On the road again

After many delays and false starts the car is finally "done". As in it can be driven on the street safely. Its taken exactly a year from the time I pulled the engine. It took a while because I spent about 5 months not doing anything and I spent about a month fighting various brake fluid leaks from banjo bolts.

Here is a summary of all the major things I've done since I purchased the car;

1. Rebuilt drive shaft. This included 2 new U-Joints, center support bearing and flex disc (guibo)
2. New gear reduction starter motor
3. Completely overhauled the brakes. This includes new brake discs, callipers, pads, banjo bolts, flex hoses (and 1 hard line), master cylinder and booster
4. Rebuilt the engine. Crank was polished, cylinders honed, new piston rings, bearings, seals, core plug, oil pump, water pump, timing belt tensioner and belt. Cylinder heads had a basic valve job and new valve stem seals installed. All valve clearances were re-adjusted. Other misc stuff include new distributor cap, rotor, condenser, HT leads, spark plugs, thermostat, coolant hoses, temperature and oil pressure senders. Flywheel resurfaced, new clutch, throwout bearing and pilot bearing.
5. Differential and transmission fluids were changed. A new transmission pan was fitted and I custom made a thicker gasket to stop the leaks.
6. All new tires were fiitted and wheels were painted with a Rust Oleum Hammerhead finish. Came out beautifully
7. Exhaust header and down pipe were painted with a ceramic coating

Here is a before and after photo of the engine bay.

Starts easily. Idles well. Runs cool as long as the fan comes on (if the fuse isn't loose!), it has no problem sitting in 100F traffic. And ABSOLUTELY NO LEAKS!!! Engine and transmission leaks are my pet peeve. I just can't tolerate it.

Its an absolute blast to drive. I've only timed the engine by ear so it could do with some finer adjustment but it makes good power between 2500 and 3500 rpm. I've been a bit scared to get any closer to the 7000 rpm redline. Anything past 4500 and it just screams. On overrun it has a wonderful burble.

The carburettor hasn't been touched and its history is unknown. Its still the original 28/36 DHSA2. I have a new single plane intake manifold and a rebuilt 32/32 DMSA ready to be installed but I'm going to take a break and drive this damn thing already.

Manifold studs

I needed to replace a few exhaust manifold studs so I started looking online to see if I can find the right m8-1.25 double ended studs for the Fiat 124. I found quite a few automotive specialists selling some very expensive stuff. About $4/stud+nut. Which I thought was just ridiculous so with a bit of perseverance I eventually found an affordable source for manifold studs.

The part is Dorman #03411.You get 10 studs and 10 self-locking flange nuts. And it only costs around $8.00 for the set.

The dimensions of the stud are as follows;

Inside threads    = 20mm
Shoulder            = 10mm
Outside threads = 20mm
Hex (5mm) head = 6mm
Total Length      = 56mm

And the flange nut is 10mm long and has a 13mm hex head.


Apparently the intended application is for Ford 2004-97, Lincoln 2002-98 V8 engines. But it works perfectly on the Fiat 124 engine.

The stock exhaust manifold mounting face is 15mm thick and the intake manifold is 25mm. So the kit should work fine on the exhaust side but is too short for the thicker intake manifold.

All metal clutch release bearing

I purchased a clutch release bearing from AutoRicambi and later realised it was made of plastic whilst the original was an all metal construction.

I set out looking for an all metal bearing and found that International-Auto sells the all metal ones.

The part I received is an CORAM C0013. I also found that it interchanges with quite a few different part numbers.


VALEO - 264969
SACHS - 1850282127
TIMKEN - FI1709C
FIAT - 5954175
FIAT - 4409889
FIAT - C4901
FIAT - 5888486
FIAT - 4156829
FIAT - 4237218
FIAT - 4316750
FIAT - 4327218
FIAT - 4207838
FIAT - 4156828
FIAT - 4305532


Sachs actually puts it into a complete clutch kit KF292-03.

Timing belt tensioner

Tricky thing to install but managed to get the spring installed using a set of pliers. Interesting to note that the new belt I got from AutoRicamb was longer than the old belt I took off. Once on the tensioner you don't notice it much but it was interesting to see nonetheless.

Camshaft Housing

Starting to look like an engine again now that the camshafts have been installed.

Cylinder Heads

I got the heads back from the machinist and they look great! Makes me want to send him the cam boxes too as they look really horrid in comparison now.

Interestingly enough while installing the head gasket from the engine gasket set I got (branded "Guarnitauto"), I noticed that one water hole in the block does not exist on the cylinder head. The head gasket seals the hole in the block too so I suppose that was how it was meant to be for the 1608cc.

Before installing the head I got to try out my new dial gauge to set TDC. Which on something like this 4-cylinder is completely unnecessary. I could probably "feel" TDC by moving the crank by hand and be within 2 degrees.

I also needed to torque down the auxiliary shaft pulley. Which was a bit tricky since I couldn't find anything to hold the aux shaft. I had an old oil pump I thought I could use by jamming the gears but I was worried it would strip the teeth in the drive gear/bush. Eventually I reverted to just using some bailing wire through the two timing holes. This was sufficient to get the 58lbs needed for the pulley.

And here's a tip for replacing the water pump, replace the bolts too! I snapped one in the block but I was lucky that I had cleaned the threads first so it came out very easily. There are 4 m6-1.0 bolts. Two 25mm and two 45mm.

Pistons Installed

Lots of cleaning, oiling, more cleaning and more oiling. The pink stuff is Redline assembly lube.