NissanSteves Fiat BravA 20v turbo, project thread

Here is my Brava project, which is mainly just a safe drivable storage system for my coupe while I sort out the shell.

Feel free to post in the comment thread.

I decided against using my Marea simply as the brava I got to run round in while I did the conversion turned out to be a shed.
A shed of gigantic proportions. I got it off ebay without looking at it first, I just couldn't justify driving a large distance for a £150 car.
What did I expect it to be lol!

Here are the ebay pics

It was advertised with nearly ten months not, runs well but uses water.
Fiat brava 1.2 sx

I paid the money and drove it away noticing lots of interesting.....features.

Here are the faults

Head gasket gone.
Stinks like an old dog
All door handles ruined (plastic rubber stuff come off)
Rear windows don't work but the near side rear glass falls down.
All the door pockets are minging.
Carpet has God knows what on it
Injector light randomly comes on
Wipers are terrible
All the suspension is worn.
It has green stuff growing out of most of the shut lines.

But it drove 130 miles home okay, bar having used most of its coolant by the time we got back.
The brakes worked okay.

I decided the first thing to do was clean it .

It turns out the colour is metallic Ivory, but looks more green to me.

Grille held on with two big screws and a dent in the bonnet


All the door handles look like this.

So with it back on the drive at home I decided that I should see how bad the chassis was. It had failed its last mot on some welding and had two patches on the sills

So the only way I was going to see what the floor was like was to take the carpet out


There's a bit more welding to do, plus I'll rip the patches off and do a proper job

This is the corner behind the passenger side seat.
But other than that it seems solid enough. Will see what the front of the chassis looks like when I rip the engine and suspension out next weekend.



How does a dashboard get in such a state?

So next week it's heading to the workshop where all the engine, box, suspension and stuff will be stripped off and binned.
Will update then.

Quick update, while I've been using it for work (need to use up cheap supermarket fuel) I think I've found the reason the head gasket has failed.


Coolant is much easier to spot without the carpets it

And I soon got sick of looking at a manky dashboard, so gave it a quick clean



Going in the garage tomorrow where I'll start to mark up the wiring and remove the front end.

Finally got it in the workshop, my nephew has been hogging it with his Honda civic.
Whipped the engine and box out yesterday, the poor thing had seen better days. Cracked head and rotten sump.
Even the oil filter was rotten!

Before



After


Just need to drop the subframe out, clean everything up, check the subframe mounting points for any problems.
Get some new engine mounts, swap all the brackets, pedal box, throttle pedal, clutch hydraulics etc etc.
oh yeah then plan the wiring.

Turned my attention to my coupe and removed the complete wiring looms, there's not one wire left in the car now.
I plan to get the engine into a position where it will run on a custom jig on the floor in the workshop.


For now I'm just taping up excessive bits of loom till I work out what is essential and what's not.



Meanwhile...
In other news I got my second engine back to the garage at home and got it on a temporary surface.
The 20vt is incredibly heavy even without a head on. Took some outside the box thinking to get it out the boot of the marea to where it is.
Luckily I have a nice RSJ in the garage roof and some straps and ratchets soon lifted it into position.

Didn't get much of anything done this weekend, but took the sump off the other engine and was pleasantly surprised that it was fairly clean.

125k engine and in good stock condition.

I pulled one of the big end caps off and checked the clearances and again was pleasantly surprised to find it on the good side of spec.



Just a little disappointed with the sump sealant ending up in the oil pick up strainer, I don't think the engine had been apart as it looks like the standard sealant fiat used, plus the bearings are fiat OE standard spec ones.
Now waiting for some new feeler gauges to arrive and il measure the end float before checking the mains.
But I'm pretty confident it will be all good. I'll sort out some new mains and big ends for it after I've checked the oil pump and Pistons.

I'm also waiting on the arrival of a sand blasting cabinet so I can get things like brackets and castings all cleaned up before being coated or painted.

I've had two days holiday so got stuck into the brava, I'd pulled the engine and box out, then secured some wiring and tested all the car electrics to make sure everything still worked. All was good.
I turned my attention to the dashboard next, not only did I need it out for the wiring job, but also to remove the heater box to replace the leaking matrix.

The dash was surprisingly easy to get out, MUCH easier than the coupe dash.



And dash out


Then once the heater box was out, the matrix was removed. Like a lot of things on the brava/o / Marea range, it's identical to the coupe matrix.


Couldn't resist it.....


Once I was satisfied that all the electrics worked, it was time to remove the redundant engine loom, and make sure everything still worked, again.

Next it was time to have a clean round the engine bay, I unclipped, unplugged and unbolted all the wiring and earths in there.

Checking out the rust in the engine bay

Usual suspects.

Then, once the throttle cable, bonnet release cable and front panel removed
It looked like this








I think it's a good time sort the engine bay out, treat the rust, replace the outriggers and paint the engine bay.
All the brake pipes have been lathered in grease since day one by the look of it so they're like new. Speaking of brakes, the brava doesn't have ABS so that's one less hassle.
Should be just a case of fitting the coupe master cylinder fingers crossed.

I didn't get much done this weekend, but I'm starting to like the idea of clean and "tucked" engine bays.
Okay with a 20vt in there it's never going to look like one of those empty golf bays, but I can get rid of a fair bit of gear.

The battery is going in the boot, as will the engine bay fuses (to stay with the battery)
The OE power steering is going to be replaced with an electric pump from peugeot. Which will go in the boot too.
All the headlamp wiring will be re routed a different route to keep the chassis legs clear.
The washer bottle is going in the boot.
Then there will ever routing of any other cables ie engine loom where it ant be so visible.

Also another new piece of equipment turned up on sat.



Hopefully next weekend if the weather is reasonable we'll be dragging it outside the workshop to grit blast the whole engine bay and chucking some primer on it while I decide what colour the engine bay will be.

Finally got to spend a day on the brava, after the marea diesel was taking up last weekend.
Cleaned up the chassis legs and gave them a coat or two of primer




Then after spending the day at cadwell park on Saturday watching the time attack cars and even a black coupe on track, I've decided I need some track action.
I'd already stripped the engine bay side of the firewall of the sound deadening material, so with gusto I removed the dashboard support bar and set about ripping out all the sound deadening material from the inside of the firewall.

15.5kg removed there plus 2kg from the front side. I then attacked the drivers footwell and got that chipped off too. Another kilo there.


Then I tried the coupe dash support bar and dash but that's a no go.
So put the brava dash support bar back in and refitted the dash loom and fuse box, next was fitting the coupe throttle pedal as I'd heard it was different, but it was identical figment wise.
Next in was the brava bonnet cable back in.
I then spent a very uncomfortable hour and a half trying to remove the coupe fuel lines and tank. The coupe rear tank to bumper panel was refusing to come off, then the off side rear tank trap bolt sheared.
And smart arse here putting the coupe right in the corner of the workshop to save space really didn't help with access.
Still I got the fuel pipes I needed.

i was going to knock up a cradle to try and get the engine running out of the car, but thinking about all the extra bits I'd have to weld on to mount stuff like the oil cooler on, and plus there's exhaust and cooling to think about, I may as well save myself a shed load of time and just drop the engine in the car now I've got. Decent crane.

So next weeks jobs are to

Fit the coupe loom into the brava
Change the clutch on the coupe engine using the helix kit
Change a couple of weeping gaskets here and there.
Fit the new heater matrix in the heater unit and refit that using the coupe hoses
Then it's time to trial fit the engine and box.

Update time.

i parked the engine in front of the car and connected everything I could find, even wired the alternator, fans, fuel pump (spare one I had), air bags. In fact everything bar the heater and door electrics.
I had the loom earths on the car body, so needed to use jump cables to Earth the engine / body.


Next was to connect the battery, all good nothing catching fire.




Next step was to try the ignition. No dash warning lights, no code light, no injector or battery light.
After a little head scratching and some poking around the fuse box and the next try provided the right noise from the fuel pump, battery light on the dash, injector light on then off and code light on then off.
The only problem was the air bag light which never came on when it was in the coupe.
I found the bulb had gone, so replaced that and now it works but doesn't go out, but that's no Problem for now.
The engine turned over and the fuel pump continued to run so I'm confident the engine will run no problem.

Then I disconnected everything engine side, and made a start on getting the engine bay looms in order.
Next week I'll get that finished, then get the heater box back in, fit the coolant hose of death (been waiting for a new seal for the alloy housing) and then, get the engine in!

Been a bit busy with other stuff and we have the imminent arrival of a baby!

I've been fiddling with the pas delete and fettling the alternator into a position where it can be driven directly from the crank pulley.
So far I've not had to cut or grind anything, and have been able to use all the original parts to mount the alternator nearly 40mm over one to one side


I won't be using the large belt but a thinner one but you get the idea. I've even managed to use the OE belt tensioner (that's just an old one I had lying around) plus all of the alternator fixings will be of higher quality, they're just what I had to hand.

Also got a pair of new steering rack boots and track rod ends to fit before I drop the engine in.
I fitted the new heater matrix and got the heater box back in, then I could fit the coupe heater pipes and that's about everything ready in the bay to fit the engine.

On the pug pas pump quest, I found that the coupe pipe work fits straight onto the electric pump and I dare say would fit almost in place of the OE pump. I only need to get a high pressure pipe made up to locate it in the boot, the return is low pressure so not a big issue.