US Fiat and Lancia to European exchanges and Conversions

[Huskyfan42]

Hello Lancisti forum members: My Father has been a Fiat,Lancia enthusiast
for the past 40 years. He is an excellent mechanic and machinist, I am a moderate mechanic. He got me started in Fiats when I was 16, 26 years ago,when I purchased my first Fiat 850 Spyder. Since then I have owned 3 Fiat 850 Spyders, one fiat 128 sedan, one Fiat 124 spyder and two Lancia Scorpions. My father has owned several older Lancias from the 60's and some Fiat 500's. We have also had just about one of every Fiat,Lancia imported to the US. from the late 60's to the early 80's due to the fact that we owned a small business specializing in used Fiat and Lancia parts and repair.

Fiat never really imported their good stuff here to the US. I guess that is part of the reason why they did not do very well here and pulled out of the US market. The cars that Fiat and Lancia have produced over the past 20 years have not made it over here, which means we have missed out on some of their better and more exotic stuff. wealso miss out on most of the specifications for the cars and the upgrades they have made.

It would be nice to know what newer heads (such as 4 valve per cylinder) would possibly fit on our Fiat single cam 1300cc or 1500 blocks or our Fiat,Lancia dohc 1800cc or 2000cc blocks.

It would also be nice to have some info on the turbo or supercharged engines that could be put into a Fiat spyder or Lancia Scorpion. It would also be nice to hear info on a Thema (all engine types) or integrale to Scorpion engine conversions. In other words all ways to make the Scorpion better and faster.

I guess I could just work with a Honda or Toyota engine conversion but it would be nice to stick with Italian. Thanks Tom

[Will]

The 16v SOHC is not so new (mid 70's), Russ McBride just had one on display at FFO. Pretty rare motor- the question is finding one, but it was done, and some time ago at that, by FIAT.
Ken Haven's using a 16v Therma in a Scorpion, since they are reverse flow, they set up a little differently.
Integrale power plant could theoretically be set up similarly I guess.
That would cover Turbo, re: supercharging- you can use an aftermarket blower like the TRD or Supercoupe blowers, I think some folks are doing this, OR you could use the FIAT volumex or ABARTH volumetrico blowers. Volumexes pop up from time to time, volumetricos are scarce. You can also use the 131 ABARTH 16v head. If you use both the 16V head and the volumetrico blower, you'll have a motor of very similar spec to the 037- nearly identical in fact. The 037 changed to longitudinal, used a different gearbox, and was dry sumped.
If I were to change motors entirely, to non-Italian, I would be looking for a Cosmo (20B), rather than a Toyota. Nothing against Toyos, but its hard to beat a motor that can take sequential turbocharging and rip out 450+ HP and 11K, and is practically the size of a 6-pack! I think the 3 rotor mightl actually fit in the existing frame, but not sure. The 13B must surely, but I like the extra .7L!
-Will