[85sprint]

anyone know a good alfa mechanic in adelaide??? looking for a rebuild of a 1.5 twin carb, i have some new parts (gasket set, bearings, etc)including some 1.7 pistons that i'm thinking of using, but no time to do it myself . any help would be greatly appreciated as i have been sitting on this for two years and all i want to do is drive the thing, after i've fitted a nice exhaust of course.

 

[85sprint]

well i've pulled the heads off, as well as anything else that got in the way, found something very interesting, the heads are quite chocked with carbon deposits but the the cylinder bores are perfect, and when i say perfect i mean they still have the honing marks on them. So what now?? fit new rings and hope for the best or get a precautionary hone on the bores, just in case. btw the reason for the rebuild was a case of extreme accidental over revving (off the clock) when throttle jammed wide open mid gear change, it straight away had a ticking noise that would only appear when engine was warm to hot. i suspected a cracked ring as a bent valve should tick when cold as well. oh well out with the pistons and see what we find.

 

[77SudTi]

Did you phone my recommended mechanic? Did he persuade you to do it yourself? He does that, here I am close to 8 years since I phoned him and I can pull a boxer engined car down with 3 spanners thanks to that man...
the ticking nose I would suggest would be valve train related.

well while its out you could inspect the bearing shells for any uneven wear, have a look at the thrust washer to see if the previous owner sat with his foot on the clutch at the traffic lights, maybe check the end float of the crankshaft.

If your going to replace the rings you may as well give the bores a lick with a hone just to be sure they do a good job of bedding in. If your taking all the internals out you may as well have them balanced (I was amazed at how much of a difference in weight between parts there was, and a strange slight vibration at 3000rpm is now gone) and if your keen and you machinist is too, about 900gm to 1kg can be removed from the flywheel...certainly made my 1.7 a bit more eager. Try Chris Milton engine developments on main north Rd, near Scottys motel...brilliant machinists, you get what you pay for.

 

[85sprint]

yup i phoned your recommended mechanic and he was full of good ideas as what to do and not do, i also phoned a mechanic that i knew from when i was in the alfa club. He had some similar ideas and some diff, anyway the heads i'm sending away to be rebuilt and get the ports polished and match ported to the inlet manifold, i am also toying with the idea of some warm cams, the guy that i know has some in his workshop but they are of the twin lobe style, i wonder if i could use them with the 40mm valves from the later engine, late model heads with early model cam boxes, are the valves the same length???

 

[77SudTi]

sounds good thus far. A port job will be a good start. Cams will definitely boost performance. A mate of mine had cams on his 1.5 and it made a heck of a difference, absolute screamer of an engine, sounded awesome. He sold the car and the new owner wrote it off, i could put you in touch with him as he still has the engine and he'd probably sell the cams on. The cams were the single lobe type and were re profiled by a company in Melbourne that do a lot of V8 Supercar cams.
I'm not sure if the valves are any different, I would suppose that they are the same as the heads aren't any different between models, so valves should be the same length.
If the guy with the twin lobe cams is who I think he is, I wouldn't mind getting the data off you/him before you put them in your car as I was looking to have a copy of those cams made for my Sud project, I believe they are a Colombo Borriani cam, and last time I asked were strictly NOT for sale.

Keep in touch, Id like to see how your project develops!

 

[85sprint]

in fact he has two pairs of cams, both twin lobe, i know that one set is a copy that he had made up by wade cams, i think he said they were to autodelta specs but i may be wrong. i found on the net a while ago that piper and tornado cams do cams for the sud/sprint/33 but i dont know anything about them as far as performance, maybe someone from the u.k. can comment on them????

 

[85sprint]

just looked up wade cams in victoria, they have four profiles to choose from, anyone used or know of anyone that has used these????

 

[budweiser_sud]

Colombo and Bariani still exist and were/are the original camshaft manufacturer for Autodelta (at according to all the magazines and books I've read). See Colombo & Bariani: alberi a camme dal 1934 for their Alfa Romeo listings. 1.7L 8V and 16V cars are catered for.

 

[85sprint]

cheers for that, i've had a look and printed out the specs, at first glance they have a lot more lift than the other ones.

 

[joes33ti]

i got wade cams

hi im from adelaide, my 33 is 1.5 at da moment, cams are stage 3, ported heads, 40mm inlet valves they needed shims, 40 mm idf carbs needs to be jetted still but pulls really well, spare 1.7 lying around at home in bits.

I personally wouldnt bother with a performance 1,5 start with 1.7 very mild specs, it would perform very well.

neways keep us posted!

 

[85sprint]

i did consider a 1.7 for a while, i looked all over oz and could not find a 1.7 twin carb. so i bought the last set of 1.7 pistons from the spare place with the idea of boring the 1.5 out to create a 1.6. i had been told that this worked a treat and was very revvy. however i have now come to the conclusion that i want something reliable and easy to get parts for, so i am going to stick with the 1.5 and warm it up a bit.
the sump is off and one piston is out, i was surprised to find a crossed drilled crank, i was led to beleive that it was only the early suds that had these?????

 

[Greek]

I am in the same situation and boring 1.5 is not a good option as i have read in various posts because the engine tends to break due to thin layers. I will use the engine of a 1.7 and heads of 1.5 for the same results..

 

[77SudTi]

i was surprised to find a crossed drilled crank, i was led to believe that it was only the early suds that had these?????

I have heard differing accounts ie only Ti Suds got cross drilled cranks or the early cars didn't/did, all of which are unfounded.

I think all the boxer cranks are cross-drilled, from beginning to end of production, atleased all the ones Ive seen. Even my 1.7 is.

 

[85sprint]

update, heads have been ported and two new valves fitted (the ticking noise was two very slightly bent valves), all valves were lapped in. As for cams, well the cost compared to performance compared to how much i am prob going to dive when finished equals no cams, we were quoted around the $700 mark. On the plus side picked up a set of ansa extractors. The block is stripped and awaiting to be sonic tested and bored to fit 1.7 pistons.

 

[85sprint]

further updates, the block has been sonic tested then rebored so that the wall thickness is as close to even as possible (1.7 pistons going in) also had it decked to up the compression ratio, unfortunately the locating dowles got damaged on removal so have to find new ones or make new ones. Just have to finish lightning and polishing the rods then it will be time to put back together. Just looking into what to do about the oil sump, do i baffle existing, enlarge existing or run tubes from heads to sump, or all three, decisions decisions, any other ideas anyone????

 

[85sprint]

some pics of progress

 

[85sprint]

more pics, rods were lightened and balanced, pistons balanced within .3 of a gram

 

[85sprint]

nearly completed

 

[85sprint]

engine completed and in, once i got the leads in the right order (doh got 2 and 4 crossed) she fired up no worries. Its done about 70km so far and no issues which is a relief, so its about time to start thinking exhausts

 

[Paolobuchberger]

Well done.

Great stuff!

Certainly brings back pleasant memories of the rebuilding process.
So you have it in the car? I assume you are putting in the exausts in the photo's? What kind of benefit do those extractors give?

Paolo