QuestionI have 2 questions for you about 2 very different cars. 1. I have a 1991 164L with rebuilt engine ,new fuel pump and filter.I have been experiencing a lot of hesitation at about 3000-3500 rpm, also it idles very ruff. I have to keep giving it gas to keep it running. Do you have any ideas about what could be causing this?
2. I also have a 1976 alfetta with 2.0 ltr that has been rebuilt. The engine was given a "three angle valve job" during the rebuild. I`ve also installed a Crane cams xr700 ignition upgrade. I want to get more power out of this engine its at about 120 hp, or so I`m told. I want about 150 to 160 for less than $800. Any ideas on how this can be accomplished?
Thank you very much for your time, Robert
AnswerHi Robert,
Wow, two tough questions. I really don't see any way to answer them without wearing out my fingers, unless I get a little more information.
Your 164 problem could, of course, be a lot of things. I'll need to ask you some questions before I can try nailing it down.
Does your idle problem persist at all engine temperatures or just hot or cold?
Does it clear out and run smoothly just off idle or is it rough up to say, 1500rpm or so?
Is this an intermittent problem or does it do it every time you drive?
Do you use the same brand and grade of gasoline all the time?
Describe your "Hesitation" a little more.
Is it during smooth acceleration or only when you accelerate suddenly from mid range RPM? What I mean is, if you accelerate from a stop to 5000 rpm with the throttle in the same position, does it hesitate when you reach the 3000 range or does it do it only while passing another car or accelerating from speed?
If you hold the car in second gear and try to cruise at 3000 to 3500, does it run smoothly until you open the throttle more or can you feel roughness or missing with the throttle steady?
Sometimes these cars are a little finicky about different brands of fuel. My 91 164S, didn't like Shell for some reason.
On your Alfetta...
One big question I have to ask to consider your dollar amount is;
Are you going to do most of the work yourself or pay someone to do it? I'll tell you right now that I don't think it's possible to get the numbers you seek if you pay labor, and you may not get it if you do most of the assembly yourself!
Alfa's are pretty well engineered and changes in components are marginal improvements at best. I don't think it's impossible to get 150hp from your engine, but you will have to do lots of little things rather than one or two big ones.
Exhaust headers, for instance, used to be a great way of picking up some nice extra torque and HP on older American cars. Our Spider 2L race car actually dropped 2hp and 12 ft/lbs of torque with headers from Alfa Ricambi in California. The stock early double "Y" cast manifolds performed better. I believe the Alfetta in the mid 70's used this header as did the spider SPICA F.I. cars. Not much to be gained there.
Compression ratio can be greatly improved by using the late model pistons and liners from the Motronic spiders. They are 10.1:1 and that's probably a full point higher than yours. IAP and Centerline sells Borgo 10.4 pistons also. That's what we use in our racer and we run 93 RON octane pump gas without problem. On long courses we spike it with 110 racing gas to bump it to about 103, but we are running more ignition advance than you would for a street car. The pistons and liners would eat half your budget, but they can make a big difference.
Cams are more of a problem. We've had very bad luck with welded regrinds. They run fine for a couple races and then the lobes wear and performance falls off. We now run stock Euro 1600 cams and I don't have the part number but they are really hard to find. I dread the day we have to replace them. Centerline, in Colorado, guarantees their regrinds, so you could try that.
The Alfetta is a heavy car so you don't want to lose what torque you have, so beware of radical cams with very long duration and lift. If you call Centerline and talk to Joel Hailey, he can make some recommendations.
Induction is about as good as you are going to get. Assuming your F.I. pump is set up properly. Parts for these things are getting rare also. Wes Ingram, out on the west coast, is the SPICA Guru, but Wes gets about $600 for a competition pump. You might have yours flow checked for much less. There are only two machines from Italy here in the United States, built to run these pumps. Wes has one and Russ Ruland in West Palm beach Florida has the other. Russ is a former ARDONA field tech and last I talked to him, he doesn't have the machine up and running yet. He said he would do a complete check for $150, but rebuild is extra. Let's assume yours is OK for now.
Ditching the engine driven fan and installing a good electric fan can help some also.
We run NO fan on the racer, but we don't go through Burger King drive thrus or sit in traffic with it.
Installing a free flow air filter like the K&N will help on the top end a lot also. DO NOT even think about modifying the stock air box, experience shows any changes in it will lose you more than you gain. The only exception being individual velocity stacks with no air filter, but unless you want to do yearly tear downs, I don't recommend that either.
If you want to invest in a phone call, contact Rick Lovecchio in Daytona Beach, Florida. His place is called RML Automotive, I believe. Rick is a racing buddy that has one fast Alfetta. His car is restricted by the SCCA "Improved Touring" rules, but still hold tons of track records. If you catch him when he isn't busy, he will talk your ear off. If you bought your Crane ignition from Crane, don't even tell him you have one. He worked with them in developing it and there was some friction about them selling it directly. He sells them also. Just don't mention it unless you got it from him. :)
Anyway... let me know if you plan on doing some stuff yourself and I'll think about it some more. I'll tell you right now that $800 is a small budget for what you are trying to do. We run a Bosch L-Jet Spider and it has lots of mods. We get about 125hp at the rear wheels, so I would estimate close to 150 at the crank. In my dyno experiences, I believe the transaxle cars actually lose a little less driveline hp, but not much.
Head and port work, I don't recommend. For one, you lose lots of driveability for street use, plus your budget doesn't hack it. Our 1300 Giulietta has a Stage V Sperry head and it was $1300 all by itself. I can do some mild porting on your head for about $200 and give you a lot more punch without sacrificing low end torque. That includes a clean up milling, equalizing and polishing the combustion chambers and valves and enlarging the valve pockets. I'm not in business to do it and I'm slow, but I've done dozens of them.
OK, my fingers are tired. Write me back and I'll talk to Rick for you. I'm only about 20 miles from him and haven't talked to him in a long time.
You're not going to get 150-160 hp without pulling the engine down. If you can't do it yourself, then drive it like it is. Nothing else handles like the Alfa Transaxle cars. As far as acceleration, you just cannot play with the "Riceboys" in their Honda's. It's Apples and Oranges. Two different species of car. Honda's new S2000 sports car, with a 2 liter engine makes 240HP at 8500 rpm and is docile enough for street driving every day. You'd need a Turbo to get that from your Alfa. In fact the Calloway twin turbo GTV6, only made 250.
Don't get discouraged, write me back!!!
