I have just sent this little project on its way back to Brisbane, It belongs to an old friend and customer of mine that sheer luck had our paths cross again after not being in contact for around 22 years. He drove the car down from Brisbane at Christmas for me to rebuild the engine and check it out to see what else needed doing. The funny thing was it arrived here in Canberra after 1300 odd km on the road, and then would not restart. NRMA guy finds that the fibre block on the two piece points has broken and fallen down into the dizzy. A trip to Autopro to match it found the closest this was two piece Mercedes points. I modified to suit and Voila, the car lived (later I found a new genuine set of Bosch two piece points in the map pocket... :o). He drove it to my place and left it with me asking if I could get it done by Alfesta... No worries... :)
Closer inspection found the vehicle was showing all its 450,000 km and was in dire need of TLC. Particularly on the mechanical side. I think the question should have been: "What doesn't need doing?"
I'll split it up to briefly show the process.
The under bonnet was complete but pretty ugly. Initially, it was going to be a scrub and a blow of paint. Unfortunately I did not take a before picture with engine in. After in the end, just the fuel line, brake line to the rear brakes and the wiring harness remained.
Pretty rust free, considering its a QLD car. But the usual chassis cracks. Some bits went off for bling :D.
More...
More...
Parts started rolling in... 8). And them more and more... I would get texts saying, I just thought I would get this, and that... and another package from Classic Alfa would be on my doorstep. I gave up taking photos.
Engine bits from Paul Spruell. The pistons and one of the camshaft took ages to arrive. Something to do with the entire transport system being shut down because of blizzards.
I must email Paul and ask if this green thing is some new experimental performance Alfa part he put into the box as a bonus ???. Oh well, Angus my labrador likes it.
Gearbox was changing well, but pulled it down to reseal. He;s been very king to this since I did the synchros back in about 1990. Only one bearing required replacement.
The steering box needed the usual. Top and bottom bushes, bottom enf of the worm ground, and setting up. Luckily, absolutely no cracks in the casting.
Only two wearing suspension components were not replaced with new, The two bushes at the front of the "T" arm. However, one of these was cactus, and I found a good second hand part with good bushes.
I made one error. I checked the camber before disassembly, and found the camber was within 1/4 degree. So I did not get adjustable top arms knowing that the car will not be used for any serious track work. The camber ended up being about 3/4 different :-\. Not good enough for this little black duck even though the car steered perfectly. So I took it on the chin and got a camber arm for the side with less negative and set it to equal the side with more.
This is where we went a little non-standard: mild cams, bigger valves (45* seats), mm 11.5:1 pistons (1824 cc), Mild P&P head etc. Emphasis on a torquey midrange with plenty up top.
The engine shop stuffed the liners trying an "easier way" to bore and hone than they had done for me successfully at least half a dozen times before. I had to make a boring and honing jig for them to avoid another stuff up. I had to raid a spare engine for another set.. I will keep the stuffed set if I need to do an engine with mm bores.
Vehicle still has its original engine and head. I discovered something I did not know: series 1 ports are heaps smaller than series 2... Man, there was some aluminium flying that day!
There was some odd corrosion (looked like erosion) on the exhaust side of the coolant passages of the head. It took the engine a few goes to weld it without pits. Little corrosion elsewhere :o.
Pics:
And:
The finished product.
At AutoItalia. I even made sure I put a factory looking run in the engine bay paint and the lube sticker is stuck on a bit crooked ;D.
190 odd hours of work and three and a half months later, MY GTV gets its home (and maybe some attention) back.... soon.
Turned out brilliantly. Hope to see it on the streets around Brissie soon! :)
Beauty! Will you bring it to the Alfesta show'n'shine?
Yes, just look for it and the guy that doesn't look like he will fit into a 105 coupe. Last text yesterday, he was in Tamworth.