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Seicento Seicento Abarth - Van Aaken High Boost Turbo

Introduction

So i guess its about time to create my own thread on this car, only had it 4 years :eek: Alot of people on here will know the car but we had alot of new cento members recently alot of which won't have seen her before.

Its originally from Jersey, it was ordered new from fiat by a doctor from Jersey who specified all options (bar the rarer wheels). So it has factory remote central locking, Air-con (apparently its rare to have AC & a sunroof but it has both) & ABS brakes. It was then delivered to Van Aaken new who fitted their high boost turbo kit to it.

It was then bought by a policeman i think and brought over to the main land. It was then bought by Donna on here and then Jamie86 on here (don't think either post on here anymore though) & then finally i bought it off Jamie.

It was at this point still not UK registered (despite having been here for at least 24 months!:eek:) So i got it registered which meant i had to lose the cool numberplate it had :(

Well to pictures then:

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The day i bought it, getting a MOT - she passed with no advisories :)

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On the way back to York with her, stopped in services. Note the cool numberplate.

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Back home, next to Black Betty, the cinq JustAndy bought a few months back

Then we jump forward a few years to 2010, I haven't really driven it much, she only comes out to play in summer, these are just before she went for her MOT in 2010
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Notice in that pic she still has oem exhaust!! :eek:
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that cover thing was fitted by the first owner, the doctor, to hide all the medical stuff that was carried around the island in it, i like it so kept it.
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She passed the MOT again no real issues, just had to clean up the handbrake actuator that year as it was sticking (well known common problem amongst us cento'ers).

So went for a razz about with a lad with a mini, a seicento looks massive next to a old mini! lol
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Showing off her bits
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Saving a Ford
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And then here's some pics from last summer - she only did 50 miles or so last summer so not many pics
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And one of her parked next to her big sister
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Amd now for some recent pics. Been getting her ready for the MOT this year over last month or so - the old stock exhaust finally fell to pieces so had to get a new one.
So she stuck her arse in the air so i could get underneath.
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And the front (she was like this for a couple of weeks and the pikeys where i live would have had the wheels so they came off as well)
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And bought some shiny pipes - intend to get a full custom exhaust from downpipe back at some point with a larger bore than stock but funds didn't allow for that yet.
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And finally, some new yellow abarth centre caps and new open-ended shiny wheel nuts..
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And that brings us upto date. I have many bits to go on the car but i will keep this thread updated now its here.

MOT in the morning. Wish her luck!!

Questions, comments etc welcome.
So i went out to change this bolt on the AC at long last the other day.. Moved the car and this fell out the engine bay..
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So this one of the mounts for the ac pump - looking at it it would appear its been cracked nearly all the way through for a while and finally snapped (only tiny bit of shiny metal on the break, mostly all rusty. So i think that probably this mount flexing is what was causing the belt to keep moving off. Its not a part that you can buy new - i could weld it back together but tbh this is the last straw with this damned AC for me and its coming off.

I was going to tackle that over the weekend but i ended up lowering another members Grande instead. As it stands car is ready for 'surgery', she's on axle stands with no front bumper, wheels or inner arches. The AC system has been emptied ready to come out (there was hardly anything in it anyway as i suspected). So there is a long weekend coming up with the easter bank holidays - hopefully get a load of stuff done then (if the snow will just go away already!!)
 
they call it climate change now :p but lets not start that debate here!! I haven't ever used the AirCon anyway, just always left it as its a cool rare option in the UK. Its been no end of hassle, it just always gets in the way and i've had enough - i will weigh all the parts that come off, looking at it all i suspect it weighs quite alot all together.
 
Will you not need to take all the dash out and change all the heatermatrix , As it will be diffrent to house the air con part ? or will you just Leave the Ac matrix there? and take the pump ,and all the pipes rad out the Engine bay? so all can be added back in to make it rear and cool if you come to sell? ill come over on sat for A tea spoon of diesel id use comeing over :p
 
I shall be leaving the evaporator in there for now, well at least unless i have another reason to need to take the dash out at some point in the future, the refrigerant pipes can be unbolted from engine bay side. I do have a non AC heater box in the shed if that day comes but that bit will be the lightest part of the whole system i would imagine.

Perhaps if someone is interested in giving me a load of money for the entire ac system i will consider taking it out ;)
 
right the ac system is out now, just need a aux belt now as clearly mine don't fit now. Just weighed everything i took off (everything but the evaporator) & it is just under 17kg.. So i suppose + refrigerant and the evaporator your looking at about 18-18.5kg - Quite alot, i was surprised! Most of the weight is clearly the compressor but the mounting plate for the pump and alternator is pretty heavy - i'll post a pic in a minute.

edit: here you go, the big bit on the left is the plate i'm on about
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Well today i had a few free hours so i went to mess with the sei.

I've fitted the alternator back on with a new belt. It looks so weird to me without all the AC on lol.

I got some new silicone vacuum hose so set about replacing all the vac lines on her. I decided that it was silly using the single inlet-mani vacuum take-off and endless t-joints for everything so I've redone it all utilising the spare take-off's on the back of the throttle body which were previously just blocked off. There is now 1 line from the inlet to the stock map sensor that tee's to the extra 3bar map sensor, the fpr now has its own vacuum source from the TB, that left me 1 spare on the TB which is split between my boost gauge and my dump valve. Looks alot neater and the over length of vac hose and the number of joins has reduced significantly which can only be a good thing (y)

I replaced the boost bleed valve a little while back but it was a rushed job using the existing rubber pipes, so that's now got new silicone pipes and is relocated up behind the passenger headlight so i can actually get to it without jacking the front up to set the boost pressure.

At this point i stepped back & i thought to myself... Look at all that room i have now, so thought i'm gonna try relocate the air filter and fit the BMC CDA, undid all the hose clips between my air filter and the turbo and most of them decided to break or at least weaken to the point i couldn't tighten them back up enough to be air tight so i just worked out where things would fit - i think everything will fit where i want it but i still need to modify the top rad bracket to move the radiator away from the turbo which in turn will move some pipework a bit but i'm 90% its all going to fit.. So I will get on buying some new hose clips, thinking i might buy some proper t-bolt clamps this time just need to workout how many of each size i need. And I need a reducer for the CDA.

I didn't take any new photo's i'm afraid, I'll get a few pics up in the coming days but there's not much to see at the moment really.
 
Dont worry i will ;-) doubtful it would be that easy to sell tbh and Im not gonna weigh it in, that would just be silly.

There is now an oil cooler and a BMC CDA where the ac condenser was, just need to fit the oil catch tank and its almost ready to be tested and MOT'd but cannot find it anywhere, starting to think i gave it to someone but dont remember. So if i gave anyone reading this one let me know so i can stop searching and buy a new one lol.

I'll upload a few pictures when Im back home later.
 
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