Introduction
Since you liked the green Cento...
...plus the fact that, sadly, it's now defunct I'd like to show you what I'm currently working on - a 1997 Mk1 Punto Sporting.
According to the paperwork the car spent it's youth zipping through Lombardy. Someone brought it to Poland ten years ago. I bought it for little over 300 pounds with a plan to source the engine and bin the rest but one month earlier I managed to buy a complete 1.4 16v swap dedicated for P1 for a similar amount. I also wanted to change my daily so the decision came to save the Punto from the crusher. Apart from the sills there is almost no rust to speak of and it has a working aircon (huge plus point) but this car is nowhere near as nice as the Cinquecento. It was crudely resprayed and a bit neglected so rather than trying to turn it into a premium example I'll focus on making it run good - it has to survive track days. I'll do the engine swap this year and the sills, complete interior tear down and clean-up, new wheels and tires, new springs and dampers in the spring/summer. The 176B9000 will go to the Cinquecento and the 843A1000 will power the Punto.
The engine that I've bought was in a very good shape so not a lot of work was required, at least that's what I thought. I took off the intake manifold to ease the process of lowering it into the engine bay and glad that I did because there was a rock sitting right on the inlet valve. The previous owner was careless enough to contaminate the engine while taking it out of his car. A good lesson that you have to expect everything. To be safe and prevent demolishing the engine by something that could've already found it's way into the cylinder I decided to open it.
Taking the head off cost a bit in parts and machining but it was worth it because there were rocks laying on one piston. The head had a surface flaw and got machined down by 0.5 mm. New seals, bolts, timing belt and tensioner. Generally speaking a very healthy engine. There was 'FGP' (Fiat-GM Powertrain) written on the head seal. I suppose it was a seal used it the factory so this engine probably hasn't been opened since.
After I got everything ready I found out that the crank pulley I had to use to power the aircon and power steering had different offset. The rally shop altered the crank angle sensor position by welding it over so I had to restore the original hole. A delicate job trying not to crack the aluminum which would've meant a new oil pump and a lot of extra work.
Connecting the gearbox to the engine. I'll leave the 5 speed for now but it will be changed to a 6 speed hopefully equipped with a torsen diff.
It's much easier to do this using a seat belt rather than a damn chain.
It's a car again. Everything that wears out was replaced to make it reliable, safe and nice to drive.
No longer a standard Sporting is it...
A ready exhaust manifold. Next time I'll do this with a 1,5 mm material and wrap it twice instead of using a 3 mm once.
...plus the fact that, sadly, it's now defunct I'd like to show you what I'm currently working on - a 1997 Mk1 Punto Sporting.
According to the paperwork the car spent it's youth zipping through Lombardy. Someone brought it to Poland ten years ago. I bought it for little over 300 pounds with a plan to source the engine and bin the rest but one month earlier I managed to buy a complete 1.4 16v swap dedicated for P1 for a similar amount. I also wanted to change my daily so the decision came to save the Punto from the crusher. Apart from the sills there is almost no rust to speak of and it has a working aircon (huge plus point) but this car is nowhere near as nice as the Cinquecento. It was crudely resprayed and a bit neglected so rather than trying to turn it into a premium example I'll focus on making it run good - it has to survive track days. I'll do the engine swap this year and the sills, complete interior tear down and clean-up, new wheels and tires, new springs and dampers in the spring/summer. The 176B9000 will go to the Cinquecento and the 843A1000 will power the Punto.
The engine that I've bought was in a very good shape so not a lot of work was required, at least that's what I thought. I took off the intake manifold to ease the process of lowering it into the engine bay and glad that I did because there was a rock sitting right on the inlet valve. The previous owner was careless enough to contaminate the engine while taking it out of his car. A good lesson that you have to expect everything. To be safe and prevent demolishing the engine by something that could've already found it's way into the cylinder I decided to open it.
Taking the head off cost a bit in parts and machining but it was worth it because there were rocks laying on one piston. The head had a surface flaw and got machined down by 0.5 mm. New seals, bolts, timing belt and tensioner. Generally speaking a very healthy engine. There was 'FGP' (Fiat-GM Powertrain) written on the head seal. I suppose it was a seal used it the factory so this engine probably hasn't been opened since.
After I got everything ready I found out that the crank pulley I had to use to power the aircon and power steering had different offset. The rally shop altered the crank angle sensor position by welding it over so I had to restore the original hole. A delicate job trying not to crack the aluminum which would've meant a new oil pump and a lot of extra work.
Connecting the gearbox to the engine. I'll leave the 5 speed for now but it will be changed to a 6 speed hopefully equipped with a torsen diff.
It's much easier to do this using a seat belt rather than a damn chain.
It's a car again. Everything that wears out was replaced to make it reliable, safe and nice to drive.
No longer a standard Sporting is it...
A ready exhaust manifold. Next time I'll do this with a 1,5 mm material and wrap it twice instead of using a 3 mm once.
