![\"FIAT](\"http:\/\/giuliettas.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/11\/fiat-one-engine.jpg\" "\\"FIAT")
<\/a>This is a picture from this morning, about 1 hour before I started writing this post.\u00a0 You will notice all sorts of funky stuff that I will go into later, but the important thing to take away from this picture is that it has the look of a car that runs.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
My next stolen moment was on Monday evening.\u00a0 I rigged up the cooling system -which is insanely complex compared to an Alfa, and had Aaron look to see if the alternator fan was hitting the lower radiator hose when I turned the engine over.\u00a0 It wasn’t but bad news, the fan on the water pump wasn’t turning.\u00a0 Turns out said fan had run into the second pulley groove on the crank pulley.\u00a0 I removed the fan, found some bolts short enough not to dig into the body of the water pump when the pulley was mounted without the fan and decided that since winter is minutes away I could probably live without the fan for a while.\u00a0 Engine turns over nice and fast now!<\/p>\n
Next job was hook up the ignition system and check for spark.\u00a0 I set the pulley and cam timing marks to TDC and made the rotor point to number 1, installed the cap, plugged in all the wires, layed the spark plugs out on the head and turned the engine over.\u00a0 Sparks were being produced by all four.\u00a0 I installed the plugs and turned it over again.\u00a0 Nothing.\u00a0 Fuel: check.\u00a0 Timing marks set up right: check. I have to interject here that if you are familiar with Fiats you already know the problem.\u00a0 I couldn’t get it to start so I went home and posted to a Fiat forum <\/a>about my problems.<\/p>\n The punch line for those familiar with Fiats was that Fiat engines are timed to the number 4 cylinder, not the number 1 cylinder like the Italian engines I am used to, so I was a full 180 degrees out.\u00a0 Anyhow,\u00a0I decided the free play in the rotor was unacceptible so I confirmed something I suspected: the blanking plug on a Fiat twin cam that fills the hole where the distributor lived on the pushrod versions of the motor\u00a0(they share a more or less common block) could be removed and a pushrod engine type distributor could be mounted there.\u00a0 Since I didn’t have a trustworthy rotor for the cam mounted distributor I installed the distributor from the 1438, which\u00a0was good because it\u00a0allowed me to use the Marelli plex electronic ignition that the car had when I got it.\u00a0 The fit is very tight between the timing belt cover and intake manifold and only about 10 degrees of adjustment are possible so anything more than that means pulling the distributor and adjusting it in the splines.<\/p>\n Once I had this distributor installed I turned it over and an 8 inch flame lept out of the carb.\u00a0 I fooled around with it some more but couldn’t get it to run.\u00a0 On my way to that evenings fun it occured to me that when I timed the distributor to the pulley marks I forgot to see if the cam marks were aligned, which meant I had a 50% chance of being 180 degrees out.\u00a0 Suddenly I was anxious to get back to the shop and check.<\/p>\n Yesterday afternoon at about 5 I got to the shop to check out the cam timing marks.\u00a0 I put the car in fourth gear, pulled the distributor cap off, lined up the pulley marks, checked the cam timing and sure enough I was 180 degrees out.\u00a0 I reset the distributor, hooked the battery back up and turned it over.\u00a0 It fired right up but didn’t idle.\u00a0 Once again I had somewhere to be so I dashed off with a grin on my face and a short to do list forming in my head.<\/p>\n 1. Refill transmission<\/p>\n 2. clean out the crud I saw in the carb float bowl<\/p>\n 3. set the timng<\/p>\n 4. adjust the clutch<\/p>\n 5. tidy up the wiring<\/p>\n 6.\u00a0get exhaust welded up<\/p>\n 7. test drive and make new list<\/p>\n I’m on my way!<\/p>\n<\/a>Here is the cam mounted distributor.\u00a0 Pay special attention to where the rotor is pointing.\u00a0 This is taken right after I installed new points, condensor and rotor.\u00a0 This is a dual point distributor that I converted to single.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Now look at where the rotor is pointing.\u00a0 Nothing in the distributor has moved between these two pictures, the rotor had this much free play because the keying mechanism -a notch on the shaft- was a different size than the receiving hole on the rotor.\u00a0 I shimmed it which helped, but I couldn’t really\u00a0tell if I had it in the right place.\u00a0 I assumed I could account for it when I set the\u00a0timing.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Here it is with a plug in the cam mounted distributor hole.\u00a0 I need to tie those wires away from the manifold.\u00a0 Not much going on on this side of the engine.\u00a0 You can just see the $10 section of exhaust pipe repair I got at Kragen that has done service in several of my engine swaps.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>The tight fit of the distributor revealed.\u00a0 One red spark plug lead because none of the blue leads were long enough to reach number 4 cylinder.\u00a0 Busy on this side of the engine -the Spider this engine came from would have had the alternator over here too so the emissions airpump could be on the exhaust side!\u00a0 Note dried out brake fluid hoses, I need to replace those soon too.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>How many hose clamps does it take to make it not leak?\u00a0 I think it’s 16, but of course when I put coolant in it it\u00a0was leaking in three places\u00a0so I guess I need more.\u00a0 Aaron has promised me an electric fan.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n