850 Sedan / X1/9 Engine Swap

This last build was a complete overhaul. I started with a car with four wheel drum brakes. We replaced them with Fiat X19 front and rear. We moved the radiator to the front and moved the battery to the back seat. All the glass was replaced with lexan. The front spring was replaced with lower A arms and coil over Springs. The motor started life as a very late 14 bolt head Fiat injected motor. We replaced the injection with a Uno turbo intake and a 2550 Garrett turbo. We run a late model V. W bug transaxle and half shafts. We run an engine management system. We run two inter cooler.We replaced the steering box with a A. H. Sprite rack.
 
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So the engine is still in the rear? Any pictures of the engine compartment?

Looks like you have another nice Fiat under this one also. ;)
 
Yes. The motor is still in the rear. It’s very hard to photograph the engine compartment. This is about it. We have several Fiat. The oldest is a 1933 and the X19 is the newest of our classic cars.
 

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The second photo is pre turbo. We ran 40 D. C. O. E. carburetors and then later ran the 28 M. M Liked the small ones better because it was so much easier to drive.
 
This last build was a complete overhaul. I started with a car with four wheel drum brakes. We replaced them with Fiat X19 front and rear. We moved the radiator to the front and moved the battery to the back seat. All the glass was replaced with lexan. The front spring was replaced with lower A arms and coil over Springs. The motor started life as a very late 14 bolt head Fiat injected motor. We replaced the injection with a Uno turbo intake and a 2550 Garrett turbo. We run a late model V. W bug transaxle and half shafts. We run an engine management system. We run two inter cooler.We replaced the steering box with a A. H. Sprite rack.
I like that you kept it all Fiat.
 
The mounting for the sway bar is removed and a mount is fabricated to the tail of the transaxle. Used V. W standard stock mount. Then I fabricated a center mount to hold stock V. W mounts. We used the Fiat X19 motor mount. I ran it for several years without the the rear mount. Used the front and center only. Motor doesn’t move.
 
We used the V. W. Half shafts and Fiat 850 hub carriers. That way we could use the Fiat wheels. We are doing a Fiat 850 covered headlight with an X19 motor. He is a good friend who owns the car.
 
I really like what you've done, lots of very cool development.

If you have more details about the turbo engine please list them. For example any internal modifications from stock, head work, cam, other mods, the engine management system you are using, etc. Thanks, like I said I'm doing a turbo X1/9 build and would like to compare notes. ;)
 
We used the V. W. Half shafts and Fiat 850 hub carriers. That way we could use the Fiat wheels. We are doing a Fiat 850 covered headlight with an X19 motor. He is a good friend who owns the car.
I though about it for my covered headlight 850 (modern 500 engine) but keeping more traditional with 1000cc 850 based engine.
 
As far a the engine build, I used a Micro Squirt engine management system because my computer guru uses on on his X19. It works and is fairly inexpensive. The intake manifold came from EBay England. It from a 1999 Fiat Uno. Uses late style injectors. The pistons are JE forged and off the shelf as they are used in very late 1600 front wheel drive cars. The other thing that I used is 41mm intake valves from a Toyota 4valve head with about 20 hours or more of head work. I run a stainless exhaust header and 21 pounds of boost The motor will put out insane horse power. It’s 1550 pound.
 

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As far a the engine build, I used a Micro Squirt engine management system because my computer guru uses on on his X19. It works and is fairly inexpensive. The intake manifold came from EBay England. It from a 1999 Fiat Uno. Uses late style injectors. The pistons are JE forged and off the shelf as they are used in very late 1600 front wheel drive cars. The other thing that I used is 41mm intake valves from a Toyota 4valve head with about 20 hours or more of head work. I run a stainless exhaust header and 21 pounds of boost The motor will put out insane horse power. It’s 1550 pound.
Thanks for the info.
I'm also using a MicroSquirt. And I have a UnoTurbo intake and exhaust manifolds, and the turbo itself. That is a smaller turbo so I won't be able to generate 21 lb of boost (that' a lot). But I'm also going to try retaining mostly stock engine internals to see how they hold up with a low boost (~8-10 lb) setup.

In your case with the proper pistons and valves the higher boost won't be an issue like it would for me without those items. I'm assuming you also changed the exhaust valves to something more capable of handling the high heat levels?

By chance can you tell me the JE piston part number? I've been looking around for off the shelf ones that will work for a boosted 1500 SOHC but haven't found any yet.
 
We have dialed the power back to about 265 H. P We know that because we have had it on the dynamometer twice. The guys in South Africa are all running in the 325 area with this motor in front wheel drive Fiats. These are the pistons that I have in my motor. You need big rods and pistons to run big power but staying around 10 pounds is very safe. I balanced and blue printed my motor but my bookkeeping lacks high marks. Remember two things ,waste gate and dump valve. Run high oil pressure to run your turbo. i also water cool. With these pistons you may need to deck your block but try to stay in the nine to nine and a half. Decking will advance your valve timing which helps. Hope the numbers help.
 

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That's impressive power. :)
My setup is very much like yours except for the pistons and rods, which are still stock.
Thanks for the piston info, I'll research it. ;)
Do you recall what rods you have?
 
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