Rear engine Fiat motors I've had over the years..... #1

[Frank L. Di Gioia]

Sometime back John T posted a pic of me at Laguna Seca pits in the mid 1980's. It featured my 1967 850 Spider with a PBS 8-port cylinder head. It got me reminiscing about various 600/850 motors I've had over the last 50+ years so I started digging up pictures and racking my memory about what internals they had. Bottom line is I decided to post a series of them and their history. Here's the first, a PBS (probable, more later) dry sump motor with an A-112 head. Motor is probably based on a 903 block as there is a plug in the end of the crankshaft and a AN fitting on the left for full flow oiling sticking out the former oil relief valve. Kent Baird in Denver stated in conversation he remembered seeing similar dry pump with other PBS stuff at the warehouse of Dr. Knee, an Abarth owner. At the time the facility was half flooded. Dr. Knee ended up with the VA hospital system in Eugene Oregon which is where I got the sump parts from his estate. The oil pump was a 1950-60's General Motors power steering pump that bolted directly to the finned sump casting. It's powered by the same belt as the PBS short water pump and is an overdrive ratio. There is a tension adjustment with roller mounted off the alternator brackets. The alternator is 1:1 and is mounted/adjusted in the regular manner. I can't remember motor internals or if set for CW or CCW rotation. At around that time a local machine shop stroked (built up welded journals) some 903 crankshafts to 74mm so it could be a 1 liter or 1050 motor. Last I knew about 10 years ago it was owned by a vintage motorcycle guy in NorCal. More exotic PBS and and Abarth pics to follow..... CORRECTION: it's not an Auto Bianchi head but a 903 with a temperature button near where the A-112 head has a water outlet.