My Fiat X1/9
History as far as I know :
I bought my 1980 1300 4 speed X1/9 in 2002 from a Victor Harbor resident. I replaced many small items to keep it on the road, installed a silly sound system that included two twelve inch subwoofers... Then when the engine started getting tired I decided to buy a Mk1 Uno Turbo engine for it from New Zealand, Mal Simmonds from Dino Enterprises was kind enough to help me out here with a 145,000km old engine, having ordered the engine and realising that I would be without an X to drive, I went and bought another one! this one I got from a guy in Sydney, it was a lovely 1500 5 speed with 15 inch Speedy mags and went really well. But my new love of motorbikes soon led me to selling the 1500 to buy a BMW F650GS touring bike.
So now I'm left with the 1300 all in pieces and a Mk1 Uno Turbo engine and gearbox waiting to be put together.Here is how it all came together:
I pretty much followed this method, only I'm installing my air flow meter and filter in the boot.
http://laursen-online.dk/x1-9/service-uk/engineconv-ut.htmlFirst I pulled the original engine out, I had to use a few pieces of this engine including:
the sump, had to ad a oil drain pipe for the turbo
oil pickup to match the sump along with dipstick
one tappet shim bucket, as I damaged one trying to set the valve clearances
cam box and cover, to keep X1/9 top engine mount with dog bone link
distributor, of which I have removed all advance mechanisms from.
and the side engine mount
All these part bolted up to the Uno Turbo motor easily, but I had to source a few extra valve shims to get the valve clearances correct after putting the Uno cam into the X1/9 cam box.The gearbox had to be made out of a Uno Turbo 5 speed and a X1/9 5speed bell housing, as the X1/9 has its gear changer input on the front of the gearbox, this was a fairly easy job for me, but took a little machining at one point, I can't remember why as it was so long ago now, but there is a couple of pics somewhere, I think it might have been the reverse idle gear shaft...
I also am converting a 4 speed car to a 5 speed, and thus had to change the rear hubs and knuckles to accept the 5 speed drive shafts, Mal was also kind enough to supply me with most of the parts required to do this. I did need to get another short drive shaft that I ended up buying from Mad Matt at Midwest-Bayless in America, I also needed a spacer for the right hand side of which my brother in law is making for me. The stock brakes have been cleaned and painted and along with a few other little parts they got new lines also from Matt.
I have fixed a fair amount of rust on the car while it is all apart and learnt a few tricks on the way, everything cut, ground or welded got a coat of KBS Rust Kill after being rust converted, I will also spray Lanotec in all the crevices just to be sure.
I managed to get hole of a set of 74 model bumpers, front grill and air dam, so far I have installed the air dam and grill, but they still need some prettying up before paint. The bumpers will require custom mounts made up because of the different bumper mount on the series 1 compared to the series 2.
This will do for now, stay tuned for updates. Last updated: 19/August/2010
More!!!
I have the engine running now and it all seems pretty good, I had a few problems with wires in the wrong places and things not plugged in, but it RUNS!
I have also ordered a Unifilter ProComp2 foam filter for it. I need put the filter on before I can make up a braket for the air flow meter.
Thomas (my brother) and I install new front rotors and bled the brakes. I also installed the axle spacer that my brother in law made, and torqued up the hub nuts.
I did some sanding on the body and a bit of work on the front air dam.
Any questions, feel free email me at rogerpaine@ymail.com
