1974 Fiat 128 Sedan for the Bride of Burrito.

So, I guess I lied a bit. I couldn't help but play with the new car tonight.

The seller mentioned that he couldn't get the fuel pump to run, but I guess I missed the part where he tore into it and left it apart. Luckily all the parts (so far, anyways) were in a box, but it took a while to figure out how the fuel level sending unit went back together and what parts that actually involved. I think it can only go back together one way, so I'm about 95% confident in my assembly.

All of that was just a distraction from the real task at hand, because as soon as I pulled the carpet back I knew I was going to be dropping the tank.

Luckily I still had about a third of a gallon of CLR from the last tank adventure. So, that's in there with about a gallon of screaming hot water. I'll probably toss in a handful of split lock washers just like last time to give it some tooth.

The stock fuel pump was also in the box of miscellaneous crap, but I don't have high hopes for it after seeing the inside of the tank. I'll bench test it and see if I can get it to run, but I feel like the odds are in favor of running this little Walbro.

Tomorrow night I will flush out the tank, bench test the fuel pump, reassemble and possibly reinstall the tank.

I'm trying very hard to not fall in love with this car, and I'm failing. This thing really only has 54k on it and I am genuinely the 3rd owner.

Ha! I knew you would fall for it. You'll soon end up with a garage full of automotive Tribbles.

Yeah, should've seen that coming, huh? I blame Ditchdigger for sending me pictures of modded Yugos and Mrs. Burrito for pointing out how much nicer the Yugo is than literally everything else I own.

The fast and loose plan that I have in my mind is to dedicate a few more days to getting the Yugo fired up. If it comes back to life and runs nicely, I will put it into service and roll a few miles on it. If it runs like half a bag of smashed shiny happy people, I will push it off to the side and come back to it when time/space/money frees up. I will still be stealing the engine and transmission out of the Yugo; that plan hasn't changed. But all of the stupid engine swap ideas I had for the 128, might be happening to the Yugo.

The immediate issue in the "Burrito makes a Yugo radical" playbook is that the centerbore on my 14" Revolutions is 57.1mm and the Yugo is 58.1mm.

You should just go back to that Fiat hoarder's place now and buy him out. It'll save time.

Woody wrote: You should just go back to that Fiat hoarder's place now and buy him out. It'll save time.

What he said

That Yugo you have is awesome, don't try to deny it. Make it awesome and find another motor to slap in it once you have the 128 swap done.

Never, ever thought I'd say this, but that yugo is too nice to part out. It needs stanced instead.

I'm pretty sure that the world will end now.

Did someone say Fiat 128?

Our 128 lemons car

I made some good progress last night. The tank came out pretty clean. Not bad for zero dollars and no agitation.

The stock fuel pump was a no go. It's locked up solid. No amount of Kroil and beating on it would free it. So, on to mounting the Walbro. It's a little cheesy, but it is the only mounting scenario I could come up with to fit the pump in the little swirl pot in the bottom of the tank. There's an access panel on top of the tank, so I can revisit this down the road if I need to. Remember, I'm just trying to get the thing to run at this point. The fuel line isn't rated for immersion, anyways, so it'll fail in short order.

Then it was time to reassemble the rest of the tank and slap it back in the car.

So, today I will stick a fresh battery in the car, change out the oil and filter, hit the key and see what happens. Oh, maybe I should grab a gallon or two of gas, too. The exhaust is still off the car, too (I had to drop it to get the tank out), so if it fires I'll be "that" guy.

Drive it around the bock to really be that guy.

I used to be that guy, with a sidepipe, sounded good.

Yugo Update

Pistons are absolutely stuck in the bores. berkeley. Beer now, info later.

In reply to Burrito:

They are tough motors with simple and strong rings. Treat them like an old V8 that's been sitting for a long time.

Spray a lot of PB blaster in the bores, let it soak, do it again tomorrow and the day after that while trying to rock it slightly with a wrench on the crankshaft bolt in between sprays. Repeat until it comes free.

Then let the starter crank the motor over several times, change the oil with the cheapest oil you can get.

Put a little oil in the cylinders, crank it over again, change the oil.

Repeat until the engine seems to spin relatively smoothly.

Now, throw some plugs in it and try to light it off.

It will either work well enough to drive it a while or it will have badly damaged bores and/or rings and you'll have to pull it down anyway. Either way, order a ring/bearing/gasket set for it and be prepared to pull it apart.

Good luck!

I freed up a stuck Datsun L28 motor with Deep Creep everyday for about a week.

In reply to Bruce:

As somebody who wiped one, before doing any of that, pull off the valve cover and oil up the camshaft with some 15w40.

Yugo Update

Ok, so here's what I know.

The oil that I drained didn't look awful. Black and used, but not foamy or milkshakey. Filled back up with some 10-40 I had and a Bosch filter.

Spark plugs showed no signs of anything odd in the cylinders. Bosch Supers, have new ones on the shelf if it comes to that.

I knocked the valve cover and timing belt off: cam and tappets are beautiful and show no discernable signs of wear or rust. Cam spins like a cam is supposed to spin.

I then drained the oil I had just put in and pulled the pan. Rod bearings appear to be free and happy. No signs of bluing on any bearing caps. Everything looks really good on the bottom side; no sludge issues, nothing funny or metallic in the bottom of the pan. Bottom side of cylinders look ok from what I can see.

Currently, I have the cylinders full of a mix of Kroil, marvel mystery oil, and ATF. It's been in there for about 18 hours at this point. I will try to rock it back and forth in a little bit. I might syphon some of that concoction out if there's something better you guys recommend.

After having thought about it for an evening, I'm not too upset. I still got the transmission I needed along with all of the efi related components. Worse case scenario, I throw a junkyard shortblock at it before it goes into the 128.

I bet it's just some light rust in the bores from sitting.

I'm sure your concoction, and all the other recommendations work as well or better, but I learned to use Rislone for just such a scenario from my Grandpa. Has always worked, he even used to pour a few ounces in the cylinders of the farm equipment when Winterizing.

Probably a little silly, but I keep a bottle on hand kind of in his memory. One should be so lucky to be memorialized by a snake oil engine treatment right?

In reply to bgkast:

Here's to hoping, eh? I'm sure it can be brought back to life, it just might not have great compression when I'm done...

Any light oil will do, diesel is good, what you have in there should do, though it may take a few days to really soak in.

I saw an Abarth that was squashed by a tree yesterday and thought a clean Yugo body like that would be a good place to put it's innards.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: Any light oil will do, diesel is good, what you have in there should do, though it may take a few days to really soak in.

Internet wisdom seems to point to 1 part ATF, 1 part Petrol. One old timer suggested filling the cylinders with the mixture above and then lighting it on fire. Sounds fun!

Another thing I read suggested filling the wet side of the block with boiling water to try and get heat some in it.

So, sounds like my afternoon might be full of boiling water and fire.

Add crawfish and pretend that you are Cajun.

In reply to Burrito:

Hot water in the water jacket, never thought of that one. I doubt you need to light anything on fire, unlikely it's that bad. Did you look down the bores before filling them with oil?

In reply to Kenny_McCormic:

But... but fire, Kenny. Why would you tell me to not light a Yugo on fire? Are you some sort of anti-arson Yugo-lover?

I tried to look down the spark plug holes, but I couldn't see much of anything.