128 Race Car
Posted: March 4th, 2008, 2:52 am
Hi!
I am giving a helping hand to a good friend of mine Stian Gundersen to build the engine of his hopefully fast Fiat 128 destined for a tarmac racing series in Norway:
Specs so far:
Chassis:
Rust free 128 2-door newly painted Ferrari Red
300Lb front springs
Customised front strut to accept VW Rabbit Koni inserts
Extra rear spring layer
Poly bushes all around
Yokohama 185/50-13 slicks on 13/7 alloys
Full roll cage
Fuel cell
Strengthened suspension mounting points
Lexan windows
Stripped out doors now weighs in at less than 10lb!!!
Uno Turbo front brakes
Engine: 1290cc
Using mostly new parts for rebuild - all parts polished, washed and oiled before fitment
Crank:
Crankshaft fully balanced
Flywheel lightened from 7kg to 5 kg
Crank plug removal for oilway cleaning
Oilways modified a la GC
Crank polished with 400 to remove highspots
Piston/Rods
Rods balanced and slightly lightended
Small end bronce bush honed with 400 grit
Big end bearing housings polished with 400 grit
New pistons/rings - washed
Block:
Cylinders finished honed with flex hone
Top end of cylinders chamfered for easy piston entry
Cylinders washed 7 - seven - times
New freeze plugs
Block decked 0.8mm to make pistons protrude 0.6mm over block face
Head:
Race head gasket - 1.6 mm depressed
Inlet port taken from 25mm to 32 at face tapering down to 28.5 at port venturi. Material removed from port roof/sides only
Exhaust port taken from 27 to 29mm
Intake valve seat internal diameter taken from 30 mm to 32.5 mm after GC advice see: phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1285
Exhaust valve seat internal diameter taken from 28 to 28.5 mm
Valve seats fully modified
Combustion chamber cleaned up/deshrouded
Skimming to achieve 10:1 compression
Cams and valvetrain:
Inlet valves back cut 30` to remove nasty edge and help low lift flow
Exhaust valves back cut 30`
Bronce guides - shortened to 42 mm and rounded off - finished off with flex hone
Catcams steel billet 284` - 10.75 lift - 106 lobe separation angle - 3.5 mm lift at TDC
Guy Croft triple valve springs
Teflon valve stem seals
Piper adjustable cam wheel
New tensioner and belt
Carburation:
Facet silcer top pump
2 * 40 DHLA with 32 chokes
Pipercross 30 mm Rampipes
DCOE manifold ported to 31.5 mm at head face
Exhaust:
4-2-1 unknown brand finished up with straight pipe to 2" back box - a bit uncerainty here regarding length / size of tubing in header. Only testing will tell if it works or not.
Some pics:
My old 130TC ended up as a race car with Stian Gundersen and thats how we got in touch. Last years season ended up with a 2nd place in his class. Lots of adjustments/tweaking neccessary for best performance. Lots of "special" solutions added after me needed to go, and car was put back to optimised original..... long list of work done!!!
Marking out inlet port face of 128 head using old 31 mm exhaust valve
1st intake port opened out in stage one
Porting tools
Measuring tools: 128 ex valve 31mm - A112 Abarth 29 mm inlet valve - coin 27mm
Inlet ports opened out - polishing next
Increasing the bowl area and short side radius
128 ready for paint
DHLA Manifold in process of being opened out to 31.5 mm
Crank oilway mod
New oil pump with uprated spring at left
Checking piston height in bore prior to machine shop work
Stian measuring up
Crank plugs removed - lots of 30+ years dirt inside!!!
Oilway mod
Closeup
Before
After
Polishing crank to remove high spots
A112 project underway to recieve newer uprated (and flowed) engine combo and coupled with a modern engine management systems.... details so far not official:-)
Engine will be under 1000cc revs close to 10.000.....
Closeup of coilovers, and highly lowered suspension. Class allows for 5cm ground clearance - this is close to it. Matching 7inch wide alloys..... Car fully caged and strut braced.
Oil pump springs closeup
Crank with new oil plug
Crank installed
New pistons - cleaned
Rods lightened slightly - fully balanced - new nuts/bolts
Small end bush honed with 400
Big end housings finish honed and lined up
Broken secong compression rings (2pcs) - these were extremely brittle like nothing I have ever seen!!! Take care or learn the hard way. New rings ordered - in a set of 16!!
New "butted" and shortened bronce guides for head - will barely protrude into port at all!
Original 1290 head vs modified
Flex honing cylinders
Pattern left
Washing
After 4 washes still dirty!
Some serious scrubbing!!!
After 7 washe and rinse sessions finally clean and shiny. 5-56 seals the surfaces
Measuring ring end gap - perfect within specs on all 14(....!) rings.
Rear end 128
Stian posing!
Cage
Dash installed
More info and pictures to follow
Best regards
Remi Lovhoiden
I am giving a helping hand to a good friend of mine Stian Gundersen to build the engine of his hopefully fast Fiat 128 destined for a tarmac racing series in Norway:
Specs so far:
Chassis:
Rust free 128 2-door newly painted Ferrari Red
300Lb front springs
Customised front strut to accept VW Rabbit Koni inserts
Extra rear spring layer
Poly bushes all around
Yokohama 185/50-13 slicks on 13/7 alloys
Full roll cage
Fuel cell
Strengthened suspension mounting points
Lexan windows
Stripped out doors now weighs in at less than 10lb!!!
Uno Turbo front brakes
Engine: 1290cc
Using mostly new parts for rebuild - all parts polished, washed and oiled before fitment
Crank:
Crankshaft fully balanced
Flywheel lightened from 7kg to 5 kg
Crank plug removal for oilway cleaning
Oilways modified a la GC
Crank polished with 400 to remove highspots
Piston/Rods
Rods balanced and slightly lightended
Small end bronce bush honed with 400 grit
Big end bearing housings polished with 400 grit
New pistons/rings - washed
Block:
Cylinders finished honed with flex hone
Top end of cylinders chamfered for easy piston entry
Cylinders washed 7 - seven - times
New freeze plugs
Block decked 0.8mm to make pistons protrude 0.6mm over block face
Head:
Race head gasket - 1.6 mm depressed
Inlet port taken from 25mm to 32 at face tapering down to 28.5 at port venturi. Material removed from port roof/sides only
Exhaust port taken from 27 to 29mm
Intake valve seat internal diameter taken from 30 mm to 32.5 mm after GC advice see: phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1285
Exhaust valve seat internal diameter taken from 28 to 28.5 mm
Valve seats fully modified
Combustion chamber cleaned up/deshrouded
Skimming to achieve 10:1 compression
Cams and valvetrain:
Inlet valves back cut 30` to remove nasty edge and help low lift flow
Exhaust valves back cut 30`
Bronce guides - shortened to 42 mm and rounded off - finished off with flex hone
Catcams steel billet 284` - 10.75 lift - 106 lobe separation angle - 3.5 mm lift at TDC
Guy Croft triple valve springs
Teflon valve stem seals
Piper adjustable cam wheel
New tensioner and belt
Carburation:
Facet silcer top pump
2 * 40 DHLA with 32 chokes
Pipercross 30 mm Rampipes
DCOE manifold ported to 31.5 mm at head face
Exhaust:
4-2-1 unknown brand finished up with straight pipe to 2" back box - a bit uncerainty here regarding length / size of tubing in header. Only testing will tell if it works or not.
Some pics:
My old 130TC ended up as a race car with Stian Gundersen and thats how we got in touch. Last years season ended up with a 2nd place in his class. Lots of adjustments/tweaking neccessary for best performance. Lots of "special" solutions added after me needed to go, and car was put back to optimised original..... long list of work done!!!
Marking out inlet port face of 128 head using old 31 mm exhaust valve
1st intake port opened out in stage one
Porting tools
Measuring tools: 128 ex valve 31mm - A112 Abarth 29 mm inlet valve - coin 27mm
Inlet ports opened out - polishing next
Increasing the bowl area and short side radius
128 ready for paint
DHLA Manifold in process of being opened out to 31.5 mm
Crank oilway mod
New oil pump with uprated spring at left
Checking piston height in bore prior to machine shop work
Stian measuring up
Crank plugs removed - lots of 30+ years dirt inside!!!
Oilway mod
Closeup
Before
After
Polishing crank to remove high spots
A112 project underway to recieve newer uprated (and flowed) engine combo and coupled with a modern engine management systems.... details so far not official:-)
Engine will be under 1000cc revs close to 10.000.....
Closeup of coilovers, and highly lowered suspension. Class allows for 5cm ground clearance - this is close to it. Matching 7inch wide alloys..... Car fully caged and strut braced.
Oil pump springs closeup
Crank with new oil plug
Crank installed
New pistons - cleaned
Rods lightened slightly - fully balanced - new nuts/bolts
Small end bush honed with 400
Big end housings finish honed and lined up
Broken secong compression rings (2pcs) - these were extremely brittle like nothing I have ever seen!!! Take care or learn the hard way. New rings ordered - in a set of 16!!
New "butted" and shortened bronce guides for head - will barely protrude into port at all!
Original 1290 head vs modified
Flex honing cylinders
Pattern left
Washing
After 4 washes still dirty!
Some serious scrubbing!!!
After 7 washe and rinse sessions finally clean and shiny. 5-56 seals the surfaces
Measuring ring end gap - perfect within specs on all 14(....!) rings.
Rear end 128
Stian posing!
Cage
Dash installed
More info and pictures to follow
Best regards
Remi Lovhoiden