Coupe Powertrain

The first drivetrain that I dropped into the Coupe was an old 843cc engine that I pulled out of a '69 Spider. I knew the Spider was a runner when it was parted out so I figured it would at least go for a little while. I drove the Coupe around for a couple of weeks with this motor thinking that I could drive it like this for a while and not have to rush the assembly of my little hotrod engine.

Unfortunately that was not to be. One weekend while working on FIATs at my buddy Ed's house four of us (yes, FOUR) piled into the Coupe and blasted down to Gilroy to get lunch. On the way back I was cruising at 70 mph when the temperature began to rise as I took our exit. Head gasket had given up the ghost. Rats. The car got us home with a little coaxing. I didn't stress too much about it, I was happy it lasted as long as it did. I finally had all the reason I needed to build my hotrod motor that I had been compiling parts for for the last couple of years. Incidentally, an autopsy showed that the head gasket was toast and every piston had a broken compression ring. This is not uncommon in 850 engines...

Enter the 'Big Block'

This is the donor FIAT 850 'Big Block' engine, ie 903cc. It came out of a '67 Spider that I bought as a restoration project. This Spider soon became a parts car for a considerably better '67 Spider that I found through a local FIAT America member. As you can see in the pics it was pretty grimey. The exhaust was a piece of crap, as well as pretty much every ancillary device on the engine. The only parts I re-used from this engine was the block, crank, rods, oil pan and timing chain cover.

Lower End
Head and Valvetrain

Sedan Transaxle

The new transmission came out of an 850 Sedan, gotta have that taller final drive ratio. Cruising speed, and hence rpm, is important to me since I do a lot of highway driving. I took it down to PBS and had them rebuild it since it's condition was unknown. A couple of synchros and bearings later it was as good as new. (That is until Courtney got his hands on it! :o) )

More to come.

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