Well, having had the Spider off the road for way too long and in between waiting for parts and diagnosis, idle hands are the devil's tools as they say. Couldn't help myself but to be a little creative in the engine bay of the twin spark.
I 've admired the way the V6 Alfa's have the polished intake runner, they really pop in the engine bay, so it got me thinking. My 916 is the CF1 designated TS and as such has the cast alloy intake plenum and rocker cover, not the modular plastic covered over by plastic.
Well painted up the rocker cover and did a little polish jobby on the intake tubes. Both fairly easy jobs. The polishing can be very laborious, but if you want a good job a few tools that most would have lying around is all that is required. I had a drill, dremmel, sander and an afternoon/evening of nothing to do. I only polished what was visible and on the tops I got a mirror finish. the hard to reach areas weren't as good, but if I had more time...
Anyhow, if you tackle this, it really is important to sand flat the surfaces and remove niks, scratches and pits for that mirror finish. Don't be too ham-fisted with the tools, you can't replace the alloy once its gone. Just be patient (unlike me) and use the grades of wet and/or dry sand paper to get your finish.
What do you think peoples...
More pics
more pics
I like it, and you have prob gained 25kw with the red rocker cover.
:)
Top job. Now you just have to polish the inside of the plenum for improved air flow. ;D
Looks amazing.
:)
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that. I put the car on the cool Jesus dyno and I swear it gave me an extra 30 ponnies ;D
Don't laugh I contemplated the plenum internals, at least to smooth out any sharp edges as that is suppose to help airflow. I did clean out the throttle body. Being carful not to change the size of where the plate mates up with the internal diameter. Did manage to smooth out some sharp edges both before and after the throttle plate and gave a little sanding. Left it rough though as I've read that air flows better with the roughness. An example is the dimples on a golf ball I guess, perhaps that is why the intake hose also has corrugations amongst letting it flex with engine revs.
Forgot to post the mirror finish photo. I'll put it up later but it's not bad for such little novice effort.
Here's the shot I forgot to add showing the mirror finish possible from just an afternoon of sanding and polishing. If you had a weekend to yourself, you could certainly get your fingers cramped up for a show quality result. You'll see some fine marks here and there on the tube in the photo which points out how important it is to get the surface smooth with wet sanding. Not sure why the photo is hazy, perhaps the lens may have been dirty, but the finish was actually crystal clear and brilliant.