Blown Engine

My two cents on a 1000 mile oil change, excellent suggestion. What I was taught at AFST (still have my id card) Association of Fiat Service Technicians, schools was to do this when breaking in an engine. The main reason is the tolerances of the engine are being used for the first time. That's bound to make more metal micro shavings or other contaminants in higher amounts. The motorcycles of my youth suggested the same thing and I'm sure Porsche does too for brand new engines. Think about it, if that wasn't going on then you would need no break in at all.

Better luck with the next powerplant and to the rest of you guys, may the Fix It Again Tony jokes begin...

PS Still have a fresh 124 sport spyder with 53,000 on the clock.

[95_dually]

I have a 1998 Boxster with 105,000 miles on it. I changed the oil every 5000 miles. I do not trust the manufacturers recommended 15,000 mile oil change. I had a catastophic engine failure. It sucked one of the intake valves on the number 2 cylinder. I was quite pleased it was not the IMS. I live in nortern California and the dealer is Niello Porsche in Rocklin, Ca. They are awesome.

I cannot wait to get it back. I believe there is an obvious problem with the intermediate shaft and a recall should have been done a long time ago, but this is old news.

How is it possible to have a car for 10 years and only have 30,000 to 40,000 miles on it? I put 10,000 miles on it in 4 months. I could not get out of it. I found every excuse to drive it. I love that car. I WILL ALWAYS OWN A PORSCHE. There is no other car like it. (IMHO)

This is the first time for me to post. So I have stated good and bad. I like to read everyone else's posts. Keep it up.

[Paul]

Originally Posted by xusmnimij

My two cents on a 1000 mile oil change, excellent suggestion. What I was taught at AFST (still have my id card) Association of Fiat Service Technicians, schools was to do this when breaking in an engine. The main reason is the tolerances of the engine are being used for the first time. That's bound to make more metal micro shavings or other contaminants in higher amounts. The motorcycles of my youth suggested the same thing and I'm sure Porsche does too for brand new engines. Think about it, if that wasn't going on then you would need no break in at all.

Better luck with the next powerplant and to the rest of you guys, may the Fix It Again Tony jokes begin...

PS Still have a fresh 124 sport spyder with 53,000 on the clock.

I've owned many Fiats, raced Fiats, and once worked for a Fiat dealer as an independent mechanic....

Failure in Automotive Technology

F'ing Italians Attempt at Transportation

are the ones I remember.

Originally Posted by Paul

I've owned many Fiats, raced Fiats, and once worked for a Fiat dealer as an independent mechanic....

Failure in Automotive Technology

F'ing Italians Attempt at Transportation

are the ones I remember.

They can say what they wish, the 128 was the first car produced with a tranverse engine & transmission combo, copied the next year by VW rabbit, now used everywhere. When, I was a lot younger and the dealership was at it's glory, I tuned my Spyder every week, MG's Triumphs of the time were no match for a 124, I still enjoy driving it even if the manual steering is a #$%&^* when parking. Fiat had twin overhead cam engines and shim & bucket valve setups, far ahead of the competition of the time. Even the sedans came standard with Pirellis or Michelins before most people appreciated the difference. The American metal of that time, a la Maverick, Mustang II, comet, were no match in a corner for even a lowly 128 sedan.

[Paul]

I had a 1972 128 SL Coupe that almost always had a better time than any Porsche at our autocrosses, even my 1970 914.

Later I occasionally took fastest time of the day in an X 1/9....

FIAT owns Ferrari...

[QUOTE=Paul]I had a 1972 128 SL Coupe that almost always had a better time than any Porsche at our autocrosses, even my 1970 914.

Later I occasionally took fastest time of the day in an X 1/9....

FIAT owns Ferrari...[/QUOTE]


Yeah imagine that, lancia too. I had a 128 SL other than being geared too low and a bit underpowered it was one of my favorite cars. When I see what they sell for now on EBAY I'm shocked. I learned to drive on a 600, my dad let me and my bro solo at age seven, what a guy!! I had an X 1/9 too, my dad built race engines before he owned his own dealership and we built that 1/9. It had a triple angle valve job, shaved head, iskindarian cam ground to our specs and the biggest weber we could mount on it. You could blow right through the redline and keep revving, it never came apart. Many guys who feasted on the slow moving x 1/9's were surprised to have their ass handed to them. One dude followed me all the way to work to ask how it was powered, ahh the good ol days..

[Tool Pants]

Since we are talking about Fiats....

I had two X 1/9s. 1975 and then 1981. 21 years of ownership. If I remember correctly Fiat was based out of New Jersey.

In 1999 I thought it was time to move on. Fiat/Berone had been out of the US market for a decade or so. But I could not let go. I did not care about the fix me again jokes.

What gave a slight push was a visit to Costco. The tires that fit were pirelli P3s or something like that. You could no longer buy that tire. Around 1998-1999 I went to Costco and there was a P something tire that was a bit wider but it would work.

I filled out the order form in the Costco tire shop for 5 tires (full size spare) and wrote down a 1981 Fiat. There were a bunch of young people working around the place. Counter guy told me to come back in an hour. You could not see the shop from the counter. They put a cone on my car in the parking lot with #24 on it.

I came back in an hour and the counter guy said they were still working on my car so I sat down next to the counter and looked at his motorcycle books, as he had just bought a Harley. As I was reading the books a young guy came in from the shop and said they could not find the "flat" on car #24 that they were supposed to replace. I said #24 was my car and did not have a flat and followed him into the shop.

They had taken my Fiat apart looking for a flat spare. None of my 5 tires were flat. They were looking for a flat on a Fiat. They did not know where the spare tire was. One of the guys said he even looked in the glove box for the spare.

I later bought a Boxster and then months later I donated the 1981 to a charity for a tax write-off at XXX dollars. I felt quilty so a few days later I went back to the donation place to see if I could buy back my Fiat for X dollars, but it was gone.

Good rip there TP, I sold my spider years ago the one I retain is still my dad's currently. I think NJ is right, What I like about the '71 is the hood is not "humped" and the chrome bumpers are not shock mounted. Seventy four was the last good year, then the five mile an hour bumpers killed the car, too much unsprung weight and no power offset. My future 71 is rot free, on my X/19 (used) the original small black, useless bumpers rotted off Fiat used some seriously poor quality steel...

TP have you ever seen the Abarth fiats? We wrenched on the aluminum abarth known as the "double bubble" they were lightweight racers. Man did they sound and look cool. Lastly, I had a chance when I had no money to buy a Dino Spyder for only six grand, that's right kids, a twin cam Ferrari 160 HP in a Spyder. I recently saw one sell on the bay for north of 50 g's...

PS FIAT Trivia the X/19 was marketed the first year of it's production as "the Porsche killer". Those crazy Italians, I can say that I'm100%.