Dinga - dinga - ding

[spidernut]

I guess that's what the prior owner of one of my project cars heard at one time. I pulled the motor out of the car and started tearing it down for an inspection, new gaskets and seals, and whatever completion of any repairs it might need. It appears someone dropped something into the number two cylinder at one time. The piston has multiple dings in the top where whatever was in there was bouncing around. Thankfully it is only cosmetic damage and there's no damage to the cylinder walls! It appears it will be an easy overhaul!

[bradartigue]

The second FIAT 850 I had was purchased from a FIAT junkyard north of Atlanta, from a rather unscrupulous dude who sold me the car for $1k but didn't own it. Long story short, I ended up owning the car by paying the actual owner $100. This mechanic had rebuild the motor, but claimed something was wrong with the crankshaft and therefore it made a lot of noise when running. It did, when you started it it sounded like it was about to explode.

Looking at a rebuild and having never bought an 850 I didn't both to diagnose much, we pulled the motor out (a 20 minute job on an 850!) and got it cleaned up, brought inside, took off the oil pan and...found all of the oil pan bolts this mechanic had left. One could say the crankshaft had been peened - along with a bunch of other stuff.