General 1600cc twincam motor? in an uno?

[mechaniker]

Hi guys!

I was talking to my boss the other day about what I might in the future do with my uno. I'm thinking of turning it into a track car and he thought it would be a good project for me too. (I'm a 2nd year apprentice mechanic at a euro car specialist workshop).

He said something about putting a twin cam 1600 motor in it, but he did not say what it would be out of.

What is the largest NA engine that can fit in my uno (see my sig). Obviously it needs to come with a gear box and such that will fit the chassis.

I'm going to start doing research for this project from now and see where I end up at the end of next year when I feel I will be able to start it.

Thanks in advance!

 

[alexGS]

Hi there,

I'd say the largest would be the 1580cc Tipo engine (quite common in NZ) when fitted with mountings from an Uno 60 (early) or 70.

The 1581cc twincam 16v engine (later Bravos/Bravas) or the earlier 1597/1608/1792/1998cc twincams (respectively from Lancia Beta, FIAT 125 or 124 Coupe, Lancia Beta again, possibly even FIAT Croma) could be made to fit, possibly using the FIAT Croma gearbox that you will find languishing forever on Trademe (good one Steve!) but it's going to be a lot more work than for the single-OHC engines.

Blair Thomson (Maurice Thomson's son) campaigns an Uno fitted with a 1580cc engine (hot cam and twin carbs), in national race meets, rallies, our Clubsport events, and Targa, with great success. So that is probably your best option The time and money you'd be spending on fitting a twin-cam could then be spent on modifications and improvements instead (e.g. roll cage).

-Alex

 

[mechaniker]

Thanks, thats very helpful!

I see allot of people going on about the uno turbos but would like to look at NA as I like to do something different and everyone is into turbos right now.

How does Blair's car's HP/kW output stack up against a standard uno turbo?

My boss is quite the carb guy having loads of experience with Alfas so that part would be covered. Not sure about cams. I see some ultra expensive fiat stuff in the trademe parts sections that relate to "hot" cams and such. Never sure why people are selling them though projects gone bad?

I will ring up my parts guy and find out the price of one of those engines.

Also what mods to people tend to do for running gear? Just get uno "turbo" brakes? Or steal more parts from Tipos?

And yes a cage is on my list, I'm getting my welding ticket next year too so I think that means I will be able to weld it in myself.

 

[slapper]

Hi there I am also in New Zealand and I also run a 1600cc tipo block in my mk1 uno. I have never raced the other uno, but my car has been dynoed at just over 150hp at the wheels , running on 45DCOE webers, and a lot of other stuff. A standard uno turbo has 105bhp at the flywheel, so less than that at the wheels. My car is quite a bit lighter than a normal one due to carbon fibre pannels, and obviously beeing a race car It has no trim inside.
As for the brakes and suspension, yea uno turbo items are the easiest to fit so I would go for that. Suspension well, you can do almost anything, we have and it has worked well. You can see pics of my car in the gallerie under slapper

 

[mechaniker]

Thanks slapper, thats a very cool car you have there.

Is it built to a "class"? Where do you race it most of the time? Have you had it at manfeild?

Did you do anything to the motor internally? Eg a "hot" cam or the like?

Thanks again for your help, the pictures really helped me visualise what it might look like.

Mark

 

[the mk1 kid]

There is one on ebay at the mo.

Tom

 

[slapper]

Hi there yeah we race mostly at pukekohe and taupo, but realy want to get down to manfield. It is bulit to a clubmans class of allcommers upto 2000cc, but we race in the upto 1600cc cat. The internals are like this,
lightened shotpenned, and balanced standard conrods pistons and crankshaft. We run special gapless piston rings. We use the x19 alloy sump with internal baffle to stop oil surge ( an dry sump system is in the pipeline). Uptop is fully ported and polished with reworked combustion chambers and bigger valves. It has shortened valve springs to stop spring bind due to the high lift cam that is used. Finally it runs two 45mm weber DCOE carbs and custom mandral bent equal length extracters.

Hope that helps