3.0 build - starting from scratch

[Al Campbell]

Had never been a fan of crinkle on the cam covers & plenum but that does look rather good! Nice one dude!

[alfagtv152]

Hi Marty,
I thought about leaving off the cam belt covers but while working on the engine I dropped one of the nuts from the inlet manifold
and it went straight down the belt to the crank pulley,that changed my mind. I now think that without the cam belt covers anything that gets flicked up or falls down is going to go straight around the crank pulley and wreck the timing belt,you know what that means!!!!!.
Cheers
Andrew

[martym00se72]

She lives!

Sort of anyway. No exhaust on and no radiator in but had to crank her over to see what is what (figured there is no point putting that in/on if it all turns to shite when I turn the key...). Attempt 1 at 11:45 Tuesday night yielded nothing more that 1 cylinder firing once before the battery decided it had been unloved for long enough and would go flat. Neighbors probably would agree with the battery I suppose... Unburned fuel leaking down from the plenum - so CSI is working! Changed the timing (rotated dizzy clockwise some - is that advancing or retarding the timing? I figure advancing...) and after much cranking she fired and ran, sputtering, for about 5 seconds before dying.

This is the bit that I am really uncertain about - the spanners were (in retrospect) the easy bit. Getting her to properly run is now a bit intimidating. Anyone got any pointers? I started out with the dizzy lined up #1 plug lined up with #1 lead connection to centre lead in a straight line. From there it is all guess work in my book...

Will bolting on the exhaust help get her running? Now that I know turning the key won't result in valves meeting pistons inappropriately, I will plumb in the cooling now too.

[martym00se72]

Its in and it runs! Idling a bit highand seems to be surging at idle - unsure why. I had to disconnect the CSI as that was flooding the engine. Not sure what to do about that yet - need to do some research I suppose.

However. In running it yesterday, I have found that the head shop did a shithouse job in replacing the cam oil seals and that there were spots of oil flinging off the cam wheels all over my nice clean engine bay. At first I thought it was the detensioner but turing off the shed lights and using a torch soon showed me. To say I am pissed & bummed at the same time is an understatement. So frigging close! So I am now tossing up whether I take it to a work shop to get it sorted or do it myself...

I lost a few hours sleep last night over this one     How easy is the job to do this?

[TimD]

Good to hear she is running Marty! I left my CSI disconnected and did not miss it over winter.

I have had a surging problem twice, both were easy to fix once I found out the cause. The first time it was the connector to the throttle position sensor. The pins had pulled out of the plug and were shorting. The second time was a bit trickier to find; It was the electrical connector to the AAV. It was not heating up and was staying open allowing lots of unmetered air into the intake. The reason it was hard to find was because the AAV appeared to function correctly when I put it in the oven. The electrical connector just helps it warm up quicker. To check if the AAV is the problem, just throttle the vacuum line from the AAV to the intake.

That sucks about the cam seals, but now you mention it, I reckon my mechanic said mine were not installed properly when he reset the valve clearances. I would not recommend those blokes to do any assembly.

[martym00se72]

Well, I took her into Eurosport last week - I couldn't work out the tuning and she had a missfire that I couldn't diagnose. Plus Peter also filled me in that the gasket set you typically pick up does not have the required O-rings for the cam hubs so he sorted them out and they found that one of my reco'd injectors was FUBAR, hence the missfire. When in doubt - take it to a pro. She is now an absoloute ball tearer! LOVE the extra torque. So far babying it and only going to 4k (Ok, ok 4.5K if you must know... can't help it

Just need to sort the exhaust - started removing the welds from my previous exhaust job but then got informed by the exhaust shop that it would be better to bring it in with as is rather than in bits. I am getting flange joints between the headers and mid section which was previously welded (and a PITA to get off and on again). I had applied some muffler putty but it has been blown out mostly so sounds a bit tractor like at low revs but when the welly is in, it sounds pretty good.

Also the spot where the previously unidentified sensor at the back of the passenger side head is leaking oil. I tried fitting the sensor, once identified, and it didn't seem to seal up. Instead, I made a small stud. That didn't work aparently so I have a little work to do there...

But what's an old Alfa without some work to do on it...