Classic Alfa Forums

I bought (well, kind of got it from the man who won't let you out of the yard without taking/buying something, bit like old arkwright...) this S3 33 16V late last year after the track Sud found the armco at Cadwell too magnetic....again...
It's a solid (really, it is solid!) 1990 pre-cat 16V QV so in my mind about the best combo.
Has a great interior but sadly came with an engine that didn't want to play ball.

A lot has been done, well a fiar amount anyway, since I got it.
Updates to follow....gonna try uploading some pics now.....

despite appearances it is actually a very good car....honest!

the interior is in superb condition, when did you ever see a drivers seat in this condition?

and under the bonnet is solid too...

Arkwright indeed! how very dare you?


keep it coming mate, although i reckon you'll struggle keeping hold of it once Ty sees the end results (the owner before me)


you two were made for each other, essentially good, solid, and comfortable,


and i'll leave it at that! ha ha!!!

well, if not arkwright it could be the old woman that played hilda ogden in corrie....she was in lats of the summer wine playing a shopkeeper who would not let you near, never mind out of her shop without buying anything!!

at least sometimes i've been round to yours and left unscathed



only jesting mate, you know that





so, back to the 33.

first real job was to drop the engine.
it'd had the o/s belt off for some reason.
curiosity got the better of me before dropping the engine....
so i put the belt back on and turned it over by hand, all seemed well..

but on starting it was clear that there wasn't a deal happening on the drivers side head.

a compression test revealed a total lack of any compression, not a jot!
the engine had ran, albeit not that happily, on just the n/s 2 cylinders
so the head was taken off and this is what i found

pic is of the head with no cams in so all valves should be closed.......

Good luck with rebuild ,most of the hard works been done now

a replacement engine has been dropped into place for now so an mot could be gotten.
first though a check over the car as it'd been stood for a good few years.

now i know i said it was solid, and for a 33 it is solid......but there was a little grot around the drivers side rear jacking point.
so the grinders soon chopped a little hole which was plated up and a new jacking point made and put into place.
i really couldn't find a lot else to do underneath besides weld a couple of those silly circle plates back up in the floors.

the rest of the arches/sills/box sections etc were given a generous dose of waxoyl.

check out the original sill edges, which are still in good order!

Wow! That is solid!

Good luck with the rebuild

so once things had been checked over, sorted a few lights, new pads, new wipers etc i took it for an mot.

took it to my local garage who know me by now, any alfa coming along will be kev.....

they had a laugh when i pulled up, faded paint and lacquer peel everywhere!

promised them it wasn't half as bad as it looked and left them to it.

a call at dinnertime confirmed what i'd told them, it is a good 'un.

passed with no advisories!

so taxed it and off we went.

next morning i ran the polishing mop over it to get some semblance of pride, quite pleased how it turned out.

will need some bits re-painting where the lacquer has peeled away but is perfectly presentable now.

the 33 looks good Kev,
did you work out how the valves got bent? did it throw a belt in the past or maybe just had the living daylights revved out of it ?? lol

Check you out!

anyone would think it's a race!


off into the sunset with the post count already! ha ha!


and usual service is resumed eh? Chuffing megga!!!!

looking good that is mate, a prime car to be saved, NEVER to be broken, you would have regretted the day i let you off the drive without it!

kammatic wrote:the 33 looks good Kev,
did you work out how the valves got bent? did it throw a belt in the past or maybe just had the living daylights revved out of it ?? lol

is a conundrum mate, that's for sure.

asked a few fellas with vastly more experience than me for their best guess and we can't come by the answer.

all 4 exhaust valves bent to hell.

opinion on an over-rev seems to be that more or all the valves would suffer.

i got the car with the belt removed but intact, no damaged or missing teeth. of course i've no way of knowing if the belt is the same belt that was on the car...

which led me to come up with the only explanation i can conjur up.


a cam belt change went badly wrong. the exhaust cam beign timed up wrong and the car being started without checking by hand first.

but then, would a starter motor have enough grunt to bend valves? i doubt it tbh. it'd most likely just lock up.

if the belt had jumped a few teeth then why did the inlet valves escape unscathed? can't imagine the belt jumping the exhaust pulley and not the inlet?

all tensioning pulleys are intact and although grumbly they rotate freely.

i'm open to any suggestions, not that it matters over much now, just to satisfy my curiosity!

Nice 33 Kev.

Arkwright!!!!!!! Hahahahahaha, hit the nail on't head there!!!!

engine is down the shed at the moment, a full rebuild will be done over the next few weeks.

in a bit of a mess visually at the moment due to the lats 20+ years of grime but it will all be nice soon enough.

all been stripped down and everything measured.
good news is that most of it is in great condition. bores have very minimal wear, as most boxer blocks tend to be very hard wearing compared to other makes engines.
new psiton rings will be going in though, oil scraper rings are a little gummed and the end gap is a little over spec so new ones will go in.
core plugs, belts etc. all will be renewed. big ends and mains are within spec and in good order so will stay. water pump of course will be binned!

the red lines on the journals are the plastigauge used to measure bearing clearances, very clever stuff. you just lay in a piece of the thin plastic from the kit and clamp down the cap as normal. then remove it and measure how much it's been squashed with the gauge supplied. the more it's squashed then the tighter the bearing gap. if it doesn't squash out enough then the gap is too large and oil pressure will be down and eventually lead to bearing failure. simple, but clever stuff.





oh. and a text chat this afternoon means that the 33 is practically sold. no hands have been shaken but it's with a known fella so can be considered a done deal

Hi Kev

All can say about the valves is, that the cams are abit like variable types , hence only the inlet belt or it poped belt after it locked ! When I killed my engine when front pulley came loose I bent all 8 one side and just one on the other
Think I need that plaster gauge stuff to test 1.8 block I've got

stripped the block down tonight, almost anyway. distributtor is stuck fast so have left it soaking. core plugs all out, front cover off, water pump etc all out without issue thankfully as sometimes bolts can get in pretty corroded and shear off.

thought i'd remove the bent valves and make sure the head is alright....................

valves are pretty well bent, one head even broke off when trying to remove/clamp them, but worse than that i found a piece that looked too familiar. the end of a valve guide

so this head will need new guides, but luckily i have a back-up plan. hopefully a phone call tomorrow will solve this slight issue

Johnboy wrote:Hi Kev

All can say about the valves is, that the cams are abit like variable types , hence only the inlet belt or it poped belt after it locked ! When I killed my engine when front pulley came loose I bent all 8 one side and just one on the other
Think I need that plaster gauge stuff to test 1.8 block I've got

this is the stuff you need mate, you can see the little plastic string bits in the pic on the listing.
simply lay a piece across the crank journal, fit the big end or main cap back on, torque it down. remove the cap and measure.
simple as that

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CRANKSHAFT-PL ... 27d0b1fac8

Cheers for that Kev I will be tapping you up for more info on stripping a block and fitting oil pumps etc in the future all new to me!

Oooohhhh those valves!
Still, looking at the broken one - are they hollow valve stems and filled with sodium?
I'm sure that I read somewhere about sodium cooled valves????.....

Alfasixnut wrote:Oooohhhh those valves!
Still, looking at the broken one - are they hollow valve stems and filled with sodium?
I'm sure that I read somewhere about sodium cooled valves????.....

yes, the exhaust ones are sodium filled.
these are pretty well beyond repair though!
replacement cylinder head sourced today, will collect next week.
should have some engine parts arrive over the weekend so will make a bit more progress soon.
bit chilly tonight to be down the shed, even with a heater

Wuss!

petrolhead wrote:Wuss!

true!

Well done to all involved with setting up the new forum, looking good, look forward to contributing to some sud related topic's etc.. reading this particular thread with interest so i can learn all about them flat 4's whilst there in bits ... well done Kev.

a nice day weather wise so what better than some alfa mending.

the 33's engine was almost stripped but the distributtor was refusing to come out of the rear cover. a couple of days soaking in parafin freed it up, with some help and encouragement
the clutch slave though is stuck fast, even a go in my press wouldn't shift it, would break the alloy cover before moving it!
so it'll have to be chopped out, like a stuck bearing. knock the centre out, cut a slot in the slave casing from the inside, that should free it out.

the block was then free of the cover & crank so it went into the parts washer for a scrub up.
i use parafin in the parts washer rather than degreasing fluid, which is more expensive and less useful at getting the crud off.

once cleaned the block was washed out with a high pressure water hose, amazing how much gunk comes out once the parafin has released things.
cleaned and dried it then got a scrub up with the grinder, down wind of the washing in the back garden.......

core plugs fitted and ready for paint, in my usual red hammerite smooth of course it gives a fairly good finish once dried.

should be able to make a bit of progress this week, parts will be arriving shortly i hope.

need to get cracking so i can make a start on the sud

Nice work as always kev

Ditto mate, well done.


Just one thing, last time i had anything stuck like that, i think it was a bearing actually on the Uglipla, i ran the plasma cutter down it, opening up a scar, wide enough to get a cold chisel in and collaped it in seconds, and came out clean as a whistle.

Handy things them cutters!



shrew

Kev,

I have some spare used exhaust valves if they are any good to you.

Edward wrote:Kev,

I have some spare used exhaust valves if they are any good to you.

Hi Ed.

I've got some used exhaust valves to go in thanks, cheers for the offer though

down the shed tonight, continue the progress on the engine.

tonights job was to remove the old clutch slave that was completely corroded into the rear cover.
first job was to chop the back off the slave with my angle grinder, a 1mm disc does this with ease. you need to be able to get inside the slave for the next stage,
you can then fit a hacksaw inside the old slave and simply (but carefully) cut a slot in the casing. be careful not to go too far as you'll cut a slot in the alloy housing too!
once a slot is there it allows the slave to release enough to be knocked out.


with that out a few bits were cleaned out in the parts washer then washed off ready for painting tomorrow night.

block looks to have dried nicely, paint does spread a little with the rough nature of the casting but has ended up pretty smooth.
looking forward to starting to build it back up

Good Tip mate,

hope i never need it, but good all the same! ha ha!

shrew