[Alfisto Steve]

Thank God [again] It's Fixed! Tranny governor seal's repair on Friday was not enough for my 91 164L 12v Black Beauty.

http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/164-168-1991-1995/180267-tgif-my-91-164l-t-governor-seals.html

Radiator has been leaking when cold over night for a couple weeks.

So today after church I swapped in a 24v radiator conversion I had in my daughter's wrecked 164B. Didn't have a good uninstalled 12v radiator in my spares.

Everything was moving right along until I found A/C line from compressor to condensor had a new end fitting on end going to condensor in front of radiator that would not clear wider 24v radiator left side tank.

So I had to discharge A/C freon, replace line with correct orignal line and recharge Freon.

Needless to say extra innings were required to complete the job. So not only was a cool R&C toddy for the body required after post op but a soak in the long ago repaired doing my own warranty hot tub was in order before din din followed by a copious amount of Ibuprofen.

Now recovering with a cup of cafe chasing down some oatmeal cookies.

I may need a day off from retirement tomorrow to recover but I have to take a trailer load of shrubbery and tree cuttings to the dump in the morning to free up my truck and trailer.

 

[donliznev]

Steve,

Although not joyous your weekend sounds a lot better than mine.

I spent about 12 hours in all trying to remedy a rough idle and lack of power on daily driver Bella.
12 Hours that could have been spent on the Jenny/Donor merger in progress - imagine what I could have done there.

Using this FORUM's extensive advice I checked all electrical, timing and fuel specifications.
All checked out fine except the timing had jumped 10 degrees (2 teeth?) on the front CAM when rear CAM was at TDC.
I also found a major crack in the distributor cap which is now discarded.

I cannot remember having done anything stupid enough to cause the timing belt to jump teeth?

The T-belt tensioner is fine, and was right on its mark when I dismantled everything.
After swapping parts between the other good donor Alfa which ran very sweet until switch off about a month ago the rough idle and lack of power persists.
Timing has been reset and tuning improved somewhat, but my initial joy was dampened during a test drive on I295.

So back to basics.
Fuel pressure is good.
New plugs (Champion 415's).
Swapped:

Fuel regulator.
Coil.
Rotor.
Distributor.
HT leads.
AFM big rubber intake hose.
Entire AFM unit.​

Cleaned:

AFM plugs
Injector plugs​

Checked:

Brake servo pipe to plenum.
All rubber vacuum hose.​

Denial:

Head gasket
Valves​

Finally I pulled the intake runners and fuel injectors in desperation.
That was probably a mistake (or not) as one of the injectors finally came out minus the end cap which had dropped into the valve chamber which was fortunately closed......a heart stopping moment.

The injectors will thus have to go to Rich in Michigan, but I don't know if they are the source of the persistent rough idle.
The FORUM maintains that 164 injectors are rarely cause of any problem - I should probably have left those alone.

To cap it all the ODY (trusty minivan) rear tire was almost flat when I pulled it around for use during the week since Bella is now grounded.
Roofing nail.....I will be at the local tire shop at 7am in the "trusty" Neon and wearing dark sunglasses....

Hooo boy what a weekend and what a week ahead.

Ta,

Neville.

 

[Richard2]

My weekend being Fri and Sat was spent Removing the Heat and Glo Propane fireplace insert and pulling the Aluminum Flue gas line. I'm putting in a pellet stove which reqires a stainless steel flue pipe. No one in this neck of the woods seems to insulate the flue pipe, but sounds like a great idea to me, so will have to order a kit before installing the SS flue liner. Sat was spent on Red 164S...see Hot or Not post This evening after work managed an hour in the greenhouse dismantling the floor. Greenhouse is being moved to new house.

 

[jc96]

Using the word "sucked" is firmly with a warm smile. Thought my weekend sucked but yous guys had it great compared to mine. We finally got the keys to our new hamlet which is 60 odd yrs old and I spent the weekend help the "wifette" do that thing called "nesting". You know, where they run around like the insane creatures they can be figgerin out where what's gonna go for the umpteenth 1000th time, what color towels match the bidet, why this switch controls this and yada yada yada. Kinda weekend where I wanna turn myself in to the ASPCA. No one would claim me in the requisite 2 weeks and we know what happens then. I'd rather have done something stoopid on the Alfa which required me to lie on my back in a puddle (did I mention that it poured yesterday and God forbid I get "wetprints" on the floor of the new house) and freeze my royal nennies off. Oh well, today is a new day, a bit cool, bright sun and I'm off to bag groceries, fill the car with 8 dollar a gallon equiv of diesel and then drag myself along to go to the dietician with Susan, look at little "housey" things for the new yard and then who knows. Maybe the flu guy needs help. Might even pay for the kit!!! Ciao, a great day to all. Chris

 

[Alfisto Steve]

Steve,

Although not joyous your weekend sounds a lot better than mine.

I spent about 12 hours in all trying to remedy a rough idle and lack of power on daily driver Bella.
12 Hours that could have been spent on the Jenny/Donor merger in progress - imagine what I could have done there.

Using this FORUM's extensive advice I checked all electrical, timing and fuel specifications.
All checked out fine except the timing had jumped 10 degrees (2 teeth?) on the front CAM when rear CAM was at TDC.
I also found a major crack in the distributor cap which is now discarded.

I cannot remember having done anything stupid enough to cause the timing belt to jump teeth?

The T-belt tensioner is fine, and was right on its mark when I dismantled everything.
After swapping parts between the other good donor Alfa which ran very sweet until switch off about a month ago the rough idle and lack of power persists.
Timing has been reset and tuning improved somewhat, but my initial joy was dampened during a test drive on I295.

So back to basics.
Fuel pressure is good.
New plugs (Champion 415's).
Swapped:

Fuel regulator.
Coil.
Rotor.
Distributor.
HT leads.
AFM big rubber intake hose.
Entire AFM unit.​

Cleaned:

AFM plugs
Injector plugs​

Checked:

Brake servo pipe to plenum.
All rubber vacuum hose.​

Denial:

Head gasket
Valves​

Finally I pulled the intake runners and fuel injectors in desperation.
That was probably a mistake (or not) as one of the injectors finally came out minus the end cap which had dropped into the valve chamber which was fortunately closed......a heart stopping moment.

The injectors will thus have to go to Rich in Michigan, but I don't know if they are the source of the persistent rough idle.
The FORUM maintains that 164 injectors are rarely cause of any problem - I should probably have left those alone.

To cap it all the ODY (trusty minivan) rear tire was almost flat when I pulled it around for use during the week since Bella is now grounded.
Roofing nail.....I will be at the local tire shop at 7am in the "trusty" Neon and wearing dark sunglasses....

Hooo boy what a weekend and what a week ahead.

Ta,

Neville.

I didn't mean to start any bad luck for you but you need some good luck.

Hope you can retrieve injector pintle cap from intake port.

Once that is done I would do a compression test on front head first off to verify timing jump did not kiss a valve and piston together for loss of compression.

The dog and I had an early start this morning. Old age and bladder control got us going but we both made it to the proper elimination stations in a timely manner.

 

[donliznev]

Hope you can retrieve injector pintle cap from intake port.

This was no problem as the valve happened to be closed so I could reach in with a glob of grease on the end of a piece of wire to collect the pintle cap.

Once that is done I would do a compression test on front head first off to verify timing jump did not kiss a valve and piston together for loss of compression.

I should have done this before removal of the injectors but totally forgot about the possibility of a bent valve.
Next step is to purchase a compression tester as my old one which I have not used in 20 years is not long enough.

If a valve(s) is bent it will leave me with 3 broken Alfa's......most embarrassing.

I will also have to establish what caused the T belt to jump teeth or it will happen again.

 

[Richard2]

Are you running a mechanical tensioner? Check the back for a broken spring.

 

[donliznev]

Yes tensioner is mechanical and about 10K old.
It seemed fine when I reset the timing which I thought would resolve the rough idle.
As the engine runs I can see that the timing marks line up nice and steady on the tensioner.
The belt was not slack when I originally dissembled.....

I am wondering if the A/C compressor seized momentarily to cause the belt to jump.
The compressor pulley turns freely and felt smooth when turned by hand with the belts off.
All the pulleys felt OK for that matter.

I have yet to go out and purchase a compression tester but I am almost resigned to the fact there must be a bent valve or two.....

 

[Alfisto Steve]

A/C compressor isn't going to have any effect on engine timing belt tiiming.

 

[dennism]

Richard, I have installed a free-standing pellet stove. During the first season of operation, the efficiency of combustion slowly fell off. It was so slow I hardly noticed.

When the season was over, I decided to turn the stove a little to direct the hot air stream into the house a little better, so had to dismantle the flue. I was surprised to find about a foot(!) of ash in the flue at the bottom, made a helluva mess when I took the pipes apart. This stove has a fan-assisted combustion system, and apparently had been blowing the occasional piece of ash(...) out into the exhaust flue all season long.

Cleaned out and we were back to efficient operation again. I have done it a couple of times since, same problem.

So, I suggest when you create the flue, make a provision to take it apart occasionally, without undue trouble, because you're likely going to need it. YMMV, of course.

Back to Alfa discussion, sorry fellas!