Classic Alfa Forums

Hi All,

After 18 months, i collected the 1830cc 16v unit from the engine builders.

As some of you no the engine was originally build by Paul Sandiford,
I purchased the engine from Colin with a snapped cambelt, on
inspection it appeared the cambelt could have been damaged in storage,
only one valve was bent and one valve spring had failed, the information
received from Colin suggested that Paul Sandiford removed the engine
due to a missfire which he suspected was down to the emerald ecu,
it appears that it could have been the valve spring.

The spec as follows,
Block 1830cc modified oilways,
Heads Peter Burgess Ported and Polished,
Crank, Nick Humpries, Forged, Cross drilled, Balanced and Tuftrided.
Conrods, Cunnigham, Forged with Cosworth bolts,
Sump, BLS, large capacity baffled and gated,
Cams, Lahoma one of race spec.
Flywheel, lightened and balanced.

The engine originally ran 48mm Dollertos with 40mm chokes,
the inlet manifold were a one of fabricated by Paul Sandiford,
100mm in depth, the engine was lowered within the engine bay
to accomadate the extra height of the manifolds, (i will post a
picture later.)

Currently considering ditching the carburettor set up in favour of throttle bodies, any advice
would be appreciated, can the original throttle bodies be modified? power figure of 225bhp
were quoted when the engine ran carburettors.

Picture of engine, cam covers courtesy of Shrew, thanks again.

Looks very nice Liam, and the spec sounds exciting too!

Gonna need to be a little easy with the transmission if you can make that sort of power again mate, leave the traffic light grand prix to the young'uns!



Carbs will be good for outright power, especially large carbs if that's what its has been built to be used on, but obviously that was as a race car motor, so pretty much wide open throttle. As you know EFI on throttle bodies and an ECU will give you a much more flexible engine to a point, because if it's very wildly cammed it's not going to be a daily shopper again for sure! Plus, a set of something like Jemvey's and the associated parafanalia is gonna cost a fair bit, unless you were thinking of using the stock dellorto TB's?

They are 40mm afterall, straight as they come and will take an array of trumpets and filters, and should support a decent and healthy air flow.



Do you alraedy have the carbs Liam?

Hello Shrew,

petrolhead wrote:Do you alraedy have the carbs Liam?

Yes, 48mm dollertos on 40mm chokes, Paul Sandiford ran
it on carbs, but i have no feed back on how it ran around
town, i also have the emerald ecu, not sure if its working correctly
or not, reports were that the car ran a miss fire, but now nowing
a valve spring had failed, the car would have idled correctly and
miss fired when revved, i contacted emerald and they were very
helpfull, for a small fee they would check the ecu.

petrolhead wrote:Gonna need to be a little easy with the transmission if you can make that sort of power again mate, leave the traffic light grand prix to the young'uns!

my plan was to use the green cloverleaf box with a lsd.

petrolhead wrote: unless you were thinking of using the stock dellorto TB's?

I have an original set off throttle bodies, wiring loom, air flow meter etc,
would the injectors require up grading? what ecu options are available?
i,am persuming the original ecu is of no use and the new ecu would have to be fully mapable.

Liam

You could stand that on a coffee table in the house as an 'ornament'......

Althogh not sure I'd trust Mrs veesix to dust it for me.

Veesix75 wrote:You could stand that on a coffee table in the house as an 'ornament'......

Althogh not sure I'd trust Mrs veesix to dust it for me.

Would not get over the door step at our house.

Custom manifold pictures,
Interesting angle, why?

He made them with that leaning back angle because it helps smooth the angle of the entry into the valve throats.

The stock throttle bodies or carbs for that matter, stand vertical at a full 90 degree to the cylinder entry, so the manifiolds are the only realistic opportunity to help the fuel mix have an easier path.

Hi Liam,
If you want to run in the pre 83 CTCRC race series I would recommend you stick with the carbs.
I think they would let you run in class C (1600-2500) then and you would be in with the front runners. The Dolomites, Escorts and Firenzas are in the 200-240bhp range.
If you bowl up with a car with throttle bodies then I think it may be a step too far as fuel injected engines have to utilise the original plenum chamber which restricts things a lot.

I hope this is helpful. We would love to see a Sud giving the front runners a hard time and I think you could well do that.

All the best,
Simon

Hi Simon,

Marlow Sud wrote:Hi Liam,
If you want to run in the pre 83 CTCRC race series I would recommend you stick with the carbs.
I think they would let you run in class C (1600-2500) then and you would be in with the front runners. The Dolomites, Escorts and Firenzas are in the 200-240bhp range.
If you bowl up with a car with throttle bodies then I think it may be a step too far as fuel injected engines have to utilise the original plenum chamber which restricts things a lot.

Thanks for the encouragement, not sure what to do with the 1830 16v as yet, the red race sud as a Nick Humpries engine, 1598cc quoted 160 bhp,
looking forward to get it on a rolling road shortly, plan was to get some more practice this year in the Saxo and do a few trackdays in the Sud to get
it set up and ran in, then hopefully next year catch up with you guys.

Regards Liam

Hi Liam,

It will be a competitive car as it is similar output to the SC Malcolm is driving.
It is a 1.7 with 1.5 crank (1598) and 157bhp on the rolling road.
He is allowed to race in pre 83 class D (1300-1600) provided he is 20kg or more over min weight.

Brgds
Simon

Nice to see youv got the engine built up Liam, it'll be a flyer am sure.

One of the queries i had about the car was its drivability round town, Paul said his wife use to drive it and it was very usable round town, it still pulled smooth even at low revs

Hey Simon do you mind telling me what the SC weighs since i put the fiberglass panels on it? I was always interested to see what the weight saving would be but never got round to checking it..

col

Nice to hear that paul's motor is still on the go, and being talked about, he took me and a mate out for a blast once, about 15 yrs ago, and the memory has really stuck! Good to hear that it's found its rightful place in a racer, it will do well, and hope to see it in action again soon!

sudboy1490 wrote:Nice to see youv got the engine built up Liam, it'll be a flyer am sure.

One of the queries i had about the car was its drivability round town, Paul said his wife use to drive it and it was very usable round town, it still pulled smooth even at low revs

Hey Simon do you mind telling me what the SC weighs since i put the fiberglass panels on it? I was always interested to see what the weight saving would be but never got round to checking it..

col

About 800KG Col.

Brgds,
Simon