turbo124.com

I am about to put a 8v turbo from a croma into my 124 sedan. Its going to be a bit of a cheap build really but will hopefully make a pretty quick road car. The plan is to use as much of the croma motor as possible including bottom end, manifolds, management etc but most likely with a conventional flow direction head. Gearbox will be 131. I will try and post a few pics along the way and will no doubt have a few questions when i get stuck....

a couple of pics... I haven't really done much except strip engine bay and cut out battery box. Battery will be relocated to boot to give room for the turbo. Croma arrives in a couple of weeks

Thats going to be so cool, keep us updated!

That is going to be a sweet car. What did the Croma set you back?

cheers It should work well. The biggest problem I can see at the moment is where to hide the intercooler.
Croma is off Trademe and cost $610 (haha..four times what i paid for the 124!!)

so you obviously won t be needing that blue thing in the first pic if you are finally building a quick road car?.........I'm having withdrawl!

haha...i did warn you!!
I'll be impressed if the Special can keep up with the v6. It will be an interesting comparison though

Awesome! Be keen to see how you go. I love 124 sedans.

A little progress...picked up croma and am very happy with the engine. It is very quick
Got as far as taking the head off before running out of weekend.

Gr8 swap!
nice color for the 124 to.

i'm allready curieus for to see when it's finished

Greetz, Benjamin

hi nick,

If you're pulling the engine much further apart than what it currently is, can you please take some detailed pics of the oil squirter setup?

and is it true that a croma turbo block is an old style block, with all the new style internal bits minus the balance shafts? ie. the "newer" oil pump etc?

I think i've given up on the idea of using one now, but I have to know, just to ease my suspicions.. haha.

Croma's use a "new" style block. All reverse port engines do. Croma's just did not have ballancer shafts while Themas did. Most Lancias did while Fiats didn't. The ballancer shafts do make a big difference, so much smoother.

No problem. I hope to get the block out of the car on the weekend and will get some pics when i have the sump off.
The croma block does not have the pulley and shaft that drives the fuel pump and block mounted distributor on the older ones. I'm not sure how the oil pump is driven now i think about it...

Off the crank nose somewhere

The oil pump bolts on the front of the motor, over the crank. Its like a crank seal housing.

I got the motor out and took the sump off. It doesn't look like too much work to get the rwd sump on. It will need a little bit of work to clear the oil pump pipe at the front, a couple of the bolt holes are in different places and the pickup itself needs shifting. I also need to fit the pipe for the turbo oil line.

The block has all but one of the holes already drilled and tapped for the engine mounts so not much to do there.

The flywheel and crank have a smaller central hole than the 124 so hopefully i can find a bearing that will do the trick. Hopefully also the croma pressure plate will fit in the 131 bell housing so I can use the bigger clutch. (flywheel itself seems to be the same except for smaller hole and drilled for larger pressure plate)

This motor has no oil squirters that i can see. When i ordered a gasket set the other day the book listed two different sets for 8v turbos depending on the year. This is the early one.

The oil squirters may be installed into the main bearing bosses - they are not very easily seen from the bottom.

Some pics of the mods i made to the oil pump pickup and the sump. Because the oil pickup ended up near the front i decided to baffle it a little bit. Hopefully I will get the block and gearbox mated up next weekend and sitting in the car. It looks like i will need to shorten the gearbox input shaft a few mm first, and i need to mount the rpm sensor on the bell housing somehow.

I have got the block and gearbox sitting in the car. Because the 131 box is quite a bit longer some tunnel mods are needed to clear the rubber donut. I cut the tunnel out of a 2L 132 today so hopefully can graft that in nicely. The bell housing clears the larger croma turbo clutch no worries.
I think the croma exhaust manifold puts the turbo a little too far forward, so will get a custom one made. The inlet manifold fits sweet, and i think i can mount the alternator under it off the original croma mount on the oil filter housing.

Looks good thats exactly what I wanted to do to my CC.

There is so much more room when the engne bay is bare!

There's certainly far more side clearance than I expected.

Is the sedan engine bay bigger than the coupe?

Both shorter and narrower from memory. Very similar to the 125.

yeah, definitely shorter, not a lot in it width-wise compared with a coupe.

I think i will have some clearance issues when it comes to plumbing it all up. I can squeeze an oil cooler and intercooler between the grill and the radiator, but the radiator won't be left with a lot of (any?) cool air. I may have to lose the inner headlights and mount the radiator to one side, with the intercooler next to it i think.

Have you done anything with the oil filter housing? Did the engine mount part of it get in the way?

It doesn't look any shorter, althought it's probably the perspective. Is the back of the head/engine right up against the firewall like the coupe?

This photo shows it better. There's not much in it but the sedan loses out space wise in front of the chassis x-member. Yeah the head is close to the firewall, althought possibly not as close as a coupe since the firewall has a flat profile at the top.

The oil filter housing fitted ok. I trimmed down the front where the engine mount goes in the croma but only because it wasn't needed. It didn't foul anything. The filter cartridge is close to the 124 engine mount but i think there will be just enough room to replace it without removing the engine mount.

nick, that looks great! almost as if it came from the factory with that donk in...

That looks real good. It's going to be an awesome conversion. I'd be interested to find out the total cost when you get it done. I'd be keen to do something similar to my CC.

Surprising to see how much room is on the exhaust side!!

haha...yeah it's going suspiciously well so far. The pessimist in me is expecting problems soon

Have you thought about going to a water to air set up?? Less frontal area required then.

ive had these photo's for years, anyone know who owns it? not exactly my choice of cooler setup tho......

I hadn't. I don't know anything about them. Will do some research

The intercooler out front option is one i will be avoiding at all cost, although on a race car like that why not i guess. It looks like a well sorted little car

I love those wheels on the 131!!!!!!!!!

cheers. some fiat people think they look too british There are some better pics in the fiatfans section.

I haven't got a lot done on the special unfortunately. Tunnel modification is finished and gearbox is in. Pics below show the oil filter housing position and turbo position. I am going to get a new manifold made to move the turbo back and down a bit to give room for the intake and to clear the water pump.
The frontal shot shows croma oil cooler and intercooler in front of radiator. I think i will try and find some similar sized ones with the outlets in the right place and mount them here behind the grill. Not ideal i know, but hopefully everything won't get too hot.

have you got any pics of how close the turbo sits to the water pump outlet?

looks good!

did you have to modify the shifter at all to get it to come up in the right spot, or is it just coupes that are a pain?

Cheers. I can't get them both on together because the water pump pipe fails the wastegate actuator. The turbo itself will clear the water pump i think. You could maybe remount the actuator but the turbo inlet is too close to the radiator anyway so I figure its easier to move the whole thing.
That is a standard 131 shifter (not remote type). I had to bend the gearlever up a bit to get it in the right spot. Would be different in a coupe though due to the interior design.

Does it have a live rego?

nope....its long dead