So as most people know ive been running 16v for about a year now (well 2 actually..).. and I thought I may aswell make a thread as to my thoughts and opinions on them and hopefully others will pipe up with their opinions/experiences

Ive finally decided to go back to 8v.. not because I want to go boosted but because of the hassle ive had mixed with how much of a pita It is to work on in situe..and if im honest how ugly the 16v engine is in the cento bay..
Dont get me wrong but the power and delivery is great fun and the 'out of the box' power is too.. but I miss the noise.. simplicity and the look of the 8v engine in the cento bay

most people will agree the 16v is good for easy power upgrades.. but whos actually lived with the 1.2 or 1.4 16v for more then a few months and actually got a good bit of feedback??

I must admit.. I cant wait to get the 8v grumble back

its partly why i kept in the 8v family with the punto
instead of going for the 16v

because the 8v is a common engine so spares a plenty!
There solid engines, as long as they get the TLC they need - there great!
parts are cheap because there are soo many engine use the same thing - like coils and sparkies

the 8v is a torque'y monkey, so its great for when you pulling or just cruising with low rev's

And the 8v does scream quiet well when you plant it

all in all - i've never had a 16v in any car, the 8v is firm place in my heart!

I must admit.. there are alot of great things about the 16vs dont get me wrong this isnt a thread to slate them... but as ive found.. simple things like a decent headgasket set for a 16v is expensive when compared to the 8v..

I think also realistically that you could get a similar power from a hightly modded 8v for the money youd spend on sourcing and buying all the 16v conversion bits.. if buying brand new obviously..

What 8v are you thinking of going back to? What sort of level of tuning?

I have looked at 1.4 8v engines on fleabay. But don't know how much of a faff it would be, and what sort of output you would get.

Cause there ain't no replacement for displacement.

Huwbishop said:

What 8v are you thinking of going back to? What sort of level of tuning?

I have looked at engines on fleabay. But don't know how much of a faff it would be, and what sort of output you would get.

Cause there ain't no replacement for displacement.

Click to expand...

This time round im going for boosted 1242 8v with the 16v pistons and rods.. aiming for around 150bhp High boost.. reliably

Huwbishop said:

What 8v are you thinking of going back to? What sort of level of tuning?

I have looked at 1.4 8v engines on fleabay. But don't know how much of a faff it would be, and what sort of output you would get.

Cause there ain't no replacement for displacement.

Click to expand...

The 1.4 8v ones are much more complicated, cc1 has done the same with a newer 1.2 8v.

https://www.fiatforum.com/cinquecento-seicento/313034-new-era.html

have aired my opinion on this many times publicly..

for the money and ease of dropping a 16v in its hard to argue with, and having gone on my old cinq from lightly breathed on P60 to P85 engine i can say the 16v was faster no question. And for a out and out thrash the valver also wins hands down... But for a daily drive and not thrashing everywhere as fast as possible I preferred the 8v. Just nicer to drive low down but still had enough grunt to not have to change down a gear all the time when you slow down. I personally would not have a NA 1108 8v again, the 1242 might not be that much faster ultimately but it drives so much nicer.

I think my perfect daily driven cento would but a cinq with P75 engine, decent flowing exhaust but not hugely loud, decent induction kit and prob just a freshly rebuilt head that was port matched. That would prob result in just as much power as an untouched 1242 16v engine with stock manifold etc i reckon. That said, when i next get a cento its gonna be totally silly and not a daily haha

I went from 1.1 8v to 1.2 8v to 1.2 16v to 1.4 16v (current).

I personally can't see myself going back to 8v, i prefers the way the 16v drives. Overtaking is just more effortless in a 16v than 8v.

As for turboing, it is natural to just go with the T-JET IMO.

In saying that, i now drives mine whenever i head back to Glasgow .

Ming

As a person who has had minimal expirence driving a proper 8 or 16 valve.

I think that the 16 vavle looks tidier, when done correctly. However the 8v isn't ugly itself, being able to look around is pretty nice.

Then again, I drive an 899 so my opinion is invalid. But hey, I can feel like a rally car driver while only doing 6mph. But that is just my opinion.

My thoughts lead me to partial agree that 8v is best at daily cruisin, but this is for the NA. I think you mentioned that this was going to be the exact case, only later it popped up that there is going to a turbo. Sure if it's going to be a turbo it will give you the best straight line performance of all, but that seems to differ with daily drive and easy engine bay concept.
I will personally stick to the 16v, as nowhere else i can feel the strong through the rev line pull from 4k-7k in consequant 3rd 130km/h 4rth 160km/h 5th 200km/h.
Anyway, that's one of the best things for the Cento - you can choose nearly whatever suits you :slayer:

I think the GP 1.4 8v VVT engine would make a very good low boost turbo project. The C514 gearbox would probably not think so...?

the box can take some serious punishment tbh. I think you would have to start worrying about getting forged pistons and uprated rods before you need to worry about the box itself.. The only issue with the box is the gears are far to short when you have alot of power and torque, particularly with little wheels. Clutch can even take alot more power than you would expect but the 1.4 16v clutch is bolt for bolt swap and that will be more than strong enough. All the fast cento's i have seen over the years, the box has never been one of the problems really other than the ratio's not being right as i said before.

I know the lad who owns my old turbo is looking to take a wet shaft sx box and make it a dry shaft so he has longer gears as the turbo is just a bit mental, should also make it alot nicer and easier on motorway as it won't be screaming along at high revs and on boost constantly

Aren't the wet S/SX boxes the same ratios as the MPI Abarth?
http://centolovers.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/cinquecentoseicento-gear-box-6-speed.html
Couldn't he just drop the FD from the SX into the Abarth dry shaft casing or isn't it as easy as swopping FD's on Mini boxes....excuse my ignorance -i've never stripped a Fiat box.

pass mate, i never looked into it myself... But his old car (a 16v sei) had a wet shaft box off (i believe) a sei sx and coupled with bigger wheels it could go really quite fast without being screaming at higher revs... Next to my old 16v cinq it would be totally destroyed off the line but when my car started to run out of steam he would just waft past me and not be screaming at all and right in the power band still.

As far as I know there is no such thing as an MPI abarth.. There is a SPI Abarth (which is what the turbo actually is) and without looking on that link, they had either shorter ratios or a different final drive to make sure they weren't slower than a normal sporting on the larger heavier wheels they came with.. Then there was the Schumacher edition in MPI and i believe that to have the same box as the abarth as it is basically an abarth with different stickers and interior bits.

It is my understanding that the sei s/sx had the same box as an 899cc cinq and hence the wet shafts.. Good link though, I will have a proper look at that when i ain't meant to be working

blu73 said:

As far as I know there is no such thing as an MPI abarth.. There is a SPI Abarth (which is what the turbo actually is) and without looking on that link, they had either shorter ratios or a different final drive to make sure they weren't slower than a normal sporting on the larger heavier wheels they came with.. Then there was the Schumacher edition in MPI and i believe that to have the same box as the abarth as it is basically an abarth with different stickers and interior bits.

Click to expand...

Some earlier MPI cars were Abarths, both those and the schumachers had a shorter final drive to compensate for the 14" wheels.

They still sell these for them, I'd have grabbed one of they were cheaper:

http://www.partsworld-uk.com/product/Abarth_bumper_grille-Seicento_735291373

i bow to your superior mpi knowledge... silly dirty mpi's

8v MPI for the win!!!!!!

My 5 cents to the 16V debate is that I really hate the P1 16V ECU. One reason that makes a proper 16V effort considerably more difficult - it is really worth getting another ECU (whichever) than the 18FD.

I really liked my tuned P75 MPI engine. I went to 1.4 16v, but did always want to go drop 8 valves and add a turbo. At the time though there weren't many 1.4 16vs and I wanted to see how tricky it'd be.