South African 3 Litre GTV6

[GG105]

Had intentions of taking the GTV6 to Auto Italia. However, the car had other ideas, specifically the immobiliser failed and of course I couldn't start it. With hindsight, I should have removed it when the car was being rebuilt, but there were so many other things to fix that this slipped through. So I took my faithful Giulia instead.

It has now been removed and I took it for a run yesterday. The power steering transforms the car. It steers nicely, and in combination with the ball joint risers, you're not aware of the extra weight in the front, as with my previous 2.5s. Ride is good, its noisier than my previous cars, mainly I think because of the extractors, intake noise isn't pronounced. I owned a 2300S Fiat for some years, vintage to drive but the intake noise from the twin 38mm Webers was fantastic.

Apart from some trim that needs tidying, theres only one major job to do, the dreaded Alfetta tailshaft vibration. Its not bad, but its there. We chased this for months in my previous car.

Other than this, and a slightly lumpy idle from the big cams, it is very civilised. Now, if I could just find some bumpers that aren't warped

[GG105]

We continue to refine the GTV6. The interior is now finished. The SA cars have different seat runners to ours, when flipped forward they return to the original position. This leads to a complicated and very tall runner. We have removed these and reverted to the standard runners, thus lowering the seats, the height adjustment remains.

We have remade the sun visors, replaced the seat foam, while retaining the original covers, replaced the piping, installed the correct interior door handles (the drivers one was out of a Japanese car of some sort with a chrome handle!) and surrounds and made a dash mat and rear seat top cover.

I see some discussion about door seals elsewhere here. Those on my car are toast. I have been loathe to replace them as I couldn't close the doors on a previous GTV6. However, as they now yell at the interior, I have bitten the bullet and purchased a set from Elvizio in Italy. They don't have the flocking as per the originals, I'll report back on whether they work.

We've also been doing a fair bit of mechanical tidying. I have converted the car to isostatic, a bit tricky because of the different rear crossmember, but its done. The front half of the tailshaft proved to be bent (!). This was a mission to fix, I had to buy a complete shaft from a sedan and use the front half with the original rear half. Its now in and balanced. It has a new single plate clutch, which is not quite right as the takeup was very high. We're working on this.

We're not happy with the big cams that were in the car, they made the idle lumpy and low end smoothness was lost. Accordingly, we've ordered a set of Potenziata cams from Vin Sharp. These should sort this. New lower control arm bushes have also been installed, we missed this earlier.

And finally....the small triangular end piece was missing from the drivers side gutter mold. A complete replacement mold, with end piece, is on its way. Shipping is stupid expensive because of the length. I guess we could have cadded one but there it is.

I'll provide a full roundup when its done...

[GG105]

Hi all.

As I foreshadowed the car has been converted to Isostatic, a big improvement. We have installed potenziata cams which are friendlier than the ones that came in the car.

We've had lots of clutch problems, it seems the ones supplied by Sachs are not the same as the originals....

Finally however, its pretty much done. The combination of power steering, isostatic and ball joint risers has dealt with most of the classic GTV6 driving issues. Its grunty, quick and drives well and the sound is fabulous.

Of course, the replacement door seals are crap. I was assured they would work well, they don't.

Cheers
John

[MattGTV6]

I found a supplier for the original style velour backed door seals. I have 3 original 3l GTV6 myself.  Can discuss in a PM.

[GG105]

Had some issues with paint on the bonnet, solvent was bleeding through, also some filler on the drivers door. Both dealt with, the car looks fantastic.

True to form, this thing fights me all the way. Parked it to find a puddle of atf under the car. Turns out the seals on the powered rack have failed after less than 1,000 kms. Apparently this is a known problem. The rack and pump have gone back to QLD for new seals. Some suspicion the pressure relief valve in the pump may be faulty.

We also changed the cams back to 164Q items to make it behave better at idle and low speed, with a significant improvement, though not complete success. Long story short, apparently its about the need for carbureted engines to have cams to suck well. Injected engines don't have this requirement. We would like to obtain a set of cams from a Euro six carb Alfa 6 to see how the factory dealt with low speed smoothness and the transition from idle to the power circuit.

Its easy to see why Alfa went to injection on the V6. Given that these SA engines were race engines, general drivability wasn't important.

[GG105]

The power steering issue is sorted. Mick at Corse Automotive, perfectionist that he is, spent a lot more time on the carbs while he had the car, its now the best its ever been, the transition hesitation is gone, it starts better and is more lively.

I also went back to future. Each of the five Alfetta GTVs I've owned have had the original steering wheel, this one included. However, the addition of power steering to this car, has given me the opportunity to reconfigure the steering wheel position. As we all know there is no better illustration of the Italian ape driving position than an Alfetta GT/GTV. To get to the wheel you end up with your right knee under the armrest.

Because I have ps in this car, I can play with the wheel. We have put a slightly smaller smaller, 380mm wheel on as a test, with a longer boss and deeper dish. This allows me to get further away from the pedals with the wheel within reach. Its a great improvement, I just need a nicer wheel

Ignoring for a moment the six carbs, there are two things we've done that have transformed this car in ascending order, isostatic and power steer. This latter upgrade has allowed changing the driving position and transformed the car. Its now what the factory should have done.

[Anth73]

My GTV was fitted with a spacer by a previous owner which I'm thankful for. Despite my Italian heritage I'm proportioned in a most un-Italian way which generally means all modern cars I drive with telescopic steering adjustment has the steering wheel pulled out all the way.

Power steering from a 75 is on my upgrade list too. I just don't like the steering load during sharp cornering and the parking effort with the sports steering wheel and 205 tyres.

[GTVeloce]

I highly recommend the Nardi leather wrapped wheel. I have a dished version plus a boss that is slightly longer than standard. It is 360mm in diameter.

[LukeC]

Parked it to find a puddle of atf under the car. Turns out the seals on the powered rack have failed after less than 1,000 kms. Apparently this is a known problem.

This happen to mine too after I overhauled the rack... Not a big fan of additives, but thought I would try some Power Steer stop leak before pulling the rack.... 9,000 km later and not one drop!

[GG105]

Here is the dished 350mm temporary on the car. A big improvement, I'll get a permanent one.

[FredrikAssarsson]

Hi! Read through your thread and was quite interested because I've embarked on building an homage to Arnold Chatz' Berlina race car ('70-72) that won the African touring car championship.
(https://www.alfapower.nu/viewthread.php?tid=34903)

My version is going to have a 3.0 12v 75/Sei carburated Frankenstein engine though. Mostly for the fun of it. It's basically going to be a similar engine to your version of the SA 3.0 with 164Q cams and ported heads however I'm curious to know what size valves were used in your engine. All info online says "larger intake valves" but no info on which actual size so I'm asking: what's the size man? 

Also where did you source parts for the carbies? Any hints you can give to keep me from reinventing the wheel when I get my 3.0 to work on Sei heads and dellorto carbies?
What was the trick to start clearing up hesitation issues from idle to progression when using "funner" cams?

Love your build so keep it up!

[GG105]

Its hard to believe I've been working on this car for nearly four years.

The May progress post was a little premature . The car had a serious petrol smell and when driving with the window down fumes were coming into the cabin. This mean't the fuel tank had to come out again, we found a split hose on the seat side this time. This was a relatively simple fix.

I wasn't happy with the cams that we had in the car, I felt it ran too rich and the idle was too lumpy. We had them reground, again, to what we think is 164Q specs. This made a lot of difference, the car idles and runs smoother with no apparent loss of power. We were able to run smaller idle jets which seems to have cured the fumes.

Its been a mission to sort it, but I think we're there now, this is quite something considering I thought it was finished in December 2018...

Now to drive it.

[GG105]

From watching 1980s touring car racing, including GTV6s, reproduction Compomotive THs are now available from the UK. I've ordered a set of 7 and 8x15s for the GTV6. Saves the cost of restoring the factory wheels

Here is a photo.