Isabella - The 6 Million Dollar possessed FIat

[texanbrit]

So by now I’ve read the installation instructions for the cam and realized that that is completely out of my comfort zone. The instructions say something to the effect of “if you do this step wrong you will be transported back in time and cause an anomaly that will end life as we know it”. Since 2017 a lot more people have done timing belt, and cam replacements so it's probably not as scary now with the right tools in hand.

The clutch as well seems like a big job; and bigger ever time I looked at it. Still think that is not something I would want to do without a proper lift.

During the Spring I’d had a falling out with the local Fiat dealership; things were said and tantrums were thrown. Talking to Bryan from NGen we came up with a plan. He would work with the dealership, since he had a good relationship with the techs there. They could do the cam, clutch and LSD. Bryan would do the exhaust and manifold first, since I wanted those done correctly rather than my ham-fisted attempts with the threat of more disappointment. This also avoided the prospect of me ever apologizing to the dealership. It seemed like a great plan.

While we waited for all the parts a friend and I cut a hole in the hood to fit a heat vent.

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I also found I was spending a lot of money on Uber and rental cars. So I threw down a massive $1500 on a temporary ride. Meet Betty Sue:

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During this time, I was also talking to a lot of people about the upgrades and I realized I’d fallen for one of the classic blunders. That is making multiple changes in one go and expecting the car to work at the end of it. To make me feel better about it I spent some more money, adding a catch can, side splitters, racing seats from NGen, larger oil pan and a CAE shifter. Nobody said I was smart.

To start the plan we loaded up the patient and drove over to the NGen garage.

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[texanbrit]

As I said the plan was for Bryan to get her running again (manifold and exhaust) and then take her to the dealership for them to do the stuff they were equipped for (Cam, Clutch and LSD), then back to Bryan for the remaining stuff.

Bryan started by removing the front end of the car. When he removed the turbo the issue with the manifold was immediately obvious. More than 50% of the $12 gasket between the turbo and the manifold had completely vanished.

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Now the more sage among you might point out that I’ve now spent a bit more than $12 to fix this issue; but my response was to say “Pish and Posh, let’s add a water meth kit!”.

Bryan also suggested that we change out all the radiator hoses while we’re at it since they were easy to get at with the car in pieces in front of the engine block.

While the car was up on the lift Bryan and I also decided to do some simpler suspension upgrades. So new bushings and the Gruven-parts front sway bar endlinks went in. Bryan also installed the rear suspension isolators that lower the rear end a fraction more.

Here’s a pic of the car with the manifold, exhaust, new turbo blanket and hoses installed. You can just see the Prometo oil pan peeking out. We’re just missing the radiator, ATM intercooler, bumper, coolant, front end etc.

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As it turns out things were very amiss inside the head, so it was actually a great thing that I was going to install a new cam. Vindication!!!!!. More on that to come, but here was the first clue that all was not well.

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[Rael Nema]

Awe, it was just getting good. So, you say there are other options for a ported manifold, now. Do you mean from NGEN or is there something else? NGEN manifold is on my list but I think that's for after I blow my first motor.

[texanbrit]

Awe, it was just getting good. So, you say there are other options for a ported manifold, now. Do you mean from NGEN or is there something else? NGEN manifold is on my list but I think that's for after I blow my first motor.

Just getting started really; trying to find the time to write the next pieces up.

I think the NGen is a good option, it will give you pretty much what I have for 1/2 the price. The other options I listed in this thread a while a go so there may be even more now: https://brokenfiat.club/forum/viewtopic ... folds#p312

[Harts]

This is awesome! Look forward to the next chapter please

[Mangavideo]

Kinda taking on the Marley & Me vibe and your Owen Wilson. A story worthy of a Hollywood script writer

[texanbrit]

A story worthy of a better writer for sure. Thanks for the positive feedback guys, I'll try to post up some more very soon.

[texanbrit]

So NGen Bryan was the next victim of the hidden issues. After assembling everything back together, Bryan took the car for a test drive. The car got as far away as it could before throwing a really bad misfire and refusing to go any further. Bryan had it towed to his service center and diagnosed that the issue was a failed injector. After replacing that and verifying that the car was running again, Bryan called me to let me know it was going to the dealer. I was on a trip to El Paso, so he sent me this great picture. This is December 14th, 2017.

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This made me question the purchase of the Braids as the car was sitting pretty nicely on the Neu-Fs, but hey.

The dealer said it was two week's work. To this day Bryan still teases me about my misguided optimism #twoweeks.

While working on the head to replace the cam the dealer reported that everything was heavily scorched. We replaced the spark tubes and seals and all of the lifter buckets to clean things up as much as possible.

Two weeks, became four and then six. Bryan went into a coma and came out of it again; anything to avoid working on my car.

Looks like I paid the dealer to release my car on January 31st. I had strict instructions to not thrash it for the first 1,000 miles. So I tried to take things easy, keep revs down under 4000rpm to allow the things to bed in properly. The FX350 clutch was a bit grabby and not much fun to drive in normal traffic. Here's a rare shot of the car in my driveway.

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[texanbrit]

Bryan installed the new seats and the CAE Shifter. He even helped me find someone to recover the rear seats in custom cloth to match the front seats, but I don't have a picture of those.

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Also installed some side splitters, don't think I mentioned buying those.

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Converted the wheels to use studs instead of bolts, since I was going to be changing wheels a lot.

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Everything was going well so I donated Betty Sue to a family member in need. Then on March 5th while dropping my daughter off at day care the transmission completely failed.

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[Mangavideo]

Wow, Released from the Dealer Jan 31st, then total transmission failure March 5th, 5 weeks later?