[lucifer919]

We got the car and its in BLR now. Took us quite a bit of work over this past weekend. Details as below:

We reached the garage around 11:30 AM on Friday and the car was nowhere to be seen. Found that it had been sent for wheel alignment. Went with Ravi to pick it up and drove it for the first time. It was awesome!! the engine was super responsive and the way it delivered power was very different from my Stile. It is quick but you really don't realize how fast you are going till you look at the speedo. It was still running with an open throttle body, meaning that the filter was not installed. didn't drive much this was and brought it to the garage.

The ignition wires from my car were borrowed by a fellow Palio owner so my car was running on temporary cables. This was causing it to misfire and had quite a shake in the engine as well. put it on the OBD scanner and it showed no errors. everything checked out fine. we replaced the cables with a known good working set but the shake just would not go.
On the way back from the alignment centre, we had stopped and filled up a full tank of petrol. looks like this petrol was bad. We had to open and clean the injectors of the car after which this shake went away.
This wrapped up the first day at the garage at around 12AM on Saturday. decided to take the car home so i can have a feel of how it feels. Was in for a horrendous shock. The car was all over the place. it just would not track straight on the Pune Bypass highway. it was pulling left and right like the suspension was all loose. i was terrified out of my mind and called Ravi immediately. The only difference in the car from when i drove it earlier in the day and now was the tyres and wheels. When it was sent for alignment, the wheels from another car were installed. Before i left the garage, i got my wheels and tyres installed on the car. Found that the erratic handling was due to the tyres. they are worn out so bad that the car was tramlining. they were also hard due to no use over the past couple of years.

Next morning, tried to start the car and it would not. The Battery of the car also died as it was not in use for quite some time. Bought a new Exide 50 DIN battery and installed it on the car. Then started inspecting the minute details and found that the electricals were not completely sorted out. the tail light would not work correctly. when we applied brakes, the instrument cluster in the dashboard would light up!!
looked at the wiring and found that the control for the left taillights were bad/cut somewhere. hence the previous owner had pulled wiring from the right tail lights and connected them to the left side. took us a while to figure this out. not sure why removing this jugaad caused the instrument cluster lights to glow though. this went away when we plugged back the jugaad wiring as it was. the right side pilot light in the headlight is also not functioning. not sure why. seems to be the wiring being bad again.

the stone guards/skirts on the S10 were partially broken. decided to take them off and throw them. IMHO, the car looks better without them.

the new set of headlights bought from 99RPM are just bad. there is no focus areas for the headlights and the adjustment screws on them don't work either. visibility was compromised to a large extent. but the car was ready now and definitely drivable.

started from Pune on Sunday around 12:30 PM in the afternoon. Had a lot of traffic till Kolhapur post which i was able to test the car. Was able to pull cleanly in each gear and the gear shift got only smoother as the kilometres piled on. Found a long empty stretch and was able to test it at all speeds. No shudders/shakes/tramlining either!! looks like the tyres needed to be used a little. everything was rock solid. Ravi had taken apart the entire interiors of the car and put them back together properly, so i did not have any rattles in the car either. Beautiful work done on the car and i am satisfied.

i did make it a point to bring back some salvaged parts from the old engine. These are in great condition and i can send them to anyone who needs them. maybe selling these will allow me to regain some of the monetary investment so far.

i have the following parts available in case anyone is interested:
1. Throttle body
2. Intake manifold (top and bottom)
3. fuel rail with injectors
4. ignition coil
5. head assembly with valve guides
6. cams and their housings

in all the work and drives, i forgot to take any pictures. will take some up and post them soon.

do let me know if you folks have any questions and i'll be happy to answer them.

I am on the lookout for a new wiring harness though. In case anyone is aware of a scrapped/crashed car that has this still intact or if anyone can source one for me, please do let me know.

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[lucifer919]

Doesn't look like there is anyone following this thread anymore, so i think i'll stop updating this now.

Cheers and drive safe!

[jatinpatel]

hey lucifier please keep on updating the thread am reading and its like living back restoration which I did on my GTX.

[lucifer919]

So I've been using the car for my daily commute and overall have covered about 1500 kms, in total, since i took delivery. Here are my initial impressions:

The engine itself is extremely smooth and tractable. The gear ratios being different in this car as compared to the Stile, i'm still getting used to the different gear shifting. In the stile, i had to downshift every time i slowed down in traffic or for a bump/pothole. In the S10, i don't need to do this. if i'm in second or third, i can accelerate again in the same gear. The gear ratios in this car are much shorter, so i can get into a higher gear earlier and stay there. Maybe this will result in better mileage in the long run?

So far, I've gone through 3-4 tanks of fuel. The first tankful was bad fuel as stated earlier and i literally burned through that with the car standstill at the garage for the most part. the next couple gave me a mileage of about 12 KMPL with 100% a/c usage.
i certainly cannot complain with this. the mileage so far is higher that i had anticipated. Also, the engine is still settling in so i can only hope for this to improve later on.

The adventure brakes are a god gift to this vehicle, considering how quick it accelerates. These brakes actually stop the car as if you hit a brick wall. This is one investment i cannot and do not regret. i cannot fathom why the company did not provide these brakes with the car itself. Oh, BTW, in case anyone wants to get these on their car, now is the time. My mech reports that the stores are almost out of all adventure brake components.

let me know if anyone has any queries/questions.

Cheers and drive safe!

[rock18]

Hey Lucifer,Congrats on your new acquisition. Please do update the thread.
There will be lot of people who will be reading the thread but that does not mean nobody is interested in the thread.
Adding some pictures of your new acquisition will definitely spice up the thread.
My S10 is nearing 50k km and am planning to update my ownership experience soon.

[lucifer919]

Here are some pictures of the car as it currently stands. Notice that Ravi has taken quite an effort to clean it up as much as possible but it does need more work. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

[lucifer919]

Reached the attachment limit so continuing here. These are the interior pictures. If compared with the earlier pictures I had uploaded, there is a difference of day and night!!!

[lucifer919]

The last set of pictures here. These are the wheels and upgraded brakes.

I do need help identifying the orange pipes in the last photo. This pipe was cut and we are using a gas pipe as a replacement. Don't know what its called so I can buy a new one.

[lucifer919]

Another update is that i just bought a truck load of more parts from 99RPM. I want this car to be perfect when finished so needed a few more parts to be replaced. Following are the bits ordered today:

1. Tail lights
2. Outside rear view mirrors (both sides) and their internal mounts and covers as well
3. Gear lever dashboard ornament (current one is broken at the mount point)
4. All 4 A/C vents (current central vents are functional but the right and left ones are missing)
5. Sun Visor mountings and supports (current ones are broken)
6. Rubber beading for all doors
7. Both fog lamps and their mounting brackets
8. Rubber beading on the top side of car
9. Windshield side mouldings
10. Air intake ornament that is located below the front windshield

Running out of Vitamin M really fast with this car now so will probably buy the Excell Power struts and use them till they last. Need to hand it over to Pavan for the re-paint but am waiting for the RTO registration process to complete before i do that.

I'm beginning to question my sanity with the amount that i have spent so far. Hope this turns out to be worth the time/effort/money being poured in.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by lucifer919

Another update is that i just bought a truck load of more parts from 99RPM. I want this car to be perfect when finished so needed a few more parts to be replaced. Following are the bits ordered today:

1. Tail lights
2. Outside rear view mirrors (both sides) and their internal mounts and covers as well
3. Gear lever dashboard ornament (current one is broken at the mount point)
4. All 4 A/C vents (current central vents are functional but the right and left ones are missing)
5. Sun Visor mountings and supports (current ones are broken)
6. Rubber beading for all doors
7. Both fog lamps and their mounting brackets
8. Rubber beading on the top side of car
9. Windshield side mouldings
10. Air intake ornament that is located below the front windshield

Running out of Vitamin M really fast with this car now so will probably buy the Excell Power struts and use them till they last. Need to hand it over to Pavan for the re-paint but am waiting for the RTO registration process to complete before i do that.

I'm beginning to question my sanity with the amount that i have spent so far. Hope this turns out to be worth the time/effort/money being poured in.

Congrats and one more to the Group

Looking forward to see this Beauty

[SunnyBoi]

Nice updates

Originally Posted by lucifer919

The adventure brakes are a god gift to this vehicle, considering how quick it accelerates. These brakes actually stop the car as if you hit a brick wall. This is one investment i cannot and do not regret.

I agree; they have already paid back in value on the number of misses I had versus possible accidents and repair bills hehe

Originally Posted by lucifer919

I do need help identifying the orange pipes in the last photo. This pipe was cut and we are using a gas pipe as a replacement. Don't know what its called so I can buy a new one.

Looks like the petrol pipe. Mail the folks at 99RPM, they will add the part on their site and you can buy it from them.

Originally Posted by lucifer919

1. Tail lights

Did you order the 3 light or 4 light one?

Originally Posted by lucifer919

4. All 4 A/C vents (current central vents are functional but the right and left ones are missing)

Ones you get from 99RPM have horrible paint quality on the silver panels, just re-use the black louvers if possible. The markings looks so bad as if they have been tocuhed up with a permanent marker. I saw the same ones at a FASS so its a fiat problem, not 99RPM one.

Originally Posted by lucifer919

6. Rubber beading for all doors

I got 2 pieces of rear right (RR) instead of one front right (FR) and one RR. Just check the lengths once you receive since the second RR piece had the part number of the FR one.

I hope you're getting the air intake pipe as well, the one in pic looks to be taped/cracked.

Originally Posted by lucifer919

probably buy the Excell Power struts and use them till they last.

I'm running Excel Power as well and they go very well with my 15inch wheels out handling many more expensive options

Originally Posted by lucifer919

I'm beginning to question my sanity with the amount that i have spent so far. Hope this turns out to be worth the time/effort/money being poured in.

Same with me haha, spending a lot every month on 99RPM ever since the site went online :(

[lucifer919]

@SunnyBoi: The pipe is a vacuum pipe and not a petrol pipe. I did send out an e-mail to 99RPM with the photo but they haven't been able to identify it either.
I have bought the 3 bulb rear tail light. Good to know that the Excell Power struts are good as looks like that's what I'm going to buy. Are they readily available in most stores?

Don't really have an option with the air vents as they are completely missing in my car. I threw them out actually as they had a layer of sand within. So anything is better than nothing at this point. hehe.

[lucifer919]

Another quick update here:

Had some free time today so installed the new ORVMs, sun-visor clips, tail lights, A/C vents and a few knick-knacks in the interiors of the car. Much better from a cosmetic, visibility and safety standpoint now.

What SunnyBoi mentioned earlier is absolutely true. The A/C vents are horrid even when new. The paint/ brushed aluminium finish is ghastly and the vent open/close markings actually look like they've been marked with a permanent marker. They also had a thick layer of gunk in them even when taken out of a sealed package. Had to give them a good amount of cleaning before i could install them.

All other parts though, are picture perfect.

Went through another tankful of petrol this past week and am consistently getting a mileage between 11-12 KMPL over the past couple of tank-fulls. Am running the car on Shell Premium fuel only so far. This is what i was expecting from the car and cannot complain.

Car might head for a paint job around early next month. Will keep this thread updated!!

[asivan]

Originally Posted by lucifer919

Another quick update here:

Had some free time today so installed the new ORVMs, sun-visor clips, tail lights, A/C vents and a few knick-knacks in the interiors of the car. Much better from a cosmetic, visibility and safety standpoint now.

What SunnyBoi mentioned earlier is absolutely true. The A/C vents are horrid even when new. The paint/ brushed aluminium finish is ghastly and the vent open/close markings actually look like they've been marked with a permanent marker. They also had a thick layer of gunk in them even when taken out of a sealed package. Had to give them a good amount of cleaning before i could install them.

All other parts though, are picture perfect.

Went through another tankful of petrol this past week and am consistently getting a mileage between 11-12 KMPL over the past couple of tank-fulls. Am running the car on Shell Premium fuel only so far. This is what i was expecting from the car and cannot complain.

Car might head for a paint job around early next month. Will keep this thread updated!!

I have been following this thread for a long time and finally, I can congratulate you on the magnitude & quality of work that you have done on this car.

My dad has a Palio 1.2 2002 model and till date it is one the best handling cars I have ever driven. Never drove the 1.6 though, i have just heard the stories about its performance.

Your thread inspires me to do a complete revamp of my old Palio, something which I've been wanting to do for a really long time lets see if I can save up some M and then hopefully i can fulfill my wishes.

Please continue updating the thread on regular basis. Thanks!

[amit_mechengg]

12 KMPL is actually a very good mileage if driven with 100% AC on inside the city. I get exactly 8.5 on my GTX. It was nice meeting Kiran. The work done by Ravi with the available man power he had was awesome. The 1581 cc big bore short stroke engine is complementing your gearbox it seems.