Fiat 850 Coupe Engine Query

dnudelman said:
You photos show a car in pretty decent cosmetic shape. Does it run and drive in its current condition? If so, and if it was my car, I would move on to evaluating the brakes, the suspension and deal with engine mods when everything else is sorted out. You are missing the floor pans under the engine. The A112 Abarth motors have a different displacement, cam profile, compression and carburation than what you have. Adding a few bits, like a cylinder head is not going to add anything to your package.

As to engine work, why? Have you done a compression test? Does it appear to burn oil?
Click to expand...
Oh yes the car runs and drives and is used regularly (when it's dry!) To give a bit more background I imported the car from Italy a few years ago, I knew it needed work and had hoped I would be able to do most of it myself with help from my dad as kind of a father and son project, we are both engineers by trade but not mechanics.

We managed to get the car running replacing the coil, points, carb etc but it was clear there was more to do than I was capable of and had to get professional help. A local restorer replaced both outer sills and repaired the inner sills and some of the floor. The car was then sent to a well known UK specialist Middle Barton Garage with the brief of making the car safe and usable. They went through the car replacing brakes, suspension, radiator, starter motor etc etc and even got the heater working! Pretty much the only thing they didn't touch were any engine internals as by then I had run out of money that I could commit to the car! They did a great job though and I would recommend them to anyone.

The engine I have to say has so far been very reliable, it always starts first time even after weeks or months of not being used, it doesn't overheat (I do have both engine undertrays in place now) and has never broken down. However as Tony at Middle Barton said "It sounds bloody awful!" and I would agree! While usable it doesn't want to rev and is unhappy at the top end of the rev range, where I live in the north of England is very hilly and the car sometimes struggles with that, I'm not looking for loads of power I'm sure if the engine was just running correctly as it should that would be enough. I am planning to send the car to local engine specialist soon to get an inspection done and see what they think. Just wanted to know that what I had was correct before planning any further works. I suppose it doesn't help that this is the only classic car I have driven so its hard to know if things are how they should be as they're so different from a modern car. Plus these little 850s are very rare here in the UK so help is scarce!

Thanks.
 
However as Tony at Middle Barton said "It sounds bloody awful!" Sounds like he has a boat payment coming up. :) Most of us here do our own wrenching and we learn along the way. There are a few pro's here like Steve C, Flaviaman and Jeff Stich but I'm sure you could teach yourself. The 850 motor is pretty simple and easy to work on. Good luck.
 
Going to the proper two barrel carburetor will help with the top of the rev range.

The A112 Abarth was the one which exceeded the standard Fiat 850 Coupe or Sport Coupe engine’s output by any substantial margin, the A112 Abarth putting out 70hp over the 52 of the 903 Fiat Coupe/Sport Coupe engines.

Most of the A112s used a 903 whose primary value over the 47 hp 843 was an increase in torque and at most 5 hp (a worthwhile improvement) with the later 982 also being tuned more for torque than top end power with 58hp over the 52 offered by a 903.

Even if it was the Abarth head, without more compression and a cam to take advantage of the larger valves you won’t see a big improvement over a standard 843.

Displacement and compression are king as always.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top