Jump to content

Daves cinquecento - brutally raped.


dave21478

Recommended Posts

-Done it again, aintcha Dave?

-whats that?

-Buy a car purely for engine rape purposes and despite it being cheap and neglected its better than all your other cars and even though you only drove it onto the trailer, then off again and into the garage you are in danger of getting attached to it and not wanting to kill it.

-Oh that? Y....yeah. I did that. :roll:

 

 

post-17837-0-34206200-1516203996_thumb.jpg

post-17837-0-19589900-1516204009_thumb.jpg

 

Giffer owned, 85k kilometers, not a spec of rust anywhere at all.

 

This...

post-17837-0-28320200-1516204116_thumb.jpg

 

is supposed to go in this....

post-17837-0-81426500-1516204142_thumb.jpg

Giving fuel injection and DISpack ignition to replace the shitty carb and wobbly distributer and do away with whatever makes the horrible dry rasping bearing noise from the camshaft area on the Panda.

 

But this wee chunkychicken seems a really nice thing.

Its manky and has some minor giffer scrapes, but its sound and surprisingly well built.

post-17837-0-57916100-1516204191_thumb.jpg

The doors shut with a decent thunk rather than the cheap SPANG noise the panda makes.

 

Its reassuringly smol.

post-17837-0-09546000-1516204362_thumb.jpg

 

Nice.

post-17837-0-92336800-1516204730_thumb.jpg

 

Free warning triangle and rusty hammer. 

post-17837-0-44245100-1516204761_thumb.jpg

Under the mat is an unused spare wheel, jack etc and an extending wheelbrace.

 

 

Yeah, obviously its broken, but you can have everything, right?

post-17837-0-38095000-1516204420_thumb.jpg

post-17837-0-22725300-1516204435_thumb.jpg

Very obvious signs of gasket failure, but despite this it sparks right up first turn of the key and idles smoothly and quietly. 

Its an old pushrod design so changing the head gasket should be a piece of the proverbial.

 

I will get the gasket swapped and give it a service, then take stock. I really fancy this engine in the Panda, but I genuinely feel bad about killing this wee cinq. I mean, yeah, its only a cinquecento and all, but years ago people (me included TBH) said that about MG Metros as we yanked out their hearts to make Minis go a little bit faster.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Being as you don't need to pull the engine out of the Cinq to fix it then there is some sense in running it for a few hundred KM to check it's OK after you've fixed the gasket.   That way you can find out that the car crabs slightly, gives you a bad back after 20 miles and catches fire when you operate the heater and indicator at the same time.

 

If it doesn't do those things then find another engine, preferably a Punto engine like Dirk suggested.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Mrs had a a Seicento Mia with this 900cc engine from new until it popped it's head gasket 8 years later. It was 8 years of UTTER MISERY. When it died amazing she wanted to replace with another one. The replacement one was an SX with 1.1 engine, which was a bit of a revelation compared to the old one and actually good fun to drive.

I say put this engine in the Panda and find a 1.1 to put in this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did these get the 1.1 FIRE in the end, or was that just the Seicentos? 999CC FIRE conversion for the Panda? Though they're probably not exactly plentiful nowadays.

I think the Sporting got the 1.1.

FIRE conversion isnt possible for the panda unless i find a FIRE compatible 4x4 gearbox and several other things that would need to come from a donor 4x4, which would be hard/expensive to find and more work than I can be bothered with.

 

A rotten or crashed Sporting would be ideal right now, then I could use this 900 in the Panda and use the rest for a cheeky reshell of the Sporting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did 160,000 miles in mine. Head gasket went at 50,000. An easy two day job (machine shop time to skim the head inclusive) with the engine in the car. Access is moderate, the only arse is getting the exhaust manifold off.

 

Rust got mine in the end but for cheap motoring, bit of a laugh (lowering springs a must) it was really a very good little car.

 

41 horsepower, 41 lbft of torque from 41 cubic inches.

 

Because it wasn't all 42, it was all wrong but in the end it was a willing little engine and withstood a huge volume of abuse.

 

What's the drag coefficient of the Panda? The Cinq is 0.32 and that sees it run out of geegees at about book (87, about 4500 rpm) and mine would be difficult to get to return less than 35mpg even when driven everywhere flat out.

 

Oh, one hint, get it to 85 in top, drop it into 4th until about 95, then back into 5th and it'll accelerate off the end of the speedometer. The cam has a flat spot at 4500.

 

Guarantee by now the radiator is probably toast (and likely the reason the head gasket went), found that the ones that look like air conditioner radiators are a lot more efficient than the multi-flat-tube traditional type.

 

Also, if it runs like a bag of spanners disconnect the battery for 30 minutes and the ecu will "forget" the learned parameters of the engine and start over. Important to do after changing sensors.

 

Slow? Sure. Practical? Yes. Good little cars for what they are? Definitely.

 

Phil

 

Edit: also yours is a later one without the bleed screw in the top heater hose. Bleeding it will be a challenge

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Its an old pushrod design so changing the head gasket should be a piece of the proverbial.

 

 

Aye, no shit. Literally the easiest head removal on anything thats not a lawnmower. Seriously, i have played with Lego Technic that was harder.

 

 

 

Not much to it.

post-17837-0-79280000-1516301787_thumb.jpg

 

She is well clagged with goop though.

post-17837-0-53785400-1516301821_thumb.jpg

post-17837-0-56766100-1516301842_thumb.jpg

 

Forgot to get a photo but the gasket is well jiggered with loads of evident leaks between oil and water passages.

 

 

And a new _numbers recommended product - these Nitrile gloves....holy shit they are awesome. Thin enough to allow delicate fingering [joke goes here] but tough as fuck, one pair lasts forever without ripping and you can even take them off, have a sandwich and put the old ones back on again.

post-17837-0-11700500-1516301940_thumb.jpg

 

 

Will order a gasket and filters etc tonight which should arrive early next week.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...