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General Today is an exciting day

Abarth oil consumption

OK; so I think I'm at a point where I'm ready to share this now...

It's well known that Abarths like a good drink of oil and regularly so. It's also known that Fiat no longer produce the rocker cover breather valve, so it's not like you can replace the valve to help with this.

It's long been my feeling that the design seems to lead to the motor putting quite a bit of vacuum in to the rocker cover, which might be one source of oil consumption.

Fiat suggest that the Abarth is likely to use around 500ml per 1,000 miles driving; which pretty much matches up with my Abarth's drinking habits.

I have of course been considering ways to reduce the consumption and doing a fair bit of research before arriving at a possible conclusion and testing it out.

Blocking the breather up and venting to atmosphere was one option; however venting to atmosphere is no longer legal, hence the sealed system the cars have. It also risks filling the engine bay with oil vapor too, which could get dangerous and messy.

You could, therefore, fit an oil catch can. Personally I'm yet to be convinced these are efficient at what they do, so could still lead to venting fumes to atmosphere, plus there is also the risk that these add further resistance to the system and actually generate positive pressure in the crank case, which you don't want! Practically speaking there is also very limited room in the Abarth engine bay to appropriately install one of these. So it's probably a no-go.

That kind of leaves you trying to work with what you have and make the existing system more efficient. I figured it probably needs a bit of restriction added to the system to prevent too much vacuum across the crank.

I decided first to inspect the breather valve to see what sort of state this could possibly be in. It honestly didn't look so bad but I gave it a clean up anyway, but I was surprised at just how slack it felt, like it must be allowing a lot of gas passed it.

Figured this might be a good place to try and introduce a little bit of control and see what happens.

What I did was fitted a small rubber o-ring at the bottom of the valve, underneath the spring. I had a couple of spare MAP sensors from previous cars sat around, as you do, and the little green o-rings off them are the perfect size to fit in the valve body nicely.

It sits below the spring; so o-ring goes in, followed by spring, followed by the white plastic valve.

That should have the effect of narrowing the passage between the white plastic valve and the o-ring very slightly, which will form more of a restriction under greater vacuum and also has the effect of shortening the spring by a few mm, introducing a bit more resistance to movement by pre-loading the spring. Meaning the valve is more inclined to stay shut.

So I fitted this about 3 weeks ago now and have been quite busy with work and have done a lot of driving.

Initial results seem very positive. I would normally have expected to have to add oil with the amount of driving I've done, but so far oil levels don't seem to have moved far at all.

I've done no scientific measurements but have been keeping an eye on dip-stick and around the engine bay just in case I've caused a pressure lock somewhere but so far no ill effects have been identified.

Thought I'd share but remember, any modifications you do are done so at your own risk!
 
OK, so got a couple of bits of good news worth sharing.

First is that the cat, Alfie, is not nearly as poorly as the vets first thought he might be. Thankfully worst case scenario didn't play out on this occasion and he has been given a clean bill of health. To say I'm relieved is an understatement; not only because it would have been hellishly expensive having him on long-term meds but more because you've gotta love the little bugger and I'd hate to see him that poorly. He isn't even 3 years old yet so it'd be a sad existence for the little fuzz!

The second and somewhat more Stilo related matter is that I have acquired a Coupe 20vt rocker cover! Cost me £80 but as it turns out they're a bit difficult to get hold of. Anyone that has one on a breaker or whatever is adamant they're selling the engine hole and won't split, so I took what I could get. It is complete with decor panel and oil filler cap though, so it's not all bad....

The obvious elephant in the room is that it says TURBO on it in big letters and we all know my little Abarth isn't that.

Not really decided what I do about that yet. I could leave it, but that just feels misleading and silly. It'd look like i'm trying to portray her as something she isn't (turbo). I could get it machined out or attempt to do this myself with a grinder, file and sandpaper. The other thing to consider is covering it up, like putting an Abarth plaque over the top of it or something.

Waiting on delivery at the moment so it's something I'll be able to better gauge when I've got my grubby little mits on it but I'll have to have a think... I like the idea of machining it out at the minute provided I can get it done at a reasonable cost. that's assuming there is enough material there to machine it without getting too thin or risk cracking / breaking it.
 

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The obvious elephant in the room is that it says TURBO on it in big letters and we all know my little Abarth isn't that.

Not really decided what I do about that yet. I could leave it, but that just feels misleading and silly. It'd look like i'm trying to portray her as something she isn't (turbo).

That makes 2 of us. ;) I've never liked stickers, badges, labels etc. that try to portray a car that something it isn't.

Could try filling the lettering with one of the metal fillers. Searching " Liquid Metal " gives numerous options that you could research to check adhesion and temperature capabilities.

I used QuickSteel (a 2 part epoxy) to seal a crack in the gearbox on one of my son's cars. It was still sealing the crack about 3 years later when he sold the car. Of course, a gearbox doesn't get as hot as a cam cover would.
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Bearing in mind how soft it will be I would file it off, sliding scale, grinder, file, wet and dry depending on bravery but I think it could easily be deleted and finish with a rough grade paper, time will then blend it ian sure.
 
That makes 2 of us. ;) I've never liked stickers, badges, labels etc. that try to portray a car that something it isn't.

Could try filling the lettering with one of the metal fillers. Searching " Liquid Metal " gives numerous options that you could research to check adhesion and temperature capabilities.

I used QuickSteel (a 2 part epoxy) to seal a crack in the gearbox on one of my son's cars. It was still sealing the crack about 3 years later when he sold the car. Of course, a gearbox doesn't get as hot as a cam cover would.
.

I've used chemical metal before now and I'ts pretty impressive stuff. The wife's old Alfa 147 blew a hole in one of the metal power steering pipes where a bracket rubbed through the pipe. I sealed the hole up with chemical metal and it went through 3 MOTs before we sold it on and got her the Abarth.
 
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Bearing in mind how soft it will be I would file it off, sliding scale, grinder, file, wet and dry depending on bravery but I think it could easily be deleted and finish with a rough grade paper, time will then blend it ian sure.

Yeh it'll be easier to figure it all out when I've got it in front of my.

My wife's best friend's father is an engineering tutor at a local college, so has infinite access to a very well equipped machine shop. I'm currently in opening discussion with him about getting it machined out.

It doesn't have to be a superb finish as the plan is probably to have to crinkle painted anyway, so by the time you've sanded out any light machining marks then the paint should cover it nicely.

What is striking me at the moment is just how hard it is to get hold of yellow crinkle / wrinkle paint.

Might have to go with blue - which is at least a fiat colour, even if I can't get the Abarth yellow. Kinda don't want to go red, coz that's what everyone does.
 
So I've been a bit silent on this one just lately. We've been very busy with work having had a major inspection over the last five weeks.

I also have a slight side line with a friend doing firework displays and of course we've just had our busiest period of the year with that too.

All that has meant little time for Raven. But with efforts come rewards.

Took a 5 hour road trip last night to pick up these wheels. They are a rare as hens teeth genuine O.Z. Fiat supplied 18in wheels. Great condition too plus tyres all well too. Not bad for £130.

Will sell off my current 18s to offset the cost too.

Been looking for a thermostat but oddly enough local suppliers don't seem to be able to provide me anything.

I also got my rocker cover, freshly machined and looking lovely, back from my friend too. Need to order up the paint and gasket for this too.
 

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Not posted here in a while. Not had much happening in Stilo land over the winter. Just taking the time to have fun and enjoy driving it. No real activity has happened save for fitting a dash cam, service and tyre change.

The wife has been driving the Stilo a bit more recently too, since her Peugeot popped back in February and I've been using my MG more for my daily.

Now spring has finally sprung it's MOT time again. So some MOT prep to do.

We had the car serviced to maintain it's full service history and they noted some play in the bottom ball joint on near side front. So a set of suspension arms on the cards.

I also knew one of the rear calipers wasn't performing on hand brake, could feel it. So needed to address that. When doing so spotted that the rear pads were low, so they need doing too.

As it turned out the play in the NSF ball joint was actually the hub / upright itself being worn! Everyone I've spoken to can't believe this is the case and are saying it must be wrong size ball joint but I kid you not... worn hub.

Only thing I can think is that the pinch bolt was very worn / rusty and this probably bred some corrosion around the ball joint mount. After that it's a self perpetuating case of rusting allowing movement, which causes more wear which causes more movement, causing more wear. Thinking back to last MOT the tester did say to me that he had found some play in NSF but couldn't work out where from... It's obviously got worse since that point and played itself out.

So for MOT we have....

NSF hub replaced
both front arms replaced
OSR brake caliper replaced
rear pads replaced

Need to fit a new track rod end to NSF this evening as the threads were damaged when replacing the hub; it didn't tighten down like i'd wanted it to, so replacing to be on the safe side. Then she's in for tracking.

MOT is on Saturday. Fingers crossed!
 
Hello,

Nice to hear that it's well !

I'm interested in your oil "fix", did you had the chance to write a guide ?
Is it still working ?

Mine is 94000km, doing quite ok .. (if you forgot the heater problems, selespeed bumpy, ect ... ect ..) but I'm having oil consumption that I'd like to get rid of ..

Thanks
 
Awesome,,
by the way where do you get the hatch badge from?? i have looked everywhere.. i have one on the front grill .(was there when i bought it) but i would like a hatch back one..the round one in the centre.
 
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