850 Sport Coupe series 2 track car.

Actually welding aluminium with a mig welder is probably easier than welding steel once you get set up right. I went with adjusting the exhaust ports because I had to extend them out anyway to clear the Fiat block on the exhaust side and alter the angle of the face 10 degrees. Also, that's what other people have done. New bare heads are $100 from China!
Picked up my big bore block from the machine shop today after its extended stay. Bit over 6 months! Sprayed it grey!
 

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ramona300 said:
Actually welding aluminium with a mig welder is probably easier than welding steel once you get set up right. I went with adjusting the exhaust ports because I had to extend them out anyway to clear the Fiat block on the exhaust side and alter the angle of the face 10 degrees. Also, that's what other people have done. New bare heads are $100 from China!
Picked up my big bore block from the machine shop today after its extended stay. Bit over 6 months! Sprayed it grey!
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I remember reading the thread on T124, I will go back and reread it. A shame John has died before completing his variation.

Do you intend to extend the head to cover the push rod openings to close them off? Cam shaft will an interesting challenge.

Really an exciting build.

Suzuki head Fiat Block??? - T124 Forum | Australia

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I have welded the bit on to cover the pushrod holes and the dipstick hole. Presently filling the holes in the head not being used and still working on the exhaust ports.
 
ramona300 said:
I have welded the bit on to cover the pushrod holes and the dipstick hole. Presently filling the holes in the head not being used and still working on the exhaust ports.
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Always interested in the odd pic or two.

This is one of those ‘epic’ projects.
 
kmead said:
Always interested in the odd pic or two.

This is one of those ‘epic’ projects.
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I still rooting about with the exhaust ports and getting the holes in the right places for the Fiat flange. I'm using the pictures on the thread you linked above. https://t124.com/forum/forum/general/general-discussions/6198-suzuki-head-fiat-block Rubin is a Facebook friend. With his conversion, he made a complete exhaust manifold to suit the Suzuki pattern but still had to extend out the side and make it 90 degrees to the face.. I will have to modify the Fiat exhaust manifold at the centre hole because I have to lower the hole so I can get access to the spark plug. Nick from New Zealand was fooling around with the conversion I met in Queensland a few years ago. He ended up putting the Alfa flat 4 in his coupe.
 
ramona300 said:
I still rooting about with the exhaust ports and getting the holes in the right places for the Fiat flange. I'm using the pictures on the thread you linked above. https://t124.com/forum/forum/general/general-discussions/6198-suzuki-head-fiat-block Rubin is a Facebook friend. With his conversion, he made a complete exhaust manifold to suit the Suzuki pattern but still had to extend out the side and make it 90 degrees to the face.. I will have to modify the Fiat exhaust manifold at the centre hole because I have to lower the hole so I can get access to the spark plug. Nick from New Zealand was fooling around with the conversion I met in Queensland a few years ago. He ended up putting the Alfa flat 4 in his coupe.
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I saw images of it as well. Stuffing an Alfa flat four back there looked interesting shall we say. Does the R&P on the Alfa transmission flip over (like a VW one can) or did he use another transaxle for it from a VW? That is an engine I know very little about.

So many creative tinkering mechanics.
 
kmead said:
I saw images of it as well. Stuffing an Alfa flat four back there looked interesting shall we say. Does the R&P on the Alfa transmission flip over (like a VW one can) or did he use another transaxle for it from a VW? That is an engine I know very little about.

So many creative tinkering mechanics.
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Not sure what transmission Nick used. I have a feeling he went straight to the VW unit. There were a lot of Alfasuds in Australia and NZ. Superb engine but the body rusted faster than a Fiat! Hard to believe but the workers in the Southern Italy factory were not brilliant. The engine is very wide and Nick went to great efforts to get it in.
 

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ramona300 said:
Not sure what transmission Nick used. I have a feeling he went straight to the VW unit. There were a lot of Alfasuds in Australia and NZ. Superb engine but the body rusted faster than a Fiat! Hard to believe but the workers in the Southern Italy factory were not brilliant. The engine is very wide and Nick went to great efforts to get it in.
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As I recall he painted it a dark blue. Indeed quite a shoehorn job.
 
Still working on the exhaust ports on the suzuki head. Almost have it match ported to the Fiat exhaust. It's roughed out with die grinder and I'm basically converting square ports to round.
 

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ramona300 said:
Still working on the exhaust ports on the suzuki head. Almost have it match ported to the Fiat exhaust. It's roughed out with die grinder and I'm basically converting square ports to round.
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Are you flycutting the face prior to tapping the holes for the studs?

That is a good bit of welding, as in a lot.
 
kmead said:
Are you flycutting the face prior to tapping the holes for the studs?

That is a good bit of welding, as in a lot.
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What if I told you I used a belt linishing machine to face the gasket face? Needs a bit more of a touch-up but I may finish it using wet and dry paper on a sheet of glass and WD40.
 
ramona300 said:
What if I told you I used a belt linishing machine to face the gasket face? Needs a bit more of a touch-up but I may finish it using wet and dry paper on a sheet of glass and WD40.
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:) Well the 850 header isn’t the stiffest object in the world.

Yes the glass approach will work, I have done it on heads for my L head twin cylinder engine for my tractor.

Perhaps a graphite gasket might deal with any irreguarities.

Funny but real.
 
ramona300 said:
It's my 50th wedding anniversary today. My Fiat is now over 52 years old! Shown here about to depart for the long haul to Queensland. Note the shiny silk suit!
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A huge congrats to you. We booked our 36th anniversary on Monday, 41 years together. We have a way to go.
 
I started out thinking about a 7-inch Android tablet for data logging. After some consideration, I decided to upgrade the old dell laptop I use for tuning my cars to a Windows 10 8-inch tablet. They weigh about a kilo now so it's not a great deal extra to carry about. I flop moulded the tablet back with epoxy and 'glass cloth and the whole lot is bolted to the floor on a single pillar
 

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A couple of days ago had another track day at Wakefield Park. Cool winter's day with the first session at 3 degrees C! Heavy rain the day before and standing water on the circuit all day. Everyone's times were well down on average. The new brake shoes on the rear and adjusted very carefully have made the braking just superb. The steering wheel lowered 35 mm is now pretty much as good as I can get to match the lowered seat. Steering is much more pleasant. In my group, there were 5 Sprites and 4 MGBs. I had one spectacular spin, one gentle spin, and quite a few sliding moments!
This video is a little boring but does show the conditions. I'm making another one later.
 
ramona300 said:
Directors cut.
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A few butt clenching moments there.

A very wonky rev counter, not much to trust there :)

What was the pale green humpbacked coupe that was ahead of you early on and then during the garage sequence? TVR?

Thanks for sharing.
 
The tacho is the original which was fed from the ignition coil. The car now has 4 coils so there is a basic circuit that takes the signal from one and gives some sort of response. There is a small tacho on top of the dash for the camera which gets its signal from the ECU and is accurate. The signal also goes to the blue change light on the dash to the left of the wheel which is the only thing I look at on the circuit.
The silver-blue car is a Sebring Austin Healey Sprite with a 1310cc engine with an 8 port head. Stunning car! The red Sprite following him when I had the first spin has a Toyota twin-cam engine. In my group, there were 5 Sprites and 4 MGBs. So of the 10 cars in the group, 8 had Siamesed inlet ports!
 
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