I went in for a SPICA adjustment, the car was a little rough to start but still stayed way out front on most drives. Other items were: change all the fluids; trans, diff, engine, brake, etc. It turned out the 1-4 exhaust manifold was broken...strange how the noise sneaks up on you so you never hear it...so the diagnosis was the motor mounts were sagged, the trans mount was sagged (all had been replaced within 30 to 50k miles), there were missing bolts on the horizontal forward mount right aft the collector pipes AND that all added up to a broken manifold. While waiting for an appointment slot, I put a hose clamp on the manifold to close the crack for a few days.
The Paul Spruell reinforced motor mounts had been on my parts shelf for a while, which I'd been meaning to put in but hadn't got there yet...I had an excellent tranny mount (good enough I couldn't tell if it was new or used) and found a brand new 1-4 manifold at John Norman's Alfa Parts. It was a little more than twice the price of a used one, and since I'm keeping the car I told him to put my name on it. It's drilled and tapped so if I ever want to, I can put an exhaust gas analyzer on the car. One of the things I always regretted was not doing the Jet Coat on the exhaust manifolds when I did the overhaul. Not having the luxury of having the car down for a couple of weeks waiting for the manifolds to get coated, I asked John Norman which was better, Jet Coat or wrapping with that woven tape. His opinion is that the tape is better. I then had a long chat with Jim Cestarollo, my new mechanic in Novato, and he ordered the tape. While the car was in for this second service, I put in new semi metallic carbon high performance brake pads from CenterLine Alfa, skimmed the rotors and overhauled the gas tank. The tank ended up being sent to A. Louis Radiator in San Francisco. I've been going to them for 40+ years. They banged out the dents, soldered the tank in 4 places and put a coat of paint on it. While I was at it, I put in a new tank float. As I have the deep tank with Jaeger gauges, they don't make he right float assembly any more so I'm still calibrating/adjusting... The radiator overflow bottle melted due to the cracked manifold's gasses....gassing in the direction of the lower corner of the bottle. Anybody have a spare I can buy? Jim did a great job, the brakes are bedding in nicely and pretty soon I'll know how much I like the pads. Going back to my ORIGINAL engine overhaul, that mechanic did NOT replace the SPICA micro switch that controls the solenoid and neither one works. I suspect this is why I'm getting closer to 20-21 mpg than the 24-ish I should be getting. Now I have to dig up my two spare pumps so Jim can figure out the best one and go through it. Glad I found Jim! His family still runs Alfa Center in San Francisco, but he's on jis own and conveniently close, does really good work and pays attention to details. He really likes the manifold wrapping and will be recommending that to clients as a service. Whatever the performance gains may be, it will keep more heat away from all the hydraulic plastic reservoirs on that side of the engine bay. The Spruell motor mounts do not add any noticeable vibration, unlike the poly suspension bushings I put in a couple of years ago and paid extra to take out! So I need an overflow bottle. Next will be the gasket windshield, headliner and paint. Well, tires may come first...I finally have a set of the magnesium Cromodora radial spoked wheels that will be painted soon. Any tricks on painting magnesium? Right now I'm on Yokohama ES 100 195/60 R14-86H. These are made for the turbo Porsche guys. I don't like them as much as Yoko A008s, but they don't make the perfect tire anymore! These have been pretty good for slithering around the twisties. What's the closest out there to the A008s? On one of our recent Marin drives, I was right behind a guy I know who was in a fast piece of Detroit iron with a lot of horsepower. When we pulled into the stop, he asked if I'd been on the New Year's Day Drive... the answer was "uh, yeah..." Apparently, he was out there in a Giulia Spider race-prepped car. He saw my Berlina and figured he'd lose me pretty easily. He said it turned out he had to work to keep up with me! That was with the ES100s. Man! I wish they still made the A008s! Think of that when you make a tire recommendation...great slide characteristics...50k on the street tires, 30k on the R compound tires...great slide characteristics! Quiet when sliding...Don't attract the blue flashing revenue agents... Stevan Thomas '73 Berlina 10:1 pistons, big valves, euro cams -- to be removed from alfa, see http://www.digest.net/bin/digest-subs.cgi or email "unsubscribe alfa" to [email protected]
