[76Alfasud5M]

I'm in the process of rebuilding a 1.7 16V to stuff into my Series 1 berlina Sud and I now have to make a critical decision: Carbs or go with the stock Bosch fuel injection. I've read on the bb that the Bosch FI has an annoying problem of stumbling at low speed. I've also read that Alfa did a pretty good job of engineering the FI in the first place.

My goal is to build a car that is fast as hell, fun to drive and as reliable as possible. What do you guys recommend? And if it's carbs, which ones should I use for this motor and does anyone have the jetting specs?

 

[76Alfasud5M]

Thanks for the info. You can actually buy brand new manifold adapters designed to match webers to the 16V, but I agree about all of the extra work to jet it right. However, I am still going to deal with the nightmare of splicing the 16V harness into my older Alfasud, which will probably be more total hours of trouble. As for a new ECU, wouldn't that be a lot of work as well? And what brand of ECU would be worth adding to my car in order to improve on the stock Bosch system?

I've heard that www.squadra-tuning.com sells a reprogrammed chip for the 16V, although I'm not sure if they can improve the low speed stumbling issue. What do you think?

 

[76Alfasud5M]

Thanks for the info! What would be the advantage of removing the Bosch FI and going to the Marelli system? How much would it cost and will I get any better performance (and where do I buy it)?

As for the wiring, the stock harness is in excellent condition. I have the wiring loom that comes out of the computer from the Alfa 33 16V. I was just planning on adding the 16V harness to the existing car.

 

[76Alfasud5M]

What kind of exhaust mods are you talking about? I guess this opens up another thread, but I am considering the crossover exhaust that Ansa originally offered. I have pics and specs on it. My local exhaust guy can build the headers and the Ansa warehouse guy in Southern California said he can match the muffler and resonator to current Ansa catalog parts (the original crossover system is long out of production).

I've heard all sorts of claims about the crossover. Some say it reduces torque and increases HP. Some say it improves everything. Any ideas?

 

[76Alfasud5M]

The 16V headers were not included with the 16V engine I brought in from Germany. Besides, I'm stuffing it into a Series 1 'Sud berlina and keeping the inboard front disc brakes, so I'll have to build custom headers regardless. I figure that if I'm already making headers, I might as well build the best kind. Apparently, Ansa and Supersprint both built crossover exhausts for the 16V, so there is supposed to be a significant performance advantage to the system. I wonder if anyone else has any before/after stories about going crossover with a 16V?

 

[76Alfasud5M]

I agree with you that it's too much trouble to heavily modify the injected 16V and still keep the car streetable and relatively easy to drive. However, adding a turbo is another major project and there is limited room inside the Sud engine bay. Besides, with a good performance exhaust and some slight massaging during the engine rebuild (balancing, gasket matching and some basic headwork and manifold flowing), I should be in the 140 to 150 hp range. From what I hear, that is already plenty of power for a car that barely weighs more than 1900 pounds. I'm adding a Quaife limited slip diff to help put down the power and I've been told that any more hp would overwhelm the front wheel drive and upset the car's handling.

I've also heard that a K&N filter is a noticeable improvement over the stock filter box, yielding better throttle response a few more hp.

 

[76Alfasud5M]

I agree with Serpent 33. Anyone have ideas on a crossover vs. standard exhaust for the 16V? I thought it was better to match the cylinder outputs via the crossover and that Alfa simply matched the cylinders on the same size to save money.