Not Stag related, but an interesting fix

[Kevin Garrod]

My boss has a Fiat Dino (The Italian Job mafia car) and since his had it it has never run quite right. It had several flat spots when accelerating hard and was generally unpleasent to drive. Despitemore than one attempt at tuning there was no real improvement.

The problem- one valve stuck open

The fix?- strip down the heads etc. etc? You would think so, but instead the guy fixing it drilled a hole through an old spark plug and put a high pressure airline on the plug and forced the valve back up!! I wonder how long it will last?

[GDPR]

imported post

I haven't touched a Fiat Dino in 31 years - nice to know there is one still going...

It isn't black by any chance? And visited a garage called Pudney And Sims in about 1977? If so it's had my grubby mitts under the bonnet........

Russ:dude:

PS Cheers once again for the sunday hardtop transport Kevin...... nice to meet the missus and young Adam properly too.....

[Kevin Garrod]

imported post

It's a silver one and had one previous owner since it was imported from Italy in 1972, made in 1968, so tax exempt, not much else going for it really..40 year old Italian electrics and all that:shock:.

Thanks for the tea, Russ and nice to meet your family too!

[GDPR]

imported post

I don't see how you can say that Kevin..... they are gorgeous (for a FIAT) and that engine, if it's running right, is a gem with a fab noise when pulling 6000 rpm

[Kevin Garrod]

imported post

Yeah, Ok I'll accept they look and sound good, but very heavy to drive and as they are so rare, not cheap to maintain. Fortunately I get to drive it from time to time, but don't have to pay for it:shock:

Here's a pic taken before it was resprayed and wheels re-furbed, looks a lot better now.

[GDPR]

imported post

Take a little tip from uncle krytie....... Fiats are super sensitive to the tread profile of the front tyres..... the 124 coupe was the pits for it and the Dino shares a similar setup....

If the front tyres get a rounded profile when viewed across the width of the tyre, then the steering goes super heavy - it's in the nature of the suspension setup to wear the tyres this way - the easy cure is to swap the tyres front to back on a regular basis.

Doing this will reduce the steering effort required by almost half on some occasions. Also worth noting is the steering and suspension is set up to use Pirelli tyres - using a different make will have a big effect on steering effort......

Served my apprenticeship in a FIAT garage....... and would almost kill to get my hands on a 1971 124 coupe again.... fantastic car, great twin cam...... body dissolves in water:?

Russ:dude: