I have been given the Spider 2000

[rawright]

I have posted on here a few times before asking questions about my mother-in-laws 1980 Fiat Spider 2000. My questions before were regarding a starting issue after the car had been sitting for a few days without being started. I finished painting the car and turned it back over to her and told her about the possible problems that the car might have with starting and that she would need to take the car into a specialist to have the work done. I also told her she should have the typical car maintenance done to it as well like timing belt and so on. She decided she didn't want to spend the money at the time plus everyone in the family but my daughter knew that she eventually was going to give the car to her at some point so she just had me park it in the garage and let it sit. It ran decent but needed work when I parked it.

This is where the fun starts! She called me a month ago days before my daughter's birthday and told me that she thought my oldest son (loser) who lives with her might be driving the car and that she just wanted to give the car to me so I can give the car to my daughter when she was old enough to drive. I told her I would come and pick it up that week end. When I got to the house and started the car it would barely run and had zero power and sounded like it was missing. I then proceeded to ask my oldest son what was wrong with it to which he replied "I think there is something wrong with the motor, it is totally snail slow! It wouldn't even keep up with a totally stock Porsche!" It took everything I had to keep from beating him to death right there on the driveway! I had the car towed to my house and here it sits. My daughter was totally devastated and spent a few hours crying once we got it home. She won't be driving for a couple of years but I would like to try to get the car fixed before then. I am guessing this car will most likely get sold to buy a car that is better suited for a teenage girl.

I know a bit about motors from building Hot Rods through the years but I have very limited knowledge of DOHC cars so I am guessing I am going to have the car fixed by someone that knows how to fix these cars. My first thought is my dipshit kid hot rodding it jumped the belt a tooth or 2 on the timing belt but I am not sure.

Any insite would be appreciated,
Robert

[rlux4]

First off, congratulations, you got a Spider for about as good a price as you could get. Be careful though, there are a couple of guys around here who claim to own the world's most expensive free Fiat. Or as it's been called, a Freeat.
You should be OK though. First off you should check the timing; ignition and valve timing. Then check your compression. If it's bad, check valve clearances. Any decent shop manual will tell you how to do these on our twin cam engines.
Come on ahead with any questions you run up against.
Ron

[TX82FIAT]

Yikes, a couple thoughts.

I think you are on the right path about the proper car for a 16 year old girl or boy. I have three kids at home and they all love to ride in the spider through the Texas hill country and go to occasional car meets. However, times have changed and so have the safety standards. Even the best kids do stupid things. With that said, do you want your daughter (new driver) in a 30 year old convertible when the statistically probable occurs? I've already explained to the kids this is not a car for them and my oldest is happy with a Honda Civic. other two do not drive yet.

The 2000 stock is not an interferance engine. This is somewhat good news if you think you have a timing issue. The damage if any may be limited. There are guides on setting the timing for a stock engine. I'd see if someone who has set the timing or has good experience setting the timing on these cars can come over for a couple cold ones and a review of the car. I'm no experts and stumble, fail, learn, re-learn, stumble again when trying to fix many issues. in the past i have taken the car to a mechanic. All I can say is unless you have a good Fiat mechanic you are better off turning a wrench yourself and being patient with the car.

Oh yeah! learn some italian curse words. With all that said. Darn i love my spider!!

[rawright]

Thanx for the replies!

When you say "The 2000 stock is not an interference engine." Does this mean that the clearance issues with the valves are considerably better then the older Spiders? That would be great if I just had to line up the timing and not have to worry about valve damage.

Robert

[spidernut]

Non-interference means that the valves will not bottom out against the pistons in the event a timing belt jumps or breaks. There should be no valve damage.

[rlux4]

It is called a non interference engine, and there won't be interference in the top end, but don't forget the auxilliary pulley. If it's not lined up correctly there can be interference on the bottom end. The lobe on the auxilliary shaft can meet a #2 cylinder rob bearing nut, which is one of the good reasons to turn the engine by hand a couple of revolutions to make sure this isn't happening.
Ron

[rawright]

The Valve clearance is great news and it should reduce the expense of fixing the car. I have the old Chilton guild for this car but it is extremely vague seeing as the book covers general Fiats from 1969 all the way to 1981. I am wondering how hard is it to set the cam to crank timing on these cars? Is this something I should attempt on my own? I am very familiar with motors and have built several hot rod motors from the ground up but I have heard from a lot of people that these cars are kinda different from the norm.

Robert

[TX82FIAT]

I think you can set the timing. Read the many threads. Seems there is a job aid out there I used as well. There is some effort with advance and other items. if your lucky, all your marks will line up and you can tweak it from there assuming it is a stock engine. A lot of performance can be changed by changing a few degrees 10, 0, 13 degrees TDC.

[rawright]

I have looked around on the board for posts about setting up the crank and cam timing here but haven't been able to find anything with any solid information on this process anyone know of any good posts that has this infomation?

Thank you,
Robert