[Alfisto Steve]

God Bless my Son. We had a second day of Father-Son bonding as the 86Maser BiTurbo Converible Saga continues. At least he drove his 164S over to work on Maser. Reason for a second day in same week is he didn't have to work overtime for once in a long long time this weekend and my daughter's soccer team had an open weekend this weekend so we got an 8 a.m. start on Biturbo.

As you can see by pictures his Green 164L Rescue project and my Rosso 93L Rescue project and his 164S have his Maser surrounded.

Interesting Maser project as I mentioned before he found it when working in Hawaii, bought it, shipped it to Long Beach in 2000 and had it trucked across USA to Right Coast about 7 years ago but until this year it has been in que for timing belt change since it has only 48k on odometer but with no real history of a belt change. He last drove it gingerly some in 2003. Until this year when he changed career paths/companys he has been a field service technician for an Austrian Company with an USA local site but always out of state 75-85% of year in CA, Canada, Mexico, etc,. so cars always on back burner.

I finally got him into the 164 with a white one owner running 164L after he bought the non-running green ebay 164L now running after 12 valve replacement rescue project but with now weak lower end. Then he picked up the running 164S ebay running project with a 5k engine overhaul by original owner (nice hot car).

He has a running 85 Maser Biturbo coupe he alternates between driving the 92L and 91S to work.


Anyway, Maser started today with little drama after he reset dizzy one tooth after we did timing belt, cam boxes, valve shims, retofitted to 85 non-progressive 2 barrell pollution MAD dual 42 Weber and intake manifold (another story with valve shim and cam box compressible gasket) aka NIGHTMARE.

Anyhow Maser has (had) pre cats in Y-pipe off exhaust manifolds and then big cat. we got it started and running in a choking mode so he pulled main one big Cat and we found much of pre cats "beds" in big cat inlet.

Guess once he gets remains of failing pre cats cleared out of pipes we maybe on to closing up intake turbo box over carb and reinstalling exhaust system next Thursday.

Did I mention earlier how I feel about Maser engineering of the early to mid 80's as compared to Alfa (Fiat) engineering of mid to late 80s early 90s?

 

[AlexGS]

Interesting story.
I'm sure this is a really well-made and nicely-built car, but - carburettors and catalytic convertor... ?! Pressurised carburettors for turbocharger... I heard of that on a Lotus but... well, I think fuel injection was the way to go even in early 80's. After all, the FIATs had fuel injection by the end of the 70s. And those are FIATs, not Maserati...! My '88 Uno of course has the kind of fuel injection setup that I would expect, so I'm quite a convert to fuel injection these days even though dual 40 DCNFs served me well on my 128.

I happen to really like the way the 164 is made (and the other Type 4 cars like my Thema; can't think of any other car on which I could have removed complete air-conditioning setup (condensor, compressor, evaporator) from one car without disconnecting and fit to another car with engine in place(without recharging), and it was fully operational. That's good design.)

But even so, I certainly respect the more exotic machinery for the cost-no-object engineering, and I have perhaps greater respect for those who work on them. It's just that it seems like a surprising combination of carbs/turbo/cat. convertor on the Maserati. Meanwhile, what was the Chrysler input in those vehicles? I seem to remember Jeremy Clarkson being unimpressed and dropping something very heavy on one.

Good luck with the replacement of the catalytic convertors - do you need them to pass the "smog checks"?

-Alex

 

[Alfisto Steve]

The Maser is an 86 and was smogged to death for US market with a progressive 32/36 Weber and screwball intake manifold like 79 Fiat 124-2000, 79 Brava and 79 Lancia Beta Zagato and coupes. Those models were real bast**d childs too for US market with 28/32 weber carb, vacuum valves, smog pump and EGR valve. Somehow luckily the Maser came without EGR valve.

We used to "downgrade" all those models with 75-78 intakes and real 32 webers but some people used 34 weber off 74 Fiat 124.

We also had a lot of 80 1/2 and newer Fiat Spiders, Bravas and Lancias with Bosch L-jetronic fuel injection. Lastest FI model I had was 87 Bertone X1/9.

I may not have alll my numbers right on the Fiats and Lancias as it has been so long ago.

I was driving a tricked out 76 Lancia Scorpion (Monte Carlo) with 40-80-80-40 cams, dual Weber 42 DCNFs and Anza Snake exhaust when the 91 164 came out and I remember driving that Silver Scorpion into new car lot in mid 1990 where a silver 164 was on display.

That was when I knew I was going to buy a 164 and finally did buy my originale 164B ALFA 4ME in Feb 1991. It is still going strong.

As for Maser in 87 they finally went to fuel injection. We have downgraded this 86 model with an 85 intake and real 36 Weber. Looks like we may also have to rebuild/replace left turbo as it is pumping oil out air box intake pipe (outlet).

My son is going to check his parts stash for good precat header pipe and cat plus look at whether his spare turbos are correct for this 86 as his stuff is all pre-86. We dfo not need precats for state inspection so may just finished gutting remains that didn't already find their way into inlet of main cat. Front of cat bed starting to go on main cat too so may have to go with a new aftermarket one with newer technology.

Just like Alfas you can never have too many spart parts or maybe even more so with Maseratis.