https://www.leblogauto.com/2020/05/moteur-fire-fiat-tire-sa-reverence.html

Sadly the Fire engine is no more according to this page

Production ceased on the 7th of May.
Can't help feeling nostalgic because its arguably one of the best engines of all time. Doubt the new FireFly engines will be anything as long lived.

Within the family, we've been powered for over 20 years by various 1.2 8v versions, oldest of which still lives on strong with 165k.

Our first Fire engine was in our 1986 Panda 4x4. It certainly outlived the bodywork!

As was said in last weeks thread it is quite a milestone..

Without the production total: twentythree and one quarter million..WOW..!!

I will add 1 thought..
Thats approx twenty million head gasket repairs

Can the TA last as long? Your thoughts please?

Motorcyclist Colin said:

Can the TA last as long? Your thoughts please?

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In production..not even close

In service.. marginal .. much higher stresses


Sure the core motor should be cheaper to swap parts...less of it

But the 'specialist' stuff will mean lots will get scrapped prematurely..
after maindealer 'remortgaging' style repair quotes

What is it about the head gasket?

khbk said:

What is it about the head gasket?

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Its the motors 'achilles heel'

It doesnt tolerate cooling problems..at all

There is a train of though where they appear to fail ..with 'age' @60k also..

When I ran 3 x 1108cc FIRE MOTORS

CINQ.PANDA.PUNTO

all 3 changed within a year.. panda had a heater matrix issue.. but others 'just failed'.. no skimming required though

The FIRE engine is no worse than any other alloy headed engine.
Look at the Imp or Rover K series they had a far worse reputation than the FIRE engine. Both the Imp & K series would have been better if the rest of the cooling system had been better designed and in the case of the Rover 75 a temperature gauge that stayed at normal till the coolant got to 108c, by the time it lifted from there it was cheerio to the head gasket.
I do believe that more recent FIRE units don't suffer with HG failure. My motto is to do regular checks on the cooling system and any drop in coolant should be investigated before driving the car again.

Off topic..
But I stopped at services on A303 and there was a signwritten L.R Freelander
'K.series head gasket repairs'

Nobody ran a full time business doing FIRE ones Im sure..

I saw a k series apart in a yard near me.. accident waiting to happen that design.. as soon as the Chinese bought the rights to the MGF .. They fixed it..!!
Only took @20 years too long

My Family have had FIRE's since the late 80's and never suffered a head gasket failure. I can't think of a gap in that time when one of us didn't have one.

We've had them in all sizes, with and without fuel injection.
From a 750cc Panda to the 165hp Abarth.

I remember my first in a Uno, I still had an Uno 60s with the 1116cc OHV as well at the time.

I remember the starter motors were identical except the FIRE one had one less bolt, but the other two had the same bolt pattern, so still fitted.

My favourite is the 750cc in a 1990 Panda.
Picked it up cheap, dealer registered from a dealer outside Manchester.
Red with twin sunroofs and rubber mats instead of carpets.

First MOT it failed as the headlights were from a LHD car!
4 speed, yet the shifter still moved to where 5th would have been but there wasn't a 5th to engage, the lever just bounced back to neutral.

varesecrazy said:

Its the motors 'achilles heel'

It doesnt tolerate cooling problems..at all

There is a train of though where they appear to fail ..with 'age' @60k also..

When I ran 3 x 1108cc FIRE MOTORS

CINQ.PANDA.PUNTO

all 3 changed within a year.. panda had a heater matrix issue.. but others 'just failed'.. no skimming required though

Click to expand...

Does this apply to the TA?

Motorcyclist Colin said:

Does this apply to the TA?

Click to expand...

Doesnt appear to..

Very few reported TA issues.. several on the forum have covered 100k+

Most common was the snapped joint on plastic expansion tank

Occasional report of oil leaks..
only thing with a 'pattern' is poor running due to incorrect servicing

varesecrazy said:

Doesnt appear to..

Very few reported TA issues.. several on the forum have covered 100k+

Most common was the snapped joint on plastic expansion tank

Occasional report of oil leaks..
only thing with a 'pattern' is poor running due to incorrect servicing

Click to expand...

Dmf issue's on the gearbox side seems to be the expensive issues with these

Goudrons said:

My favourite is the 750cc in a 1990 Panda.

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We liked our 750cc too - never has an accelerator been more regularly and resolutely mashed into the floor-mat (rubber, naturally!)

gar074 said:

We liked our 750cc too - never has an accelerator been more regularly and resolutely mashed into the floor-mat (rubber, naturally!)

Click to expand...

Yeah, I used to commute back and forth between London and Manchester on weekends at the time and was very poor back then.
As the cabin was quite spartan, it made quite a din at speed, still far faster than my old 2CV.

As soon as I had a bit more cash I swapped it for a coral red (ok, pink) Punto 55s which had a throbbing 1.1 engine, but no PAS.
I gather the 55 was meant to mean HP, but I rather think is was turns of the steering wheel lock to lock.

I never got on with the Puntos, I tried again a few years later 2001 second gen model 1.2 "Active". Though it now had EPAS, but it still didn't grow on me.