festy's Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV

[festy]

Hey, I broke that two or three years ago - nothing to do with this conversion

[festy]

Almost there, but still a long list of fiddly little things to sort out before first start up

Exhaust is finished, but will probably need the hangers shuffling round a bit

exhaust.jpg

I finally made up a bracket for the FPR, but while doing that I noticed that the return hose was a bit sad looking. I'm not real impressed, that hose was only 2 or 3 years old

return_line2.jpg

I replaced it with braided hose, as well as the short line from the rail to the FPR.
While doing that I managed to strip the thread in the rail, so wasted a day turning up a new block and welding it to the fuel rail, then hunting down pinhole leaks over and over. It doesn't appear to leak up to about 70psi, so fingers crossed it won't need to come back off once I bring the rail up to pressure.

Re-locating the remote oil filter and cooler only involved making a new filter block bracket, re-routing one of the hoses, and changing one of the fittings from a straight to 90* hose end.

Getting close now...

almost.jpg

[VL400]

Looking good, the exhaust has turned out well.

That fuel return hose certainly didnt last!

[festy]

That fuel return hose certainly didnt last!

Not at all, considering the car has spent the entire time in the garage and the engine bay has never even got warm.
Maybe it perished from lack of use?
I think there might be a couple more pieces of the same hose in the boot, I'd better check those too...

[Holden202T]

not cool with the rail issues, but its now better

the exhaust looks like a periscope

lots of fiddly little bits, but its certainly getting there and looking the part

[j.k.QV]

Looking very nice - hope you get it started soon!
I have a question about the VSS corrector - are you planning on selling it? And do you think it could work for an Alfa 75 (I'm not sure what the signal is from the gearbox sensor)?
I have built and successfully tested in the last event my own regularity rally computer (Speed, time, distance), based on Arduino which works with an ABS signal converted from VR pickup to TTL, but my other instruments like Odometer and speedometer are quite inaccurate, so I would like to get them as close to precise as possible. Maybe your VSS corrector could help achieve it?

EDIT: Ah - found your VSS corrector in For Sale section.

[festy]

There are a few different types of VSS used in the Alfa transaxles.
Some came with simple VR sensors and relied on an amplifier box under the back seat, some came with VR sensors with inbuilt amplifiers, and some like the last Alfettas and Giuliettas had a reed magnet switch.

3 Sender Interiors and covers-speedo.jpg

Alfetta/Giulietta type:

116_vss.jpg

116_vss2.jpg

[festy]

Well, it's running now.
I found I'd warped the top flange on the dump pipe while welding it up, so spent the better part of a day pretending I was a blacksmith and forging it back into a circle shape, then re-boring the lip groove. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to save it so I ordered a replacement, knowing that once I'd payed for a new one, then I'd surely succeed in repairing this one

I had to modify the other end of the pipe because I'd positioned the v band directly under the cross member - which was fine, until I found there wasn't enough clearance for the clamp so I cut the flange off and extended the pipe to past the cross member.
Of course I somehow managed to warp that one too when re-welding it, but I was losing patience so just stuck it in the press and straightened it out in no time

After sorting a few bits and pieces it was ready for first start - well it started, but was spewing thick clouds of smoke out and would stall if I tried to lean it out at all. Later I had a look at the logs and immediately saw the problem:

smokey.jpg

At some point I'd swapped ECUs, and the memcal in this one didn't have a cylinder configuration set

Next attempt yesterday afternoon, it ran much better but after 15 minutes idling it overheated. I guessed a blown head gasket from when I loosened a couple of the head nuts to remove the timing cover, so re-checked the head torque (all as expected), pulled the spark plugs but couldn't see signs of coolant, so called it a day.
Going over the logs last night I noticed the thermo fan wasn't engaging - it was still set for 110* so this morning I set it to 90* and tried again, and after 20 minutes the engine was sitting at 85*

There's a few leaks I need to sort out - there's a fair bit of oil coming from either the timing cover, the sump, or the turbo oil return line, and a mysterious coolant leak that I hope isn't coming from the radiator but apart from that it's not looking too bad...

[VL400]

Best way to fix or find something, buy the replacement!! Sounds like a successful first test though

Check the single/double fire flags now its not in TBI mode, if its still in single fire mode check the setup in your bin. Single fire mode you are limited by hardware to 50% injector duty cycle (even though logging will show > 50%).

[Holden202T]

good to see its finally alive and relatively small issues to resolve so hopefully she'll be ready to enjoy a bit more soon