Thought you guys may be interested in this....

I started this way back before Xmas, and now Im finally getting somewhere. Due to working a lot and various other factors, I havent been able to work on this as much as I would like. That is now going to change.

Anyway, what now seems a long, long time ago, I did some research into the famous 2 litre conversion and decided, **** it, Im bored with my GT atm Ill gove it a go. There was nothing wrong with my GT as it was, I just wanted to go further without tuning the reasonably unreliable 1.4. So I decided to tune the reasonably unreliable 2l 16vt instead!

I bought a complete Fiat Coupe 16vt that had rear end damage, on 80k. The seller had started to break it, but then decided to get the rear sorted and track it. This meant he had to get replacement parts for the bits he sold, which has meant I get loads of brand new parts with it. It cost me £350, got it towed from Cambridge (I think) down to Sheppey, where Dean and Dan (from PSC) had agreed to help me out!



The day I picked it up it was bloody cold and snowy as you can see! Trekking up to pick it up in the GT was interesting as it was being used as a snowplough on most roads.



As far as I can remember it was about three weeks before we stripped it in a day and had it shipped off to the scrappers. Left the gear linkage in the car though!



If in doubt, get the grinder out!!



During all this, we were being watched like hawks....



We continued...



and this was decided to be a little dangerous to do!



Spanking new cooler...



Warning! Dont attempt to poke the sprung fuel filler cap with a ratchet with extension bar on it. Dean found this out, and was very lucky not to lose it!



After a day of hard graft, she was dragged up the transporter on her bare ass, scraping all the way....



And that was the stripping day done. Was hard work, but was well worth it.

The engine from my GT also came out around this time and was sold.

In the next few weeks I managed to collect a fair few parts for the build, some necessary and some luxury.

These included:-

-alloy rad

-Apexi AVCR

-Barnacle Widget

-New Clutch

-New clutch slave cylinder

-New Belts

-Rocker Cover Powder Coated

-Stainless Manifold & Gasket

-New silicone boost piping

-Dink chip and cooler plugs

Anyway, here are a few pics,,,



This led onto last Saturday, where we built up the engine ready to go in bar the belts which will be done this coming Saturday. The day involved fitting the new fanimould, rocker cover, clutch and clutch slave cylinder. We also got my GT out of the garage and back onto the drive. I forgot to mention my engine had been sold for some time and my GT had been sitting dead for ages gather dirt and dust.

Here are some pics from the day. iPhone camera Im afraid!



My plan is to sand out and polish the high spots in the rocker cover.



[censored] nuts! A cunning tool is needed for the removal!



At the fit of the manifold stage, I snapped one of the old studs in the head which we welded a couple of nuts onto to get out, it was a right ****er though. It was no real problem as, as with the POTR manifolds on the GT lump, we used a combination of odd bolts to refit it.




And thats where I am now. This coming Saturday we are aiming to get the lump in the bay and "hopefully" get some serious work done on the mount design. Maybe even get it temporarily mounted.

14th May 2009

Small report, a bigger one will come on Sunday.

The engine is in! Well sort of.

Hoping to make the mounts up on Sunday and get the gear linkage sorted. I have all boost piping ready to go (hopefully), and there shouldnt be too many mods for the coolant piping.

Anyway,

14th July 2009

Right, back from almost all of my holidays now so Ive been able to crack on a bit with this.

On Sunday, we had a good day as the weather was nice and meant the whole day was quite productive. I dont have pics of everything but I have a few.

The engine is now in and mounted!! The rear mount needs a slight modification but apart from that they are done. The engine is now holding itself in completely for the first time.



LOW! Coilovers are a must.



Shifter finished and working perfectly.



Throttle in and working.



Custom rear mount(!)




We have also test fitted the shafts and found that the drivers side shaft sits perfectly (Punto GT passengers side shaft), but the passenger side shaft was over tight. It is too far to move the engine over as you would end up really pushing the tolerances of the sideways pressure of the suspension. Basically, two Punto passenger shafts 'would' fit, but how long they would last I dont know, not very long I would imagine.

So, throttle working, gearbox connected and working, clutch just needs to be connected (5 min job), shaft shortened then fitted, coilovers and ARBs to be fitted, rad and FMIC to be fitted and plumbed in, rad fan to be worked out still (probably a couple of thin 10" fan), then just wiring really which we think should be pretty simple.

I should have some more updates on Sunday.

Over and out.

2nd August 2009

Reet then.

Spent ALL weekend working on the old shitbox, and got a hell of a lot done.

First off, we set about removing the old -45mm PI springs and shocks and fitting the new Spax RSX on.



Whilst Dean was fitting one of the shocks, I fabricated a top quality oil cooler bracket....



I also fitted the new carbon centre console piece with some new buttons in for boost scramble, fan switch and temperature switch.



We started removing the shitty ARBs to fit the new Eibach ARBs, but hit a small problem meaning that 4 (IIRC) bolts needed drilling out and retapping from the rear ARB mounts alone. This took most of the afternoon.


We also worked on starting on the loom yesterday, but rain halted the finishing!



SO... today.

Started by finishing removing the snapped bolts in the rear ARB mount holes, and then fitted the new rear ARB.

Then we did the same for the front, only one bolt snapped so it was a lot quicker procedure.

Old vs. New



I fitted some new GT1 mirrors without the plain plastic band, look a lot better I think.




Then we fitted the lower crossmember back on, bt found out that it fouled on the oil cooler pipes, so used a bolt with two extra nuts on to extend it down a little, just enough so that it cleared the cooler pipes.



We mocked up the rad and cooler and found it is pretty tight. We decided that we are going to raise the rad as high as we can, to get better airflow to it and to "unusually" run the pre FMIC pipe under the rad. This should mean we dont have the stupid amount of piping that most conversions do.


Some conversion pics.....

Drivers shaft..



Passenger shaft, one is being machined as we speak 15mm shorter. If you used two Punto passenger shafts, they would 'fit' but it would push the hubs outwards, its not the right way to do it, and anyone that hasnt modified one of their shafts has not done it well. Engine position would be compromised for an easy fit.



Passenger side mount, very small, a lot smaller than we first thought, and Dans previous measurements but I am confident that this is the best position for the engine.




Then.... WIRING. This afternoon we got the main bulk of the loom sorted. This involved using most of the Coupe engine loom tied into the Punto ignition loom. Almost everything fitted perfectly, with only the speed connector (female to female) and the alternator + needing to be changed. Three or four wires needed to be extended. We also retaped the loom so that it would sit in a good position around the engine bay.



Looks a mess, but its just a case of finding homes for various sensors etc.



Need to raise the coilies a bit!



That was the day complete, back to bed!




Mean!

9th August 2009

Another good day today, but no pics Im afraid, I kind of forgot to take any!

The first thing I did today was to finish the wiring loom. This involved basically todying up our "rough" loom and then taping the [censored] up. I used a whole large roll of electricians tape but its a lot stronger now, bearing in mind the whole loom is custom made to suit the engine bay, being made out of both Punto and Coupe engine looms. We also connected various other wires, including the gearbox earth and the alternator to starter live.

Then we thought, lets see what our loom handywork is like. So I hooked up the battery and she turned over! Obviously she wasnt going to start due to lack of other bits and pieces, but there was no issue with the code light, and everything on the dash is working so far. This means our home made loom is so far fingers crossed a success. [IMG]http://www.bwaarpforum.co.uk/images/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif[/IMG] It was so nice hearing some noise coming from the bay, its been so long!

We also hooked up the fuel pump to an ignition live, its not connected to the engine yet, but its a very simple job, using only two jubilee clips. The ignition live was the easiest way to connect the fuel pump feed instead of going through the relay, and it will work just fine.

Dean then worked on modifying the standard Coupe downpipe, a right hench piece of kit, I think its 2.25" standard which mates perfectly with my existing custom Powerflow exhaust. Just need a small section of 2.25" pipe to finish that off. The way we have made it, it will accept a PGT Cat come MOT time.

We then relocated the front crossmember loom, that connects to the headlights, indicators, fogs, bonnet switch and fan loom. This was moved forwards towards the front of the car, and it is actually outside of the engine bay. Its located underneath the plate that sits on top of the main front crossmember, underneath the panel that the bumper bolts to. This is so that the loom is far enought away from the manifold so it doesnt get burnt! Its a perfect position for it and you can see it at all now.

We cut off the rad fan bracket as this is going to get in the way of the rad. I am going to raise the rad up over an inch, to be able to get as much airflow to it as possible. This also allows me to be able to run the pre FMIC hose underneath the rad, which hopefully will remove a right load of pipework ****ing about. [IMG]http://www.bwaarpforum.co.uk/images/smilies/icon_lol.gif[/IMG]

Then the engine came out for the final time! This was so we could remove the mounts to be sent away for final welding by a pro mate of Deans. We also had to fit the new belts and tensioner so they were all done this afternoon. We cut the balance shafts belt off, adds 10bhp some say and is not necessary on this engine. We removed the balance belt tensioner and runner stud, to do a proper job so to speak.

We then worked on getting our heads around the routing of the coolant/vac/oil pipework. This turned out to be simpler than first thought as quite a lot of the pipework that was originally on the Coupe can be done away with/blocked up. All of the charcoal cannister related pipework was removed, as was the original pipework to the Coupe coolant header tank. This runs on the opposite side to the GT, so we are going to run it from the other side, as it is in the GT. I replaced all of the vac hosing, simpliying the vac circuit as I went. The oil feed back into the inlet manifold was blocked as well. The piping side of the conversion looks very simple so far, I dont think I will need to buy many hoses.

Finally, I painted the front end of the car, basically all of the hidden and slightly rusty places with Hammerite smooth. May as well do the job while the engine bay was empty!


Phew, that was todays work. All the main bits of the conversion are done, this week we should have the mounts pro welded and the shortened drive shaft back fingers crossed!


Not long now!

6th September 2009

Right, another good day down in sunny Sheppey.

The first thing you may notice in the pictures is that I repainted quite a bit of the front end to tidy up the surface rust areas. This was done last time I was there, just didnt take any pictures of it.

So, this is how Dean and I started the day....





The engine was completely removed waiting for the mounts to come back from being properly welded.

Here you can see where we decided to move the front section of the loom (for the headlights & rad fan) to, so that it is further away from the manifold, it is also shielded by the front crossmember, which will help...






We then fitted the rewelded and painted mounts. With a small amount of faffing they were in, and hopefully not coming out again!!






Here is the rear gearbox mount...






Once these were fitted to the car, the engine was moved into place. With a small amount of faffing again, the engine was bolted up to the mounts.






Once the engine was in, it was a case of refitting everything we had taken away a couple of weeks ago.
These included -

Lower front crossmember
Power steering fluid bottle
Loom
Heater matrix pipes (shortened and fitted)
Pipe to master cylinder
Gear linkage
Slave sylinder connected
Some boost piping
Idle control valve

A few of these required mounts, adapted from the original Coupe brackets in a couple of cases.

A lot of the rad piping was also worked out and fitted, along with the oil breather system.
















Whats left to do:-

Wait for drive shaft to be finished and fit.
Fit rad & fans and finish rad piping.
Fit FMIC and boost piping.
Finish fitting Apexi AVCR.
Finish mounting remaining "engine bay" items.
Finish oil cooler mounting and pipes.
Fit new oil filter.
Finish making exhaust adapter and fit.
Seal gear linkage at gearstick end.


Not a lot really. Hopefully not too long until we can fire the old girl up!!

23rd August 2009

Right, I had a day off today so popped over to Deans to do a bit of work as it was a nice day.

I started by removing a load of cruddy wiring I did before starting the conversion. Im replacing it with proper looms that I have made up myself. Im also making sure the wiring is better than last time.

After that and a quick clear up the interior looked like this....



I then ran the Apexi AVCR loom through the dashboard, into the engine bay and up to where the interior light sits. I extended every single wire by some margin, allowing me to do this.





After hooking up most of the wiring I gave it a go and...







Hoorah!

Whilst the battery was connected it was nice to see ignition! and it now turns over!




I made the Apexi so it is easily removable as obviously its quite a stealable item.










This is the only intrusion into the centre console with the new shifter from the Coupe fitted.




I then fitted the remaining GT1 style mirror and a polished cover under the bonnet.






Rad / Fans and FMIC






Then I tried to get a decent start on the boost piping, air filter and dump valve positioning.














A few other pics at the end of the day...














Then when I got home I finished the plug and lead cover....




Should be working on the car again on Tuesday so stay tuned!

Tuesday 29th September 2009

A bit of a frustrating day yesterday, its the first one that we have had, so that cant be too bad.

After looking at the boost piping previously we decided to look into the possibility of running the pre FMIC boost piping under the rad, to eliminate the long run of piping above the FMIC as found in other conversions. This should also allow the rad to get a better flow, as being positioned higher up, it will get more air through the bumper as well as through the cad vent on the bonnet.

There was quite a bit of trial and error here, but it wasnt too difficult. A small mod to clear the morettes and we think we have found its resting position.





The boost pipe sticking out the bottom is only to guage the height the rad needs to be at!

I have used some of the Samco rad pipes that are being done as a group buy atm. They fit the rad well and only required minimal trimming. After the pipes were fitted we filled the system up with water to check the water tightness and had no major problems.

A new oil filter and 5l of cheapo oil were then added, to run up to temp and then change for some good oil, basically to try and clear possible crap out of the engine. For the sake of a filter and cheap oil, its not worth not doing.

Then we were hit with the frustrating part of the day, going for a start. It turned over well, fuel was fine but we got no spark. Dean spent most of the rest of the day getting more and more frustrated! trying to work out what the problem could be.

After I left Dean popped over to test some voltages on his still standard working Coupe and everything matched up with the voltages on my GT. When he tried my ECU on his car it wouldnt start, meaning it is an immobiliser/coding ECU problem.

Luckily this is easy to sort, and I will be sending my ECU away to be decoded soon.

Apart from that, theres not much more to do:-

Fit boost piping and FMIC.
Set up the AVC-R.
Sort the exhaust.
Fit driveshafts.
Finish the air filter pipework.
Run up to temp then change oil.
Finish off with new fluids.

And thats about it. Ive also got a couple of new Swoosh gauges to fit - boost and oil temp to go in my pillar pod.

Small update....

10th October 2009

Right, got the ECU back yesterday after having mine, Deans and Wilkys ECUs all decoded. Ive got the contact info for the guy if anyone else wants it.

Dean sent me a text seeing if I wanted him to start it up, so I thought why not?!

Anyway, SHE RUNS!!

Im going over tomorrow to get a load of stuff done hopefully :-

Fit boost piping and FMIC. - I might try without the rad raised up as using that method would mean cutting the bumper up for the FMIC to fit as the rad sits further forward. Ill have to have a look at this tomorrow.

Set up the AVC-R. - Ive got some rough settings for this, but this wont be done until the very end. Ive still got to work out how to enter the settings!

Sort the exhaust. - This will be done tomorrow, piss easy job.

Fit driveshafts. - This should also be done tomorrow.

Finish the air filter pipework. - This is just a case of finding some room!!

Run up to temp then change oil.
Finish off with new fluids.

Then .....


DRIVE IT!

Sunday 11th October 2009

Following on from having the ECU decoded and the car running, Dean set about sorting the exhaust adapter from Coupe downpipe to my Punto decat. This was quite a simple fix, and although we didnt have entirely the correct parts, the exhaust is joined well enough, at least until I decided to get a larger bore exhaust made up if necessary.



I cracked on with the electrics today, basically ripping out what I had put in when it was last on the road and replacing with new items.

I fitted:-

-The Barnacle Widget



-Swoosh Boost Gauge



-Innovate LC-1 Wideband Gauge




I also spent quite a bit of time re routing the wires into decent positions, as when I was ripping out I realised what a complete mess I had made of it before!



I finally worked out the mystery of the missing diagnostic port. Dean and I had talked about where the diagnostic port had gone, and our best guess was that it must be on another loom, or have been removed by accident. However, after some help on FCCUK, I found that we had been overlooking the diagnostic port the whole time! We thought it was a loop for an air conditioning compressor (which my Coupe didnt have), and after working this out it meant that I could fit the Widget.




A lot of work today was done on tidying bits and pieces up, finding locations for various bits and pieces around the engine bay, which now looks very tidy.



We mock fitted the FMIC, and started her up, here is a video. The reason the wideband has E2 on it is because I have yet to fit the probe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1idsmdjxWPo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap9HzTgrcow

We ran the car up to temperature, and my custom fans/fan loom did as hoped and turned on. They then cooled the water temp down and turned off, exactly as I was praying they would! At this stage I cannot see an issue with cooling, but we will have to wait and see.

It sounds mental!!

Unfortunately, the day ended on a low as we found we have a clutch problem. So, its engine out and box off to investigate. This shouldnt take long though, we have done it a few times now!!

;-)

22nd November 2009

Right then!

Dean and I started this morning with the intention of fitting the rad properly, fitting the FMIC and then depending on weather we would look at a strange knocking coming from the left hand side.

The day started well and it only took a short while to get the rad mounted, I dont have any pictures of our rad mounts but they were ingenious! That left the rad in a decent position, abeit a bit further forward than the standard rad.

Just as we started fitting the FMIC, the heavens opened for the lunchtime shower. We concocted a fantasic shelter out of my GT, Deans Land Rover and my gazebo cover along with the good old favourite - zip ties! This meant we could work on without getting drenched.

The FMIC took a little while to fit, but it was pretty plain sailing, seemed to fit nicer than it did when I fit it onto the car with the 1.4 lump still in! There were also various other jobs done, I did some more wiring inside the car, Dean trimmed the inside of the abarth bumper to give some more clearance.







As teh rain stopped we thought we would try to work out what the knocking was. If there was a smilie with a dunce hat on now would be the time to use it. The rear left wheel wasnt tightened up at all. Doh! So that was tightened and that solved a potential problem!!

The next job was to refit the bumper, was a pretty simple job all in, no real issues.








I also tidied up some more, it seems that the only way to make bits and bobs fit 'right' is to constantly move them until they seem about ok! I think I must have tidied up wiring hundreds of times in the engine bay!



New manifold is starting to go purple now!



Final pic of the day....



Then we thought we would drive the car and see what it was like. It needed some fuel so a trip to the petrol station was fine. Turned out to be about an hours worth of driving with no real issues! Even enough time to get some videos in the dying light in a very windy Sheerness!

Right video time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=femoMPj5RdQ&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78Aax-WK1u4&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CbznmTiE4Q&feature=channel

She works!! One thing I will say is the video doesnt show how loud the GT is, on a scale of 1 - 10 loud its probably an 11!

Next week, just a couple of bits to do and hopefully I can bring her home!

Investigate a small knock
Connect speedo cable
Sort reverse light switch
Seal gear linkage
Fit exhaust heat shield
Refit centre console