Almost a week of driving exclusively the Fiat

"InfinityAero" (infinityaero) 10/19/2016 at 17:57 • Filed to: None

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After successfully making it back and forth to a couple car shows and a cars and coffee, and driving a few miles around town, I decided to exclusively drive the Fiat these last 6 days. Gotta take advantage of the last remnants of Spring on the east coast! It won’t be convertible weather much longer...

I also wanted to get an idea how quickly I’m burning through fluids. Between the known leaks, the leak in the crankcase re-circulation hose, and whatever she’s burning through old rings and seals, I’ve gone through about a 1/3 a quart of oil in 130 miles. That consumption rate is actually well below what I expected, to be honest, and should come down to almost nil if I replace the oil pan and crankcase hose leaks, and anywhere else she’s spraying from. I seem to have burned through about 6.5 gallons, so I’m getting around 20 mpg. I’ll get an exact reading next time I refill the tank. Coolant level doesn’t look to have gone down much at all.

I think I may have stumbled into a fairly reliable runner... still need to get the wipers and horn working, and the radiator fan working better, before I’d consider it a daily driver, and it’d be nice to finish the paint job and remove the vestigial bumper mount for appearance sake... but otherwise looks to be a big thumbs up so far!

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > InfinityAero 10/19/2016 at 18:06

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So jealous.

InfinityAero > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To 10/19/2016 at 18:15

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It’s a blast to drive, but I can’t help but want to go all out with it, as well as finish the restoration. I’m almost done sanding down the paint— once I finish that I’ll probably move on to go-fast goodies. Might be time to use the trunk mold and build a hood mold to make CF replacements. Repaint it next spring, after tearing down the suspension again over the winter to get her lower and swap the oil pan. That’ll be a good excuse to get the alignment from “eh, it works” to in-spec as well— which will be a PITA but it’s not like I’ll be driving it in the rain, snow and 30 degree weather... may as well do it all over again.

Anything to distract myself from starting to plan out a turbo build....

JohnH3ASP > InfinityAero 10/19/2016 at 18:45

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Is that a replica Hennessey Venom in the background?

InfinityAero > JohnH3ASP 10/19/2016 at 18:53

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Nope, just an 06 Exige...

JohnH3ASP > InfinityAero 10/19/2016 at 18:59

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Looks really weird, doesn’t it.

InfinityAero > JohnH3ASP 10/19/2016 at 19:06

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Might be those red accents he needs to get rid of :-P It’s an N/A Exige— I think they added the S/C option the next year. Maybe they got a different body kit?

JohnH3ASP > InfinityAero 10/19/2016 at 19:21

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I have no clue, but it looks like a terrible knockoff of a Hennessey Venom, amirite?

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > InfinityAero 10/19/2016 at 19:44

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Yay! People rarely use FIAT and reliable in the same sentence. The truth is, even with older FIATs like the 124 Spider, they are fairly simple mechanically and otherwise, so if you fix the niggles properly, they are more reliable than people make them out to be! :)

InfinityAero > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 10/20/2016 at 10:52

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Yeah, it’s a well put together car mechanically. Good quality control with the bodywork and mechanicals. The laziness comes into play with the wiring system, which I’m guessing will be the root of almost all issues with the car. I’m not surprised it leaks some oil-- the oil pan is the lowest sitting component of the car so they tend to get dented.