Tidy looking project [emoji106] hope you have more luck with this one.

So you sold the last one you spent lots on and made a loss to buy another that will cost lots, lol sounds like my kind of logic

I thought the Alfa had killed you... Welcome back

Someone on here was selling a white set of wheels if your interested

Tidy looking project [emoji106] hope you have more luck with this one.

 

Haha I wouldnt say i was Unlucky with the last one, just too picky! 

 

So you sold the last one you spent lots on and made a loss to buy another that will cost lots, lol sounds like my kind of logic

The intention wasnt to buy another one haha, It was the plan to be sensible and save for a house, As i said that plan lasted all told a week before i decided looking for another hahaha

 

I thought the Alfa had killed you... Welcome back

 

Sold my Skoda/s, been pretty busy with Work (traveling abroad) and had become fed up with some members on here in all honesty, but I thought id pop by again

Sold my Skoda/s, been pretty busy with Work (traveling abroad) and had become fed up with some members on here in all honesty, but I thought id pop by again

 

Yeah Jack gets on everyones tits.

Well, I for one am glad you came back as I really enjoyed your thread on the skodas,alpha and general tinkering! Look forward to some more of the same with the next instalment!

Progress! Took some photos as i stripped the engine down for a new Cambelt and waterpump, as usual, thought id share it with everyone

 

 

As i took the cambelt cover off, i saw worryingly some tipex timing marks, if done properly the Cambelt requires the fittment of the Cam Locks, which can only be fitted if the Cam cover is removed (duhhh!) but here are tipex marks on the cam cover. So at some point a Cowboy has done the job before riding off into the sunset with Silver.

 

 

 

 

 

1) Intake Camshaft Pulley

2) Exhaust Camshaft Pulley

3) Waterpump

4) Cambelt Idler

5) Cambelt Tensioner

6) Crank Cambelt Pulley

7) Rear Balance Shaft

8) Front Balance Shaft

9) Balance Belt tensioner

 

The idea is that the balance shafts spin at the same rate as the crank with offset masses to counter the natural imbalances of an Inline 4 engine. They are not really needed (arent fitted on 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8L Twin sparks) but obviously someone at AR decided the 2.0 was not smooth enough. All I know is that its quite common for Balance belts to fail and take out the cambelt as they are both under the same cover so for cheapness and lack of caring, I wont be fitting it.

 

One thing that delayed me before doing this job was the need of "RIBE" bit drivers, for those who dont know what it looks like.... they're used EVERYWHERE on this Fiat/AR Engine!

 

 

Cam Cover off and both Cylinder 1 spark plugs removed

 

 

Here I removed the Balance belt and then pulled the balance bely crank shaft pulley off to show the Cambelt Crank shaft pulley.

 

Here im at TDC Cylinder No.1, Cams locked on Intake and Exhaust

 

 

Belt off!

 

Water pump off, Cheap-o plastic impeller model, I checked it by attacking it with a needle file hence the groove.

 

 

Old Tensioner off, bearing didnt sound too bad but at 8 years old it was a little rusty and did have a little bit of play in it.

 

I cleaned the block up around where the tensioner goes on to make it a bit easier for tensioning the belt, also removed the Exhaust pulley for extra access. Here you can see the Exhaust Camshaft sensor and the slot for the Woodruff key.

 

 

 

New Belt on, the Belt fitting procedure is a bit of a faff mainly because the crank turns very easily, and the Exhaust camshaft is on an "elongated" woodruff key. So on the V6 all 4 cam pulleys are on a taper lock, that means if you undo them sufficiently they can spin 360 degrees freely. This is great for tensioning the belt as they can all turn and settle nicely before nipping them up. On the Twinnie, however the camshaft pulleys are some what limited. the Intake pulley has around 30 degrees of movement (due to the 4 mounting screws on the Intake Variator for the VVT) and the Exhaust Cam has a very small amount probably 10 degrees of movement on its woodruff key (Camshaft sensor is why the pulley cannot be on a taper lock as its positional data is required). So you set the Exhaust pulley as far clockwise as possible, the Intake about 3/4 of the way to the clockwise position too. This is so that when you tension the belt in an anticlockwise motion, both pulleys move a little allowing for a more central position. 

 

Start at the crank, pull the belt tight upwards over the idler (trying not to turn the crank which is very easily done) then over the exhaust cam, by pulling it tight over the exhaust cam towards the intake cam, you actually rotate the exhaust pulley ever so slightly, in turn tensioning the belt down the front of the engine (roughly tensioned) over the intake, then holding it in place route the belt from the crank over the tensioner and finally around the water pump!

 

Sounds easy... isnt when the crank keeps turning haha 

 

 

 

then to eliminate any belt slack, you slightly tighten the tensioner mounting nut, then tension the tensioner! to the max! this is done with a proper tool, or the pikey method is to put a snug 8mm bar in a hole, (where the OEM tensioner tool goes) then pry off of it onto a dedicated tensioning peg on the tensioner (peg isnt shown in the photo), tension the belt so that the marker points at the bottom of the 8mm hole, this photo was close, but i tensioned it more afterwards. Using a rear view mirror I was able to see the tensioner and tensioned it appropriately. This picture shows the rough sort of layout, obviously mirrored in the mirror, the screw used as the tenisioning tool was located higher on the block, than the tensioner locating pin. (if that makes sense)

 

 

Once the belt is tensioned to the max, nip up the tensioner nut, tighten the exhaust and intake cam pulley bolts, remove the cam locks, turn the engine over twice.

 

Then once that is done, reset the engine to TDC on Cylinder 1, using the Dial indicator. Once achieved, refit the cam locks... with any luck things should be fine and they should fit nicely!

 

Then release the nut on the tensioner ever so slightly, then with a bit of wiggling you are able to reduce the belt tension slowly until the tensioners indicator points in the desired location. Following pic was poor, the indicator was spot on but parallax error means the camera photo looks off.

 

 

once thats done, turn the engine over a number of times (I did it 10  times) then reset the engine to TDC Cylinder No.1 again and refit the camlocks, if they fit, we're done and good to carry on!

 

After that I put it all back together!

 

I did have an issue where a cambelt cover mounting bracket on the water pump broke off on final assembly. The supplier did send through a brand new one as the water pump was deemed defective (bad casting) but meant waiting for a new one and stripping it all down again to replace the pump! 

 

Here its almost done all back together, cam cover n coil packs back on etc

 

 

 

As i was in the proximity I also pulled the Driver side sidelight cluster out, now on Saturday I was able to get my hands on a cracked one from a friend (for free too! ) broken glass so was not worth anything to him, but it had an entacted bulb holder which i required, 5 minutes and hey presto! a now complete sidelight cluster! (see the old one in my hand)

 

 

 

 

As the cambelt was the main thing stopping me moving the car etc, now its done it will make life soooo much easier, as for the rest of the work I can pull the car out of the garage. Lucky i did it really as on removal I did find the Water pump and Balance belt tensioner had play/grumbling bearings, so could have been close to going bang! the Whine I heard when putting the car in the garage, is almost certainly Aux belt related, the belt is 8 years old, isnt split but is crusty solid and the tensioner is also failing....

 

So more parts in the form of Service/Repair and Modifications are on their way already and wont be long until the next update.

Edited 10 July, 20169 yr by Taylor93

Great work Taylor and a well written explanation of the mechanics involved in it.

bit more Progress, I had a knackered screw on the cam cover which was stopping me from putting the cam cover back on and torquing it down. One of those funny Ribe bits, So had a rummage around a breakers yard and found a Alfa 147 Twin Spark, Identical cam cover and I retrieved the screws. Thats one more job fixed!

 

 

Then to changing the Air Filter, this was a job in its own right as the 3 bolts that clamp the MAF down to the Air box were rusty and one started spinning.... essentially when the lid of the Airbox was made, the Plastic was moulded around the M6 screws, as the screw was turning internally, i had to drill the plastic out, knock the screw out and put a one one in with some DP490 two part epoxy. Then Bonded in the brass threaded inserts in the main case for the Airbox lid. All rebuilt with new fasteners and the relevant bits bonded in place appropriately. Heres a video if you're interested.

 

Video was made for the Alfa Owners, just showing what i did

 

 

 

 

After having this little set turn up, i started stripping down the rear suspension and ive hit a dead end for now. I have all the rear suspension off and stripped down (poly bushes removed) and its in the powder coaters right now, my parts were rusty but in fair shape, the rear spring pans are £360 inc VAT per side, so id rather recondition mine before they fail. 

 

 

The Old Eibachs, fitted back in Sept 2000! a mere 72000 miles ago!

 

 

However the Rear Bump stops were in this state:

 

which is rather unfortunate as the metal cup that the bump stop sits in, are completely gone. no more new stock anywhere, Alfa Romeo dont stock them, No Specialists stock them anywhere. So im on the hunt for either some second hand or near new ones to measure up. Probably have some custom ones fabricated. but short term there is nothing else I can do. Id rather not ruin my new Konis by having their hard stops, the suspensions end stop. But that said at 16 years old the old ones were still intact despite being full of rust. so i dont suppose the car really reaches the end stop of its suspension. but i dont know how much trouble I can put it through.

 

Not many photos of the suspension, but more will come once the parts are back from the powder coaters. But here i was cleaning up all the bolts and rear caliper mounts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Went to my First Alfa meet too (for 916 GTV/Spider Owners) albeit in my Yaris so I was parked well out of the way! haha

 

 

Edited 20 July, 20169 yr by Taylor93

Bit of an Update, I had a few days off but planned to sort the rear suspension, unfortunately the parts were only finished at the powder coaters tuesday (my last day of leave for now) So I picked this little lot up, now I just need to relate back to the videos i took and markings on the bushes to get the correct orientation etc of the parts. Here are the parts i had powder coated:

 

2x Spring Pans (one had slight blow through in a few bits from the shot blasting, but I have been assured it is fine)

2x  Dog Leg Rear arms

2x Rear Wishbones

2x ARB Drop Link Brackets

2x ARB Bush brackets

1x RARB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

also had this Front Radiator support done too.

 

 

not bad for all in £65! Also when you think each one of those Spring Pans are £366 each, then the upper Wishbones are £150 each... Powder Coating all of a sudden seems sensible

 

I also bought a set of the Bump Stop support cups, 2nd Hand in okay condition, one is really good, the other is just "okay" probably will do until some new ones come on the market!

 

Once ive got all the bushes refitted the suspension can go on!

 

So In other news I keep driving past a Green GTV which kept getting dirtier and dirtier every time I passed, One evening i wrote a little note and left it on the windscreen, an hour later I had a phone call from the owner saying they wanted to sell! I went to see it Monday just gone, and boy its a shed alright! really rough Phase 1 Car with some phase 2 bits bolted on, 69,000 miles on the clock, after market Stainless Steel Exhaust, but no coolant, almost no oil, leaky clutch system, leaky fuel line, broken door locks all over. But Im a sucker for a GTV, and I offered her £150 which she accepted straight away! Its going to be a parts car, quite a fair amount of interest in parts from my Fellow Alfa Owners and surprise, surprise I have already made my money back It will also provide me with a good number of spare parts and will keep me occupied for a while.

 

 

 

but back to my Project GTV

 

Still to do:

 

Refit Rear Suspension with New Shocks n Springs

Fit Braided Brake lines on Rear Brakes

Fit new Cat Back SS Exhaust when it turns up (currently being fabricated)

Bleed Brakes Front/Rear

Bleed Clutch (same fluid system)

Remove Front ARB, replace bushes, refit (Pig of a job as it means dropping the subframe)

Disassemble Front suspension and Fit New parts, inspect and re-use where applicable (or necessary due to no more stock of certain new parts)

Replace split CV boot on NS Driveshaft

Swap over interior trim parts from the Parts car to repair damaged panels

 

Longer term jobs are:

Strip the Parts GTV then Scrap the shell

Prototype a Bracket to fit 305mm Brembo V6 calipers, if its not successful I have a set of 310 Brembo calipers to fit instead (again will need a bracket but both use the same 305x28 brake disc)

Fit V6 Braided Front Brake Lines (I will leave the old Twin Spark brake lines on for now until I have the brake mod complete)

Buy some 17" alloys to fit over the 305 Calipers + Fit new tyres

 

and then maybe, just maybe! get some insurance and tax in time for Spring to get some use out of it And I anticipate on making full use of this new suspension haha

Edited 3 August, 20169 yr by Taylor93

Bit of a delayed update again!

 

So I bought the Green GTV for parts, after sorting a garage to rent in the arse end of Chatham, I started to strip it. 

 

Unfortunately I didnt have long until I was interrupted by work.. But it did mean I had a chance to drive a Honda Odyssey. Which By my reckoning as  fleet car, it was clearly the fastest car in the world and would give Bossfox a run for his money on track

 

 

 fleet cars... the fastest cars in the world!

 

Upon my return I was able to make a proper start at stripping the GTV going from this

 

 

High Tech Exhaust repair consisting of Silicon Sealant and a distinctly old looking oil filter!

 

 

 

Turned into this:

 

 

when the Scrap lorry picked it up, I had my Rear subframe intact, which I must say was the easiest bit to remove 4 bolts, 2 handbrake cables, 2 brake lines, 2 ABS Sensor plugs! then like that, it just fell off!

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately I didnt get a decent "the cars on the back of the van being driven away" photo, so you'll just have to use your imagination with that one. Now I have a garage full of car parts to sell off or keep. But it gives me a little more space to work on bits.

 

 

 

I have also made some progress on my Black GTV, its rear suspension was partly installed when I found I had a leaking rear Koni Shock (brand spanking new!) So It was swiftly returned to the seller in Germany for a replacement, since then there hasnt been much progress. The new shock turned up yesterday, I also made a go at cleaning and then spraying the 21mm RARB (which I was supposed to get powder coated but took the wrong one). Shouldnt be too much longer and it should be driveable.

 

However! in scrapping the Green GTV, me and my cousin had great difficulty moving the near empty shell... it really did hit home that this car is one hell of a porker! and i have had some thoughts about selling it, but for now Im going to stick at it, complete the build and then drive it to see how it is, if im still not happy after fitting all these new suspension parts and making it the "best handling GTV ive owned" with all then i might consider selling up and going elsewhere. 

Edited 4 September, 20169 yr by Taylor93

Had a few more problems (what a surprise) recently, Firstly  being my GTV's rear subframe had some rather serious wear on it, when the OE bushes fail the steel sleeve rubs on the ally subframe, two 8mm thick blocks, one was worn in a ring to only 3mm thick.

 

My spare subframe was just as bad so ended up putting both to one side and buying a shot blasted one from a friend for £150 (£1000 new from AR) so With that I rebuild the entire rear suspension for about the third time!

 

But in doing so I found i had already disturbed a steel brake line... which then proceeded to leak! After buying some Copper/Nickel line and a few tools I made some lines up and got it all back together

 

 

after fitting them, I bled the brakes and clutch system which provided a nasty result, 1L in and it was still murkey so I had to buy another 1L bottle which I havent got around to finishing yet.

 

 

Once that was sorted, I thought Id make a start on the front suspension, 3 bolts at the top mount, 2 bolts at the base of the strut and the Macpherson strut is out and being swapped over

 

 

 

Then my new SS Wizard exhaust turned up, so I fitted it and have been making a few minor adjustments to make sure it doesnt knock on the rear bumper but with that done, I got the car out of the garage for the first time in months and turned it around to give me a bit more space to work on the front.

 

 

 

Around this point I cracked my phone screen and its camera so I havent been able to get any more snaps. But with the car rotated I could:

 

Drop the front subframe to replace the ARB bushes (requires removal of bar and drilling out nut-serts) - bushes replaced with Powerflex, I also fitted new drop links both sides.

New Front wishbones n bolts

Replace the N/S driveshaft as it had a split boot and a dry inner joint (cheaper to swap it out)

Inspect a gearbox leak - this is where its gone wrong again! 

 

So the Twinspark gearboxes all at some point in their life have an issue where swarf prohibits you from selecting 4th gear. the fix? pull the gearbox end plate off, clean the swarf out, reseal and fit gearbox end plate then refill with oil.

 

Well this has been done before on my car, however the cowboy 1) stripped a thread on the Ally gearbox casing, 2) put no new sealant on the end plate. Hence my leak! Of a 2L capacity I was able to get around 1.7L of oil out. At the moment I have 2 soloutions, Drill, Tap and Helicoil the casing, refit the end plate... Or Swap the gearbox with the spare from the stripped GTV (which is nearly unknown, could be damaged and still needs to be pulled off the engine and inspected) 

 

Its one of the lowest bolts so Im not worried about swarf from drilling getting into the gearbox but Ill give that a go and if it goes pete tong... I guess ill be swapping the gearbox too!

 

I also found when changing the NS drive shaft that the caliper carrier (which holds the brake caliper to the hub) was rattling about, because both bolts had their threads stripped and 1 had rattled loose and was spinning freely 3/4mm out of the carrier. Soooo swapped that with one from the spare car also (seeming to be a worth while investment buying an entire 2nd car haha)

 

Progress will be a bit quiet over the coming months as I focus on my work and other business, but Progress will probably continue in the new year with plenty of jobs still to do!

Edited 9 October, 20169 yr by Taylor93

Did some more bits in the past few days, Got the gearbox gearbox end plate cleaned up, drilled, tapped and heli-coiled the gearbox casing, applied a bead of sealant and then refitted the gearbox end plate. that was back on Tuesday, left it to properly cure and then last night I filled the gearbox up with oil. Started the car up in the garage and with the wheels off the ground I selected each gear, all went in fine.

 

Tightened up all the left over odds n ends, so now is the following to do's:

 

- Fit and Tighten both FARB Drop links (easier with the wheels on the ground as they go through the wishbone)

- Monitor Gearbox for any further leaks.

- Bleed Clutch/Brake system (2nd time) also see if I can get my MultiECUScan on a working laptop to Purge the ABS pump (also clear the Airbag warning light while im there)

- Check both window regulators, a rivet wears and causes a clunk, both of mine clunk (have two spares so no issue) may have to swap them out.

- Airbag light (see point 3)

- Tidy up interior trim

- Get her Insured & Taxed for some test drives and i am sure further fault finding

 

the last one probably wont happen till Jan 2017 but I suppose I still have a few jobs to keep me busy!

 

edit: oh and 4 new tyres and full 4 wheel tracking and alignment too!

Edited 16 October, 20169 yr by Taylor93

There's some dedication there Taylor. You'll be on the road soon

There's some dedication there Taylor. You'll be on the road soon

 

Thanks Charlie, After my last GTV didnt perform as well as I hoped (in the bends it was a little... floaty) I was quite disappointed. So although there are other project cars that catch my eye from time to time, I really want to see how far I can take a GTV in making it handle, stop and go.  Althought that did mean going from the 220bhp 3.0 V6 down to a 150bhp 2.0 TS, hopefully it will all be worth it in the end!

 

Just a pain as its nearly there, but the last few bits (tax, Insurance, Tyres and Tracking) are probably the most expensive to come and will have to wait, as really I can play with cars anytime, but there are certain things in my calendar that i can only really do now.

Edited 16 October, 20169 yr by Taylor93

Yes hopefully so. Will be interested to see how it handles once it's done