Alfa Romeo Owners Club of Australia Forum

Technical => 116 Series (Alfetta Sedan/GT/GTV & Giulietta Sedan) => Topic started by: Alfapride on November 10, 2014, 08:05:05 PM

Title: Alfetta bosch distributor or 123 distributor
Post by: Alfapride on November 10, 2014, 08:05:05 PM
Hi all my distributor on the alfetta 84 with vaccum advance is on it's last legs and I'm hoping someone can advise if it's worth rebuilding the original bosch distibutor or upgrading to the 123 distributor? The 123 distributor sounds good with all it's advance curve options however it's pretty expensive. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated cheers!
Title: Re: Alfetta bosch distributor or 123 distributor
Post by: Cool Jesus on November 13, 2014, 06:54:35 AM
The 123 does appeal, I'm contemplating it with my rebuild. However, I'd consider what future you have for your pride and joy. A rebuild is certainly worth while and can be tweaked for better advance curves during the reconstruction. I agree the 123 is pricey, but you virtually do away with service items like the points and have some features to boot. So, again will you be taking advantage of these features with other engine modifications. I've since come across alternatives to electronic ignition also, can't recall the which dizzy it was, but it's off a rice burner and the cost would be comparative to the original unit being refurbished, only you get the benefits of electronic ignition. The track cars use the swap in their 105s to do away with the old points system. I'll see if I can dig it up, it's off a Suzuki, Camry or something like that.
Title: Re: Alfetta bosch distributor or 123 distributor
Post by: Alfapride on November 13, 2014, 09:16:38 AM
Thanks cool Jesus! I should have said at the start my Gtv already has the later electronic ignition with vaccum advance so my question really is would the 123 distributor be more superior than a refurbed original distributor? Are the extended advance curves better than the original one fitted? Alternatively are there any distributor specialist still out there that could build one to maximise performance for the 2 liter nord? Many thanks!
Title: Re: Alfetta bosch distributor or 123 distributor
Post by: tjb0274 on November 13, 2014, 12:39:31 PM
The extended curves in the 123 distributor include all the different "standard" curves for the various Nord engines, plus some of the performance curves from various sources (I think they have the Shankle one for e.g.).

Realistically you won't get much improvement from a performance curve without mods to the engine.

I ran the 123-Tune model (which you can plug into a PC and configure your own curves from scratch) in a stock 1750 engine for a couple of years, and after much experimentation I settled on the standard Bosch curve for the 1750, with a couple of degrees of advance at the top end and some mods around idle to cure a low-end flat spot.

Title: Re: Alfetta bosch distributor or 123 distributor
Post by: Alfapride on November 13, 2014, 07:56:54 PM
Cool! Sounds like it's best to refurb the original one then unless I decide to do more mods to the engine!

Can anyone recommend someone in Melbourne to recondition distributors??
Title: Re: Alfetta bosch distributor or 123 distributor
Post by: Cool Jesus on November 15, 2014, 01:42:02 AM
You could look into tuning your ecu along with the dizzy being rebuilt. Just a thought, and an ecu tune is only as good as the rest of the engine. So long as the internals are in good shape, you could dial it up for the best performance and mileage of what you currently have? just a thought? Dont even know if its possible, but Im thuinking the age of the Motronic? would lend itself to tuning.