I,m having some moddified head work from Dave, (Mr Fix-it) here on the forum, and so maybe he would be a good source to ask about repairing , modding your engine's.

Clearly these things do take longer than expected...

Just spoke to the garage and the head has been sent off to get skimmed and pressure tested. Due back tomorrow.

Here is a summary of the three engines
1) Original engine - looks like a timing belt failure as there is damage to the valves
2) Replacement engine 1 - This is the one that came with the car. The head is heavily pitted and my mechanic would not recommend fitting this back on an engine without some serious refurbishment.
3) Replacement engine 2 - This is the one that I sourced and is currently in the car awaiting the head to come back from the machine shop.

One interesting point is that the original engine was fitted with high lift cams These have now been installed in the head of replacement engine 2 This will hopefully help with getting the car running as the ECU will have been mapped to the original engine with these cams. So should be running around 160 bhp if everything goes to plan.

Good job the garage I am using is a Fiat/ Alfa specialist as I can imagine most would have given up before now.

Don't think there is going to be much mileage in trying to build a decent spare engine out of the original engine and replacement engine 1 as they both appear to have had hard lives.

So the head will be back on tomorrow and they will be trying to turn the engine over for the first time. No guarantees that it will fire up though as there are some wiring issues to sort such as the RPM and lambda sensors.

Hopefully I will have another positive update before the end of the week.

Cheers

Dave

Hey Dave,

Wishing you well with getting the new engine going.
Your B was originally fitted with electronic launch control too,
Does it still have it?
And do you know if your running the standard ECU or do you have another stand alone.

Did you manage to speak with the original engine tuners.
They seemed quite helpful when I contacted them.

KC3 said:

Hey Dave,

Wishing you well with getting the new engine going.
Your B was originally fitted with electronic launch control too,
Does it still have it?
And do you know if your running the standard ECU or do you have another stand alone.

Did you manage to speak with the original engine tuners.
They seemed quite helpful when I contacted them.

Click to expand...

Thanks

Yes, it still has the launch control but not sure if it all works as yet. I have a wiring diagram and 3.5'' floppy disc to help with any fault finding. Might struggle to find a computer with a floppy drive though

All I know about the ECU side is that there is serial type computer cable in the passenger footwell which I assume is there to allow you to connect to the ECU. Unfortunately I don't know much else as I haven't had any time to get to know the B inside out yet as it went straight into the garage from the breakers yard.

I haven't called the original tuners yet but will do once the engine is fired up

Cheers

Dave

Bad news on your "good " engine

I fitted a "good" gearbox into a Ford i still own back in 2011 and drove round the block and knew it was faulty immediately.

Did the whole job all over again.

Dave,
How is the progress with your Barchetta?

Any closer to having her running.

KC3 said:

Dave,
How is the progress with your Barchetta?

Any closer to having her running.

Click to expand...

I spoke to the garage yesterday and the head is back on and they are going to try to get it fired up this morning. So by lunchtime it will either be :bang: or

Dave Henry said:

I spoke to the garage yesterday and the head is back on and they are going to try to get it fired up this morning. So by lunchtime it will either be :bang: or

Click to expand...

GOOD LUCK!

She lives and then she died :bang:

The garage got it running this morning but didn't think that a splash of fresh petrol would be needed so started it on 9 year old unleaded . Now it wont start and has a fault light on the dash

I am hoping that once they flush through some fuel and reset the fault codes it will fire up again but you never can tell. Is there any damage that could be caused by running on petrol that old?

Apparently it did sound good when it was running which is surprising.

Hopefully get another update before the end of the day or maybe tomorrow or Friday..... eight weeks and counting in the garage

I know how you feel,but trust me,when you get it back all your troubles will be in the distant past.I was out in mine yesterday,sun shining roof down,no better place to be.hope you get it back asap

biscotti said:

I know how you feel,but trust me,when you get it back all your troubles will be in the distant past.I was out in mine yesterday,sun shining roof down,no better place to be.hope you get it back asap

Click to expand...

Thanks. If you can have a smile on your face after the journey you have had, there is hope for me yet

Cheers

Dave

Good luck, hopefully it is good news soon The 1747cc is a really great engine I really like it.

This morning's update

- No fuel pressure
- Code light
- Oil leak from the crank and oil pump
- The launch control system has been removed at this stage as it has been throwing up some issues.

They are stripping down the oil pump this morning to try and get the oil leak sorted. Once this is done they hope to be able to crank it over again.

Oh and it wasn't running yesterday, the receptionist got confused with an Alfa Spider that they are also working on at the moment

They are determined to get it running which is the main thing.

Still not running but the oil leak has been sorted with a new oil pump.

The fault code related to the crank sensor. A new one arrived today and is being installed tonight. The mechanic is working late to try and get it running.

Hopefully get an update later.

Been out and bought a horseshoe, rabbit's foot, lucky sixpence and a Four Leaf Clover all in the hope that one of them will bring some good luck to the Barchetta this week

It must be a catching as I was out in my Y10 earlier and it started to misfire :bang:

"If it wasn't for bad luck..."

Hope everything work out for you.

BARCHETTA POWER BEING SENT YOUR WAY!!!!

Took a drive out to the garage that has the Barchetta this afternoon to view progress rather than doing it all over the phone.

Had forgotten how good looking the car actually is even with the tired paint and its inability to move under its own power

Their focus is now on getting a signal from the crank sensor. It is getting power to it and is earthed ok but isn't sending a signal back to the ECU. Anyone got any ideas on what would stop the signal being generated?

If anyone has a wiring diagram for the crank senor that would be helpful as the genuine Fiat one that they have doesn't quite show everything that it should apparently.

Also, the piggyback ECU has been removed at the moment as it was throwing up all kinds of fault codes with the original ECU.

They are spending some more time on it this afternoon.....

I have a crank sensor from a Cinquecento / Punto 1.2 if it's compatible, happy to donate to the cause if you want to try it.