Lancia Scorpion #1733 -- new owner, project start

Today I visited the shop that's building my engine to check on progress. The bottom end is on a stand and slowly going back together and the head is back from machining, so assembly should be starting on that soon. I'm still stalled on the brakes for need of a new pedal, but should have that resolved in the next couple weeks if Dean's and my schedule ever align. Seems we both travel a bit!

A couple engine photos below:
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Two or three weeks ago, I met up with Dean who kindly sold me a clutch pedal so I could get my pedal box put back together. After a little procrastination, I finally did just that today. Getting the clutch spring back on took a little thinking. In the end, I ended up using a seal pulling tool hooked into the spring's loop end and pried against the back of the clutch pedal to leverage it on -- worked pretty well, I must say.

One other little thing, I noticed the nipples that came with my new brake master cylinder from Midwest-Bayless were a larger size than were on my existing cylinder, so I cleaned and reused the old ones which were in fine condition. I'm debating on replacing the hoses from the reservoir bottles... looks like a pain of a job so I may skip it.

I also installed a set of bolt-on OMP pedal covers that were about as non-blingy as I could find. I've always hated the way the small pedals in my old X1/9 and 124 felt against my foot, these are about 50% larger and should give more contact area. Now to finagle the whole thing back into the car! What fun that should be.
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Two or three weeks ago, I met up with Dean who kindly sold me a clutch pedal so I could get my pedal box put back together. After a little procrastination, I finally did just that today. Getting the clutch spring back on took a little thinking. In the end, I ended up using a seal pulling tool hooked into the spring's loop end and pried against the back of the clutch pedal to leverage it on -- worked pretty well, I must say.

One other little thing, I noticed the nipples that came with my new brake master cylinder from Midwest-Bayless were a larger size than were on my existing cylinder, so I cleaned and reused the old ones which were in fine condition. I'm debating on replacing the hoses from the reservoir bottles... looks like a pain of a job so I may skip it.

I also installed a set of bolt-on OMP pedal covers that were about as non-blingy as I could find. I've always hated the way the small pedals in my old X1/9 and 124 felt against my foot, these are about 50% larger and should give more contact area. Now to finagle the whole thing back into the car! What fun that should be.
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Congratulations on the progress. I forgot to tell you... another way to do the spring is to get a roll of quarters and slip them in each section one at a time. Eventually it will be expanded enough to slide into place. Then simply collect your change.
 
Congratulations on the progress. I forgot to tell you... another way to do the spring is to get a roll of quarters and slip them in each section one at a time. Eventually it will be expanded enough to slide into place. Then simply collect your change.
Thanks Dean, that's the direction I was going to go after after searching for solutions here after my failed screwdriver attempts. Somehow a seal puller caught my eye on my workbench and I decided to try it. A minute later, job done.

I do have one question for anyone who can answer. I'm hearing a lot about "bench bleeding" the cylinders... if I fill them with fluid, I feel like most will just spill out while I'm wrangling the assembly back into place. What are people doing there?

Also, why is there what looks to be an electronic switch under the clutch pedal? Obviously, the one under the brake is the brake light switch, but what function does my (broken) clutch pedal switch serve?
 
Got back to the brake system last weekend and got the pedal box back in the car. Huzzah! That's not a job I'd like to do again soon, but it wasn't quite as bad as I'd believed. I left the steering column out of the car until after the brakes were bled, in the event I had a leak or some other problem and had to pull everything out again.

Since I had to bleed the entire system from nearly dry (I opted not to pre-fill the MC with fluid expecting that to make a mess on reinstall), I decided to buy a Motive pressure bleeder with the European cap. Turns out, the European cap is too large to get a good seal on the Scorpion brake fluid reservoirs, so after cleaning up the mess I made I reverted to the old-fashioned pedal pumping game, enlisting my wife to help. It had been some time since I last bled brakes, but it all came back to me fairly quickly after reading a few tips here on the forum. After pumping quite a bit of air, I got fluid at each rear caliper within the first 5 minutes. Moved to the fronts, same deal. Went back and bled the car again until I had clear fluid with no air bubbles running out of my clear plastic tubing, but by the end of it, the pedal was still pretty soft.

Then I noticed a small puddle of brake fluid (maybe two or three ounces) on the floor under the engine bay. Crawled underneath and it looks like a six-inch run of hard line that was maybe used to bypass the deleted booster was leaking. Tightening didn't help and it seems to be dribbling not from the threads, but down the hard line out the middle of the fitting -- improper seal, I'm guessing. It only seems to leak under brake pedal pressure, not when the system isn't in use. I'm guessing that's why I can't get a firm pedal.

One thing, I didn't keep the end of my clear tubing submerged in fluid inside the "catch jar" when I was bleeding. Was that a mistake? I figured that as long as I was seeing fluid moving out of the tubing, there was no way air could get back in the system. When I finished bleeding at each corner, the tubing was full of clean, clear, bubble-free fluid.

Photos below of the rebuilt pedal box back in place and the leaky fitting. The leak comes from the lower line on the lower of the two brass fittings. Wonder if there's a copper conical washer sold in the proper size to seal it?

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After getting a better understanding of the Scorpion's brake system by studying a diagram I found, I learned that the U-shaped connection that is leaking is definitely a booster bypass line. There are better pictures of this below that I took under the car. Basically, the booster was bypassed way back in the engine bay, rather than up front in the "frunk," so I've got a whole run of hard line going up and down the middle of the car that I don't need.

My solution is to replace it with the Monte Hospital bypass line that re-routes in the frunk and remove the extra line that will be bypassed. Unfortunately, that also means that I'll have to bleed the whole system again, but them's the "breaks," as it's said (pun intended). I also added a set of brass speed bleeders to my order since they were only incrementally more than standard brass bleeder screws as well as a Monte Hospital double-bubble roof panel. That means my Grantham-design roof panel just may be available if anyone wants a more "permanent" hardtop for their Scorpion.

Any tips on getting the old run of hardline to the booster out of the center of the car? Mine will be a double chore in that it's already full of fluid.
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Any tips on getting the old run of hardline to the booster out of the center of the car? Mine will be a double chore in that it's already full of fluid.

Sorry but the carpet and center console have to come out. The hard line runs along the center console on the passenger side.

That means my Grantham-design roof panel just may be available if anyone wants a more "permanent" hardtop for their Scorpion.
BTW What does the top look like?
 
Sorry but the carpet and center console have to come out. The hard line runs along the center console on the passenger side.

BTW What does the top look like?

Bummer! Eventually I'll take the carpet out to redye it, but it's not a priority right now. I guess I'll do that job down the road.

Photos of the top can be seen in post #55 of this thread.
 
I received and installed my new brake hardline from TMH the other day, along with a set of Speedbleeders. The section of hardline that runs back to my non-existent booster is now bypassed and slowly draining into a jar. The Speedbleeders worked great and I had a firm pedal in 30 minutes. The brake system is now functioning, although I was only able to get the handbrake cable fully installed on one side of the car -- the other side, I can't seem to wrangle the cable into one of its two holders (went into the second one just fine). That'll work well enough for the flatbed trip down to the shop where I'll have them finish that for me.

In other news, the shop has let me know last week that they're ready to install the new engine into the car -- it's a Festivus miracle! I'm now just waiting for a non-rainy day have the car transported the 30 miles south. Possibly early next week.

I also received my TMH double-bubble roof. Anyone installed one of these before? I can't seem to get the rear cover to close fully with the roof on the car. I assume the side straps go over the sides of the roof panel, the front hooks in and the rear is sandwiched by the rear cover?
 
My car is at finally at the shop that's finishing up my new engine. At this point, if I get it back running and driving before the sunny summer months here, I'll be thrilled. A new Vicks' Texas Heat radiator, Hydrasport coilovers, and new stainless cooling pipes from Dean's source will also be added to the list. Still trying to determine what electronic ignition system to use. I'm leaning towards the Crane Fireball conversion kit, but if anyone has good experience with other systems, please let me know.

Photos below of the car up in the air. Nice to see it is as solid underneath as I had thought when I bought it. Given that I was able to remove just about every brake fitting with minimal effort during my brake system rebuild, I'd say this car had a pretty pampered life, at least for the first few decades.

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My car is at finally at the shop that's finishing up my new engine. At this point, if I get it back running and driving before the sunny summer months here, I'll be thrilled. A new Vicks' Texas Heat radiator, Hydrasport coilovers, and new stainless cooling pipes from Dean's source will also be added to the list. Still trying to determine what electronic ignition system to use. I'm leaning towards the Crane Fireball conversion kit, but if anyone has good experience with other systems, please let me know.

Photos below of the car up in the air. Nice to see it is as solid underneath as I had thought when I bought it. Given that I was able to remove just about every brake fitting with minimal effort during my brake system rebuild, I'd say this car had a pretty pampered life, at least for the first few decades.

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It’s looking good! I have the Crane XR3000 in my red ‘76 and I’m very pleased with it.
 
Here are a few more pictures from the shop last week. The engine is coming along well and I've been on another parts buying spree. I have a new Texas Heat radiator and gear reduction starter coming from Vicks along with new stainless coolant pipes from Dean's source and some miscellaneous parts from MWB including a new fuel level sender (frankly, I couldn't believe anyone stocked that!). Also ordered a new Crane XR3000 electronic ignition kit per recommendations here. This project is really picking up momentum now and the car just may be on the road for Spring. Unfortunately, because the car has sat for so long and the cooling system, fuel tank and other items are so tired, costs have increased to the point that I'll have to put up with the scruffy paint for a while longer but the most important thing is that the car is able to be used and enjoyed, cosmetics be damned! A few photos below of the new engine and the now especially tired looking original short block.

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Thought I'd share the most recent progress with you all. My engine is mostly back together and we decided to treat the cam covers to a black wrinkle finish, which I think looks great but opinions will vary. We also sent my Serra exhaust system out to be ceramic coated to help keep engine bay temps down. The muffler section of the system was too far gone, but the headers were still in great shape -- they were media blasted then coated inside and out. We'll weld up a Magnaflow muffler most likely.

The new Vick's Texas Heat radiator is rigged up with two of their 10" electric fans and a full silicone hose kit from TMH is also going on the car (you can see the two radiator hoses already installed).

Next steps are to get the new cooling pipes and radiator in the car, then the engine goes back in. I'm getting pretty excited by now and feel there's light at the end of the (long, long) tunnel.
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The new cooling system is going in the car today. One thing we learned with the new coolant pipes that were ordered from Rick @ Brown & Miller is that they are actually about 4mm larger in diameter than the factory items, which makes fitting them a little tricky. They do just squeeze in, however. Also, the drains are welded in further back than the stock location and stick out a little further than stock. Photos below. Required a little modification of the cover that fits over them and I'm slightly worried about sheering them off in a low-clearance situation. Bigger issue is it's going to be tough to get the Monte Hospital silicone hoses in place with the larger diameter tubes as silicone doesn't give as easily as rubber does. The hoses and tubes together were about $800, so hopefully they'll place nicely. Otherwise, the pipes look really nice!
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when i had mine made i had them neck down the hose sizes to oem. i have not fitted them but i anticipate then to be larger as represented. i will manufacture mounts ,but the hoses will fit as i asked them to make the last 2" of the pipe oem size.
 
when i had mine made i had them neck down the hose sizes to oem. i have not fitted them but i anticipate then to be larger as represented. i will manufacture mounts ,but the hoses will fit as i asked them to make the last 2" of the pipe oem size.

Ah... I just plain didn’t realize they weren’t OEM size when I ordered. Hmm, frustrating.

Edit: The Monte Hospital silicone cooling system hoses fit the new, slightly larger pipes fine, except one of the hoses from the thermostat was for a 2.0-liter engine (Monte) apparently, despite ordering the Scorpion kit. I'll ask about a replacement from TMH.
 
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Have just returned from a few days out of town on vacation to news from the shop that my car will be ready to pick up on Monday, so it's going to be a long weekend's wait and possibly even a couple days more since my wife will have to drive me to the shop to retrieve it.

I'll still have a few odds and ends to do myself before the car is ready for a longer trip. I know I have a leaking front strut, for example, and that's a job I'd rather do myself than pay for. But I'm told the car runs great, shifts great and sounds fantastic. Exciting stuff!

Looking forward to getting the car back home, becoming familiar with the car locally and moving on to next steps including which new suspension to fit and designing a custom airbox for the carbs. Then, lots of miles this summer!
 
Have just returned from a few days out of town on vacation to news from the shop that my car will be ready to pick up on Monday, so it's going to be a long weekend's wait and possibly even a couple days more since my wife will have to drive me to the shop to retrieve it.

I'll still have a few odds and ends to do myself before the car is ready for a longer trip. I know I have a leaking front strut, for example, and that's a job I'd rather do myself than pay for. But I'm told the car runs great, shifts great and sounds fantastic. Exciting stuff!

Looking forward to getting the car back home, becoming familiar with the car locally and moving on to next steps including which new suspension to fit and designing a custom airbox for the carbs. Then, lots of miles this summer!
Can’t wait to see it! Congratulations!
 
Was hoping to pick up the car today, but faced a setback. The weather forecast looked dry but as I made my way down towards Tacoma, I ended up in fairly steady rain. My Scorpion's wipers work, but I haven't yet sourced fresh blades yet.

I've waited a few years to actually drive this thing, what's another week now?
 
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