Team-BHP - A truly lovely afternoon for Steeroid

It is not a watercooled manifold but a manifold with heating pot. The hot water from the engine is circulated throught the manifold to keep it warm so that the air fuel mixture does not settle down on the walls of the manifold and reaches the cylinders in vapour form. The water pump in such an arrangement has an additional connection for the manifold heating pot to connect. The second connection is in the cylinder head where the temperature thermistor usually is. The temperature thermister is in the manifold heating pot in these designs.

This design was surely in the later Padminis (my 91 padmini has it) but I also saw the same arrangement in Ronnys Car (President on this forum) yesterday. He claims that these were original on the cars in those times too (Perhaps there must be some value engineering in PAL in the later stages that was reverted back. The same thing was done with the dry type air filter).

Hope this solves all the curiosity and confusion.

Regards,
Adheesh Parelkar

Quote:

Originally Posted by adheesh (Post 1091177)

Similar designs are carried over to the Uno and the Palio 1.2 as well. They heat up the throttle body using the coolant.

More here.

FINALLY, 3-4 months after I bought this car, I got to drive it around.

The car is at Shornur where my parents live and for the first time the Safari got to rest while I was in the country - this car is SO MUCH FUN TO DRIVE!

She flies on the road, and the throaty exhaust makes you feel like you're doing much higher speeds than you actually are (a typical Fiat trademark which I also found on my Alfa Romeo earlier). The gears are tight (a bit too tight according to my dad, but I told him he will have to get used to it because this is the way it is supposed to be), the engine is silky smooth and the whole vehicle is such a joy to drive - it goes exactly where you point it to.

I have driven other Padminis before, but none of them have been as involving as this little bundle of joy - this one just begs to be driven around.

It also leaves a lot of 'modern' cars behind - my first drive in the car was a longish Shornur - Trichur - Palghat - Coimbatore - Palghat - Shornur drive for no particular reason except to get to know the vehicle better. I was tentative for the first leg (Shornur - Trichur) as I couldnt get the gears to shift smoothly. By the time I left Shornur I had perfected the two-gentle-taps gearshift pattern and we were flying.

A Bolero, an Alto and an Indigo CS Dicor ate dust. Several private bus drivers stared open-mouthed as a very old 'moota' (bug in Malayalam) passed them effortlessly with an almost musical exhaust note.

I did have my share of scares, though - those tyres are VERY VERY iffy and are NOT meant for the kind of speeds that this baby is capable of. They simply cannot hold the vehicle to the road even in a minor emergency - the tread pattern is very motorcycle like (ribbed front of old Indian bikes) which makes me want to swap the MRF Twin-Tread whitewalls for the MRF Legends that JayD has on his Amby because those tyres look more reassuring and capable of stopping a moving object.

Then the stereo blew up in a puff of smoke. Thankfully its a period Sony piece which does nothing but AM/SW and Cassette, so it isnt going to see much use anyway.

Also had some tappet noise coming up after that drive, so we got it adjusted by the old man in Ottapalam who had earlier worked on Land 1. His son watched from the side as the old man tuned it till waterdrops came out of the exhaust, then waited for the old man to disappear and retuned it slightly richer and slightly more advanced because he knew my style of driving.

We also found that the lower arm of the alternator was broken and the alternator was hanging loose by just a single screw - the belt was also frayed so we changed the belt and welded the lower arm back.

That was about it - I then drove the baby to Calicut and Palghat and for all our miscellaneous drives around.

I am in love all over again!

Dear Steeroid - I remember seeing a photograph of a part of the engine compartment of your car MYB2682 in the "very old baby" thread if I am not mistaken. Going by what I saw, I can hazard a guess that the engine is from a post 1990 Padmini due to the metallic fuel line between the fuel pump and the carburettor but I may be mistaken. Therefore I request that if you can post some more photographs of the engine compartment, I will be able to guide you in totality on engine dress level etc. As far as the alternator is concerned, please use a new Lucas TVS SA15 alternator (same as used in carburettor Maruti 800) and mount it by using Padmini S1 mounting bracket. This is to ensure reliability. Nothing else will work, including the one that Lucas TVS used to supply for market retrofitment. Believe me, I happen to know. You can find it if you dig around in the secondhand market. It is available in Mumbai. After I see the photographs, I will give full details of bracket construction etc.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

Quote:

Originally Posted by DHABHAR.BEHRAM (Post 1177585)

Mr Behram,

I've seen this car very closely for a long time:). It has the original engine, few fittings in the engine room are re-done using better material to last long, hence you may be confused.

That guy who owned it earlier was a stickler to originality.

Steer, some more pics please.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM (Post 1177593)

I've seen this car very closely for a long time:). It has the original engine, few fittings in the engine room are re-done using better material to last long, hence you may be confused.

That guy who owned it earlier was a stickler to originality.

Nope. The engine is new-gen, probably an S1 by the way she moves.

I really would like to try out the twin-carb setup on this one to see how much more she can move (after getting better tyres, obviously).

The brake drums are also much larger than original.

Another thing my old mech told me is to convert this to coolant ASAP as aluminium head engines require coolant and not just water. Could be true, because the engine temp climbs with some urgency when pushed (nothing to worry about).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steeroid (Post 1177496)

I did have my share of scares, though - those tyres are VERY VERY iffy and are NOT meant for the kind of speeds that this baby is capable of. They simply cannot hold the vehicle to the road even in a minor emergency - the tread pattern is very motorcycle like (ribbed front of old Indian bikes) which makes me want to swap the MRF Twin-Tread whitewalls for the MRF Legends that JayD has on his Amby because those tyres look more reassuring and capable of stopping a moving object.

That's because they are Cross-Ply tyres Santhosh. If she's going to driven around in your style (by your father) then I would suggest a set of decent radials for her. Would lower the puncture count too, cross plies pick up punctures quite easily. Karl would be able to suggest the right size.

Quote:

Originally Posted by iraghava (Post 1177692)

I've never used radials on a Fiat, never pushed that far to warrant them. Regarding punctures, incidentally none of my Fiats/Standards/Amby have ever had a puncture inspite of extensive usage. My Alto has had 3 so far on 2 sets of tyres. Just FYI.

Quote:

Originally Posted by prabhuav (Post 1178280)

Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaase keep the whitewalls on. These make such a difference on the visual appeal of the car.

I am very aware of the fact that there would be a queue of people waiting for a piece of my skin if I were to even CONSIDER making a change to the vehicle's cosmetics.

So yes the whitewalls will remain, but they will change to MRF Legend white-walled cross-plies from the skinny, ribbed MRF Twin-Treads that are currently on them.

JayD has threatened to commit suicide if I were to even think in terms of changing anything in the vehicle. I cant have young blood upon my hands.