Engine repairs of my Fulvia Coupe

When I first bought my car, the engine was in very bad condition. Blue smoke came out of the exhaust system - that means that the engine had problem to the pistons rings or to the engine block , and there was big oil leakage from the bottom of the engine but I couldn’t understand exactly from which part of the engine came from, because was totally full of old oil.Except that  every day I had to add water into the radiator because there was somewhere in the cooling system water leakage and plus that of course there was a big problem with the carburettors.


The engine after the restoration

After all these I decide to total restore the engine dissemble it , replacing every item was worn out and assembling it again. That job wasn’t easy for someone amateur like me but I had the help of a friend of mine who is a professional engine mechanic so every time that I had a big problem he was finding the solution for me. I first purchased all the spare parts I need from spare parts stores in Athens and abroad   ( for some rare spare parts that I couldn’t find here) .The whole job it takes about two months for me ( don’t forget that this is my hobby not my employment) but when I finish I was sure that the engine was just like a new one and I was very proud for that. The following procedures are the steps I follow to complete the whole restoration.

  1. I took the engine out of the car with the whole suspension system because at the same time I try to make repairs to the body of the car (I will describe that somewhere else) that was in very bad condition too. After that I separate the engine from the suspension system and I start to dissemble it.
  2. The engine block needed reconditioning because had big difference in the diameters of the because of the long time of working so the first procedure was the reconditioning of the engine block that of course I didn’t do it by myself ( this is a job for professionals) but I send the whole unit in Athens to a company that dedicates to reconditioning engine blocks with very good results. After a week they send me back the engine block in very good condition and of course with four new with bigger diameter pistons .
  1. The engine head had no problem so I didn’t do anything to it but the valves need replacing because was too worn out .I replace the springs of the valves too with new ones and of course the little oil seals.
    2. I change the tensioner of the camshaft chain because the whole system was too noisy.
  2. The system of the oil pump fortunately had no problem so I didn’t do anything to it .
  3. I replace the water pump with a new one (that item was the cause of the water leakage) and every rubber item of the cooling system and finally I cleaned the radiator with the help someone specialised in that job.
Special tool to extract the nut of the cvj
  1. I replace the fuel pump with a new one because has oil leakage that I couldn’t fix it. ( After a few months I decide to replace the fuel pump with an electrical one to have more response when I trying to start the engine in the mornings).

The engine.jpg (19774 bytes)
  1. I dissemble the two carburettors and I replace the worn out items of its , I cleaned them with a special fluid , and I replace all the gaskets that its had.
  2. The distributor unit was worn-out because of the long time of working so I replace it with a new one I found in Athens .
  3. I replace every electrical cable I found in the engine area with new one
Just after the engine overhauling and before the painting
  1. There was fitted to the engine a shorter oil filter than the normal and as I found later someone had cut the inner pipe of the oil-filter base to fit the more common oil-filter , so I replace the whole base of the oil filter with another one.
  2. I replace all the oil seals and all the gaskets and all the bearings I found in the engine area
  3. I replace the clutch system with a new one .
  4. The starter unit seems to be ok so I didn’t replace it, but after a year I did it anyway when I understand that was too weak and causes some problems when I tried to start the engine at the morning. When I dissembled it I found that there was oil inside , probably because of the oil leakage that existed in the area.