General Fiat Punto 1.2 16v sporting mods

[Trololipop]

Hello everyone!

This is my first post on here about my recent purchase, 188 Punto Active Sporting 1.2l 16v.
The cars got very good MOT history with only a couple failures for simple things, 29k miles as of writing this but driven a lot now.

Done a few maintenance items like the front pads and discs, gearbox dog bone, mid and rear sections of the exhaust with new rubber mounts.

Looking at doing some power mods in the coming year:

- ECUMaster DET3 piggy back ecu, this is wired in to the standard wiring (piggy back) and allows for fuel mapping.
- 4-2-1 Decat exhaust manifold
- mild camshafts, don't want it to be all peak power or it'll be useless for the road where this is driven most!
- Custom intake using 60mm ali pipe and cone filter.

Looking into camshafts on here there seem to be a couple options i.e. 1.4 16v cams or aftermarket...
Does anyone have the specs on the standard 1.4 cams for lift and duration?

Any input is appreciated and enjoying reading the posts that are up on here with your pictures too!

 

[AndyRKett]

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on your new purchase.

First of all rust.. if it’s not rusty then at this age you cannot do enough to prevent it rusting, if it does have rust and it most likely will then you need to get it treated and treated well as rust is the main killer of these now they’re just not worth spending the money on if they fail an MOT on rust.

Mods, now if memory serves the. The 1.2 16v had about 80hp which for a non turbo car is pretty much pushing the limit: I have the same engine a 1.2 16v in my mk1 cab and in a recent conversation the jist is you will not be able to push anymore horse power out of the engine without serious and expensive re-engineering of the whole engine.

Being the mk1 mine did have an 85hp engine so you have scope to squeeze a couple more HP out of it, but honestly you could spend a fortune and still be left standing by the next guy in a modern fiesta or polo. The best advice anyone can give you here is love it enjoy it and when you’re ready for some more power then buy a car with more power.

 

[Trololipop]

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on your new purchase.

First of all rust.. if it’s not rusty then at this age you cannot do enough to prevent it rusting, if it does have rust and it most likely will then you need to get it treated and treated well as rust is the main killer of these now they’re just not worth spending the money on if they fail an MOT on rust.

Mods, now if memory serves the. The 1.2 16v had about 80hp which for a non turbo car is pretty much pushing the limit: I have the same engine a 1.2 16v in my mk1 cab and in a recent conversation the jist is you will not be able to push anymore horse power out of the engine without serious and expensive re-engineering of the whole engine.

Being the mk1 mine did have an 85hp engine so you have scope to squeeze a couple more HP out of it, but honestly you could spend a fortune and still be left standing by the next guy in a modern fiesta or polo. The best advice anyone can give you here is love it enjoy it and when you’re ready for some more power then buy a car with more power.

Thanks for the welcome!

Rust wise its absolutely mint for its age, I'm getting 1 of the jacking pads scuffed up and painted this weekend and a couple 50p size surface patches scuffed back as well but otherwise its spot on!

I'm not aiming for mega power honestly but just get it where this engine really sings, this is my third car and the smallest of the lot...
I've got a 525td E34 with a holset HX35, mechanical diesel pump, 3" turbo back custom system, big clutch etc etc which is pretty quick, in the process of forging my MK3 Toyota Supra to make a 7MGE-T good for 400hp out the gate.

End goal would be 110/120 ish which I don't see being impossible but I could be wrong!

 

[AndyRKett]

End goal would be 110/120 ish which I don't see being impossible but I could be wrong!

You almost certainly won’t be getting that much. Bear in mind even fiat had to go to 1.4 to get 100hp in the panda
And even if you could push it to 100hp that would still be a massive 25% increase over standard

It’s not an engine that responds well to tuning or modifications, you can very easily spend a fortune to get the odd on or two BHP from here and there, you just end up chasing your tail.

 

[Trololipop]

You almost certainly won’t be getting that much. Bear in mind even fiat had to go to 1.4 to get 100hp in the panda
And even if you could push it to 100hp that would still be a massive 25% increase over standard

It’s not an engine that responds well to tuning or modifications, you can very easily spend a fortune to get the odd on or two BHP from here and there, you just end up chasing your tail.

110/120 is dreaming and I kinda gathered that...

Cams I've seen a some stuff saying about a 10hp bump, decat pipe would do well and should give about 5-10 especially with it being a 4-2-1 increasing flow. I've not looked too much into TB sizes and what I can bolt on, ITBS would be amazing but just a bit too much money unless I can design a set on CAD and print the manifold myself for some cheap ITBs