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Fiat Panda 999cc FIRE turbo (MPI)

History

This was an engine I acquired with the intention of rebuilding to use while turbocharging the other one, it was from a white1990 Fiat Uno 45S and it cost me 50euros, but i had to remove it myself, it was bought on September 10 2004. The engine had a blown headgasket and was neglected overall (it had been sitting in the car for over two years), the clock indicated 82147kms. After disassembling the engine and checking all items against the original specks, i ended up rebuilding the engine to original specks. The original components were all within specks except for the carb and piston rings (the carb was completely stuck and no soaking could make the throttle plate move). When someone offered to buy my original turbo engine I quickly changed this project into a turbo engine but using only low boost to see how far it would go.

The compression is now at 9.8:1 and everything about the engine is completely stock.

Panda Turbo Parts List

-Turbo (Garrett GT1544s)- waste gate is set at 0.4bar, power starts at 2400rpm and lasts all the way to my 6700rpm redline. (this turbo is brand new and was bough for the purpose, cost was 400euros off ebay. (I cross referenced the turbo from a Vauxall Omega 2.0L D/Frontera 2.2L D as a new retail unit from garret costs over 700euros)

-Intercooler (Eagle Talon stock IC)-This unit flows reasonably well for it's purpose, as was learned in the previous project. (this one was a bit harder to find though, but it is newer)

-Intake piping-all intake piping was fabricated out of thin walled stainless pipe(3" OD) so it's all custom work here, it was done the same way as the other engine to keep it simple.

-Air Filter-K&N universal cone filter

-Headgasket-I'm using the stock headgasket.

-Pistons- I'm using the stock pistons.

-Adjustable cam gear-I'm using the adjustable gear that was in the other engine but it seems to be unnecessary.

-Cam Belt-This is the stock cam belt.

-Exhaust Manifold-This is a custom manifold.

-O2 Sensor-(aka Lambda) This is a narrow band O2 sensor for the MS ecu

-Oil Pan-The stock oil pan was used with only enough modifications to allow the oil to drain from the turbo into the oil pan. Some baffling may be needed for track use.

-Radiator-The rad is an uprated unit meant for an Uno turbo. It's made out of aluminum and had no brand on the box.

-Blow-Off-Valve (BOV)-So far I haven't installed one but I'm building one to install.

-Downpipe-This was made out of 2.5" stainless tubing to mate to the exhaust, it has an O2 bung for the sensor and it mates to a cat to allow more tuning room for the emissions. (this engine did not use a cat originally)

-Exhaust-This is a custom 2.5" dual tip exhaust made by a friend, it is all stainless steel and makes a deep sound (not to loud when revved either), the backbox is a Remus unit with dual chromed tips. This is the same unit used with the other engine. (NO, IT'S NOT FOR SALE, I've had a lot of emails asking about that so I'm making it clear), total cost for this exhaust exceeds 450euros. (not including the high flow cat)

-Charge Piping-This time I used all custom piping, it's all 3" stainless pipe and silicone hoses

-Fuel Pump-This is a Walbro (255LPH/45psi max) fuel pump, it's the same pump that was first used in the other engine as the pressure now needs to be 43psi it's ok for the job.

-Fuel Pressure Gauge-this is a B&M gauge I had laying around, reads 0 to 50psi. The same gauge used in the other engine and is only being used for tuning purposes.

-Cylinder Head-This is a stock 1.2 head (SPI), it was port matched and has polished exhaust ports (only because I had nothing better to do at the time).

-Oil Cooler-This was an oil cooler off an diesel pickup truck, it was a Bedford Isuzo 2.2L.

-Camshaft-This is a stock camshaft, I debated whether to use a custom grind but decided to go with stock.

-Fuel Pressure Regulator-This is a stock regulator off a Punto 80. (It has boost referencing as is)

-Boost Gauge-this is a cheap Autometer boost gauge. It's the same one used on the other engine.

-Air/Fuel Gauge-this is also an Autometer unit on a 3 gauge cluster, using a DYI-wb sensor, currently at 13:1 AFR. This is not required but makes it really easy to tune the carb (a CO meter is much cheaper and a good alternative specially if it can also measure nox)

-Transmission-The stock transmission can take 150hp for brief periods (you never drive at WOT all the time do you!!), the problem that caused my trannies to brake was wheel hop (once it was the differential, twice the tranny), replaced all bushings with urethane bushings and engine mounts and the problem is gone. I still don't know whether the Uno turbo tranny would fit as that would be a great option. I don't know how long the stock tranny can take 3 times it's normal power rating.

-Transmission oil cooler-An oil cooler and a scavenging pump was added to the tranny (using the purge and filler screws) to help cool the tranny in an attempt to increase life at the track. I would still use the tranny cooler as it helped keep the tranny much cooler and also increased fluid capacity to 5.5litres.

-ECU-This is a DIY ECU called MegaSquirt, so far i have found it to be adequate for it's purpose but somewhat limited because of it's spark options. I'm now waiting V2.2 to see if it gets better options to run the timming and spark.

-Intake-The intake is off a Punto 75 and modified to fit.

-Throttle Body-This is also off a Punto 75.

All other EFI stuff (injectors, fuel rail etc) is off a Punto 80. All sensors are GM stock sensors, the MAS is a Texas Instruments 2bar sensor built into the ECU.

Do remember I'm not gaining anything by posting this , just so others may be interested in undertaking a similar project. If I missed anything please let me know either pm or email. (power was at 116hp at 4800rpm at the crank on April 2005)

This engine is still in the tuning stages and is by no means ready, as it stands it will pull better off the line because of the increased compression but will loose top end quickly (it's running extremely rich up top).

The real purpose of this project is to see the true potential of a stock engine when turbocharged. The only non-stock items used were to facilitate the MPI conversion.

This was my baseline dyno run:

As it can be seen the engine was in good condition, this was made using a carb i had left over from my other engine. (sorry for the quality since this was not my scan)

This was my dyno run to get a base map for the megasquirt (disregard the rpm and date/time stamp as those were messed up at the time)

This was a stepped run to get a good base map for the MS ECU, the new software seems to have problems holding the dyno at 200rpm steps. (the date and time are also impossible to fix). Even though the engine was only producing 74hp at it's peak it had doubled it's torque output already from 8.1 kgm to 16.8 kgm.

This was my latest Dyno run (I've since gone back to my old version of sportdyno software because of some bugs with the new version)

I've now gone back to my previous software version. The torque curve for this engine seems to be relatively flat when compared to the carbed engine. Torque is now measured in a more meaningful ft/lbs instead of the useless m.kg I was previously using. This engine is now producing enough torque to spin the tires in 4th gear. This was done at 0.7bar on a particularly cool day (21C), I feel like I'm beginning to push my luck a bit too far on a stock engine, then again this engine is expendable for the cause.

Currently there are four people doing parallel builds of my carburatted setup and one doing my MPI version. So far no one has finished assembly yet (somehow i finish my carb setups in a weekend!!)

Update: Since I have concluded my research this engine may no longer remain stock, the maximum power that can be reliably extracted on a stock engine has been found to be 150hp, at 168hp I broke a piston even though my AFR gauge and dyno sheet show a 13.5afr.

As can be seen the piston actually has a hole on top, this was cylinder number 3 by the way. The block has also been damaged by deep scratches down the bore, unbelivably the head was not damaged at all (I sent it out to be checked). The block can be repaired by a rebore and having sleeves installed, this was not something that I like to do but it's the only way to save the block.

This was the result of pushing the stock pistons to 1 bar (14.7psi) of boost with an intercooler and water injection, I'll either rebuild this engine to stock specks and use it to demonstrate a low-boost turbo kit or use forged pistons and try my luck for my high hp target. Anybody have any ideas?

Do remember that I was using a custom fuel injection setup and could run almost stock timing which should never be done unless you know what you're doing, using the stock fuel system would NOT allow this much power unless it was severely modified which it can't.

At 0.3 bar of boost I had gotten 90hp, actually achieving more power then the van Aaken kits offer, I think this may be because of the EFI setup being tailored to my setup using the custom exhaust manifold, larger intake manifold and throttle body.

Note: Some people have mailed me asking about the SPI head with the MPI manifold, this is not a bolt on modification, the manifold must be modified to bolt to the head and the head must be ported to allow the injectors to spray in to the ports.

Update: This engine will be rebuilt  to be a reminder of what it did, this will not be done anytime soon though.

Copyright Nelson 2004-2009, no part of this page can be used without the author's permission.
Last revised: 2009-11-15.