Stilo My 1.2 3 door Stilo.

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

Aj20 said:

Nice thread you got going here pal, do you currently have your liscence or just fixing her up before you drive her ?

I did the same was in a fiat brava before my stilo. it literally was love at 1st sight, say it wanted it drove all way to scotland from hull to get her then a stupid woman crashed into her while i was sleeping but got another

Do you have any of the well known problem with yours?

Keep it up pal

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Cheers man, yeah I've had my licence for 2 years that November passed Not had the best track record though - crashed every one of my 4 cars I've had, first 2 - an 05 astra sxi and rover 25 (****er haha!) were crashed each within a month of owning ( ran a junction early in the morning as I answered the obile to my bother, 2nd went round a roundabout too fast in the wet). Then 3rd car was an 07 punto and crashed that after 6 months (doing better now! lol) going too fast round a corner. I am a slow learner I suppose and I pay for my mistakes, but I've had my Stilo for nearly a year now and I must say I love it! The reason I've still got it is because it is without doubt the best car I've driven out of the 4. It really is like the perfect car for me I think - don't want to get rid of it no matter what it throws at me!

Yeah I'm experiencing the typical Stilo trademark faults - first to go was the front window wiper motor (while I was night driving in the pissing rain!), then the brake light stayed on even when my foot was fully off the pedal (had to force the pedal up from under it using my foot to turn the light off - solved by glueing a few washers to the top of where the pedal meets the brake switch lol), then the flexi joint failed on the exhaust, then the midsection failed on the exhaust, twice I've had brake calliper bolts come out whilst driving - first one being O/R then N/F

Then came MOT time... *deep sigh*...two new drop links, new front wing, new bulbs/allignment, new N/F spring, a few other things I can't remember, but it amounted to 200 quid anyway lol

Then after that in december I had to get my clutch bled - simple enough - but in typical Stilo fashion something else had to happen, and it did. It died lol. Turned out that a new battery and the removal of the front fogs relay was all that was needed to get the electrics going again, and all was great for another few weeks, till misfire number 2 occured (first being back in september - see I knew I forgot something! lol) which subsequently ****ed my exhaust up, new manifold and ignition coil on the cards now. So here I am now, it's off the road and instead of losing faith in her, she's getting even more effort put into her - getting all cleaned up and looking as good as she's ever done and going to show her off at all the big cruises up north this summer!

You don't buy a Fiat like you'd buy a VW (or Audi or Skoda, or Seat........), you fall for them and would do everything for them. They're like puppies - they're great fun then they **** on the carpet and sure you're angry for a while but it doesn't take long to be reminded that you love them!

I'll posting up everything that I'll be doing to her from the smallest thing to swapping an engine into it (yes I will swap an engine into her - another, lower milage 1.2 Stilo engine - don't want to get rid of her mind ). Who knows, maybe paople will find this thread useful at some point, I don't have much resource (a freebie ratchet set from 1st year college and whatever's lying in the garage) so this thread in a way shows what you can do with little resource Though I think we'd all like a big garage lined with tool cabinets to work from eh? :yum:

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

i was exactly like you with my mk1 punto, anything it threw in my way i tried to sort, in the end i snapped a gearbox mount bolt in the subframe, went to change it and every other bolt decided to snap, so i gave up, bought a golf as it was cheap (£300) that died in september and got the stilo 2 weeks ago, it's been off the road a week as the clutch went on it,

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

MarkThompson4 said:

Also, anyone know what that white stuff is inside the exhaust in the 3rd pic? I'm not sure what it is or if it's normal??

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Not very easy to see from your pic Mark, but it could be the end face of the membrane in the catalytic converter.

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

Yellow Peril said:

Not very easy to see from your pic Mark, but it could be the end face of the membrane in the catalytic converter.

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Definately not that as my cat is in the manifold, this is the bend in the exhaust after the manifold/cat, it's the white looking material on the outside of the bend - I'll try and get a better picture of it - I'm off college today but the weathers not great I was hoping to take the battery tray, coolant bottle and screenwash bottle out so I could get better access to clean her up. Bear with me on that picture...

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

Here we go, it's as good as I can do on my crappy iPhone camera, not all that certain that it's better than the previous one though. It's that dandruff looking **** that I'm curious about...

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

nikkiy9 said:

i was exactly like you with my mk1 punto, anything it threw in my way i tried to sort, in the end i snapped a gearbox mount bolt in the subframe, went to change it and every other bolt decided to snap, so i gave up, bought a golf as it was cheap (£300) that died in september and got the stilo 2 weeks ago, it's been off the road a week as the clutch went on it,

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All the mounts on my Stilo are fine so I hope that doesn't happen to me!
Hmm I suppose a cheap Golf is like any other car you buy for cheap, it will be that cheap for a reason despite what people say about VW, but I can't complain I bought my Stilo cheap as I needed a car quick (but I still fell in love with it ) and look what's happened to me lol. I changed the clutch in mine back in August - I do block shifting when I'm slowing down and when I changed it from 4th to 2nd a few of the teeth snapped lol. A new clutch and £365 later I was happy driving her again

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

just salt deposits in the pipe... nothing to worry about, probably just cos its been sat for so long

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

richydraper said:

just salt deposits in the pipe... nothing to worry about, probably just cos its been sat for so long

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Cheers Richy just what I wanted to know old exhaust is getting binned but just to make sure the engine was running ok

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

Ok I've now managed to remove the coolant and screenwash bottles and have also removed the battery and the tray. As if the 1.2 engine didn't already have plenty of room around it, it looks even smaller in there now!

Coolant/Screenwash bottle locations:
https://www.fiatforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=98477&stc=1&d=1327419204


Coolant hoses (will be removing later):


https://www.fiatforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=98478&stc=1&d=1327419204
Coolant bottle mounting bolts:

https://www.fiatforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=98479&stc=1&d=1327419204

Once those bolts are removed (and all the hoses are removed) it should lift out of this rubber housing:
https://www.fiatforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=98480&stc=1&d=1327419204


Fusebox retaining screw:



Pop the hinges off either side:

https://www.fiatforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=98484&stc=1&d=1327419204

Lift it off and you'll have these connectors:



Unplug them all:



And out she comes:





Battery tray:



Left hand battery tray mounting bolt:



Right hand side:



There is also this bolt (the rusty one just above the thin tube):



Held in place by this 18mm nut (doesn't turn):



My method for getting in at the bolt:



Once those 3 bolts are out it should lift out - avoiding all the cables - here's the tray and the surround:



Messy cables!!



A wee bit of corrosion on these ones:





Battery tray removed:



Looks ok apart from the rust around the mounts, may get a new one:



Snapped the lower screenwash mount screw :bang:



The difference between the top screenwash mount bolt (left) and the bottom one - shows how important those plastic guards are!



Managed to remove it none-the-less:



My workshop! LOL



Engine bay with the cooland/screenwash bottles and battery/tray removed:



Left side close up:



Right side close up:



Spinneli in all her glory!



Next I've got to tackle getting that front bumper off, only two pain in the arse screws are left either side and it will ocme off, then the fan/shroud and radiator will ocme out and everything will be getting a right good clean! Hope you enjoy these pictures!

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

I've only got one question Mark...why?

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

Yellow Peril said:

I've only got one question Mark...why?

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To clean it basicly

My plastic guards are ****ed and need replaced so going to get everything clean before I get new ones. Plus I'm spending my time doing something more productive than sitting around on a day off college lol

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

thats some work your doing there! but you know what will happen now? once you start you'll never stop! lol get some black gloss paint on that battery tray before you put it back in, incidently, that plastic cover that goes around the battery, i put some carbon wrap on mine - its a bit fiddley but when you stick the lid over the top of the battery, it looks well good

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

gadgemyster said:

thats some work your doing there! but you know what will happen now? once you start you'll never stop! lol get some black gloss paint on that battery tray before you put it back in, incidently, that plastic cover that goes around the battery, i put some carbon wrap on mine - its a bit fiddley but when you stick the lid over the top of the battery, it looks well good

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Thanks man I know! I got to keep telling myself to stop once I have the manifold and coil arrive to get it running! But I would love for it to look spotless before them parts arrive

Funny you mention the battery cover - I was planning on sanding it down and painting over it as you said. That carbon wrap idea sounds mint - plus on your thread I was sure it looked as if you'd carbon wrapped your angine cover as well had you?

Need one of these badly!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fiat-Stil...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item46005593ba

My brother reversed over mine - my mistake as I had left all my stuff lying around after working on my car Please nobody show an interest in it thank you please

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

grab it while you can mate! they don't turn up on ebay offen for some reason, i had my eye on that too as mine has a crack in it. i just painted the engine cover and battery cover, but i carboned wrapped the timing cover?

have a look at this, its the only one i have of the engine but you can see at the bottom by the expansion bottle the timing cover all wrapped and below the battery lid is the carbon wrapped battery cover with a K&N sticker on

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

That's a really good job done there What would really set it off is wrapping the whole engine cover and the battery cover Must have just been the pattern on the plastic that made it look carbon

Consider yourself lucky with your one crack as mine taken a jig to it! lol Once I have the battery cover sorted I think - for a bit of fun - I'll try and make myself a wee custom induction kit lol I've seen these guys on eBay:

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Venair-Performance-Silicone-Hoses

Anybody heard of them or done anything like a custom induction kit using parts like this? I know there's people out there who'll laugh at the word "induction kit" when it's a 1.2 I'm talking about but in my opinion it makes more sense when it's a small engine to save money on making one yourself and possibly making it look even nicer than the ripoff merchants gizmos that others sell making you believe they give you big power gains all the while they're only happy because they've got your 200 quid. This is SMALL engines I'm talking about, not bigger 2L and such like.

Surely can't be too difficult to get dimensions for where it enters the throttle body and to then fit in a correct size T-piece for the vacuum hoses to the manifold/valve cover? I'd see these as the most difficlt parts, anything after that is fair game as long as you don't go daft with the diameter of the piping or filter

Just a thought mind you - don't want the view of my recently-made-shiny valve cover being obstructed by the ugly black OEM airbox the battery cover though - that's a must

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

yes i've used them and there very good i mean you wont get a major power increase ( if any? ) but it may well give you more torque plus a K&N filter will filter air alot better and less restrictive than a paper one anyday. i made my own too using an asortment of elbows and other bits going from my thottle body to the standard airbox then fitted a K&N pannel filter and an oil catch tank ........ here it is

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

gadgemyster said:

yes i've used them and there very good i mean you wont get a major power increase ( if any? ) but it may well give you more torque plus a K&N filter will filter air alot better and less restrictive than a paper one anyday. i made my own too using an asortment of elbows and other bits going from my thottle body to the standard airbox then fitted a K&N pannel filter and an oil catch tank

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If you've used them then I'd gladly order some silicone goodies from them Mate I am in envy of how good your engine bay looks! :worship: :slayer:

I have plenty of space in front of my battery tray to fit one of those big K&N cones Then I'm thinking nice dark blue hosing up towards the throttle body. Yeah not expect BHP - if anything a little improvement in response and a BIG improvement in looks I'm also thinking black silicone coolant hoses, just to smarten things up a wee bit

One other thing to expand on this - If I started with say 80mm diameter at the cone knowing that the TB diameter was say 50mm, would a gradual step down towards the 50mm diameter cause the incoming air to accelerate due to the fact that the greater volume of air is being compressed into a smaller area as it reached the throttle body? Or will it just create a back pressure? Or am I just being stupid now?

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

youll have the same air speed at the TB regardless of intake ducting diameter but the larger the diameter the less work your engine has to do because it has a larger volume of air available... Remember its not air speed that helps with power creation, its volume and how readily available said volume is to the engine!

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

Thanks man will just keep it a simple, single-diameter then

So what you're also saying is keep the ducting diameter relative to the TB diamter? In that case I shall get a (slightly!) larger throttle body - something I planned on doing before - perhaps a 1.6 TB but I've been told the 1.4 TB is the popular choice for the 1.2

Can't wait to hear the sound of the manifold with the new induction kit think it will sound sweeeeet!

Re: My 1.2 3 door Stilo

MarkThompson4 said:

...So what you're also saying is keep the ducting diameter relative to the TB diamter?...

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no because thats all the airbox ducting does...

you need the least resistance in the intake system to make it worth your while, so ideally larger ducting to TB and larger TB (if you want to get anal knife edged butterfly and smoothed axle, polished and ported manifold and head, larger intake valves and valve guides ground down.)

think about if you take off your intake ducting off that's ultimate gas flow into your TB, so the closest you can get to that is oversized ducting and a free flowing airfilter

-also- the shorter the intake length the better response you will get so think about a rear mounted cone with CAF and possibly raise the rear of the bonnet up or remove the scuttle panel rubber.

(Short Intake = Better Torque. Long Intake = Better BHP)