Hi there fellow Uno Admirers

Before you can modify any car it should be in good working order, otherwise you will end up chasing your own tail trying to resolve problems as they occur. Quite a few times I have been asked to modify an Uno only to find that when I opened the Bonnet it looked like the Exxon Valdez supertanker had run aground in the engine bay, I would then tell the owner until he could be bothered to steam clean the engine I would not touch his car.

• So my first suggestion is buy a can of "Hyperclean" by "Coma", this engine degreaser is better than most because it contains an anticorrosion agent. I think there is nothing worse than having to do some work on your own car and end up covered in grease/oil or shit up to your elbows, there is the added benefit that any oil leaks the engine may have will become evident.
• One of the most common reasons for oil all over the engine on the Uno is the rubber on the dipstick, this with age wears and becomes hard, end result is oil leaks out, this rubber is available separately and the cost is ridiculous, the other is oil leaking from the cam carrier gasket.
• I you are going to do any work on your Uno buy a workshop manual, besides guiding you on how to do things, it also has all the specifications of the Car, like valve clearances, Tightening torque figures for loads of bits, etc, probably the best ten pounds you could spend on your car.
• Use quality parts, don't skimp on bits like spark plugs or engine oil, always use synthetic engine oil, and replace at the recommended intervals i.e.: 6000 miles or 10,000 km. As for spark plugs the best ones I have found are the NGK triple electrodes BCPR 7ET for both the 1.3 and 1.4 engine. Check the rotor arm and distributor these items also wear out, replace at least every 50.000 miles, Don't buy cheap HT leads, stick to either the original Fiat ones or Use Magnecor Race leads,
• Check the valve clearances on your engine at least every 12.000 miles, although the camshaft and the buckets with their shims run in a bath of oil and suffer very little wear, but valve seats do wear, and if they are not set correctly the engine will not run smoothly especially at idle. The clearances (cold) inlet: 0.30-0.35mm and exhaust (Cold) 0.40-0.45mm. Once adjusted they normally stay within tolerances for aprox 30,000 miles. But because of this many garages and owners neglect to check or adjust them.
• Check the tightness of the nuts that hold in place in the inlet and exhaust manifolds, for some strange reason the nuts at the cambelt end of the engine tend to work loose, and air leaks as a result can occur, which lead to rough running, loss of performance and strange air leaking noises. Also check the hoses on the engine for the induction system, check their condition and proper fitment, otherwise they could blow under boost and then the engine will not run, not a nice job refitting an intercooler hose on the side of the road with a burning hot engine.
• Check that you are getting full throttle, to do this properly remove the Hose that goes to the inlet manifold, get a friend to put their foot flat on the floor with accelerator, quite a few of you will find that the butterfly doesn’t open fully or goes beyond its maximum opening and starts to close again, in almost most cases you will find that the throttle stop is not adjusted correctly. If you lack throttle travel (i.e. it doesn’t open fully) adjust the cable that goes from the throttle butterfly to the linkage, invariably the always some in the cable, take care not adjust to tightly, otherwise the throttle position switch wont click when you let go of the throttle, if that still doesn’t give enough throttle travel, then you have to grab the throttle pedal and pull it upwards gently to bend it (don’t go mad here!!). If it opens too far, loosen off the adjustment on the throttle cable, once its set correctly adjust the throttle stop screw.
• Change the antifreeze and coolant every 2 years, antifreeze in a modern engine carries out 2 functions: 1) prevents the coolant from freezing inside and if mixed at the recommended ratio of 50% coolant and 50% antifreeze it will protect your engine down to –35º degrees Celsius. 2) The antifreeze prevents corrosion inside the engine, and these agents loose their effectiveness with time. In order to minimise deposits inside the engine and cooling systems its a good idea to add a flushing agent to the cooling system before draining in most cases they must be present for aprox. 24 hours to loosen sludge and other deposits and when you refill the cooling system use distilled water instead of tap water to minimise a build up of deposits and sludge.
• Change brake fluid every 2 years at least, Not everyone realises this but brake fluid is Hygroscopic, which means that he fluid absorbs moisture, and what could happen is that the brake fluid will exceed 100º degrees Celsius under hard use and the water present in brake fluid will boil and turn to steam, in the best case this will give a spongy brake pedal, in the worst case the brake pedal will go the floor and the car wont brake because although a fluid is not compressible, a gas is (such as steam!!). When you replace your brake fluid should use a minimum of D.O.T 4, nowadays mineral based Brake fluid of D.O.T 5 are becoming available, which are even better because they have a higher boiling point.
• For those of you who are real road warriors, a cheap mod that is worth doing to the brakes is to remove the shields behind the brake discs, In my own car equipped with standard brakes apart from fast road performance pads, I could not do more than 2 laps before severe brake fade crept in, when I removed the shields I could do more than 5 laps before brake fade became apparent. Don't use cheap brake pads as problems with brake fade and squealing could be a problem them, My preferred make for pads is Ferodo, a word of warning, I don’t recommend other than standard pads for the rear brakes, whichever the pad manufacturer is, because if you fit fast road pads to the rear, and you have been out for a hard drive, pull up outside your house, apply the handbrake, the handbrake will not hold the car on an incline once the brakes cool down.
• Another mod worth doing is to remove the cooling fan for injection system and its associated pipework as I never known one to come on, so as Colin Chapman used to say "never give a washer a free ride ". So why carry around the extra weight. It also helps unclutter the engine bay. Also worth doing is to remove the original air filter housing and crosspipe that goes above the radiator and fit a direct induction filter, the cost doesn’t vary much from that of a performance replacement of the standard air filter element, again this removes weight and uncluters the engine bay.

All these little details help your car deliver the best performance, whilst remaining reliable and are a good base to start modifying things further.

Good luck every one

Driven by Passion

Joe Rubido

Written by Joe Rubido

15/07/98