1980 Fuel Inj. -- What month did production begin?

[azruss]

For what its worth. My 80 FI tag shows a 1/80 date with ID 0171599. It has the throttle body heater.

[focodave]

Dangit !!
OK, I have the second fuel-injected Fiat Spider ever produced.

[SunnySideUp]

My apologies if this has stirred up some controversy. I didn't mean to do that!

Here's a picture of what I meant by the heater manifold not being on the intake plenum on the early FI Spiders (note that there is no port on the head assembly to attach a feed to a heater manifold):



My first Spider was an '80 FI and didn't have a heater manifold on the plenum - the configuration was just like the picture above.

(Jay - I fully admit to lifting a picture of YOUR engine. )

[vandor]

>The spider type CS0 Spider 2000 (fuel injected) started with model year 1980, which began after the works holiday in summerly august 1979.

Not exactly. There are 1980 model year carbureted Spiders, as a model year usually start production in June of the preceding year.

>EDIT: Do the euro versions have the same type compliance door card?

The answer is no, as there we no Euro versions in 1979 and 80. The Spider was not sold in Europe from 1975 until the Pininfarina Spiders came out. I heard one could still collect a car from the factory, but they'd have gotten a US version Spider.

[4uall]

Thought that old photo looked familiar

[bradartigue]

My apologies if this has stirred up some controversy. I didn't mean to do that!

Well yeah, because someone removed it. The ones installed on the 1980 were removable, and yours has been removed. Nothing fancy about it, a hose ran from the thing to the heater pipe below the exhaust manifold and another hose to a nipple on the intake manifold, which was easy enough to block off with a small tap or bolt.

On the air hose side it was held down by the clamp and hose; on the other side it was held down by the bolts. Brass, painted black, soldered joints.

[bradartigue]

Further to my post above, those pictures show that the plumbing to hook the thing up is still there - though a bit jerry-rigged - there is a T union in between the heater hose and it is going down to the manifold port, bypassing what should be a flow-through plenum heater.

[divace73]

Just thought I'd add mine did have the removable throttle body heater as well but has since been removed

[bjbrown]

Brad, in an earlier post you said:

The 1980 FI did have a heater manifold on the intake - it was brass and removable. There was an air gap between it and the manifold and the later model (which was integrated) worked much better.

I was interested because I too have an early '80 spider FI with no intake heater mechanism as illustrated in the photos above. What puzzled me was the assumption I'd made about the earliest versions having no heater at all versus your explanation of a removable mechanism. I'd never seen mention of a removable unit (although I'd seen photos of some heaters that seemed to strap on with what looked like hose clamp affairs) in the factory documentation. For example: from the 1980 owner's manual, two photos of the EFI version show no apparent heater.





unless of course it's there and I'm missing it - maybe it's the tube with the metal hoseclamps on either end. Hard to tell what that tube is made of from the B&W photos in the manual. Do you have any photos of the removable type? And, what is the relative value of the heater anyway? I have seen numerous photos of EFI cars with the integral heaters removed. We have driven our car quite a lot during the winters here which can get bitter cold and never had any problems with starting/running/etc. Does the heater provide some value that's not obviously apparent?

[MIGHTY 8]

Thanks to all who have replied.
My chassis number is 174466.
I was hoping I had one of the earliest fuel injected cars on the road (just for bragging rights) but it looks like it is difficult, at best, to determine exactly when F.I. was introduced.
So the date on the door jamb is not the date (month) of manufacture?

Sorry to steal your thunder! But my 80 FI spider was manufactured in February....
However, I did remove the FI and opted for the Webers, so I guess you'd technical beat me!

Cheers!

[bjbrown]

Hey, I was editing my earlier post to restore the photos (I'd re-arranged my photos in PhotoBucket and didn't realize it would break all the photo links in my posts... ), and noticed another anomaly: The first photo shows the Fuel Injection system without heater, and with the coil on the wrong side of the engine! Anyone know why this should be?

[RRoller123]

My 80 FI was mfg in January 1980 and has the beta throttle plate heater.

[bjbrown]

RRoller, I think my 1980 was built in January too but am missing the mfg plate on the door frame. Would you post a picture of your fuel injection system please?

[RRoller123]

Here is my engine with the Beta TPH shown. The input hose comes in from the end on the early units. This is an older pic, before the Computronics system was installed.

Pete

[bjbrown]

Pete, when you say "Beta TPH," do you mean something from the Lancia Beta engine?