ring. Today I’ve rebuilt the oil filter and I’m pleased to be able to report that everything appears good. As I wrote earlier in the thread I couldn’t imagine how the filter plate had got damaged but when, after the first rebuild, there was oil spray I convinced myself I could see damage on it. :shakehead:

A lesson has been learnt regarding the purchase of parts in that parts that are serviceable for later engines aren’t necessarily the correct part for these early, prototipo cars and I will make sure in future to measure any seals or O rings, etc, to confirm their suitability. :nono: Ahhhh

Also not to be pessimistic and jump to conclusions :bang:

Thanks to everyone for helpful comments and advice