A short history of the vehicle:

I used to live in the UK until 2005 during which time I owned a 1997 Nuvola Blue 20VT.

http://www.tipo16v.co.uk/coupe/coupe.html

In 2005 I moved to Canada and took the car with me. I drove it around Alberta for 5 years and even went on a road trip down to Las Vegas. While in Canada I had the engine rebuilt twice. In 2011 I moved to the USA and put the FIAT into storage in Canada. I wasn't sure if I'd be staying in the USA and also the car wouldn't meet the DOT and EPA standards to import it.

Fast forward to 2023. I'm still living in the USA and the car is now 25 years old so no longer needs to meet the USA DOT and EPA standards. I found a shipper who would transport it down to the Houston where I live. I found a import specialist who filled out all the customs paperwork for me.

The car was shipped down to Houston in an enclosed container and arrived on 5th November 2023. I had hoped that a simple cambelt change and service would be enough. However when we checked the conditions of the pistons through the spark plug holes we noticed scoring and what looked like impact damage to #1 piston. I remember that when I put it into storage it had very low oil pressure and I was grateful it made it to the storage facility. My friend has a large workshop so I set about removing the engine and tearing it down. I discovered that the pistons were the wrong size for the bores and slapped from side to side. The bearings were also the wrong size and that is where I'd lost the oil pressure. The turbo bearing was also shot, probably from lack of oil pressure.

I took the engine to a reputable race engine builder here in Houston on 4th December called Faerman Racing Engines. The current pistons were the wrong size for the bore and rocked from side to side:

https://youtu.be/i6mfSnrKnfg?si=ybG-dFCjUQag7p6E

They said they could tell it had been re-bored already but it was okay for them to be taken from the current 83.5mm to 84mm. They have ordered another set of custom JE pistons. Unfortunately these will take between 6-8 weeks to be made.

The crank will be re-ground as well to the first undersized amount. They can get main and journal bearings locally at the correct sizes they need.

Fast forward nearly 5 months and on 26th April 2024 the custom JE pistons have finally been made and delivered.

I finally got around to taking the turbo GT3076R in to be rebuilt. The main bearing was worn due to the low oil pressure the engine had before it was put into storage. The turbo rebuilder also noticed the back of the turbine wheel was damaged, the front looked okay and I hadn't paid attention to the rear. This must have been from when the original engine suffered detonation and destroyed the ring lands of multiple pistons. Cost to rebuild about $650 - $750

Pictures show the current state of the car. It's nice and safe in the powder coating booth of my friend's workshop. Parts all over the place except the engine which is in multiple parts, some in my garage and some in the machine shop.

The machine shop are snowed under with work, a good sign, except they can't get around to my engine. My friend, who I trust 100% to do the work, is going to do it instead although he is also snowed under.

Yesterday I flushed the fuel lines with four cans of injector cleaner to remove any gunk built up from the old fuel. They were actually very clean as was the fuel I drained from the tank when the car first arrived. We expected it to be bad after 13 years in storage but other than the smell it looked okay but was disposed of regardless.

The bonnet struts have failed hence the 2x4 holding up the bonnet! New ones have been ordered. It's always good to have redundancy anyway.

The latest with the brake saga is that I have given up trying to source a rebuild kit for the Bendix. I ordered 3 different kits for a FIAT Coupe and they were all the same. I'm guessing they are for the LHD version. None of the seals would fit. I therefore ordered a LHD master brake cylinder. It arrived and it's a lot longer than the RHD stumpy Bendix one. I'm a bit nervous about clearance at the back of the engine but I won't know until I get the engine built. One issue is that the brake lines don't reach because the output from the master brake cylinder to the ABS unit is further away from the firewall. I made up a new brake line using the fittings from the original FIAT brake line. I was almost ready to cut it down to size when I thought it would be easier to swap over the parts such as the blanks and rubber feeds, off the car. This is when I noticed the next hiccup. The rubber grommets at the top where the brake fluid enters from the the reservoir are a different size! They are bigger on the LHD model so the plastic 90 degree bends off my RHD rubber hoses don't locate in place. I'm going to order the ones from the LHD (part number 7754186) to see if they fit. I only seem to be able to bring up the LHD model in EPER so I can't see if these plastic fittings are the same ones as the RHD model.

In the picture you can see the original RHD Bendix at the top with the tape measure (you'll need to rotate the image) the LHD Brembo at the bottom. The one in the middle is actually for a VW Transporter T4 (non ABS) that was suggested by someone who had swapped their 22.2mm LHD one for this one with 23.8mm pistons for more brake pressure.

More information below that you probably care about!.....

The FIAT master brake cylinder part number for RHD is 9948320 and for LHD is 9948315.

The RHD is a Bosch item 0204123623 / MC713 / EAN 3165143357507

Diameter is 22.22 mm

LHD Part number is used on following vehicles:
Alfa Romeo 145/146/155 GTV 916
Fiat Brava / o Type 182
Fiat Coupe Type 175
Lancia Delta

Delphi Technologies LM70195
MAPCO 1066
Metelli 05-0208
SAMKO P07442
TRW PMA199 / PMH584
CIFAM 202-208
ABE C9F019ABE
LPR 6771
ATE 24.2122-1716.3
Brembo M23020
FTE H22948.0.8
JURID 132256J
STARK SKMC-0570030

I ordered the Brembo one but they are probably all the same.

Thanks for keeping us updated with progress

Keep it up

Paul