General Project - to hopefully re-love Daniella the Stilo

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General Project - to hopefully re-love Daniella the Stilo

dtimmins1985

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Hey everyone,

So i'm starting a new thread since replacing all the front suspension and brakes on my Stilo - following from the Blow out + wheel trashed thread.

I feel sorry for the beautiful Stilo, she feels tarnished and scarred now and that's put me right off wanting to do anything else, I have not driven her above 40mph since she was rebuilt as she has a leaky C.V - this will be fixed next week along with another wheel alignment.

However, in a bid to save the love for my Daniella - I have decided to start another project on her - which should hopefully bring some love back and reassure me that she live on forever or until the engine dies - which could be a long time yet, she's literally just hit 83,000 miles.

So - I am planning to replace everything on every corner! and I mean literally everything... but with upgrades.

This time - I will not be buying complete sets and waiting for them to arrive then rebuild the car, it's going to be a long journey as I am going to buy everything - piece by piece every month and once I have everything and its all double checked - i will do a blast mission to strip and rebuild it over one weekend with the help of my Mechanic.

So...

I am going to be buying some bilstein shocks if I can find some, B6's or B8's but need to read up on them first.

Brand new drop links, Anti roll bar, track rods, rack ends, C.V joints, hubs with new bearings, calliper refurbs with brand new parts, new dust covers with rubbers in if the bilsteins need them along with brand new top mounts etc etc.

I want the front to be brand new - the rebuild i have just done has some tiny squeaks - because i never changed the dust covers that contain the rubbers for the shocks - easily fixed with some spray but i want 100% piece of mind that everything is the same age etc.

I wouldn't usually go this bonkers but I do love the car - I just dont feel in love with it right now though and I cannot make my mind up on what car I would move onto next - let alone if I would like it and get the same thrill i get out of the stilo before the wheel snapped.

Let's hope all this brings back that smitten feeling i had when I looked at her and drove her, if it doesn't - she will go up for sale and some lucky punter will have a beautiful stilo that is like brand new underneath and it will be a bargain as I would never get what i paid for her and what i have put into her.

I'll update this thread each time a new part arrives :)
 
So then,

I have started by doing maintenance items first then next year - hoping she is still driving like a beast, i will start on the suspension etc followed by a re-tune with a new exhaust system and relocated SMIC, i was also contemplating removing the aircon so I would have more space without the need of the aircon rad up front... will see how all that pans out in the future.

Anyhow stuff arrived so far:
2x 1 Litre Tutela Technyx - gearbox oil
1x 5 Litre Tutela WR 5w40w - engine oil
3x 1 Litre Paraflu Up - Engine coolant (may need more of this, not sure much the system takes).
1x Fiat Grill Badge - to replace my shoddy one.
1x Outer C.V boot (after messing with a split and uni boot, decided to go oem, to much pharse for me).

So far - N.S shaft been removed, gear oil drained, C.V boot replaced, new gear oil syringed into the gearbox via the filler on top of the diff - had a garage do it as I knew i would end up making a right mess and i wasn't down for that - done enough of that over the past month working on the car lol.

Left to do:

Fit new Badge
Offside wheel bearing
order a filter ready for the engine oil change
order a new tripod or inner shaft for n.s as the guy said he could feel play in that - however I can't so im not sure on this one.

Also - im still struggling to find a calliper carrier / hanger, my piston side is fine but i need to replace the bit that bolts on the car then the piston bolts to that...

More to come soon.
 
Found that the 2.4 abarth uses same callipers as mine so bought a carrier for one of them. It will be here in a couple of days then ready to complete my tiny grabbing issue for £17!!
 
New front badge fitted today... pain in the arse to remove grill without breaking clips... new one to be ordered! But ok for now...

Spotted that my aircon radiator was kinked / bowed inwards which leads me to belive this car has had a front end wack at some point... it still functions but is clearly bowed and the slam panel looks quite new
... keep on finding misterys on this car that where well hidden
 
New front badge fitted today... pain in the arse to remove grill without breaking clips... new one to be ordered! But ok for now...

Spotted that my aircon radiator was kinked / bowed inwards which leads me to belive this car has had a front end wack at some point... it still functions but is clearly bowed and the slam panel looks quite new
... keep on finding misterys on this car that where well hidden

Guess you HPI'd it when you got it so if it didn't show anything it can't have been bad.

The ali AC rads are generally as soft are dairylee cheese, so you only have to look at them hard and they'll bend. If they've been unfortunately enough to come in to contact with a small animal along the way then it's very possible.

Long as it holds gas ain't work worrying about :)
 
It was hpi cleared... and was a part ex find by the garage i bought it off... it had new dmf and clutch when i got it... hence it was part exd in...

Anyhow... it all works and yea there like cheese lol... a piece of paper could easily shear off some fins... need to replace it but dunno how to go about it.
 
So picked up a oil filter today from ggb (shop4parts).. my uncle passed away yesterday so i have to drive down south shortly... and wheel bearing being pressed in tomorrow and another refurb on grabby calliper.
 
Little update.

Had wheel bearing done... no play in any of the wheels now... need to take her for a run on the m606 then m62 before i embark on my next long run..

Also done an oil change and whilst i had the undertray off... i noticed lots of old oil building up on the metal intercooler pipe, next week ill be taking off the metal pipe and also swapping out the intercooler for a spare that i have that has just been treated to a deep clean with air line and white spirit... then will put it all back together.

Also noticed that someone has replaced the silicone hoses from intercooler to the metal pipes and also on the waste gate. Waste gate has a thin blue samco hose and the other hoses are airtech performance (read the name upside down lol)

So then... as said above... will be cleaning intercooler piping next week and also replacing intercooler with one that looks virtually brand new.

Ooh forgot to add... i recieved another brake calliper carrier and regreased it and sorted out the grabbing on the nearside... no more grabbing now and no more melting paint off the pads lol.
 
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Anyhow... it all works and yea there like cheese lol... a piece of paper could easily shear off some fins... need to replace it but dunno how to go about it.

They are easy enough to replace mate, but it's a larger job because you have to have the front end off to do it. I've not done one on a Stilo but usually it consists of taking the bumper. You can then either wiggle it off from there if you might have to remove one of the upper or lower cross members to drop or lift it out. All just bolts but because of location it can be a PITA.

There is also the issue of if it's got gas in it you're supposed to get it emptied out properly first, before you go and take it apart, so you don't discharge the gas to the atmosphere.
 
Little update.

Had wheel bearing done... no play in any of the wheels now... need to take her for a run on the m606 then m62 before i embark on my next long run..

Also done an oil change and whilst i had the undertray off... i noticed lots of old oil building up on the metal intercooler pipe, next week ill be taking off the metal pipe and also swapping out the intercooler for a spare that i have that has just been treated to a deep clean with air line and white spirit... then will put it all back together.

Also noticed that someone has replaced the silicone hoses from intercooler to the metal pipes and also on the waste gate. Waste gate has a thin blue samco hose and the other hoses are airtech performance (read the name upside down lol)

So then... as said above... will be cleaning intercooler piping next week and also replacing intercooler with one that looks virtually brand new.

Ooh forgot to add... i recieved another brake calliper carrier and regreased it and sorted out the grabbing on the nearside... no more grabbing now and no more melting paint off the pads lol.

Hopefully that oil build up will just be a poor seal / connection on one end which is blowing out. Of course that does mean you've got a boost leak though. Fingers crossed if you give it a good clean up and re-seat any of the pipes and unions it'll be sorted.

You might need to make sure it's got a beefier turbo hose clamp on it rather than a normal jubilee style thing.
 
Yea i was thinking about a possible boost leak.. but we had the engine running and and boosting and there doesn't appear to be any leaks.

Whats the quickest method of me checking for a boost leak? I will have her apart this week so can check everything by hand and I also have MES on the laptop too...
 
Log actual boost and actual maf give it a few blasts to full boost through the revs.
If no boost leak you should expect boost to be approx x2 what maf is so say maf 1200mg/I boost 2400-2450mbar or so.
Will depend a bit on boost temps intercooler etc .
Log and throw me up I'll have a look got plenty to compare to.
A boost leak would have much more maf flow for less boost.
Unless also a bad maf or leak after maf.
 
Thanks bud, will get some testing done on weds / thursday...

Im averaging around 30 - 35mpg right now... but where i live is full of hills... not that many flat roads.

Last long hall on motorway and I averaged 55mpg...

Also, still get that surge sumtimes between 2800 / 2900 rpm but this depends how far i have my foot in the loud peddal, if im tickling the pedal and strain it to around that rpm then you will get the surge... but if i have the peddal half pressed or more then its full boost before this RPM and no surge... like i previously said the ecu mapping could cause this... it makes 1st gear not so smooth at all if i was to launch off... its an animal, i prefer to gently ease off in 2nd then plant it...

My hgv mechanic said that turbo systems always surge oil out after a long time and more so when intercooler has build up in them and not cleaned, the one i took off the mj that I stripped had about half a cup of oil in it.

Anyhow enough babbling.

Will get some stuff posted up this week.
 
Yea i was thinking about a possible boost leak.. but we had the engine running and and boosting and there doesn't appear to be any leaks.

Whats the quickest method of me checking for a boost leak? I will have her apart this week so can check everything by hand and I also have MES on the laptop too...

It's not like you've got a massive leak mate; sorry if I made it sound worse than it is. But obviously that union is leaking a little bit. Its no great drama but it'll do better to seal it up, obviously.

I wouldn't say it needs urgent attention, the amount it's likely to be losing isn't worth getting excited about and chances are it isn't really impacting on the manifold pressure anyway.

Boost leaks are always a git to find and diagnose as they're not obvious on the car sat at idle. Even if you rev the car when stationary, you're not making any boost, so leaks won't show themselves. Its only when you're under load and making 2 bar of boost that a leak is obvious. You'd be surprised just how much the silicone pipes balloon under load, particularly as diesels run pretty big pressure. A tiny pin prick at idle will be a 5p piece sized hole under full load. You'd hear that hissing though.

If you've ever heard a diesel car pass you in the street as you're walking about and hear it hissing loudly - that's when you know you've got a proper boost leak on your hand. Then you just need to go and look for the dirty spot where all the manky vapour and exhaust filled charge air is leaking out :)

You will always get some oil and soot going round the turbo plumbing due to the exhaust gas recirculation and oil breather setups. Exhaust gas isn't so big a problem but the oil breather feeds into the air intake real early on, before the turbo so you've got a vacuum on the rocker cover, so oil vapor then coats the entire system.

You will naturally get pooling of that oil when it condenses and gathers in the lowest part of the system - which will happen to be the intercooler on these cars.
 
So then guys,

Not much of an update as such, more of an update as to why i havent done much lately.

Well... I took my partner into A&E last Monday, she had been ill on and off for a good few weeks, anyway she was immediately admitted and then things went from bad to worse, three days later she had surgery that was meant to take around an hour... but took just over 4... and was much more complicated than they expected.

Since then, recovery seemed great, eating two days later then its been downhill again, without going into details... all I can say right now is that all my plans are on hold.

So far, Daniella has still been serving me well, all being well with paint lacquer peel :( and a slight bellow around 1500rpm to 2000rpm, could be turbo, airbox or exhaust flexi...

Jobs for the future i suppose, anyhow i did add some climair deflectors, not a huge fan of hecko.

Best regards,
Dan.
 
Hopefully everything will get better soon and don't worry about the car. Home comes first and everything else is second. Shout out if anything needs sorting out and help will arrive.

Chin up dude ?
 
Thanks, hopefully things are looking better now, today was a better day :) and on a plus note... i bumped into the guy who bought my old stilo... he was passing through allerton and stopped off at the co op.

I miss the car still... hes got some nice 15" wheels on it... just the style i want but in 17" or 18" would look better.

He's taking it to Poland for xmas and then coming back with it (i think).

20171114_104236.jpeg20171114_104240.jpeg
 
Some more pics, we met up today and took some shots. He also bought some goodies from me (side skirts, drivers wing, set of headlamps and a rear cluster and some sporting heater vents and a handbrake leaver trim piece) i sold him the lot for £40 as it was going to a good cause (onto my old stilo).

His engine is blowing a bluey white smoke, head gasket is fine, it started 1 week after a cam belt change... he has tie wraped his dip stick down... i told him to take the car back to mechanic as the cam breather is blocked... it was just getting to that stage when i sold him it... now it's burning 1ltr oil every week so he is taking it back to garage for cam breather cleaning / replacing and flame trap breather replacing.

Anyhow... here is some shots from our mini meet.20171115_161752.jpeg20171115_161755.jpeg20171115_161803.jpegreceived_1933731213511027.jpegreceived_1933740536843428.jpeg20171115_162031.jpeg20171115_162045.jpeg20171115_162151.jpeg
 
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