850 Temp and going up hill

RocketMonkey101

Daily Driver
I've got a few questions for you guys! ;)
I live in a fairly hilly area and I'm wondering how fast I should be driving if I have to drop into third? The car will get up to 50+ in third but I'm not sure if that's straining the engine or not. I'm thinking 45 is probably more appropriate but I need some input.

I'm also curious about is how warm the temp gauge should be getting when driving up a steeper incline like that? My gauge was showing a little past the "0" of the 90 mark.

What are you guys doing for the valve cover breather tube? I'm not running the stock air cleaner and I'm looking for another solution.

Lastly was there ever a fuel injection system made for the 850 engines? Maybe from an newer FIAT or an aftermarket kit? My carb is so temperamental.
 
Keep in mind that in most older cars, the water temp gauge is a "real" gauge, so it's normal to see it moving around a little bit (unlike many modern cars where if they're within a certain range, they just stay put). I don't think your temp going uphill is anything to be concerned about -- it's normal for the car to run a little warmer under load.

I don't know of any factory FI system for these engines.

Can't help with your other questions, as I think my rev counter is reading a little slow and I have the stock air cleaner still.
 
Hey RocketMonkey101 my ideas around the 850 engines reflect my ownership history of motorcycles. I haven't owned an 850 yet so take this with a grain of salt. It seems that Fiat knew that their engines, being small even back in the day,would be revved high and often and engineered them for that type of driving. However, mechanical sympathy toward old engines is a virtue but as long as you're not racing it it's probably okay to push to the red line occasionally. As far as temps go I am of the mind to update the cooling system as much as you can. I would slap in an aluminum radiator as big and thick as I could fit. Also I would upgrade the fan if possible.
Getting the carb dialed in can also have a big effect on engine temps -if it's running lean temps can spike and rich running can allow for cooler engine temps but can foul spark plugs excess carbon build up. So first step is probably to check your plugs and see how the engine is right now. Since it sounds like you've ditched the stock airbox for an aftermarket airfilter you may already be running lean. For the valve cover breather tube, you could run a tube as high in the engine compartment as possible and put a small filter at the end to keep debris from being sucked back into the engine as it breathes.
Fuel injection for these cars would have to be a custom aftermarket endeavor. It could be done and from my POV you'd likely have to adapt a modern 600cc motorcycle system to get the smallest injectors for correct fuel ratio on an old 2 valve 850 engine. Probably not worth the effort though.
 
If you keep good oil in it you’ll be fine driving at high rpm.
If the engine is stock and IF the cooling system is in good shape the stock system works fine.
Make sure all the belly pans are in place and the fan shroud bellows are in good shape.
A needles width or two over the 90 is not a problem. Do create work for yourself reinventing something the Fiat engineers did well.
Agree with motoTrooper on the breather tube.
But I’d go back to a stock filter, not enough advantage to those aftermarket ones unless you build a true cold air system.
Yep, you’d have to build your own system but.. there is nothing wrong with the Weber’s despite what you hear.
Watch all of these
it will take a while but you can build a good carb.
 
Thanks for the input on the carb. I'm actually running an EMPI progressive carb 32/36 on my car with the box style air cleaner. Could just be that EMPIs suck. lol. I know what you're thinking, "why would he do that?" . It came with the car. Looking at it yesterday it looks like the choke is sticking. I'm gonna hit the pivot points with some WD40 and see if that clears it up. The radiator was re-cored not too long ago and I believe more passes were put in. So it should be slightly better than stock although I do need to hunt down that rubber fan shroud to replace mine which is fairly chewed up. Hearing that needle is ok where it is makes me feel better.
 
So often one has to undo the previous owners
“Improvements”. I don’t have anything against modifications but too often they are not thoroughly executed. My experience is big carbs don’t work on these engines without a cam change and head mods.
 
Agree with NM850 on big carbs. Abarth was running the stock 30 DIC on even the 1000 OT, rejetted. I've got an original Alquati manifold and a box of four Italian-built Weber 36 DCDs for my 850 that I bought shortly after buying my coupe, but they'll never end up on my car. Should probably put them in the FS section.
 
Interesting. So I don't misunderstand; are you of the opinion that the bigger carb is not worth it because the car won't see any performance gains (thus is a waste of money) or do you feel that the 30DIC is a better fit for the engine over all? I guess the question I'm really trying to ask is: do you think it's better for me to go back to the 30DIC on a stock motor?
 
That's probably something only you can answer. I haven't attempted to use anything other than the stock 30 DIC, but I'm of the opinion that if it was the best solution for both Fiat and Abarth even on performance tuned engines with more power and displacement than stock, why bother with anything else? That said, if you are happy with the performance of the carburetor that's on the car now, maybe there's not an urgent need to change.
 
Agree with NM850 on big carbs. Abarth was running the stock 30 DIC on even the 1000 OT, rejetted. I've got an original Alquati manifold and a box of four Italian-built Weber 36 DCDs for my 850 that I bought shortly after buying my coupe, but they'll never end up on my car. Should probably put them in the FS section.
A long time ago I ran that set up on a 1000cc engine. That engine had an Alquati cam and high compression and I must say it ran well. I don’t think that setup fits under the Spider hood...but it’s been a while.
 
I do
Interesting. So I don't misunderstand; are you of the opinion that the bigger carb is not worth it because the car won't see any performance gains (thus is a waste of money) or do you feel that the 30DIC is a better fit for the engine over all? I guess the question I'm really trying to ask is: do you think it's better for me to go back to the 30DIC on a stock motor?
I don’t know anything about EMPI carbs. If you can make it work, keep it. If not it’s cheap enough to back to stock.
By the way I like your other cars too, nice little collection.
 
Thanks NM850. I almost bought an Alfetta sedan recently but I'm getting married and figured I'd better hold onto that cash in case there are any overages on the wedding budget. Being short on cash because of a car is probably not the best way for me to start a marriage. I'll have time for that later. haha.
 
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