My Lancia Delta Integrale 8V restoration project

[LanciaNut69]

Samo, well done for getting to the milestone of having the car running. Really enjoying looking at all of the pictures as you progress and look forward to the next update. You're nearly there now (relatively speaking) - keep those updates coming!

All the best

Darren

[Guy Croft]

Samo just pm'd me for advice on start-up and I have edited a generic version for him and sent it by pm.

I have reproduced it here (turbo/fuel injected) and will welcome comments as to enhancements/errors/omissions.

Please note - I write these mainly for my own engines and they really have to be specific to the kind of motor referred to.


G

GUY CROFT RACING ENGINES

Turbo_FI
data issued Feb 2012



ENGINE START-UP INFO


1. Make sure all the oil lines and accessories are cleaned out thoroughly, if they are not you will pump debris into the engine bearings.
2. If your engine is fitted with an accumulator you should isolate it till the end of the bedding-in period with the gate valve.
3. Check security of oil and water hose connections and oil filter. Ensure sump plug is secure. Fill engine oil to level on dipstick. Fill hose lines and external lubrication accessories with oil. Use non-synthetic or semi-synthetic oil for break-in eg Valvoline VR1 Racing Mineral Oil 20W/50 or Castrol Magnatec part-synthetic 10W/40. Bedding-in oils are also available eg: Millers.
4. Fill cooling system with 50% Fiat Paraflu mix. This is the best antifreeze/additive you can buy for a Fiat/Lancia engine. Be aware that certain ‘water-wetter’ additives designed to prevent nucleate boiling of the coolant can cause very severe corrosion and GCRE rarely recommend them. Use of plain water is not recommended.
5. Remove the cambox cover. New cams should be liberally coated with a good brand of cam lube and used cams smeared with molybdenum disulphide grease. Use engine oil to fill the camboxes, the oil filter, and cooler, remote filter and as many of the oil lines as practicable.
6. Remove spark plugs. Isolate the electric fuel pump and ignition.
7. Ensure the oil pump is wetted and primed by squirting oil down the gallery to the pump.
8. With the cambox covers off crank up engine oil pressure with the throttle wide open. Do not crank the engine for more than 7-8 secs continuously and for more than 20sec altogether, the oil pressure light should go out and oil pressure should register on the gauge by this time. With cold oil the gauge should achieve 20-30psi cranking pressure, or more. Check that oil is feeding to the cam bearings and then close up the cambox. Once oil pressure is up allow the oil to drain down (20 minute rest) and check the sump level/top-up.
9. Make sure the plug leads are the right way round, firing order is 1342. Connect the ignition system and you can check that it generates sparks when the engine is cranked, by holding the main feed from the coil to the distributor 0.5cm from an earth point.
10. Connect the fuel pump, crank engine to allow the system to fill and check for leaks. You should keep a CO2 fire extinguisher nearby, a backfire with a high-pressure fuel line leak can easily lead to an uncontrollable fire.
11. Fit standard road plugs for the initial start-up. GC supplied race plugs can be used but be aware of the risk of fouling on an uncalibrated engine.
12. Start engine with minimum application of the throttle. That reduces the load on the bearings. The oil pressure light should go out almost immediately and oil pressure register on the gauge. The pressure will drop as the oil warms up to temperature (ideal 85deg C) and the pressure will go up and down with engine speed (less so on units with crank-nose driven oil pump) but an engine needs 50psi minimum under load.
13. If the cams are new you must keep the engine running at 2000 rpm for 10 minutes to allow the cams to bed in (if engine will not run well at this speed & without overheating switch off and investigate the cause). Used cams do not require that bedding-in period. In any case the aim is to get the engine warmed up to 75deg C but without revving it too high.
14. Adjust idle speed to 850 rpm and if necessary set the ignition timing with a timing light (usually 10 deg +/- 2 deg is about right).
15. Check that everything from the silencer to the alternator belt is secure. Don’t run the engine at high rpm as the oil will overheat.
16. After some 10-20minutes running off-load as described above it is worth doing a compression test. Take out all the plugs and fix the throttle wide open. Isolate the ignition and fuel system and crank the engine with compression gauge fixed into each spark plug in turn. Keep cranking till the needle on the gauge stops rising! If the pressure is slow to go up after the 1st compression stroke it indicates poor valve seating(or the gauge is loose) and the peak figure should easily be anything from 200-260psi depending on cams and CR. There should not be more than 10% variance cylinder to cylinder – if any.
17. Engine may require dyno calibration to achieve optimum ignition and fuelling before ANY driving.

Important note on oil pressure: When the engine & oil are hot the oil pressure warning light may not go out during cranking. That depends on the pressure it is calibrated to. However it should go out almost immediately the engine fires. Beware of having warning light ON and NO pressure showing on the gauge. That usually indicates severe bearing or oil pump trouble.

The oil used above should be left in until the end of the break-in period. That period is about 400 road miles or 2hrs dyno. How fast depends on how the bores were prepped. If a FlexHone was used and the bores were thoroughly hot-washed with detergent the bedding-in period is faster. If the bores were not properly prepped it will never bed in. You should treat the bedding-in period not as a race to get thru quickly but a time to prove-out the whole installation!

Do not attempt full-throttle/load runs until you have fitted the race-grade spark plugs and changed the engine oil and changed the filter. The same VR1 mentioned above is a good oil, as is Castrol Edge Sport, but GCRE top recommended oil is Selenia Racing 10W60. Do not use an oil with less than /50 high temperature viscosity rating. Remember that a remote filter set-up requires a filter with an anti-drainback valve.


On the rolling road, make sure your temperatures do not exceed:

Coolant: 75deg C
Oil: 85 deg C
Intake air at manifold 35 deg C (45 deg is borderline knock)


“Break-in, bedding-in or running-in” are all the same thing and refer principally to the period allowed for the piston rings to wear to conform to the bores and generate a good seal.

[samo]

Thank you for the help and specially for taking the time to write this comprehansive procedure!

I will try to do my best at sticking to it.

Well since the first start up over the weekend the engine was silent and I was hard at work to now bolt everything together. Today I installed the outlet and inlet pipes for the turbine.

The turbine CHRA was filled with oil and turbine hand turned (more or less just for my entertainment) and I used an syringe to fill the inlet line with oil also.

I also disconnected the oil line from the oil cooler and filled it up which took some time as i had to use the syringe on that also.

Oil I am using is a semi synthetic Castrol (i think TXT 5W-40 or 10W-40 don't really remember what was written on the barrel) the oil/filter will be changed after break in period for Selenia Racing or similar.

[samo]

After a fe days off I returned to the garage today. I installed the wastegate, 90 degree elbow and downpipe. Wastegate flanges had to be straightened as they were around 0,3 mm out of true. So even the waste gate got it's attention with a grinder, sandblasting, painting and of course new bolts and nuts to finish off the job.

I also finished the rear box. In fact it is so ugly two people contacted me and offered to make me a nicer one. But unfortunatly we soon discovered the car must be drivable to achive that so I had to finish it...

A question for the more experienced mechanics. Fiat states the correct torque for tightening the nuts on the exhaust manifold is 25 Nm. This is ok on the first 4 bolts but the 5th one can not be reached with a torqure rench in my oppinion. If anyone knows how to do it please let me know. Ither they did it by feel or they had a realy special torqe wrench!

[Brit01]

You are in the same predicament as me. On my Alfa I have bolts that have a torque setting but I see no possible way of getting the smallest socket and wrench into some places. Couple of the carb bolts and the exhaust manifold bolts for example.

I end up using a standard spanner by feel. After practice you get the feel.
I torqued up my hub bolts up by hand first and then using the torque wrench.
I was impressed.

4.2 or 4.4 kg-m I think the hub bolts were set at. I had them at 4kg-m by hand.

[Abarthnorway - Remi L]

A question for the more experienced mechanics. Fiat states the correct torque for tightening the nuts on the exhaust manifold is 25 Nm. This is ok on the first 4 bolts but the 5th one can not be reached with a torqure rench in my oppinion. If anyone knows how to do it please let me know. Ither they did it by feel or they had a realy special torqe wrench!

Hi Samo!


Only way to get it right is by hand i suppose......can`t imagine You could get anything bigger than a thin spanner in there.

Next time You take the manifold off you could grind a little off the manifold for clearance, and shorthen the stud by some mm. Every little helps. This bolt/nut has had me raging a few times:-)


Remi

[WhizzMan]

I'm still puzzled as to how to get at that one on a 16V. It should be very similar. Once again, looking perfect!

[samo]

Installed the "ducks beek" cold air intake onto the turbo and the turbo to intercooler hose.

I also managed to fill the gearbox with oil.

[samo]

A lot of work got done yesterday:
-mounted the rear box,
-tightened all the exhaust joints,
-installed propper washers and nuts on the exhaust mountings,
-filled the propshaft spiders with grease,
-filled the rear diff with oil,
-assembled the water radiator and fan,
-installed and filled with antifreeze,
-sealed 2 small leaks,
-almost had a nervous breakdown when I realised I forgot to connect the wastegate flap to the valve actuator... this will be quite difficult now with the radiator installed.

[WhizzMan]

You know you'll have to take the radiator out, or fiddle and curse for at least an hour before you get it. The good news is, that once you put the radiator back, you know you won't have any leaks, because you already tested for that. With the car in this state, removing and refitting the radiator is a 10 minute job, so it's only 10 minutes you lost.

You're getting close to "first drive"!

[samo]

It's not a 10 minute job removing the radiator once it's been filled. There is no drain valve on this car so you have to pop off a hose and that usually causes a flood...

I was hoping to sort the WG today but unfortunatly I had a small lekage problem. One of the jubilee clips on the hose on the water pump wasen't tight enough and it took me 2 hours and most of the skin on my hands to sort it out... Also lost a small wrench somewhere behind the intake manifold and I couldn't find it. I even shoved a camera as far as my arm goes and took pictures in hope of finding the wrench but no success. I did find a small pond of coolant and a lost cable tie :)

[Brit01]

Good progress there samo.

You'll always come across little glitches. I had the same issue with a couple of leaks from jubilee clips on the coolant pipes. The coolant really stains your nice new shiny parts.
Sometimes better to fill it with anti-corrosive water to flush it out first (and check for leaks) before putting in the green stuff.
Also dropped sockets that lodge somewhere, spending an hour trying to find it.

All part of the process.

No drain plug?? Strange. Could you not have made one from one of the pipes with a T or tap off?

[WhizzMan]

It's common for cars from the Fiat factories this era not to have a drain valve. I usually just pull the lower hose from the radiator and have a big receptacle under it to catch any splatter. It's the best you can do and the way to deal with it is just to get it over with in my opinion.

Losing a tool under the inlet manifold is a pain with an engine bay this cramped. I usually look through the wheel wells or from underneath, or just feel for it. I 'm rather tall and skinny, so often I can get my hand and arm in to places other people can't reach. If it's taking too much time, leave it there for another day, just put a note on your windshield the tool is still there, so you won't start the car or anything with it laying around.

[samo]

After a few days work sorting out the leaks I fixed most of them. Up till now all could be traced back to me forgetting to tighten clips and pipes... Live and learn they say :)

I still cannot trace one small leak I have that is showing itself as a small puddle somewhere bellow the crank shaft pullys. I have no idea what could be causing that except maybe it's not really a leak but just a drip from my previous spills.

I installed some cheap alloy wheels that are ugly and the tires are old as earth but at least now I will be able to get the car out of the garage to brake the engine in and I don't have to worry when the when the wheels I intend to use will be finished.

[samo]

Tried getting the car out of the garage to start the bedding in.

I didn't make it outside....

Had problems holding the idle and kept cutting out. I traced that to faults on the connector for the #4 injector, bad connection on the idlevalve, and a short circuit on the engine to car loom.

Now it runs OK on idle but cuts out if you touch the accelerator. Well i guess it wouldn't be fun if it just work would it?

Any ideas what else to check? Sadly I am running a lot of car parts that I have never had working together so I can not be sure about any of the parts!