After doing half a dozen of gearboxes, dropping a number of subframes and body work Claire thought it a good idea to inspect the crankshaft bearings of her engine. The manual says it should be done every 100.000 km. It is also a very good idea to do immediately if you buy a Fulvia.
Sure enough, main bearing nr 2 was on copper. And she found all the main bearings to be 020 undersize, big end 1 and 2 are 010 while 3 and 4 are 030. Also wear on all other bearings but none of them destructive. Obviously the engine has a story to tell. She decided to completely disassemble the engine.
Claire did not find any wear to speak of on the cilinder bores. Honing and new (state of the art of course) piston rings is all that is required for that section.
The water channels are clean. Very clean. No deposit, no rust. Like new.
Strange yollowish deposit on pistons and valves. Probably from a lead replacement additive which I don't like anyway.
Valves ok. Seats ok. Guides ok but no seals (as normal in 1971). We will put in austenitic valves anyway with new guides and seals.
So Claire is faced with the situation that some of the crankshaft bearings are on 3rd undersize while the cilinders, pistons, valves and guides have no wear to speak of. And no deposit in the water channels.
The rotors of the oil pump are reasonable, a clearance of 0,15. The book specifies a max allowed clearance of 0,12. Still, the 0,15 is not bad as on other engines we rebuild the clearance is usually over 0,20. However, the max allowable clearance over the top of the rotors is 0,05 mm. The gasket for the cover has a thickness of 0,10 mm which is way too much.
There is more measuring and investigation to do. I will post it here. In any case Claire made the right decision to take the engine apart.