Classic Alfa Forums

Looking really nice Kev!

Pretty much all of the V4s I've seen have had a natural alloy finish, although the one on the Stratos Zero was painted bright yellow, probably so that people could find it in the depths of the bodywork!

Lauren

yes, most all of the fulvias had a normal, natural looking cam cover but the 1.6 HF's were usually found in yellow, often with a blue band down the centre

Love the cam cover Kev, in fact i'm liking the whole engine detailing, hope the subframe detailing matches your painting skills.. If not at least its well hidden!

glad the cam cover gets your approval mate, saves doing it again

separated the oil breather canister tonight that had shed it's innards once cleaned.

quite a simple unit, never really gonna be anything else was it?

2 sections to be filled with stainless steel wool, not too tight as I first found out when wrapping loads in, it blocks it up too much!
all fitted back together, edge seal rolled back over, the odd tack of weld to be sure then a clean up and coat of the black hammerite to match the other dark bits

Found this for you Kev because you said you fancied a Monte. Check out those pillars no probs for a man of your calibre.http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222014876749

ooh, now that one is tempting to stick in the stock pile

met Richard today to get the refurbished front subframe off him, a cracking job done too mate

we have devised a bit of a plan for getting it all in, should be ok......

This ne might be better.. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lancia-Montec ... 2014876749

Veesix75 wrote:This ne might be better.. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lancia-Montec ... 2014876749

Same seller. Got to love his seller name.

with some space back in the shed I perched the gearbox up on some axle stands, just needed a check over....
Richard had given it a decent clean before I picked it up so it only needed a bit more cleaning in the edges to make it look decent enough to fit in the car.

the clutch release bearing was seized though which is a pain, managed to free it off and get some lube in it but it's not the best I've heard so we may well get a replacement whilst its out.

the main mounting I took off just to give it a clean and a lick of paint, glad I did as once the grime was off I found 2 cracks!

welded over the cracks then gave the other potentially weak points a blast of weld for good measure
the gearshift also felt too tight, reasonable in the forward to back movement but sideways was very stiff.

after removing the covers and cleaning all pivot points a bit of oil got things working a bit smoother. a bit more stripping and lubing and it now works as smooth as silk in all gears, dogleg 1st gear for a bit more sporty feel to the change. reverse light switch tested for good measure, all ok

there are 2 grease nipple points on the linkage too which I will plug some fresh grease into, once I get some fresh grease, always seem to run out of consumables when you most need them, must keep more stock!

I've left it now draining out the old oil, which didn't look that old actually, but fresh oil will be much better for it

the subframe was made much more mobile by being placed on a sturdy dolly, it needs the gearbox and engine mounting on it before going back in the car
i'd tried it both ways to get it in the subframe, juts wouldn't go at all in from the front so the steering arm had to come off to allow it to go in from the back

the engine was then removed from the little stand frame i'd made and slung with ropes at the desired angle to try and make fitting to the gearbox a little easier
in the end it didn't go in so bad, but i'd hate to try and do it whilst in the car! it's really tight for space in so many points
even has a little cut-out in the subframe to clear the engine components, most likely it's the oil pump housing..
the bellhousing bolts i'd made a cock-up by not having the correct tools on hand so had to use some ordinary bolts to get things in place instead of the allen key ones
everything for the front end is on the subframe, anti-roll bar, top and bottom wishbones, the springing is via a transverse leaf spring housed in the cross rail above the gearbox

still to go on are the hubs, driveshafts and brakes.

the unit will be able to be wheeled under the car as one, once I've raised the front of the car up by about another foot to clear the engine, then it all fits to the car at 6 points

the carbs have some proper staining on them from 40+ years of use, fuel causes some proper baked on grime
gave them a soaking in the parts washer first, a thin wire brush helping to shift stuff

after that a bath of petrol helped clear some more, bit of steel wool to help the really stubborn stuff. nearly clean enough now
i'll strip them down tomorrow night and rebuild using the kit rich supplied me

Looking really good now.
Carbs cleaned up well.
Looking forward to seeing it.

Keith, its looking good i can assure you .. There's still at least a 10 hour a day advantage in the Lincolnshire area tho judging by the recent progress.. Wonder if the sun sets and rises at different times Lincs way??

bit more done tonight

carbs looked ok on the outside, did consider sand-blasting them but thought it'd cause more issues than solve for the tiny bit of dirt on the outside, but inside was a mess of furry crud

this is a bottom plate after quite a bit of cleaning!
opened up and all jets etc removed
some of the parts awaiting cleaning or replacement
one carb now built up, all new gaskets and sealing washers. filter on inlet cleaned, new diaphragm for the acceleration pump, new float needle etc
took the bottom plate off the other carb so it can have a good soaking overnight in petrol to try and loosen it up a bit

York Sud wrote:Keith, its looking good i can assure you .. There's still at least a 10 hour a day advantage in the Lincolnshire area tho judging by the recent progress.. Wonder if the sun sets and rises at different times Lincs way??

whilst researching other stuff for the fulvia I came across this picture of a fuel injection setup for the V4 engine, interesting part for me relates to what we were talking about beforehand about the different length of inlet tract caused by the engine design causing one long next to one short tract......

That looks purposeful, someone did their homework.

Noticed the wide range of Lancia's on e bay at the moment ? You may have been ahead of the curve.

junior wrote:That looks purposeful, someone did their homework.

Noticed the wide range of Lancia's on e bay at the moment ? You may have been ahead of the curve.

be about the only time I've been ahead of the game mate








Wednesday just gone I finished off the other carb, did some other stuff for Jim on his fulvia coupe clear-out, checked something on the integrale then finally got down to the unit to tidy up the engine etc

with some measuring I realised I'd have to get the front of the car up much higher to clear the engine, approx. 32" off the floor to be precise!

took some doing I'll say, loads of steps with differing blocks of wood and axle stands repositioned. got there in the end though, fitting the rear wheels and lowering that end down helped a little too
trial pushed the engine etc under there to be sure, at least 1/2" to spare!!
took the exhaust manifold and front pipe to work to heat up the seized flange bolts, didn't look like it was anywhere near blowing but if it needed a front pipe in the future I'd be a real hassle trying to free up the nuts whilst on the car, much easier on the bench.

so today after I'd done some more problem solving for jims sale items I got back down to the unit.

fitted a few bits like the manifold, clutch arm etc then sorted through the subframe mountings to get everything in order, had a look at jims coupe to confirm exactly what was supposed to go where to make sure we had it right

so sliding the subframe assembly under was the easy part....getting the car back down from such a height was another matter! I'd figured I'd just use a trolley jack at each sill end but they wouldn't reach, I'd jacked it up beforehand using the transmission tunnel...which was now full of transmission!

after a bit of head scratching the only thing I could do was to use the mobile engine hoist to lower the car down..

was really a nervy exercise, carefully I raised it up off the stands to see if it would be safe but it rose up just fine without a hint of any flexing, nice rigid shell this fulvia
once the car was down to a regular height it was then just a case of jacking up the subframe into position and securing it with the 6 mounting points, sounds easy but was a bit of a faff getting it all in line, no lightweight bit of kit with all the suspension along with the engine and gearbox attached.
I took the precaution of using rubber grease on the rubbery bits and greased up the alloy to steel faces with waxoyl to try and prevent any corrosion issues. pre running a tap through all the threaded holes also helped to align the bolts without too much struggle, paint and dust get in there with all the previous work done so it needs to be cleaned out

all securely in place, seems like a major hurdle has been cleared today

rich's work on the subframe has paid off, looks a treat under there now

Hi. Yes that a lot of work and time to do it meticulously. Good to get past that point.

What is the big nut washer affair at the front corner of the subframe in the last photo...rubber bush ?

Oh yes and next time we meet I must bring you a decent length of rope rather than the horrible polypropylene your using now.

I have some 6 tonne B. S. stuff that would suit the task much better.

I am sure Kev will confirm, but I think that is all part of the subframe bushing.

correct kieth, it's one of the 6 large mountings that hold the subframe to the car.
there is a big bubber bush above and below each mount point with an aluminium spacer/washer which allows you to do up the bolt until the sleeves inside the bush bottom out, you then know it's compressed enough
2 along the front, 2 car be seen atop the chassis rails on the inner wings and the other 2 are down at the front edge of the sills

Kev likes to live dangerously Keith,

i tried to drop a 33 on him once but he never flinched!

petrolhead wrote:Kev likes to live dangerously Keith,

i tried to drop a 33 on him once but he never flinched!

flinch no, follow through...oh yes

you kept the worried look behind the welding mask very well mate!

even though the cooling system is still to go on and any of the exhaust system save for the manifold I thought i'd get the old girl stirred into life

once the associated wires were sorted out and connected up I cranked it over without the spark plugs in to get some oil pressure up. bit of cranking then the gauge showed pressure building.

so plugs back in, fuel lines connected up and ready to try. did notice a damp spot on the oil filter but in the midst of worrying about everything else I didn't think anymore of it...........

went to start the engine up and once it'd coughed into life I had to shut it off immediately

a huge spurt of oil had shot out from the hole in the oil filter that i'd not thought enough about.....

oil all over the nice clean engine
worse still....sprayed all over the drivers side wing & door....
before going on to spray the workshop wall and ceiling!
think the Lancia is jealous of the Alfa shield

my Lancia twin-cam 25 year mug took a hit, along with my flask of tea.

I've been very unsuccessful with taking a flask these last few weeks.

last week I left it in the car, forgot i'd taken it. week before I made it up at home before leaving then left it on the kitchen counter!

after an hour or so cleaning up the mess, first off cleaning all the oil off the paintwork and giving it 2 coats of wax it was time to try again..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqtA86NvEDM

once that was out of the way I did a few more odd jobs.

the courtesy lights in the doors I'm pleased to say work, both were on full time with the interior light to start with which I hoped wouldn't be a short in the wiring or a wrong connection, after a bit of fiddling and thinking it was just that the passenger interior light was on full time. with that turned to work from the door switch all was well.
next job the rear lights and trim around them.

one of the mounting bolts had sheared off when it was removed last year so I knew it'd need something doing with it, just hadn't got around to looking at it.

a bit of thinking and the solution was at hand. I had some suitable sized bolts already at the workshop which had a large pan head on them, a quick grind of two edge with the angle grinder made it suitable to slide into the trim which with the flats would prevent it turning
light units cleaned up and trims fitted to the car. they've had a good dose of waxoyl behind the trim so may ooze out a bit when it gets warm, but better than allowing rust to form...
rear lights and number plate lights working
boot light worked after refitting the switch and sorting out how it actually worked...then I noticed it was powered by the rear lights, like a sud one..
one last job before leaving was to fit the last of the door cards once i'd cleaned up all the handles. this door seems to have had an extra one added at some point...