Frank Digioia.........
- Thread starter mmudge
- Start date
roadster27
True Classic
He's a good guy
He was building an 850 and apparently wasn't able to go forward with it. He built several Abarth replicas and was casting his own five speed extensions in his garage.
Mittelstead has purchased some things from him too.
-Dean
He was building an 850 and apparently wasn't able to go forward with it. He built several Abarth replicas and was casting his own five speed extensions in his garage.
Mittelstead has purchased some things from him too.
-Dean
mmudge
True Classic
most excellent, guys.
Thank you. The motor he built looks fantastic. He built it for Bill Holley in Eugene but Bill changed directions in cars so.....my gain. The motor has some pretty inpressive specs but so did my DOHC 2.0L 124 Spider motor....in theory. In reality.....I had no idea what I was doing so I went ahead anyway.
Good to know. Thanks all.
Mudge
Specs:
Fiat 850 Race Engine
This is a late series 903cc Fiat 850 motor totally rebuilt and intended for Auto-X and street use. The following parts are NEW: Distributor cap and leads, spark plugs, Alquati manifold, all gaskets and seals, small diameter aluminum crankshaft pulley, 4 intake valves, 4 exhaust valves, Borgo 65.8mm pop top pistons (giving approx. 926cc displacement), rings, & pins, thrust bearings, rod bearings, main bearings (crankshaft is polished and all journals are stock diameter) , #3 camshaft bearing, 4 freeze plugs, internally mounted oil pressure relief valve, air filter, external oil filter housing, filter, 3000 psi oil lines, crankcase vent fitting from former fuel pump plate. The 32mm/36mm Holley/Weber carburetor (w/gas filter) has been factory re-built and de-smogged. It says 'Holley' but it's under license from Webber so the jets interchange. Motor has 0 run time. The following operations/modifications have been done during assembly: valve guides have been grooved and spring steel C-clips installed. When inserted in head C-clips seat in a beveled recess at top of valve seat and are epoxied in place. This prevents the valve guide 'dropping.' The guides were also machined shorter (and ground flush) to improve air flow in the intake/exhaust passages. All valves were replaced with new ones & hand-lapped with course/fine compound. All casting flanges were removed from the intake/exhaust passages. The combustion chambers were modified ala FAZA (Fiat-Abarth-Zagato-Allemano if you've ever wondered) including re-shaping the pop top piston spark plug area. The new Alquati intake manifold was slightly enlarged and matched to the head. The block was hot tanked and the deck machined. As a late 903 block it has center main bearing full pressure oiling. The rest of the internal oil system was altered to allow use of an external oil filter (included) and cooler (NOT included.) The front main cam bearing was modified to aim oil at the distributor/oil pump gear. The front crankshaft pulley is smaller diameter allowing slightly slower alternator/water pump revs at higher engine speeds=extra horsepower available. The weird blue plug wire color works well with the 'Blue Flame' Bosch coil originally used in these cars! The camshaft is a standard Sport cam and very good for normal driving/auto-X.
Thank you. The motor he built looks fantastic. He built it for Bill Holley in Eugene but Bill changed directions in cars so.....my gain. The motor has some pretty inpressive specs but so did my DOHC 2.0L 124 Spider motor....in theory. In reality.....I had no idea what I was doing so I went ahead anyway.
Good to know. Thanks all.
Mudge
Specs:
Fiat 850 Race Engine
This is a late series 903cc Fiat 850 motor totally rebuilt and intended for Auto-X and street use. The following parts are NEW: Distributor cap and leads, spark plugs, Alquati manifold, all gaskets and seals, small diameter aluminum crankshaft pulley, 4 intake valves, 4 exhaust valves, Borgo 65.8mm pop top pistons (giving approx. 926cc displacement), rings, & pins, thrust bearings, rod bearings, main bearings (crankshaft is polished and all journals are stock diameter) , #3 camshaft bearing, 4 freeze plugs, internally mounted oil pressure relief valve, air filter, external oil filter housing, filter, 3000 psi oil lines, crankcase vent fitting from former fuel pump plate. The 32mm/36mm Holley/Weber carburetor (w/gas filter) has been factory re-built and de-smogged. It says 'Holley' but it's under license from Webber so the jets interchange. Motor has 0 run time. The following operations/modifications have been done during assembly: valve guides have been grooved and spring steel C-clips installed. When inserted in head C-clips seat in a beveled recess at top of valve seat and are epoxied in place. This prevents the valve guide 'dropping.' The guides were also machined shorter (and ground flush) to improve air flow in the intake/exhaust passages. All valves were replaced with new ones & hand-lapped with course/fine compound. All casting flanges were removed from the intake/exhaust passages. The combustion chambers were modified ala FAZA (Fiat-Abarth-Zagato-Allemano if you've ever wondered) including re-shaping the pop top piston spark plug area. The new Alquati intake manifold was slightly enlarged and matched to the head. The block was hot tanked and the deck machined. As a late 903 block it has center main bearing full pressure oiling. The rest of the internal oil system was altered to allow use of an external oil filter (included) and cooler (NOT included.) The front main cam bearing was modified to aim oil at the distributor/oil pump gear. The front crankshaft pulley is smaller diameter allowing slightly slower alternator/water pump revs at higher engine speeds=extra horsepower available. The weird blue plug wire color works well with the 'Blue Flame' Bosch coil originally used in these cars! The camshaft is a standard Sport cam and very good for normal driving/auto-X.