new member saddened by the death of motor

[tattooinfiat]

hi there i am a new member to this forum i have been reading it for about 9 months now though..i have a 1977 fiat 124 1800 spider..i love it in short..purchased it for 1800 from a teenage girl and have drove it everyday since..till 2 days ago..but ill get to that in a minute..i have takin lovin care of it and thanks to all of you on this forum have been able to learn some of the special maint. these cars require..i ordered the new rota wheels from Mark they should be here on mon or tues..yay..howeve jus one day after contacting mark for the first time and ordering these wheels the motor killed its self..no really ill post pics soon when i figure out how..but it went clankety clang..i shut it off..about an hr later i retreived a crushed up con rod and beleive it or not a big chunk of what i belive to be auxillary drive shaft?>? ..yea really..ill post pics its rediculous..anyway im here im hooked and i wont let a lil thing like this slow me down i will fix this car n drive it again..any help will be appreciated along the way..as now that i have to pull motor i am destined to learn even more about these cars..maybe more that i wanted to..lol...i have been in contact with mark to arrange another motor build..the problem is that i am in georgia and mark is in cali..shipping costs ahhhhhhhhhh....if any of you know a place in georgia to get these workd on other than pep boys..(that was a joke)..please let me know..i also will have lots of parts for sale as i am replaceing most under the hood..most will be cheap or free..jus to help anybody that needs them..ok thats prolly a long enough post for my first one hope itas not to long or riddled with bad spelling for you guys ...thanks for havin me in your forum and i look forward to learning all ican from all of you and hopefully can give bak when any of you need it

[baltobernie]

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. On the bright side, a decent used motor will cost less than a set of wheels. I'm sure you'll be back up and running in no time. Keep us posted, and if you can't find a motor locally, PM me.

[narfire]

Great you have enjoyed your fiat, bummer about the engine "grenading"
Yes another engine is the quick way to get you back on the road. I'd think there would be another engine about, even a long block as the single plane intakes usually are a sought after item. Too bad you're not near here , I have a decent 2L on a stand getting dusty.
Good luck and feel free to post a pic or two.
Chris

[tattooinfiat]

im not sure what you mean when u say single plane? van u break that down for a dummy like me to know?

[kmac33]

I'm sorry to hear about your motor imploding. You can get back on the road most quickly by finding a used motor to swap in. Any decent shop could handle the swap. Or you could take this opportunity to build a really nice performance motor.
As for "local" shops, there is Southside Fiat (south of Atlanta) or Dave Weaver in Buford. Dave is not real easy to get in touch with though.

[TulsaSpider]

Sorry to hear that! But you have the right attitude! There seem to be a good community in that area! Too bad Bayless isn't still there!
Welcome and best of luck!