The Broken Fiat Club

mr16valve wrote: ↑Fri Feb 15, 2019 11:29 am I have a set. They are sitting on my desk starting at me.
Mine are the "new" replacement springs. I ordered them on 1/7.
A few days later the order status was updated saying (not verbatim) there is an order placed for "new" springs, & they will ship (from Tork) when they arrive.
My springs arrived around 2/11.
I have been in contact with 3 people - geographically different areas & different driving / uses - and all 3 say that they absolutely make a difference for the better.
I am waiting for a mass of feedback before I can (in good conscious) install these.
Waiting.....

I have a set sitting in the envelope in the garage. I'll probably wait for a while, or at least until I start on my built engine project before I install them.

Several people (John included) have compared the burst intercooler hoses that EC has had to the failed MA springs.

The big difference, and what one should always keep in mind when modding, is the nature of the modification you've made and how extensive the damages can be if it fails. Internal engine modifications should be undertaken very cautiously as the potential for damage in a failure is very large - you could easily damage the entire engine with a single failure. External modifications, if they fail, may or may not cause internal damage. A failed intercooler hose, for example, is not going to immediately cause internal engine damage.

That's nothing for or against John and Tork Motorsports, but merely that the nature of the modification requires a lot greater care in implementation.

For example, on yesterday's Cleetus McFardland video, they did a 4.8 v8 teardown. They noticed that one of the rod bearings had scoring on it. They were very conflicted about changing the rod bearings on an old motor and replacing them with new ones. Why? Because ANY change internally on an engine threatens to upset a very delicate balance. Even while the new bearings were clearly better, the risk of upsetting the balance of the engine without doing a full rebuild is non-zero, and so they hesitated and even apologized for putting new rods bearings in a used engine. You don't do internal mods unless ABSOLUTELY necessary.

I was one of the original testers in my FIAT 124 Spider Abarth. As far as I know, I had the first set installed in a Spider and noticed an immediate gain in mid to upper rpm power. I never had any issues from my springs and can only assume that the prototype springs may not have had the same issues as the production version.

As soon as I have time, the replacements will be going in for feedback. Some may say it is risky but modding a car is always risky to some point.

I have had other products fail from other vendors but I prefer to not say as the issues were handled fairly.