[iachella]

Hey Biba:

The Alfetta pulls very nicely through the whole range. Yes, I'd do it again. You are familiar with my issues from other posts. I have some pictures to update my hood clearance problem post soon. My body shop essentially cut off the mounting point to the hood stay catch and flipped it upside down and rewelded it. It is now recessed and he says the hood closes now no problems. We have also removed the torsion spring and I'll be lifting the hood up with my Alfa-male strength. I'm also hoping that the body vibrations I'm feeling are the engine shaking the hood transmitting through the body. I'm looking for a smoother feel when I get it back from the body shop.

There is one thing that is disappointing me, though. As I rev up the engine and let out the clutch to pull away, the response is very strange and I haven't gotten used to it. It seems to rev so quickly when not loaded, that I can't seem to make it catch and pull away smoothly. I sometimes almost stall the the car, or as it is catching, it revs up too quickly and burns the clutch. I feel like an idiot teenage who can't get a clutch right. Maybe that's how VVT system behaves and I just need more time to get used to it?? I'd driven it around for over 2 months straight after I got a good fuel pump in and that wasn't enough to get completely used to it. It's been in the body shop for a week or so and I've been driving the 74 GTV with the Norman head and Ingram euro cam, and while not more powerful, the launch is so linear that I felt so comfortable, like putting on an old glove.

I never updated any post about the fuel pump, and I should look for that to keep things straight and where they belong to help people searching (I don't think a little overlap is bad, but I do think a purposeful thread should be kept up to date) but I ended up just using one fuel pump. It has been said to get the intank pump and an inline pump. The Alfetta tank feeds from the bottom, so I didn't think it was all that critical to leave off the in-tank pump, since the reason seemed to be delivering the fuel to the in-line pump. I put in an MSD #2225 pump capable of 40-45 psi and I haven't had any problems. I've even run very low in fuel and then did a couple of high rev pulls on a long hill with no problems.

If I ever have to rebuild the thing, I will do some of the tricks to it. Maybe a different piston, and valves, and certainly different cams and then change out the stock injection for something that can take advantage of those changes. No need to make the plans yet, there may be more information available when that happens. I'll just do the research when the time comes. I will probably source a TS155 8V head while I wait and use that instead.