the ones in grandes
The Fiat 1.2 eight valve engine?
- Thread starter Austin Mini
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The Fiat 1.2 eight valve engine?
the ones in grandes
still not an 8v engine its not even a 1.2! and is the very most basic form of VVT (on the exhaust valves only) using phase shifting. also required a completely different head design.
is the short block anything like the little 1litre fire engines built in the 80s ? i very much doubt it.
Fire is a series of engines that are built by robots each time a new technology comes along they redesign the engine. it remains a Fire engine only by the way its built.
ford make their Duratec series and these span anything from 4 - 8 cylinders
honda VTEC ranges from comes in 4 and 6 cylinder guises
even that
by comparison the ford Kent engine the VW 4 cylinder air cooled engine and the Rover V8 engines all use essentially the same engine block from when they were originally designed till present.
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dosent have a completely different head design, ive removed the vvt and used it with same head in a mk2, the short block is the same as its always been
I did ask it as a question as besides the Ford KA engine i wasn't aware of what engines are still in production that are older than the FIRE 1.2, so thanks for clarifying.
The point i was making was that whilst i thought the KA (Kent) engine remained in production for much longer, i don't think it remained as competitive with modern equivilents in the way the FIRE 1.2 has. For starters the emissions were high for a car as small as the KA, with cars registered after the CO2 based system came in in 2001 costing circa £170 a year to tax (154g/km) until the modified 'Duratec' unit was introduced, which was still not as 'clean' as the 1.2 FIRE. Fiat then modified the FIRE 1.2 again so it fitted into the £30 tax bracket in the Panda & 500. I believe Ford dropped the 1.3 engine around this time.
Im sure the KA engine & the other engines you mention are good, but where CO2 rules are concerned i think Fiat have done well - i don't think anyone could've envisaged in the 1980s what sort of CO2-obsessed World we'd be living in today.
It's basically the same if not the exact same engine as in the 500 & 69bhp Panda models which initially carried the 'Dynamic Eco' badge but later on just went back to Panda 1.2 (69) MyLife & 1.2 (69) Dynamic. Ford can stick 'Duratec' on it as much as they like, it's a FIRE engine. Just like their 1.3 TDCi is a Fiat Multijet, and many of their other TDCi's are Peugeot-Citroen HDI's. Infact having had tonnes of Fords in the family i dunno where Ford get such a great reputation from, since most of their decent engines are borrowed from other manufacturers & the ones that are their own have been shi*e in cars we've owned.
D4nny8oy
Established member
Kent/Endura-E was OHV, the Duratec was a completely different engine with a single OHC.
Dave is right- the 1.4 8v in the Grande was fitted with VVT very easily in a similar way to the 1.4 16v (modified cam cover fitted with a solenoid and added oil-ways in the head to feed a vernier pulley). The 1.2 8v in the 500 was then fitted with the system.
I don't think anyone is saying the FIRE is the best engine in the world, just versatile in the current climate, helped no doubt by FIAT thinking ahead regarding the emission regs (being fully EURO 5 compliant while others were getting their heads around EURO 4).
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Austin Mini
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Does that mean the Fiat 500 1.2 8 valve engine is a VVT engine?
yes
D4nny8oy
Established member
Technically yes, although the timing alterations are more for EGR purposes and cleaning up the emissions on part load. It doesn't aid in increasing power over a 'normal' 1.2 8v.
