leek
Part of things
Posts: 28
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Jun 28, 2018 20:41:33 GMT
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After hovering around the boards for ages I thought i'd get one of these going. Wanted a "toy" for years then the arrival of a company car provided opportunity. I then just needed to decide what it was going to be! I have a thing for "marmite" cars (some of my previous cars include Citroen C2 VTS, C4 VTR+ Coupe & a E87 1 series) so i managed to discount the "popular" classics like Golf/Corrado VR6. I then pretty much decided on a Subaru Impreza and started looking around for the earlier model (90's was where i was looking) but never quite clicked, i then started looking at old skool cool hot hatches like a GSI Astra. Then that passed and there were 3 cars I just kept coming back to. The Alfa Romeo GTV V6, Toyota Celica GT4 & Fiat Coupe 20v turbo. After many hours looking around online I just couldnt shake the want for something full of character and the italians were shining through. That was it then, the GTV or the Coupe - ironically 2 cars on the same chassis, one a lovely V6 and better suspension then other a 5 pot turbo, limited slip diff helping things along. A friend of mine years ago had a sprint blue 20v turbo years ago and the noise and looks had left a memory. The alfa...was a Alfa i'd had a JTDM2 Giulietta for a few years prior and the thought of the badge and a V6 was good so i was going to be happy with either. Alfa probably had better future value but everyone loves an underdog! Few weeks passed and after a few mails etc and decisions around spending more on a "Good one" or less on a "Rolling project" and put some money in me and a mate jumped into his Focus ST and set off to Bedford to view a car. Not quite as good as the ad read but fitted its price bracket well. Looked ok rust wise - rear arches starting to go but 20 year old! Low previous owners and a life in scotland should of warned me of the rust to come but it had its advantages the centre dash hadnt gone all sticky, the laquer wasnt peeling Test drive in hand - first thing .... 4 pot brembo brakes.... hmmm, doesnt feel like it, brakes were poor to say the least! Straight bit of road... that noise - SOLD! Then the 120 mile journey home was to begin. This flagged a few "italian charms" first and most annoyingly with the drive to come.... cd player didnt work! powered up but wouldnt change from "CD" and wouldnt eject a CD stuck in there... great. Fueled up and the drive starts. Indicate onto a roundabout, straighten up...indicator still on - Turn off manually, fine - back on, turn...no self cancel! - Ok... 2nd item on the list (turns out there isnt really a coupe out there that the self cancelling still works on!) - The brakes were poor and not really getting any better with use - item 3. Then the drive of watching the gauges for the incoming breakdown showed the opposite of expected... it wouldnt get hot! - Common fault, stuck thermostat.... 4th - hmm this list is growing! Other than that temp taking forever to get warm she drove without a hitch and got home without problem. Arrival!  IMG_20170902_173632 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG_20170902_175041 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG_20170903_132255 by lee kinsey, on Flickr Lee |
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Last Edit: Jun 28, 2018 20:49:43 GMT by leek
98' Fiat coupe 20v Turbo
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Jun 28, 2018 20:44:08 GMT
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I’m hoping for more
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Bicycle x1
Alfa Giulietta (now wife's)
Alfa 156
BMW 630i
Honda rc36
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leek
Part of things
Posts: 28
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Jun 28, 2018 21:00:43 GMT
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So, first job was to get a specialist on the phone - Found John of midlands car servicing in Leicester. Few phone calls and the car went in for: The dreaded cambelt (turns out to be a myth.... John does it for £350!) New aux belts & Tensioners New water pump New thermostat (plan was to do that myself but seen as was having waterpump done - made sense let John do it!) I asked John have a good look around why he was there and sure enough: Also had rocker cover done Couple of coolant hoses Rear hose of death (coupe thing) replaced and a new coolant tank cap - to replace the ebay one i'd put on that leaked as bad as the one that was already on! Good stuff - all done, picked her up along with a list.... Oil return pipe - old Oil cooler and pipework showing signs of rust Hole in rear subframe  (where the bump stop fits!) Front brake flexis perishing Brake pipe corroding Radiator - looking old Rust! - Boot floor, inner arches, general underbody surface rust (knew about that) and arches (knew about!) So first few big jobs done .... and jobs to do list growing! The rust:  IMG_20170902_174041 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG_20170902_174234 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG_20170916_091353 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG_20170916_091540 by lee kinsey, on Flickr Luckily i have a friend who owns a classic car restoration garage - first stop of welding booked! More to follow Lee |
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98' Fiat coupe 20v Turbo
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Jun 28, 2018 22:14:55 GMT
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these are so under rated. I did 100k miles in my ink black and it hit 3 figures every day. Cooling seems fragile and I can't remember if it has an oil heat exchanger, but they do suffer from low oil pressure when stinking hot, an oil cooler or better rad would help. Mine was remapped and went quite well. the brakes are weirdly curse word, for all their 4 pot glory they don't have a huge piston area. pads are the same as a viper and early focus RS so there are a lot of good pads out here. I ran DS2500 pads on the road as 10 years ago they just didn't seem up to the job. I think it's possible to convert to 5 stud from an alfa and use the bigger 330mm discs and bigger calipers. Exhausts seem fragile. I had a stainless one made that sounded fruity and lasted for ever. Rear wheel bearings are often fooked and the car seems amazingly quiet after you change them  I sold it to a mate when kid number 3 arrived and he fitted a bigger turbo and it was just mental. Grip is just amazing, with the LSD there's no FWD cars that are remotely as good. I did plan to go 5 stud with these wheels from an alfa, but ended up in an elderly 7 series it was the only thing that would fit 3 kid seats in that i could afford  |
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Last Edit: Jun 28, 2018 22:16:56 GMT by legend
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keyring
Part of things
Posts: 913
Club RR Member Number: 47
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1998 - Fiat Coupe 20v Turbokeyring
@keyring
Club Retro Rides Member 47
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Barely see these going about now! Do they take well to power increases? Or do you have to start doing internal work when wanting to go up in power? Look forward to seeing more updates on it! |
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Always had a soft spot for these, Bookmarked
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VW nut
1984 MK2 golf type 19e
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these guys had tried most things out fiatcoupeclub.org/forum/Most of these are a bit leggy now, so I'd take it easy on the boost, I think mine was claimed to be about 250bhp, but never rolling roaded it. there is a 2.4 bottom end that you can build from the multipla crank/JTD diesel bits, and spool a bigger turbo at lower revs but costs escalate quickly. |
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Jun 29, 2018 14:28:23 GMT
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Had one of these myself a few years back; great cars and I was (very) sad to see her go. John at MCS has been fixing & servicing these for years (although I took mine to Motormech at Birmingham as it was nearer) and you're right - the cambelt thing is a myth! Get yourself over to www.FCCUK.org/forum - it is (used to be) a very good source for all things Coupe. And if GrahamL is still on there, get youself a GTec chip - essentially a CMOS chip which ups the power and removes the rev limiter on 1st and second gear, for about £50 (fit it yourself; dead easy!) As regards the indicators - you get used to driving with one finger out to turn them off. And the Brembos- yes they are awful considering they are meant to be uprated, however they do work if you need them to from speed (but the do feel shockingly poor; even my girlfriends 1-litre Yaris had better brakes..! And if you have the budget, you can easily achieve 300bhp with a chip, FMIC, exhaust, induction and a bolt on uprated turbo (many many people did this) and I beleive there were a number o 400bhp dailies running around too. and then there was Mavric and JohnS with their 600bhp Coupes (yes I sepnt many hours on there prior to selling up and migrating to RR...!). Enjoy - bookmarked this and I'm now tempted to get back into another one..... |
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leek
Part of things
Posts: 28
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Jun 30, 2018 16:34:04 GMT
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Thanks for the comments! Yes power increases are easy - you can get the Gtech chip which would give 240/250bhp on amazon for literally about £30! Or FC performance do a proper map for around £150 that can see 260bhp on a standard car. Stock turbo will struggle to get much over 280bhp if you needed but then bigger turbos etc can come in and then skys the limit, there's a good few at 300 right up to 500bhp coupes on the coupe club of which i'm a member already - some guys on there know more about these cars that Fiat themselves i'm sure! There was a recent car throttle vid on them too! - Anyway back to mine! It went in to Gaz at wooten motors (stoke) for its first phase of welding:  IMG-20170920-WA0002 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG-20170920-WA0003 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG-20170920-WA0004 by lee kinsey, on Flickr IMG-20170920-WA0004 by lee kinsey, on Flickr Why it was there I also had the wheels done in Fiat LE Grey and she returned  IMG_20170924_120549 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG_20170922_153134 by lee kinsey, on Flickr Thanks Lee |
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98' Fiat coupe 20v Turbo
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leek
Part of things
Posts: 28
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Jun 30, 2018 16:44:18 GMT
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So then these arrived:  IMG_20170922_162512 by lee kinsey, on Flickr And off to Dannys (Danneh on here!) house for a "hour or two" to swap out the front disks and pads and hopefully bring the brakes to life......... And how wrong was that sentence! The brakes were in a right state and fought back in every way they could!  IMG_20170929_194439 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG_20170929_194501 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG_20170929_194448 by lee kinsey, on Flickr But eventually after ridiculous amounts of brushing, cleaning, banging, swearing etc we had this!  IMG_20170929_205040 by lee kinsey, on Flickr Closely followed by this:  IMG_20171001_115421 by lee kinsey, on Flickr But yeah what it showed is that the brakes are in need of a complete refurb (and its due to go back to John at MCS soon to have it done) - the sliders, dust covers, pistons are all just..... unloved! The previous disks and pads probably tell a story!  IMG_20171007_084711 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG_20171007_084638 by lee kinsey, on Flickr The good bits was the car now actually had some brakes - and after a bit of use were getting better (but i still knew in my head they'd need replacing or a rebuild) The rears were also switched out for matching disk and pad setup! Thanks Lee |
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98' Fiat coupe 20v Turbo
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leek
Part of things
Posts: 28
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Jun 30, 2018 16:59:23 GMT
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Progress at this point was making me very popular with the wife! (Who obviously hates the car and everything about it!) The done list was now: Cambelt + tensioner Water pump Aux belt + tensioner Rad cap Couple of boost pipes Rear engine coolant pipe Rear arches/boot floor repair Mtech disks and mintex pads front and rear The to do list was steadily growing! - so next was something to do for free... (ish) Headlights had a phase, so they were masked, sanded (have to be brave!) - then polished back up. There still far from perfect but much better than they were - I'll redo them at some point with a electric polisher i think - by hand is hard work!!  IMG_20171008_153302 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG_20171008_163712 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG_20171008_171319 by lee kinsey, on Flickr And now to give the engine some love! - Time for a service. First mod...Pooowwwwweeeer! (maybe 0.5bhp increase or so!?)  IMG_20171105_095134 by lee kinsey, on Flickr Plugs done:  IMG_20171112_114126 by lee kinsey, on Flickr Pollen filter (not the right size...good old ebay!) - Carefully "modified" to fit...  IMG_20171112_125407 by lee kinsey, on Flickr Bit of a pain...  IMG_20171112_125423 by lee kinsey, on Flickr For gods sake...(Add to the list!)  IMG_20171112_125833 by lee kinsey, on Flickr Then to finish it off I booked it in to AWJ Automotive for a EDT (Engine decontamination treatment) - Where basically the oil is drained then its connected to a machine which flushes the engine a few times on various cycles and collects all the bits to show you at the end and make you wonder how it still worked!! - It wasnt great, the guys were quite impressed with the amount of curse word the machine fished out  - the difference was instant without even driving it! - The oil pressure always sat at near 3 on idle which was always high compared to what i read online...after the treatment and a warm oil temp now shows between 1.5 and 2 on idle (where it should be!) then instantly over 3 as soon as the revs rise! So now a serviced and part tidied up coupe - so a clean to show off all its different shades of silver..and dents  IMG_20180127_161102 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG_20180127_161044 by lee kinsey, on Flickr The outstanding list was still a bit depressing! Thanks Lee |
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98' Fiat coupe 20v Turbo
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leek
Part of things
Posts: 28
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Jun 30, 2018 19:27:36 GMT
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So next was another trip down to Gaz at wooten motors. This time the work was: Sort front arches - they weren't really rusty just starting on the edges but needed doing Scuttle panel - what I found doing the pollen filter Subframe hole - bumpstop Waxoyl - Some future protection! New radiator mount - Joe at FCSS had a load produced, mine was looking rusty so rude not too! And here goes, Rear bump stop mount  IMG-20180124-WA0006 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG-20180124-WA0004 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG-20180124-WA0007 by lee kinsey, on Flickr Radiator support bar  IMG-20180124-WA0012 by lee kinsey, on Flickr Scuttle  IMG-20180125-WA0006 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG-20180125-WA0001 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG-20180125-WA0027 by lee kinsey, on Flickr Arches  IMG-20180125-WA0008 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG-20180125-WA0005 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG-20180125-WA0002 by lee kinsey, on Flickr  IMG-20180125-WA0026 by lee kinsey, on Flickr Waxoyl  IMG-20180126-WA0004 by lee kinsey, on Flickr |
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98' Fiat coupe 20v Turbo
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leek
Part of things
Posts: 28
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Jun 30, 2018 19:55:55 GMT
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First "problem" as such.... clunk under hard acceleration (and the ability to rock the engine back and forth myself!) - Rear engine stabiliser bar! Brought some PU ones from Germany. Much more of a faff to fit than they look, mainly cutting the old one out of the engine side as its fixed and you cant get the piece from the engine that the bush fits in out! Easy side:  IMG_20180326_150014 by lee kinsey, on Flickr The "other" side  IMG_20180326_184224 by lee kinsey, on Flickr And after many hours with a hack saw blade, drill, screwdriver - anything i could find!  IMG_20180331_155015 by lee kinsey, on Flickr All done!  IMG_20180408_131311 by lee kinsey, on Flickr During this I did the obvious, dropped a screw - no clang on the floor... great. Cant reach it, magnet not helping. I'll take the plastic inner arch off get the screw out... and reveal to myself what John had told me about the inners! Great... so added to the list! (I get us men like lists..but do they ever end?!) - The good news being most of the rust "hot spots" are now ticked...  IMG_20180408_123729 by lee kinsey, on Flickr And that pretty much brings us up to date! Today it got a new windscreen wash motor as the old one wasnt really trying! And the MOT is up in a week so who knows what that will bring! That aside however the list now looks like this: Brake rebuild (New seals, pistons, sliders... the lot!) Oil Cooler and Pipes (My pipes don't look too clever and there a known problem in coupe world) Radiator (Looking old and saggy!) Refurb rear arms/new bushes Suspension refresh - Wishbones, ball joints, drop links, shockers, springs (Make her new again!) Decent set of tyres (Mix of budget stuff on there atm!) Full respray/bodywork (It'll look lovely when its 1 colour and all of the dents are gone!) So there's a depressing number if I add it up! To make myself feel better tho the done jobs are: Temp sender replaced Coolant sensor replaced Thermostat replaced Rear coolant hose replaced New coolant bottle cap Belts/tensioners done Waterpump done Aux belts/tensioner done Rocker cover gasket done Serviced (Plugs,pollen filter,air filter,oil,injector cleaner ran through) Some rust work done Waxoyled Fuel cap seal replaced Wheels painted New front and rear disks and pads New front brake flexis New front brake pipe New rear bump stops Stabiliser bar bushes uprated Washer motor So its in a much better place than last September when I brought it - But much better places to be! And a quick pic of it at really retro last week:  IMG_20180624_110224 by lee kinsey, on Flickr Thanks Lee |
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98' Fiat coupe 20v Turbo
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mattiwagon
Part of things
Just got a work truck
Posts: 445 
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Love these slash in arches as all, glad you saved it dude
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If they cant be nice f**k em!
84 low t25 panel 1.9td beige and rust combo
97 Goped Bigfoot G260RC with clutch conversion
97 Impreza turbo 2000 builders wagon 76k sold
04 Fabia vRs 50mpg pocket rocket
04 battered T5 pickup in blue!
Chainsaws lotsa Chainsaws
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Jan 26, 2020 12:19:13 GMT
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Do you still have this?
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(where the bump stop fits!)
- the difference was instant without even driving it! - The oil pressure always sat at near 3 on idle which was always high compared to what i read online...after the treatment and a warm oil temp now shows between 1.5 and 2 on idle (where it should be!) then instantly over 3 as soon as the revs rise!