How cold is it? I'd hazard a guess that the timing belt jumped a tooth.
bs ________________________________ From: Joe Elliott <[email protected]> To: AD <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, February 9, 2010 7:17:01 AM Subject: [alfa] GTV-6 engine problem Good morning Alfisti, Weather conditions here this morning precluded drving either of my less-practical cars, so I essentially had no choice but to drive the GTV-6, even when it exhibited an awful noise on startup. It was a periodic (in the mathematical sense of the word) tapping noise presumably once every other crankshaft rotation, like an exhaust leak in one of the manifold branches, but it didn't sound *quite* like that. More metallic, I'm afraid. And the engine was down on power, waaaay down on power. More so than I would imagine if the problem were limited to one cylinder as the noise would seem to suggest. And at one point on the way to work (I think as I was cresting a hill and closing the throttle) it backfired and died (plenum and intake boot popped off). But the weirdest symptom was the high idle, especially noticeable at startup, which seems inconsistent with the lack of power. Of note is that I noticed a higher-than-normal idle on startup the last two times I drove the car, which on both occasions came down to normal within a minute of operation, so I wrote it off to a sticky throttle in the extreme cold or something and didn't worry about it. Any ideas? I should probably just park the car until the weather is more conducive to outdoor tinkering, but I'm probably going to be too preoccupied worrying about it to get anything done at work today, so I may go home early and do some troubleshooting. Any suggestions would be appreciated, as the symptoms seem totally inconsistent to me. Thanks, Joe Elliott '82 GTV-6 -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected] -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected]
