Fiatmods

1970 Fiat 124 Spider

[owned 1995-2003]
I bought this car in 1995 with a bad engine. It had been off the road since 1984! The odometer showed just over 60k miles, which I believed were genuine from the nice condition of the interior. The dash wasn't even cracked! At first I did not like the orange/black paintjob, but eventually it grew on me. I installed the 2000cc engine from the wrecked Brava racecar (see separate page on that :-), and I was on my way! Eventually I rebuilt the engine, then installed fuel injection, you can read about those things in spearate pages.

Here it is in 1997 with 13" American Racing alloys wheels:

Same car in the spring of 2000 with a new hood and 14" Maserati Biturbo wheels:

A few pics of the 2000FI engine (sorry, the engine compartment is not detailed):

Modifications:

Engine:

2000 FI block and head, rebuilt Jan-May 1998

Block bored with a torque-plate made from an old cylinder head

8.9:1 CR pistons (84.4mm, gives 2014cc)

Block shaved 1.25mm (.050") to give 9.8:1 CR

Fuel pump lobe cut off from auxiliary shaft, oil hole plugged with threaded insert

Crankshaft plugs removed, holes tapped and plugged with threaded inserts

Exhaust ports smoothed out, intake ports enlarged

40-80/80-40 camshafts

Infinitely adjustable camgears

21 mm timingbelt

Modified Toyota throttle cable and pedal

Stock Fuel Injection

Airfilter box from T-bird Turbo

Stock FI exhaust manifold and downpipe, 50mm (2") exhaust system

DynoMax 57mm (2-1/4") muffler

1974 Spider radiator

Dyno sheet for my Spider!

Here's a pic of the engine before installation:

And here's one after installation. Initially the engine had a Weber 32/36DFEV carburator and block mounted electronic distributor (from a 1979 Lancia Beta).

This one is after the Fuel Injection conversion. Battery moved to trunk, distributor moved to camtower, coil to right inner fender. Since the picture was taken the alternator was moved to the left side of the engine, and the airhorns relocated to the grille area.