Topic: 68 Fiat Abarth 1300 Coupe

[zippyfiat]

Hi Eric, nice work!  Where did you get the new muffler from?

Gil

[evannice]

Hi Gil, I got it from Chris Obert and I don't know where he gets 'em from.  I just tried to put it in today and found that the spacing of the manifold to downpipe flange bolt holes is way off.  There's no way to bot it in as is.  I don't want to send it back and try another, so I'll take it and the old system down to the local old school muffler shop and see what cutting and pasting they can do for me.

Got the engine back in and much of the surrounding stuff connected up now.  I am stuck on a couple of things: one of the head bolts won't torque down so I'm thinking it is stretching and I need to get a new one before attempting to start the engine.  And the accelerator cable fell apart when I went to reinstall it.

It's always something, right?

Oh, and I just noticed a very cool stamped ABA number on the engine block.

Eric in San Diego

[evannice]

Grant asked for some photos of the coolant pipes routing under the car to the front radiator.  You can see I have some work to do on the front 1/2 of the underside one of these days.

[viotti600]

Oh, and I just noticed a very cool stamped ABA number on the engine block.

 That's the Abarth engine type code - "204". There might also be another stamp elsewhere on the engine - a circular one with ABARTH written along the top arc, a number in the center & something else written along the bottom arc. Here are some (rather poor) shots of this on an old OT1000 block I used to have:





Notice the "ABA 202B" engine code, along with standard Fiat 850 engine code & serial number. The round stampings were along the edge of the timing cover area (you can see the outline), as well as on the crankshaft itself (this is on an 850 block, not a 124 like yours). Easy to miss unless you look really close!

 The car's coming along nicely, keep up the good work! If you want to email me your mailing address again, I can send the dash metal/wood trim you needed. I get nervous having it lying around the garage where someone else might accidentally do it harm!


-JS.

[zippyfiat]

Hi Eric, those photos of the coolant pipes are helpful for me too.  My car came sans coolant pipes, but I was very fortunate to have already bought them from JS.

Does anyone know where to get the rubber/flexible hoses under the car?  Someone told me that the hoses were standard 600 upper rad. hoses, so I bought a bunch of them.  The correct ones seem to have a cloth sort of covering.

My car also came without the clamps to secure the pipes  under the car.  If you happen to have one out of your car, could you perchance post a photo?

Regards,
Gil

[evannice]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the additional info on the AB stampings, very cool.  I sent you an email about the bits and pieces.

Gil--

I do not think the hoses and clamps on my car are the ones that originally came on it.  They look ugly, but are actually in very good shape, so I think someone must have gone through them not too long ago.  They look like generic auto parts store materials.  I'll post a photo or two later and you can see what you think.

Eric in San Diego

[evannice]

Here are photos of the thermostat and associated hose styles, and a couple photos of the hose clamps that were on the car.  I don't see any ID on them, but I'm putting them in a tumbler to see how they clean up.

[evannice]

And here is the engine bay ready to put the bodywork back on.  And one of the historic photos I'm aspiring to!

Eric in San Diego

[evannice]

Cleaned up the coolant pipes and hoses and put them all back together with new clamps.  Bled the brakes and put the wheels back on and put it back on the ground.  Figured out there was no spark because I put the distributor back in one tooth off, so there actually was spark, just not where I expected to see it.  Body panels and bumper back on.  Old exhaust back on because the new one didn't fit.  Battery with cutout knob back in.  Put gas in the tank and oil in the engine and tranny.  All electrical checks out OK except the license plate lights.  They worked when I fussed with them off the car, bet it's just a bad ground.
 
Can't put coolant in or start it until I get a new head bolt, and can't drive it until I get a new accelerator cable, but that should happen this coming weekend.  Then I will find out what else doesn't work!

[viotti600]

Does anyone know where to get the rubber/flexible hoses under the car?  Someone told me that the hoses were standard 600 upper rad. hoses, so I bought a bunch of them.  The correct ones seem to have a cloth sort of covering.

My car also came without the clamps to secure the pipes under the car.  If you happen to have one out of your car, could you perchance post a photo?

Gil,

 Here is a photo of the 1300 alloy pipes that I had (which you now have). Note the pipe on the top/right has a metal mounting bracket (ring with a tab with a screwhole in it). That is the only "bracket" per se that I recall. The 2 long pipes under the car are held in place (up/under the floorpan) by running through 2 holes cut through the floor pan's cross-brace, as in Trevor's photo. It's been years since I was under a 1300, but if I recall most everything else is held in place by itself (after tubes/hoses being all connected).

 The radiator hose you mentioned is likely the top/upper hose that connects the cylinder head outlet pipe to the radiator inlet pipe (on a Fiat 600) - it's a short, accordion-type hose. A similar top radiator hose was also used on Series 1 Fiat 850 cars (1967-68 here in the USA, maybe 1964-68 in Europe?). I've pointed out this hose being used in at least 3 locations on the 1300 pipes in the photo. I don't know anything about the other hoses.

I had to keep this photo fairly large for detail sake, sorry for those on dial-up (like me)!



Cheers,
 -JS.

[viotti600]

[The 2 long pipes under the car are held in place (up/under the floorpan) by running through 2 holes cut through the floor pan's cross-brace, as in Trevor's photo.

Oops, I meant in Evan's photo.



 -JS.

[viotti600]

My car also came without the clamps to secure the pipes  under the car.  If you happen to have one out of your car, could you perchance post a photo?

Hmmm...Evan's photos show 4 C-shaped brackets mounted to the underside of the floor, holding the 2 long pipes in place. There are 2 brackets just behind the front swaybar (1 per pipe), and 2 brackets just behind the rear footwells (under the rear seat). Gil, these should be easy enough to fabricate using some flat metal stock bent into the correct shape (to fit around the pipe), no?

-JS.

[zippyfiat]

Thanks Eric and J.S. for the helpful info.  I think it was Mahlon Craft that attempted to describe the bracket/hanger to me in writing, but a photo is way more helpful.  I was picturing that the clamp I need (have not been under my car yet to investigate) was a "J" shaped clamp.  It was described to me as being something easy to make up from flat metal.

Someday, I would really like to visit someone with a 1300/124 and see some of the correct parts in person.  I know of the whereabouts of of 5 of these now in the US, so I could have a nice road trip around the US!

I doubt Abarth used a special hose for the coolant pipes.  I will have to take a closer look at ones on the pipes from J.S.

Gil

[evannice]

Hi Gil,

I was slow on the uptake here-- you wanted photos of the clamps that hold the alloy coolant pipes to the underbody, not photos of old hose clamps!  Sorry.

Here are a couple that I snapped this AM while crawling under the car to replace an incorrect bolt at the transmission gear selector shaft (another story, thanks Trevor).  These were ugly but turned out to be quite sound and cleaned up well.  (Rock tumbler followed by degreaser, rust killer, prime and paint).  They are like a half circle of a band to hold the pipe with a square flat ear to hold the bolt.

Eric, San Diego

[zippyfiat]

Hi Eric, no problem.  Actually, you simply pointed out that your hose clamps are not original!  The original ones would have been the type that has the twist on pin.  (Not sure on the correct name for them).  Anyway, it appears then, that there is nothing really exotic/rare about the pipe clamps.

Gil