General Progress on my Uno

[thepottleflump]

Well I spent a short while beginning to service the beast. The engine bay was looking worse for wear and covered in oil and general crap so I thought I'd give it a spray down with Gunk and then break out the pressure washer. Probably not the best idea in the world but time will tell. I also drained the oil but had to go out so will be refilling with a flush tomorrow and then final refill.

I will probably remove the camcover and either polish or respray while replacing the gasket as suggested. Also carried out the vaccumm suck test and I was able to draw air so looks like a new one will be required. I would like to install an oil breather as there was some oil residual in the airbox.

Here are the before and after shots.

Before (sprayed with "Gunk" and foil to prevent water entering)

After

 

[distortionrockets]

looks a hell of a lot better mate

il post pictures of my 1.0L uno engine bay tonight and make you jealous

 

[Jai]

looks like chas is going to have some competition in the shiny engine stakes!

 

[Chas Uno]

looks like chas is going to have some competition in the shiny engine stakes!

Pottleflump, polish the cam cover (see pic below). Looks really nice when you do that

Your engine is looking good! Have you any pictures of the whole car?

 

[thepottleflump]

Polishing is certainly an option but I have a tin of blue hammerite in the garage that I may well use just to get rid of it. I definately going to use it on the calipers and rear drums as that will set off nicely against the black.

I notice you have a K&N, is that an off-the-shelf item for the uno. I like the look of that so may well get one if it is relatively cheap. I also noice your breather pipe is heading off to the back left of the bay. Have you an oil catcher or is it venting to the floor?

I'm saving the pictures of the whole car until I have completed a little more work. There is little or no rust on the body just the rear o/s turret but it needs a damn good polish to get it looking sweet! Oooo the suspense!

 

[Chas Uno]

Polishing is certainly an option but I have a tin of blue hammerite in the garage that I may well use just to get rid of it. I definately going to use it on the calipers and rear drums as that will set off nicely against the black.

Noooooooooooooooo! DON'T use Hammerite! The cam cover, calipers and drums get very hot and will burn the paint! If you must paint these parts, use High Temperature or VHT (Very High Temperature) engine paint/ enamels. You can get these paints from most decent car accessory stores.

A good use for the Hammerite is to paint suspension components. I painted my turbo anti-roll bar and brackets before installing them, and have also painted a lower suspension arm (yet to fit it). I bought another lower suspension arm and will paint that too. All done in blue Smoothrite as I had a tin knocking around with nothing to use it on. Looks good and should help stop the bits going rusty. Well, maybe slow down the rusting

I notice you have a K&N, is that an off-the-shelf item for the uno. I like the look of that so may well get one if it is relatively cheap. I also noice your breather pipe is heading off to the back left of the bay. Have you an oil catcher or is it venting to the floor?

The K&N was give to me by LouieB for helping him get his old Bianca through the MOT. Louie got it from Bushboy, who got it from someone else who...

Apparently it is an off the shelf item, but I've no idea what model it is nor how much it costs. It looks good, sounds nice and maybe in certain conditions liberates an extra pony or two. But don't run it in winter or you'll be forever getting carb icing problems.

The breather pipe just, erm, breathes! It runs to the back of the engine bay just above the steering rack. My main concern was to stop emulsified gunk getting into the airbox, and with the K&N there is no provision for connecting the breather tube. I was going to get a catch tank made but have yet to get round to it Bit naughty I know :devil:

See the thread(s) from M@nticore who made an excellent catch tank and breather from an aluminium Merc suspension unit. I might look into doing something like that myself when I get time away from writing bio-science essays

I'm saving the pictures of the whole car until I have completed a little more work. There is little or no rust on the body just the rear o/s turret but it needs a damn good polish to get it looking sweet! Oooo the suspense!

Show us pics, show us pics! The suspense is killing us Can't we tempt you to show some 'before' pictures like your engine bay shots?

 

[Peterg]

Looking good, how did u polish the cam cover?
Pete

 

[Chas Uno]

Looking good, how did u polish the cam cover?
Pete

I used some aluminium cleaner, then progressive grades of wet and dry paper. Starting at about 400 grit and working up to about 1000 grit until the surface of the cam cover was nice and smooth.

Then get a big tube of Autosol metal polish, and polish away for ages until it shines. If you're lucky enough to have a bench grinder you can put on a polishing wheel and do it that way, which will be much quicker.

Once it's done, you just need to give it a polish and buff every few months to keep it looking nice

 

[jjhepburn]

Just thought I would add a picture of my engine bay I like the idea of polishing my cam cover. I might have a go with my spare, see how it looks. It appears my cam cover is leaking anyway.

 

[beau]

the punto 55/60 k&n is a straight fit on the 1.0 fire ie, and the tubes plug into the airfilter, i just sold one on ebay for 5.50

 

[alexGS]

James - when the pictures of the engine bays started to appear, I just had to think of yours...

The picture doesn't really do justice to the carefully-selected rust-free bolts, the two-hour cleaning of the gearbox, and the repainted strut tops, subframe, brake servo, etc. etc! In fact the main thing that stands out is that stupid rusty tin shroud on the exhaust. We really ought to do something about that.

-Alex

 

[distortionrockets]

cant be assed to post a pic yet! my cam cover isnt as shiny as the others anyway haha! i will get it looking new soon. also gotta fit rocker cover gasket as there is a tiny oil leak which i keep having to clean up.

ordered some blue cover hoseing (like samico hosing) for the HT leads etc!

also if you want a K&N for your uno get one thats meant for a Punto 1.1 its perfect and you can really feel the difference!

new pic within the next week!

 

[Louie Bee]

Looking good there jjhepburn and Chas (as ever). Nice work thepottleflump

!

Can I jump on the bandwagon?

​

Too late, I just did .

As Chas says, I passed on the KnN as a small token of my appreciation for his tireless help with the Bianca . Bushboy sold me the KnN attached to a carburettor, as I thought I needed a replacement carb on the Bianca (due to the ruff idol). Chas swapped carbs and tried allsorts. We did not get to the bottom of the ruff idol. Maybe this Uno had a re-profiled cam at some stage . Anyway, I still have the maybe good carb if any one is interested, please let me know .

Speaking of polishing...

*Louie fixes his camera – wasn’t holding charge as a wire needed shouldering back on inside the cradle LOL.

Chas, would you’re method of polishing work on this

More here https://www.fiatforum.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=949 .

I’m not exactly sure what it’s made of, but it’s my favourite bit of my MK1. Do you reckon it will be OK to use a drill buffer pad .

As an aside, I used to think the above (induction manifold) was the Turbo .

Regards All,
Louie Bee .

 

[Bushboy]

the K&N came with one of my unos. it was for the carb model only!.. if you want a K&N for an injection (throttle body) version, the Cinq sporting K&N is a straight fit.

 

[thepottleflump]

I'd imagine the turbo inlet would polish up nicely, something like a dremel, polishing wheel and compound would bring it up real nice. Will attempt to polish my cam cover when my bro returns my dremel.

 

[Chas Uno]

Chas, would you’re method of polishing work on this

More here https://www.fiatforum.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=949 .

I’m not exactly sure what it’s made of, but it’s my favourite bit of my MK1. Do you reckon it will be OK to use a drill buffer pad .

As an aside, I used to think the above (induction manifold) was the Turbo .

Regards All,
Louie Bee .

Yes, I'm almost certain that the part in your picture (known as the inlet plenum chamber, definitely not the turbo Turbo's look like a big snail ) is made of aluminium, so therefore it can be polished like all other aluminium parts.

Only problem is that the casting looks quite course, so for best effect you could try and have it ground/ machined to a smooth surface. It can be done by hand with course wet and dry but it will take you forever! I've never ground aluminium so not sure how to do it - is that what a 'dremel' does Pottelflump

I found this picture in my archives of a mk1 turbo engine bay with what looks like a polished plenum chamber. I think it is polished, it might actually be painted silver! But it will give you an idea of what it can look like.

Looking forward to hearing more and seeing more about your turbo projects Louie

All the best,

Chas

 

[thepottleflump]

That looks really sweet.

A dremel is just a rotary tool. You can get lots of small bits for polishing and ideal for this sort of thing.

 

[alexGS]

The Turbo 'plenum chamber' (proper name well one of the proper names anyway) is indeed a really coarse casting. I scrubbed mine with degreaser for ages, it cleaned up nicely. To preserve it, I sprayed on some silver paint.

Unfortunately, it was some of that 'really shiny' silver paint... the type that is sometimes sold as 'chrome' paint... I think the photo of the engine bay speaks for itself. I prefer the clean, satin look for my aluminium. The rest of my Uno Turbo's engine bay is a MESS!

I really should get around to sanding/repainting the air filter housing, for example, but of course I'm always thinking of replacing it with a cone filter. It would make sense to clean the cylinder head, but it's difficult to get to without removing a load of stuff first. Likewise the cam cover needs a clean-up, but it doesn't leak, so it's hard to justify removing it.

Besides, even after a load of cleaning/painting/polishing, the engine bay of the Uno Turbo will still be a pile of untidy hoses/wires, extra hoses (for the not-used A/C), relays here and there... etc. Compare with the engine bay of my Alfa 164. It doesn't have an ugly great plenum casting - it has TUBES...

-Alex

 

[Louie Bee]

Wow! Thanks Guys!!! I have a target

They are mint looking 'plenum chambers' / ‘inlet plenum chambers’ . Shame I don’t illustrate for FIAT. I only get to sketch diesel engine parts like Induction Manifolds LOL.

Chas, that’s what you get in a sleeper Uno 45S .

Alex, you’re not gone like my engine bay if I get it half as shiny as I want . Guess I should get on the road first ... Nice Alfa though could do with a clean .

I’ll try and keep you updated regularly, but it’s so much fun doing it, I often find it hard to tare my self away sometimes :slayer:.

Regards All,
Louie Bee.

 

[distortionrockets]

well ive finished the engine bay!

now the rest of the car needs finishing...(lowering + buckets)

let me know what you think and happy to answer any questions

cheers guys