Sporty_5_Seicento
Member
Hi peeps,
Probably should re-introduce myself as I have been absent from the forum for some time now but am back to help a friend with a Seicento project, so Hi!
The headgasket in his Black Seicento Abarth 1999 1.1 SPI went the other day (Catastrophically may I add) so we have decided to put a 1.2 8v SPI punto engine in... We have read about the other conversions but as we have limited knowledge with ECU’s we have decided to keep it simple for our first try. We have both had Seicento/Cinquecento in the past and find the car good fun and a cheap way to learn a bit about engine swaps and tuning!
We have managed to pick up a punto mpi 1.2 8v very cheap and plan to use the bottom end for the build and retain the 1108’s head and all ancillaries. At the moment both engines have been fully stripped, the 1.2 that is going into the car to give it a full check and the 1.1 original engine has also been removed from the car. There are a few things I would like to ask before going any further.
Enginewise
After reading posts and the FAQ’s it appears I need to change the following parts to convert from the 1108 to the 1242 SPI;
1) You need to use the Cento crank position sensor. (After briefly looking is this to do with the length wires on the connector?)
2) Cento oil pressure switch complete with long hollow bolt and 90' elbow. (Fully understand this one as the punto one is not at 90 degrees and would hit the fan motor)
3) Lengthen manifold? (Hopefully we will be negating this by using the punto twin downpipe and moving flange to fit)
Over the next week we will be inspecting the 1242 bottom end and replacing the majority of the following to ensure we don’t have any problems later; head gasket, crank oil seals, camshaft oil seals, water pump, clutch, thermostat, cambelt, tensioner, and all gaskets.
The plan with the head is to get it skimmed down to near the max mark and run the thinner metal twin layer punto headgasket - 55189949. I ran this on my seicento setup and it ran fine for thousands of miles and this also raises the compression slightly more. (standard gasket 1.4mm MLS punto gasket 0.42mm). Slight intake side enlarging and porting and potentially remove the inlet valve stems that protrude into the port. On the exhaust side we plan just to remove any marks in the port and give it a polish, rebuild and reassemble.
Suspension and Brakes
Once we have got the car back on the road and fully up and running we plan to lower the car 40mm and completely upgrade to discs all round from another fiat model. This will have more research over the next few weeks as the priority at the moment is to get the car back on the road!
Engine Management
Regarding the ecu we were wondering what the best route to go would be. On the SPI versions I understand the chip requires a retune which is why people on the forum used a McCrich chip. Are McCritch chips still available or what other chips are out there to use? I have seen a Chip2Race chip advertised for the 1.1 cinquecento or seicento on ebay but will this mapping work on the 1.2 SPI engine, which has the power curve lower down, I plan on fitting? I guess also this will remove the immobiliser and requirement for chipped key?? Also we would probably want to source a spare ecu with a chip socket in to retain our original ecu in case of error or problem, I guess a cinquecento or seicento ecu will be ok for this?
Exterior and Interior
The exterior is going to be kept as standard as possible bar the SS exhaust tip and slight lowering and maybe some light tints on the rear... We are hoping to make a custom heater vent and get some gauges mounted in the heater vent so we can see how it is running whilst driving too!
Here is a list of some of the parts we have accumulated so far and some of the parts we are currently looking for engine wise;
Parts we have
- 1242 engine (came with all ancillaries so we now have some spares )
- GSR induction kit inc. 899 bob
- Custom centre section and Supersrpint backbox
- Standard Flywheel lightened and balanced - weighs 4.3Kg
- Punto 75 manifold and twin downpipe (I understand flange relocation is required to fit)
Parts we are currently sourcing
- 866 punto cam
- Uno 45 inlet manifold
- Larger 40mm Tricker TB or 38mm converted
- Spare ECU + ECU chip (potentially chip2race in a different ECu with socket to keep our own ECU for the moment but not sure which one we need, I guess McCritch no longer sells ecu chips??)
Currently I have no photos as they are all on my friends Iphone... What I will do is get some pictures up asap to show progress. If anyone can help with a few of the questions posted above that would be brilliant!
I hope you enjoy following the project.
Cheers,
Matt
Probably should re-introduce myself as I have been absent from the forum for some time now but am back to help a friend with a Seicento project, so Hi!
The headgasket in his Black Seicento Abarth 1999 1.1 SPI went the other day (Catastrophically may I add) so we have decided to put a 1.2 8v SPI punto engine in... We have read about the other conversions but as we have limited knowledge with ECU’s we have decided to keep it simple for our first try. We have both had Seicento/Cinquecento in the past and find the car good fun and a cheap way to learn a bit about engine swaps and tuning!
We have managed to pick up a punto mpi 1.2 8v very cheap and plan to use the bottom end for the build and retain the 1108’s head and all ancillaries. At the moment both engines have been fully stripped, the 1.2 that is going into the car to give it a full check and the 1.1 original engine has also been removed from the car. There are a few things I would like to ask before going any further.
Enginewise
After reading posts and the FAQ’s it appears I need to change the following parts to convert from the 1108 to the 1242 SPI;
1) You need to use the Cento crank position sensor. (After briefly looking is this to do with the length wires on the connector?)
2) Cento oil pressure switch complete with long hollow bolt and 90' elbow. (Fully understand this one as the punto one is not at 90 degrees and would hit the fan motor)
3) Lengthen manifold? (Hopefully we will be negating this by using the punto twin downpipe and moving flange to fit)
Over the next week we will be inspecting the 1242 bottom end and replacing the majority of the following to ensure we don’t have any problems later; head gasket, crank oil seals, camshaft oil seals, water pump, clutch, thermostat, cambelt, tensioner, and all gaskets.
The plan with the head is to get it skimmed down to near the max mark and run the thinner metal twin layer punto headgasket - 55189949. I ran this on my seicento setup and it ran fine for thousands of miles and this also raises the compression slightly more. (standard gasket 1.4mm MLS punto gasket 0.42mm). Slight intake side enlarging and porting and potentially remove the inlet valve stems that protrude into the port. On the exhaust side we plan just to remove any marks in the port and give it a polish, rebuild and reassemble.
Suspension and Brakes
Once we have got the car back on the road and fully up and running we plan to lower the car 40mm and completely upgrade to discs all round from another fiat model. This will have more research over the next few weeks as the priority at the moment is to get the car back on the road!
Engine Management
Regarding the ecu we were wondering what the best route to go would be. On the SPI versions I understand the chip requires a retune which is why people on the forum used a McCrich chip. Are McCritch chips still available or what other chips are out there to use? I have seen a Chip2Race chip advertised for the 1.1 cinquecento or seicento on ebay but will this mapping work on the 1.2 SPI engine, which has the power curve lower down, I plan on fitting? I guess also this will remove the immobiliser and requirement for chipped key?? Also we would probably want to source a spare ecu with a chip socket in to retain our original ecu in case of error or problem, I guess a cinquecento or seicento ecu will be ok for this?
Exterior and Interior
The exterior is going to be kept as standard as possible bar the SS exhaust tip and slight lowering and maybe some light tints on the rear... We are hoping to make a custom heater vent and get some gauges mounted in the heater vent so we can see how it is running whilst driving too!
Here is a list of some of the parts we have accumulated so far and some of the parts we are currently looking for engine wise;
Parts we have
- 1242 engine (came with all ancillaries so we now have some spares )
- GSR induction kit inc. 899 bob
- Custom centre section and Supersrpint backbox
- Standard Flywheel lightened and balanced - weighs 4.3Kg
- Punto 75 manifold and twin downpipe (I understand flange relocation is required to fit)
Parts we are currently sourcing
- 866 punto cam
- Uno 45 inlet manifold
- Larger 40mm Tricker TB or 38mm converted
- Spare ECU + ECU chip (potentially chip2race in a different ECu with socket to keep our own ECU for the moment but not sure which one we need, I guess McCritch no longer sells ecu chips??)
Currently I have no photos as they are all on my friends Iphone... What I will do is get some pictures up asap to show progress. If anyone can help with a few of the questions posted above that would be brilliant!
I hope you enjoy following the project.
Cheers,
Matt