Lancia Volumex Engine

A description of the standard production engine.

The lancia volumex engine is a modification of the standard carburetor/injection engine as found in the Lancia and Fiat range.Here in the UK, we have only one capacity and thats the 2000cc unit. This develops 135BHP at 5500rpm and more importantly produces 153lb of torque at 3000rpm as opposed to 135lb at 2800rpm of the normally aspirated unit.This extra torque can turn taller gears and therefore give better fuel economy on longer runs – pity most of my runs are pretty short.

On the continent a 1300cc and a 1600cc unit was apparently available, neither of which have i personally seen.
So what are the differences between normally aspirated and supercharged engines you ask yourself? The main difference is in the cylinder head. Sodium cooled valves are utilized, i can only for certain say the exhaust valves are sodium filled see picture 1.
The void you see was filled with sodium because of its superior ability to conduct and so transfer heat from the head to the guide, please don't try this – sodium is poisonous and burns on contact with oxygen.

The inlet valves are also of large diameter (43mm) similar to 105/125/130TC Stada (Ritmo).Cams also are of different lift and duration – 13/39/37/3 for the VX compared with 13/45/49/9 for the injection/carb model – well you don't want your valuable inlet charge being chucked out the exhaust do we and that's one of the reasons the VX produces so much more torque..A new inlet manifold attaches the VX supercharger to the cylinder head and incorporates a “pop”off valve so that in the event of a pop back the compressor does not stall and break a £30.00 synchronous belt.

A Lancia Volumex Engine Supercharger

The blower is fed by a puny Weber 36DCA 5/250 carburetor with 26mm chokes, which restricts top end power due to its small internal dimensions, see photos 2 and 3 and compare it with an IE throttle body.The exhaust manifold is similar to the standard engine except for the 9mm studs compared with the standard 8mm items – not much but enough to reduce the chance of them shearing off if you were unlucky or ham fisted.The block is the same as the IE, even has "IE" painted on the back! but internally the pistons are different to achieve the static compression ratio of 7.5:1 so as not to over compress the inlet charge –compared with 8.9:1 of the normally aspirated engine. The crank shaft is the same and has the same size galleries drilled and not larger as certain “publications” would have you believe.

Bearings are tri -metallic“Vandervel” bearings, although i have found many an injection engine fitted with this type on the big end bearing but still retaining the standard aluminum/tin on the mains! A thermostatic oil cooler is fitted as standard to help dissipate heat also the flywheel is fitted with a larger diameter clutch to deal with the extra power and torque available. The supercharger is a twin lobed positive displacement type having the front bearings and meshing (phasing) gears running in oil where as the rear bearings run in grease, diagram 4. gives the layout. OK enough of the technical banter!

What about the engine in the photos? Well the saga starts in 1990 when i purchased my first Volumex HPE. I must confess i was a little disappointed at first – i thought it was going to be a super car! Only135BHP compared with 122BHP for the injection model! but the torque/smoothness combined with the effortless cruising ability more than made up for this.
Fuel economy i found was always a problem, unless on a long run and i wished Lancia had made a second generation “Injected” version – especially when the tick over jets would choke up from time to time. I approached the tuning Bods of the time to see if it could be done and was told it was a waste of time and to forget the “Glamour” of fuel injection – just get a conversion manifold and fit a DCOE 40 or 45 – well, call me a mean git but the best part of a GRAND on a carburetor was just too much!

Lancia Volumex Engine Combined With An Injection System

But as Luck would have it a few years later around 2001, cars were being abandoned due to poor scrap metal prices. You had to pay the scrap man to take your car talk about having your cake and eating it!! This is how i AQUIRED (i simply recycled it) a Fiat Croma turbo IE. On opening the bonnet it suddenly hit me – an idea...... not the bonnet! “What if i used the fuel / ignition system on a Volumex???”

Well you can see the fruit of my labour in the photos – with a little SURGERY i managed to get it all to fit. The manifolds were interesting to say the least, drilling the holes at the right angle and getting the injectors to seal properly, the overboost sensor was also fitted – but in hind sight i need not have bothered because a VX is hardly going to OVERBOOST at 6 to 8 psi. The fuel rail was modified to fit into the confined space.

The carburetor manifold was cut and a plate was welded to to make a flange for the throttle body.Once i had the wiring connected, fuel was poured into a make shift tank and i primed the system.The engine fired up and ran first turn – WOW! Not bad, but did not sound quite right – it was running on three not four cylinders.
This turned out to be injector number four or should i say the wiring plug i had forgotten to plug in properly in my haste to get it all up and running Once plugged in i restarted and “BINGO” it idled perfectly! dead smooth to boot, snapped the throttle open – no problem – straight to the redline without any hesitation.The mixture even appears to be about right turning the plugs a nice tan colour even when left to idle for ages with no throttle being applied.

Next stage is to modify the wiring harness yet further so as to fit it to a vehicle for testing – most likely my Coupe – this is the only way to make sure everything works properly by actually road testing it. In the near future i intent to use one of the aftermarket injection/ignition ECU's like the “Megasquirt” to suit the characteristics of my engine. Lets see if i can surprise my doubters by taking the car to a Lancia meet some time this summer! Also see lanica beta flywheel assembly page

Watch The Video Below to See for Yourself

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