Seicento 2000 899 Seicento SX

[Ivan MadGyver]

That had crossed my mind but those parts are virtually impossible to get hold off

That's what I have in mine for me,after I finish with the repairs and service's,,will try to find/manufacture some parts for the engine conversion..
Trofeo's air box, full exhaust,along with a slightly bigger TB is in my plan.

 

[FiatMatt94]

That's what I have in mine for me,after I finish with the repairs and service's,,will try to find/manufacture some parts for the engine conversion..
Trofeo's air box, full exhaust,along with a slightly bigger TB is in my plan.

That sounds like a good plan, here in the UK the Trofeo parts are very hard to come by & the reason I'm going for the 1242cc 8v FIRE is that they are really good engines, tunable & also there are loads around & as a result can be picked up really cheap coupled with a Seicento Sporting gearbox which are close ratio should be fun

 

[Ivan MadGyver]

Airbox and exhaust can be made,little bigger SPi TB from another model or boring the stock.
Closer ratio gearbox is something I'd like to have on 899 it will make a difference.

 

[FiatMatt94]

It's a shame the sporting gearbox doesn't fit the 899. I've heard that a 32mm throttle body from an SPI Punto fits with boring out the existing Cento spacer, apparently it makes a very slight difference as a standard Cento one is 30mm, ideally I'd be converting to a 1.2 SPI from a Punto with the better cam from a 1.2 MPI as the wiring is plug & play apart from extending the wires for the temperature sensor & oil pressure switch but I've noticed the SPI FIRE engines are also starting to get a bit thin on the ground although they do come up from time to time so I'll probably end up picking up an 1242 MPI engine as they are still plentiful, get all the rest of the associated parts needed from an MPI Seicento & swap it all over unless a decent 1242 SPI engine comes up

 

[Ivan MadGyver]

It's a shame the sporting gearbox doesn't fit the 899. I've heard that a 32mm throttle body from an SPI Punto fits with boring out the existing Cento spacer, apparently it makes a very slight difference as a standard Cento one is 30mm, ideally I'd be converting to a 1.2 SPI from a Punto with the better cam from a 1.2 MPI as the wiring is plug & play apart from extending the wires for the temperature sensor & oil pressure switch but I've noticed the SPI FIRE engines are also starting to get a bit thin on the ground although they do come up from time to time so I'll probably end up picking up an 1242 MPI engine as they are still plentiful, get all the rest of the associated parts needed from an MPI Seicento & swap it all over unless a decent 1242 SPI engine comes up

I don't understand,there was SX 1108 with C526 gearbox like the 899 engines, and SX 1108 with C514 gearbox.
Why a C514 gearbox will not fit the 899 engine. Maybe I found my next project.
The 1108 SPi has also 32mm TB if my memory serves ok.
The Fiat 850 coupe has 49cc less of the almost same engine with 51hp.
I'd like to have a 899 with 50-52hp and a sporting C514 gearbox.

 

[Didge3]

The Fiat 850 coupe has 49cc less of the almost same engine with 51hp.

The 850 coupe had a carb and no emissions control, I expect much of the loss in power (49hp for the 843cc, the 903cc had 52hp) was the switch to the very basic fuel injection and introduction of an exhaust catalyser

 

[FiatMatt94]

I don't understand,there was SX 1108 with C526 gearbox like the 899 engines, and SX 1108 with C514 gearbox.
Why a C514 gearbox will not fit the 899 engine. Maybe I found my next project.
The 1108 SPi has also 32mm TB if my memory serves ok.
The Fiat 850 coupe has 49cc less of the almost same engine with 51hp.
I'd like to have a 899 with 50-52hp and a sporting C514 gearbox.

I always wondered this too as you say the 1108 SX's had either the C526 or C514 gearboxes, I've seen on here that people say it doesn't fit but I've never tried it myself. As for the old 850 as Didge3 states above it was because the old setup's were carburettor & fuel injection coupled with catalytic converters do result in loss of power

 

[FiatMatt94]

I got a very good deal on eBay a few days ago & they have just arrived this afternoon, it's a Bilstein B12 pro kit for a Seicento with Bilstein B6 performance dampers & Eibach 30mm lowering springs

So I looked up the retail cost of this kit & it is anywhere between £600-£850 depending on where you buy & what offers are on etc, this particular kit was on an eBay auction as the seller had purchased it for motorsport use but never used it so it's still new in the box & I ended up paying the total grand sum of £337 including delivery which is really cheap for this kit so I'm a very happy man also I joined the Facebook Cinquecento & Seicento owners group & managed to secure myself a cheap Seicento sunroof cover which are as rare as hens teeth for just £25 plus postage as it needs a good clean but that's still dirt cheap

 

[icheatatscrabble]

I got a very good deal on eBay a few days ago & they have just arrived this afternoon, it's a Bilstein B12 pro kit for a Seicento with Bilstein B6 performance dampers & Eibach 30mm lowering springs
View attachment 469941View attachment 469942View attachment 469943
So I looked up the retail cost of this kit & it is anywhere between £600-£850 depending on where you buy & what offers are on etc, this particular kit was on an eBay auction as the seller had purchased it for motorsport use but never used it so it's still new in the box & I ended up paying the total grand sum of £337 including delivery which is really cheap for this kit so I'm a very happy man also I joined the Facebook Cinquecento & Seicento owners group & managed to secure myself a cheap Seicento sunroof cover which are as rare as hens teeth for just £25 plus postage as it needs a good clean but that's still dirt cheap

What a bargain!

 

[FiatMatt94]

What a bargain!

The funny thing is though I was looking for something else & then it just popped up, the icing on the cake as well is that I got a £280 tax rebait a few days before which all went towards it so thanks to HMRC as for once they come in handy at the right time instead of robbing our wages

 

[FiatMatt94]

The Bilstein B12 kit has been in for a few days now & I have to say it's a huge improvement over standard dampers with lowering springs, but the one thing that's really letting it down now in the cornering is the Goodyear "not so efficient grip" tyres, in 5-6k miles 2 of them have worn down near to the limit but also I've noticed it's also scrubbing the outer edges on the fronts so on Monday morning she's going in for front wheel alignment at a local place & then once that's done the Goodyear's are being ditched as I'm not impressed with them, I'll be going for the correct sporting size this time 165/55/13 as the lower profile should make things a bit better & I know the only ones pretty much available in that size are Nankang but I have had a couple of Nankang's in the past on Classic Mini's which I've always found a bit hit & miss but thinking about it they were probably better than these things Goodyear's used to be really good & also the tyres on my Cento steel rims were quite good but these one show that they've gone downhill & I won't be touching them again after this set as they are truly awful in handling terms as I've never come across tyre fold this bad before, I saw they'd been bought out this year by another company which probably explains it. As it was sunny today I decided to go for a drive, stopped off for an ice cream & got some pics of the car sitting on its Bilstein/Eibach setup

I also painted the sunroof & wiper arms the other day & although the wiper arms came out really good the same cannot be said for the sunroof it looks ok from a few feet away but up close I'm not happy with it so the plan now is rather than taking it all off again as it's only the top bit of the frame which needs redoing, cover surrounding areas up, give it a quick rub down/key & then hand paint with a small/artist brush which should bring it back up, it's not rusty now at least so that's a good thing

 

[icheatatscrabble]

Looking good, although you could've moved the green traffic cone.....
VW would fit those "efficient grip" tyres to their UP! GTI cars - absolutely terrible. Had a Citroen Cactus 10 years ago and they were fitted from the factory - awful. Poor in wet weather, weren't that grippy on dry roads and I seem to remember they were quite noisy too.

 

[FiatMatt94]

Looking good, although you could've moved the green traffic cone.....
VW would fit those "efficient grip" tyres to their UP! GTI cars - absolutely terrible. Had a Citroen Cactus 10 years ago and they were fitted from the factory - awful. Poor in wet weather, weren't that grippy on dry roads and I seem to remember they were quite noisy too.

I didn't think about the cone at the time it was a public car park in the Delemere forest. I had the Duragrips on my 2018 panda from the factory & they were really good but these ones are absolutely awful even in dry conditions, they'll be banished after the alignments done Monday morning for hopefully much better tyres

 

[Didge3]

I had a similar issue with finding good performance tyres for the Daihatsu Copen, if you're willing to go up to a 60 profile there are more options. Could you squeeze a 175 tyres on the standard wheels? Only other option is bigger wheels, I'm not sure how 15's sit on Centos but it opens up a lot more tyres.

 

[FiatMatt94]

Well I went to my appointment for the alignment this morning & they couldn't do it because their stuff wouldn't fit my wheels which annoyed me quite a bit as they must have known it a 13 inch wheel wouldn't fit so I thought stuff it & I've tweaked it a bit myself by eye on the drive as I used to do in the old days when I was skint & to be fair the results are pretty good, I think maybe some very minor tweaking & it's pretty much there & then some nice new rubber

 

[FiatMatt94]

I had a similar issue with finding good performance tyres for the Daihatsu Copen, if you're willing to go up to a 60 profile there are more options. Could you squeeze a 175 tyres on the standard wheels? Only other option is bigger wheels, I'm not sure how 15's sit on Centos but it opens up a lot more tyres.

At the moment I have 155/65/13 so I'm looking at the standard sporting size 165/55/13 but there's not a lot of variety as with the 155/65/13, I'm thinking at the moment maybe 155/70/13 as there seems to be a little more variety. I've seen some Cento's with 175/50/13 but I'm not too sure if a 175 would go under the arches without rolling them which I don't really want to do, I might consider going to 14's at some stage if I do then I'd have Lancia Monte Carlo rims as they look pukka