My brain hates me

sdlsaginaw

Steven Lawson
It's putting "turbo" ideas in my head again.

Now, my Uno Turbo 1301 motor is hopeless due to difficulty finding and importing parts, expecially a GOOD head.

BUT...

AFAIK the internals (crank and rods) will swap over to a 1500 block. And I have all the external bits still including modified pan, Megasquirt EFI, Ford EDIS, everything. I even have a Punto exhaust manifold so I could use a new Garrett in place of the IHI that came with clogged water port.

I have a couple of 1500 engines, a carb and a FI, just sitting on engine dollys.

AND...

I really miss the sweet shifting of the FIAT 5-speed. The FAZA 5-speed shifts great but doesn't like going into 1st at a dead stop, plus the reverse lockout in the shifter isn't as refined as the internal one.

That brings up a few questions:

1) Why does my brain keep hounding me with these ideas that most likely will only end in tears?

2) What advantages, if any, does the 14 bolt block have for this? Obviously the downsides include fewer heads/blocks available, fewer choices in head gaskets, plus the fact that I already HAVE a couple of 10 bolt engines.

3) For those few who have turbo'd the 1500, have they actually been reliable?
 
If you fit the UnoT crank to a 1500 block the engine will be 1580cc's, not a 1500.

EDIT: just re rread that and missed the 1301 bit first time... nah that's a 1495 all right... only a 63.9 crank.

SteveC
 
Mk1 or Mk2 Uno?

What are you missing? I have a Uno Mk1 going into the bumble bee. As for head, all you need is a 1500 late model 14 bolt head as far as I can tell. I've decided to go with a 1500 us spec cam as I read a while back its better that the stock uno cam.

That being said, I ran the turbo bits (exh manifold and turbo) on my 1500 FI motor. Only needed a rising rate fuel regulator and it went great. I was only at 7psi and no intercooler, but it still had alot of pep.
 
Are there benefits to using the Mk1 crank and rods over the stock 1500? I thought the oilers had something to do with them, but now I'm thinking those are in the block.
 
It's an Mk1 and I have everything. I also have two bad heads. Original is badly corroded in the water passages. The replacement appears to have casting problems.

I assumed the combustion chamber would be too big on the 14 bolt 1500 head. The Mk1 has an 80.5mm bore.
 
I'll have to check the bore this weekend. You can always mill/deck a 1500 head. Have you had an engine shop look at the head?

that being said, I had no issues with the turbo'd 1500 block. Everything bolts up and just have to plumb the intake. Also, you'll have to put a check valve (PCV) between the aux air valve and intake. If you dont, you'll pressurize the bottom end and pop your dipstick out and get oil every where. Ask me how I know...

Damon had a turbo'd 1500 also where he made his own intake/exhaust setup and used a TD04 (much larger turbo than the Uno) without an intercooler and had no issues whats so ever with engine handling the additional stress.
It's an Mk1 and I have everything. I also have two bad heads. Original is badly corroded in the water passages. The replacement appears to have casting problems.

I assumed the combustion chamber would be too big on the 14 bolt 1500 head. The Mk1 has an 80.5mm bore.
 
The cheapest engine is the one you already have.

That brings up a few questions:

1) Why does my brain keep hounding me with these ideas that most likely will only end in tears?

2) What advantages, if any, does the 14 bolt block have for this? Obviously the downsides include fewer heads/blocks available, fewer choices in head gaskets, plus the fact that I already HAVE a couple of 10 bolt engines.

3) For those few who have turbo'd the 1500, have they actually been reliable?


2) = Missing a few features like the block oil sprayers but I would not say an impossibly hard project. The coil pack and engine mounting bosses are missing from the front of the block but you won't need these anyway. I guess you are limiting the question to early Uno blocks, the closed deck seems to hold up better that the later one which is open. I never looked at the compression height needed for a 1500 motor but the Punto GT rods are fine and have 2 piston oil spray holes in the big end good for *200Bhp given the cost of SCAT or the Chinese knock offs perhaps a cheap alternative for you.


You will need to do some fabricating to support the turbo as there's no holes for the turbo support bracket, whilst the later Mk II exh' casting is stronger all that unsupported weight will put it under greater stress. You could make one spanning the gearbox and end of block. The turbo oil galley feed is absent on the 1500/1300 but running a hard line around from the idiot light switch on front of the block is not too difficult. If you go with a GT25XX then the oil hungry IHI journal bearings are a thing of the past so the oil line can be quite small as Garrett recommend a 1mm oil restrictor for ball bearing models.

Garrett has some great white papers on how clock the cartridge to ensure you get the water to percolate with the 'Thermal Siphon Effect' and I'm sure you can find them. Well worth it if you want long life out of the Turbo.


3) = Reliability has a lot to do with how well it was tuned, CR - AFR's etc. It really depends on your management. If you are going the Garrett GT2560 let loose with your Squirt, go bigger injectors. The Opel VXR Bosch 280156280, 14.5 Ohm, 470 cc/min, 90 degree spray angle injectors are constantly coming up as a choice on the Punto boards for big blower setups.
 
My machine shop buddy sees a fair amount of cylinder heads with erosion on the head-to-block surface surrounding the coolant passages. IIRC there is a recent GM V6 engine where this happens a lot, not to mention on older Euro makes where cooling system maintenance was neglected. The last one I saw in person was a Jag 4.2L straight six head that was in the shop about a month ago, most of the coolant passages at the head surface were eroded.

He does not do the welding in house, he sends them out to shop where they grind back and then fill weld to put the meat back, then he uses porting tools to firm up the passages and the Storm-Vulcan rotary broach to resurface....all good after that.
 
My machine shop buddy sees a fair amount of cylinder heads with erosion on the head-to-block surface surrounding the coolant passages. IIRC there is a recent GM V6 engine where this happens a lot, not to mention on older Euro makes where cooling system maintenance was neglected. The last one I saw in person was a Jag 4.2L straight six head that was in the shop about a month ago, most of the coolant passages at the head surface were eroded.

He does not do the welding in house, he sends them out to shop where they grind back and then fill weld to put the meat back, then he uses porting tools to firm up the passages and the Storm-Vulcan rotary broach to resurface....all good after that.

The original head ate the threads around at least one of the oil/water gallery plugs. The machine shop only removed the one that was actually leaking before declaring it "scrap metal". I assume the others are in similar shape. I JB Welded the one plug back in and put the head aside to find another.

The replacement head, upon getting it surfaced, revealed cracks radiating between the cylinders and round water holes and a few small voids in the surface from lousy casting. This head also spews liquid oil out the #1 exhaust port when running from *somewhere* that *isn't* the valve seals.
 
what about a supercharged 1300?

I came across a company that has basically adapted a turbo charger into a supercharger, adding an oil reservoir. They have a very mild one for engines under 100 hp. I was thinking of driving it off the cam pulley where the air pump used to be...and there is a mounting bracket there...intercooler could go where the carb blower fan used to be.

I have been thinking about this...but only for a few days.
 
I came across a company that has basically adapted a turbo charger into a supercharger, adding an oil reservoir. They have a very mild one for engines under 100 hp. I was thinking of driving it off the cam pulley where the air pump used to be...and there is a mounting bracket there...intercooler could go where the carb blower fan used to be.

I have been thinking about this...but only for a few days.

Got a link? I'm a bit skeptical, as a turbo requires much higher revs than a supercharger to work effectively, and the bearings aren't designed to handle the lateral load of a belt drive.
 
Got a link? I'm a bit skeptical, as a turbo requires much higher revs than a supercharger to work effectively, and the bearings aren't designed to handle the lateral load of a belt drive.

I would think a snail style supercharger would have not much more lateral load than an AC compressor.
 
i dont know...

...I happened upon the site and was looking at the specs for the A-1P I believe which is rated for engines up to 100 hp.

The issue I am thinking, besides the cost, 1500 dollars, is to get it to spin fast enough, 4:1. I thought it would fit nicely where the smog pump used to be and maybe run off the cam pulley using the belt you would normally use for that same air pump.

There are lots of ways to increase performance and spend 1500 dollars, just thought this would be extra fun...not really considering doing it but got me thinking...
 
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