72 Spider Engine - The sequel

[348azeus]

Hi I said I'd post a bit about my spider so here we go...

I've owned it for years - left it on the drive rotting and as a parts bin for 10.. but just didn't havet the heart to scrap it. Alfa's have souls.
Buying another would have been cheaper but I had a point to prove to myself...
Here it was in the early 1990's



Mid way through the build digital camera changes the shade a bit

And finally complete


The paint is the original 1970's drug induced colour..I love it and always have done.


When I built it together I used parts from two donor cars. Despite having two good engines - one of the cars a US import - had a recently rebuilt engine. I decided to use that engine but mated it to a second hand head which I bought from an Alfa Racer - who assured me it was good. I bolted all together with some twin 45 dellortos. The cams turned out to be shot so I put in some new ones...little did I know that this was to be a hint of it's overall condition. I decided to use 3d mapped ignition and promptly set off to Milan for Alas's 100 birthday celebrations.

The car proved to be totally reliable but returned only 19mpg and was really down on power. Getting back to the UK after a 3000 mile trip I investigated the engine further. To cut a long story short the head was ****. Stripping the engine down revealed poorly cut valves and seats - the valves could never had seated properly. The engine showed that it wasn't totally clean when built so showed bearing damage and the con-rods were not all facing the same side.

I decided to do the lot - hone the liners, regrind and re-nitride the crank, new bearings and rings - again and put it together with a little care. here are the post machine work pictures after the first clean

Block , mains and front cover

Balanced cod rods

 

[ENZ525]

Fabulous

 

[Parisien]

Ditto...................great stuff 348........keep at it, love to see it in the flesh someday!

P

 

[Andyk]

WOW thats stunning...Form the first pic to the last...what a transformation...Love it and the colour. Great work.

 

[conaero]

I am loving that, think the colour is great, reminds me of the lime green of the Miura.

 

[philw696]

Im with the guys on this excellent work and loved the 70's myself and colour is spot on.

 

[lozcb]

Excellent rebuild Leo , certainly a credit to you , i too love the colour , had my Paul dunstall styled BSA C15 sprayed that colour or similar, Le Mans green it was called back then blooody awesome ,


I wont bother to ask the cost of the rebuild as its probably a sore point , these things usually are , but in turn one does get an enormous amount of satisfaction , i know i would , thanks for posting and sharing



regards loz

 

[348azeus]

Thanks everyone. I'm away at the moment but will post more pics as I get along.
Any restoration is going to be expensive but I've modified and upgraded quite a few things - it can always be returned to standard but there are lots of excellent standard cars and so this is how I wanted it.
The engine will hopefully put out around 155 bhp - it's got a flowed head, reworked valves, high lift cams, twin 45 dellortos and an extractor stainless exhaust system.
The axle now has a GTA type LSD from a 1300 - these cars were never good over 90 mph so I thought it's best to get to 70 as quick as I can ! The box is rebuilt.
The brakes are from Alfaholics (drool on www.alfaholics.com) - features their twin master race set up without servos but using the standard rebuilt calipers and Ferodo DS2500 pads. All the brakelines are flexible braided hoses.
Alfaholics lowered suspension with koni adjustables and a big fat fron anti-roll bar. Powerflex bushes on the front only. A nice big sump guard to protect things. Every ball joint and bush has been replaced. I have refurbished wherever possible and bought new if it wasn't shiny enough ! The car looks great from underneath too.
Some new parts of trim but most of the interior is original so the car has retained a lot of it's original character. New hood completes the lot.
Loz - i don't mind you asking - lots of people are reluctant to admit what they've blown on old cars and I don't know why - restoration is not cheap and I did the paint myself - that could have cost me another £3k at least - but the total cost of parts was around £15k (performance upgrades must be around £5k of that) so I could have easily bought a very nice standard car for that sort of money...however I don't think I would have ever wanted a standard spider.

 

[GransportFan1]

wow that is amazing, looks supeb in that colour too, top job.

 

[348azeus]

I've been busy and away and so have just got back to assembling the motor. here are a few more shots.





This shows the trigger wheel which has been welded to the front pulley. And an old alternator bracket used to mount the crank angle sensor. I'd knocked these up quickly last time to see if they worked. They worked well so will check everything is ok before I replace them with pretty ones. The sensor needs moving a little closer.


The block is from an injected USA car. The front cover does not have a mechanical fuel pump take-off and looks like it had a mount for air-con - I've used this to hold the crank angle sensor.


The coil pack is hidden under the carbs. The lead come up through the normal route and appear as if they are from the distributor.


The engine runs on a megajolt system. I wanted to check it worked well before spending money on some like Emerald 3D but it has worked really well.
The exhaust manifold have gone for Ceramic coating and will not be back for about 2-3 weeks. Time to get on with the other stuff!

 

[2b1ask1]

Love the results and admire the dedication... I totally agree with the make it how you want it philosophy after all you are not making a museum piece and you're paying for it! Mate of mine did much the same to an old Elan some years ago same view about top speed so grafted on an American drag racing two speed box - God that took off!