145 Cloverleaf Engine Swap Or Rebuild?, Thinking of road legal track day car, options?? Options

[Hirstyboy73]

Hi everyone,
I'm very new to this, would really appreciate some advice on which route to go with my 145, I managed to get a 99 plate 145 cloverleaf for £300 as it had a few little issues (still has) cars done 145,000 apart from now clutch release bearing noisy it absolutely flys ;-)
I'd bought as a cheap run about so not driving my van all the time.
I've really grown to love it and wanted to know which route and how I'd go about really upgrading the engine (possible 20vt) suspension and brakes as I'd like a road legal track day car.
Obviously options are pretty endless with a bottomless pit of cash but budget will play a large part.
Cheers. Jon.

[black 146]

you can go two ways put a 2ltr engine in as they look the same but you will have to have the 2ltr ECU with a remap
or you can put the 2ltr head with the manifold +injectors as well as your ECU cleared with a remap to make it run the way it should
brakes is a good set of grooved discs with some soft pads and get some strut braces to and cut down the boxes on the exhaust or stainless
or you can go with the fiat coupe engine way

This post has been edited by black 146: 8th June 2014 09:50

[Alfa-Si]

The 20vt is not the way to go on a budget, you would go past it and again and then a few more times for fun.

The best way to go if you want to keep driving it, would be exhaust, induction, a remap, upgraded suspension and brakes.

[Hirstyboy73]

you can go two ways put a 2ltr engine in as they look the same but you will have to have the 2ltr ECU with a remap
or you can put the 2ltr head with the manifold +injectors as well as your ECU cleared with a remap to make it run the way it should
brakes is a good set of grooved discs with some soft pads and get some strut braces to and cut down the boxes on the exhaust or stainless
or you can go with the fiat coupe engine way

Hi, thanks for the quick reply, I should of said it has the 2ltr TS engine in already.
I've looked at the big brembo's on the fiat, would they fit straight on the 145, which make of braces, bushes, exhaust is best. You mentioned cutting the boxes??? Do you mean replacing with straight pipe??
Suspension wise is there anything from say the 147 gta that would be a straight swap for an upgrade. It's quite low anyway and I put a set of Proxes T1S all round which are amazing but seems very 'boat' like around the corners still
Cheers.

[Hirstyboy73]

The 20vt is not the way to go on a budget, you would go past it and again and then a few more times for fun.

The best way to go if you want to keep driving it, would be exhaust, induction, a remap, upgraded suspension and brakes.

Hi,
Thanks for you response, yeah I'm beginning to think the 20vt would be more fragile.
It's got the 2ltr ts engine so wondered with the mileage a rebuild would help too??
Cheers.

[black 146]

Hi, thanks for the quick reply, I should of said it has the 2ltr TS engine in already.
I've looked at the big brembo's on the fiat, would they fit straight on the 145, which make of braces, bushes, exhaust is best. You mentioned cutting the boxes??? Do you mean replacing with straight pipe??
Suspension wise is there anything from say the 147 gta that would be a straight swap for an upgrade. It's quite low anyway and I put a set of Proxes T1S all round which are amazing but seems very 'boat' like around the corners still
Cheers.

The 147 has a different suspension setup to the 145 so you wont be able to put anything suspension related from the 147 on. Strut brace is one of the best and cheapest suspension mods you can do on these, really stiffens the chassis up, then get some lowering springs if you can. But definately get a strut brace, really good mod!

With the Coupe engine conversion's, they're not cheap and while the engine will all go in well (With exception to the 20VT as that sits rather close to one side but will go in) The wiring is the hard part. So unless your electrically minded, it's not going to be easy. Autodelta do a centrifugal supercharger kit for the 145 that includes everything and a remapped ECU that will get 190ish BHP but very expensive at £3,000 odd. You can also turbo the TwinSpark that's in already and they will take a low boost setup. You can use the manifold from the JDTM model and have a new turbo flange but on, then do all the oil and water lines and everything else to get it going. This has been done before, a few on the AlfaOwner site have done it and there are threads to help you. A member on here used to run a 147 with a turbo 1.6 running 280BHP, I believe that was turnt into a track monster. That was a while ago but I'm sure if you used the search function to do some digging, you might come across it. You also have the twin screw supercharger route, I think I have seen that done years ago, once again, search is your friend! ITB's may also be an idea, once again, may end up expensive getting it mapped (Standalone ECU jobby) to run well. Also been done before but was on a Road Rally car.

For the Coupe Brembo's, I don't think they fit straight on, you'd need all the Coupe hubs and suspension ETC.

Exhaust, you can go straight through (Might be a bit loud depending on the back box). You can de-cat, smaller middle boxes and get a stainless steel manifold (But the manifold is £300 odd) I have a Powerflow on mine, single middle box and while it looks good, it's not quite the right sound for me, so going for a smaller middle box.

You an get Polybushes for these, not sure what ones exactly though. UltraRacing do some braces for these too, sometimes you can get the braes second hand on ebay too. Also check out Alfisti.net they do a lot of parts, but can be a bit expensive as they're not in this country so P&P might kill you! But they have quite a nice selection of tuning parts on there.
Hope this helps you a bit!

[Hirstyboy73]

The 147 has a different suspension setup to the 145 so you wont be able to put anything suspension related from the 147 on. Strut brace is one of the best and cheapest suspension mods you can do on these, really stiffens the chassis up, then get some lowering springs if you can. But definately get a strut brace, really good mod!

With the Coupe engine conversion's, they're not cheap and while the engine will all go in well (With exception to the 20VT as that sits rather close to one side but will go in) The wiring is the hard part. So unless your electrically minded, it's not going to be easy. Autodelta do a centrifugal supercharger kit for the 145 that includes everything and a remapped ECU that will get 190ish BHP but very expensive at £3,000 odd. You can also turbo the TwinSpark that's in already and they will take a low boost setup. You can use the manifold from the JDTM model and have a new turbo flange but on, then do all the oil and water lines and everything else to get it going. This has been done before, a few on the AlfaOwner site have done it and there are threads to help you. A member on here used to run a 147 with a turbo 1.6 running 280BHP, I believe that was turnt into a track monster. That was a while ago but I'm sure if you used the search function to do some digging, you might come across it. You also have the twin screw supercharger route, I think I have seen that done years ago, once again, search is your friend! ITB's may also be an idea, once again, may end up expensive getting it mapped (Standalone ECU jobby) to run well. Also been done before but was on a Road Rally car.

For the Coupe Brembo's, I don't think they fit straight on, you'd need all the Coupe hubs and suspension ETC.

Exhaust, you can go straight through (Might be a bit loud depending on the back box). You can de-cat, smaller middle boxes and get a stainless steel manifold (But the manifold is £300 odd) I have a Powerflow on mine, single middle box and while it looks good, it's not quite the right sound for me, so going for a smaller middle box.

You an get Polybushes for these, not sure what ones exactly though. UltraRacing do some braces for these too, sometimes you can get the braes second hand on ebay too. Also check out Alfisti.net they do a lot of parts, but can be a bit expensive as they're not in this country so P&P might kill you! But they have quite a nice selection of tuning parts on there.
Hope this helps you a bit!

Hi,
Thanks a lot for all the advice I'm gonna do some digging/searching and really get a shopping list together but as you said the first thing I'll do is front and rear strut braces.
Thanks again.