Hi, I have a Giardiniera and the standard engine blew up. It dropped a valve head into the cylinder and destroyed one piston and the head.
I also have a 650cc 126 square engine with low mileage, as I understand it was used at an Airport and never on the road. The question is how much can i reuse in the 650 engine to rebuild the Giardiniera. I'm not after a highly tuned engine, but more power would not go amiss, as we are often 4 people in the Giardiniera. What would be the most economical rebuild with the maximum reuse.
1. Head is different of course, and valves, but can I reuse the 650 springs, and rockers, Push rods and tubes?
2. Gardiniera Block would need machining and I would need spacers rings to fit the 650 pots/pistons. Can I reused the 650 con rods and bearings, crank shaft and bearings?
3. What about the 650 cam shaft and timing chain? I suspect the cam shaft is different because the distributer is in a different place? Can I reuse the Giardi cam?
4. What would I need to do to the Giardi Carb?
5. Is a Giardiniera tuned exhaust worth the extra cost?
Many thanks in anticipation of your help.
Steve

I have long fantasized about doing something similar if my engine blew up but it hasn't.
A.G. has a nice offer for cylinder kits no requiring spacers:
https://webshop.fiat500126.com/en/e...50-ccm-_500-block_-with-pistons_rings-premium
And this outfit offers converted engines, so they're presumably knowledgeable about the details and parts required:
http://www.ilmotore.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p197_competition-engine-30-HP-Giardiniera.html
I have an A.G. "sport" exhaust, it sounds nice/borderline antisocial, but can't say that it improves a standard engine's perf.

I think Tom the hobbler is a bit of an expert on this. But I think the parts you are hoping might fit are easily available new. As far as I know, the pistons, con-rods etc are the same components as astandard 500 but I don't think there's much else. I'm guessing spend your money on new barrels and pistons and get the block and head modified professionally.

Please keep us posted, engines are always interesting.

giardini said:

I have long fantasized about doing something similar if my engine blew up but it hasn't.
A.G. has a nice offer for cylinder kits no requiring spacers:
https://webshop.fiat500126.com/en/e...50-ccm-_500-block_-with-pistons_rings-premium
And this outfit offers converted engines, so they're presumably knowledgeable about the details and parts required:
http://www.ilmotore.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p197_competition-engine-30-HP-Giardiniera.html
I have an A.G. "sport" exhaust, it sounds nice/borderline antisocial, but can't say that it improves a standard engine's perf.

Click to expand...

Having built a couple of engines with spacers it is not a major problem but I like the Issa of the longer 650 cylinders but do bear in mind that AG price is for one cylinder & piston.

Thanks All for your comments and information!

Apologies for the delay in answering this query---been away seeing ancient mother before i am "confined to barracks" for 12 weeks. When I was at Radbourne Racing our parts/run-about van was a Giardi van with a 650 Nardi conversion, and very successful it was too. The cranks are the same, the con-rods are the same, the head can still be used as can the cam-shaft, although you might as well get a slightly 'warmer' cam and enjoy the benefits if the capacity enlargement. The crank-case will require machining out to take the 650 barrels (the largest you can sensibly fit into a Giardi). The barrel aperture needs to be taken out to between 82.95 and 83.08mm--use the 650 barrel copper 'O' rings between barrel and crankcase, and possibly (if you can get one) a thinner copper head gasket. As for whether you will need a 'spacer plate', you will have to measure the depth of the 650 barrels vis-a-vie the original 500 barrels. We did NOT fit spacer plates with the 'Nardi' kits. As far as I am aware the original carb, suitably re-jetted, was used on the Radbourne run-about, but the Weber dept kept what they did very close to their chests. It is possible to get a larger carb---the best man for tuning the Giardi engine is Torsten Hanenkamp at:-- www.ilmotore.de. Don't forget, if you fit a new cam, fit new cam followers and ALWAYS fit a new timing chain/sprockets assembly.If I can help you out in any way, contact me direct on:[email protected]

Ciao

So we re just finishing off a mild mod tuned version of this - 500 head skimmed on 126 with 77.6 barrels
Have a wider angle cam from Vesio racing in Milan - yes unique to Giardi - going to go for porting and larger valves shortly and opened custom exhaust into an original Abarth silencer
Micro adjustment to cam timing to get close to 1 deg tolerance rather than the dots

Ill have it all fired up shortly and come back to you with results - already CR is 10.1:1
Larger carb from 238 van -completely side draught - on custom 32 to 27mm reducer and I gather FZD can work also as is sort of side draught

Best
Mark

If you have contacts in Italy, rather than trying to adapt a FZD (which sits at 20 deg to horizontal) ask them to try and find you a "Dellorto OVC34/30D" (MUST be the 'D' variant) off an Ape 'Poker' van. It is a sort of side-draught FZD. The reason that it MUST be the 'D' variant is that as far as I am aware, only this variant (off the Ape) has an accelerator pump---the variant that is used on outboard engines does not.
With regard to valves if you haven't already attended to them, I would suggest that you go up 2mm on the inlet size, but retain the exhaust 'as is'.
For 'road only' use, i wouldn't go any more than 10:1 compression ratios