ScottsCarGarage.com

69 GTV SPICA diagnostics

I have been corresponding with John Stewart on the alfa BB forums regarding my rough running 69 Alfa GTV.  He suspects it maybe a problem with my thermostatic actuator (TA).  This part expands as the motor warms up and puts pressure on a on an input of the SPICA fuel injection pump to lean out the mixture when the engine gets upto temperature.  He has sent me several tech documents for diagnosis and specs of the SPICA system.

I plan to go over the SPICA setup and verify the components on the GTV shortly in hopes of sorting out the rough running problems.

John has been kind enough to send me various technical docs for the Alfa and SPICA setup.  I have placed these documents on the site under Technical Documents.

 

Valve adjustment on the 69 GTV

This week i did a valve adjustment on the 69 GTV.  I had noticed previously that the valve lash was a little tight on all cylinders, and the car would run rough when it would get upto operating temperature.

I took each of the cams out of the engine to access the cups and valve shims.  I measured the thickness of each valve shim and adjusted so they were all within spec.  I then reassembled the motor and verified the timing.

Once the engine was warm i noticed great consistent compression numbers in each cylinder of 180-185psi, however i still had the sputter and rough running once the engine was up to full operating temperature.  This leads me to believe there is a problem with something in the fuel injection system.

Engine out of the Mercedes

I’ve been quite busy lately, but i’ve finally been able to finish pulling the motor out of the Mercedes.  It was quite a chore to get it out, as the steering box and idler get in the way of dropping the motor and sub frame as a unit.  But with removing some accessories and some wiggling the motor came out.

I separated the motor from the sub frame so i can work on rebuilding it.  I put the sub frame back in the car and hooked up the steering so i can send out the chassis for cleanup and paint work while i’m working on the motor.

GTV not running right

I’ve been struggling with the 69 GTV i picked up trying to get it running well.  It runs great when cold, but once driven down the road for a few mins it starts sputtering and missing and continues to do so until the motor is cooled off, then it runs fine again.

I’ve started by checking the plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor, ignition coil, fuel injectors, fuel injection lines, etc without any good results.  Today i tried doing a compression test and noticed that when the motor is hot it yields lower compression results then when cold (this is backwards from what it should be).

This led me to start checking the valves.  It appears the clearances are too tight, and are allowing the valves to stay open and bleed off some compression when the motor gets hot.  Due to the design of the Alfa dual overhead cam motor, there is no way to ‘adjust’ the valves.  Valves are adjusted by changing out valve shims found under the cam followers.  I have pulled the cams out of the engine and am in the process of measuring each valve’s clearance and will order up the new shims shortly.

Removing the engine

This weekend i started removing the engine from the Mercedes.  I started by removing the drive-shaft, radatior, A/C, hoses and steering components.   The plan is to drop the motor and subframe out of the car so the engine bay can be cleaned up and the motor can be reconditioned with the parts i picked up from the scrap yard.

Porsche Parts!

Last week i signed up for alerts from my local classified ads and got an email this week about a 67 SWB porsche shell with title just down the street from me.  I called the seller and made an appointment to go see it.  Turns out it was actually a VERY early 68 build that was titled as a 67.  It looked like it had 85% of what is needed to fix the pond porsche.    The previous owner started to prep it for restoration and cut out a bunch of rusty panels, so it doesn’t look great, but everything that is still on the car is very solid.  A deal was made and we loaded it onto the trailer.

Type-R recovered

This morning we set out to retrieve the abandoned Integra Type-R.  After running out of fuel last week, I decided to play it safe and stopped off for a full tank on the way there!  After heading north for a while we arrived and found the car was as described.  Low mileage type-R with only 22,722 kms on it (about 14k miles)!  The interior was taken out and it had a pre-fab’d rollbar installed with and a fire suppression system.  After looking over the car there was one serious problem we found – The car was locked and the seller had no clue what he had done with the keys.

A few ideas were tossed around, but after a call to the closest Acura dealer 30 minutes away we found they had a blank key in-stock and would cut us a new one.  That hour detour got us into the car, but it was parked with the e-brake engaged so it would not move.   We jacked up the car and pulled off the brake pads – discovering that the rear pads had fused to the rotors from sitting so long.  Once we had the car rolling we loaded it onto the trailer, and since the car is immobilized from the factory we needed to go back to the Acura dealer to get the key programmed.

The Acura dealership was extremely helpful and the staff were amazed to see one of these cars in this condition (They were a rare low production numbers car and most of the local ones have either been used up or stolen).   All of the techs at the dealer came over and had a good look over the car.   We joked about getting a free wash with our key programming service, and since we made friends with the techs they gladly let us use they pressure washer!   The car cleaned up quite nicely – but will still need some polishing to take out some imperfections in the paint.

Since we were in Barrie – we had to stop at the only Tim Hortons we know that has Boston Cream Timbits!   Seriously – i don’t know why all locations don’t have these little bites of deliciousness!   Afterwards we trailered the car home and parked it in the new owners garage.  It will receive a complete fluid change,  gas tank drain and brake flush.  Once the car is fired up – the plan is to revert the interior back to original and get the brakes and running gear road worthy again.

Resurrected Type R

I’m heading out this morning to retrieve an Integra Type-R for a friend of mine who heard a rumor about an unmolested original low mileage Type-R that was purchased new, auto-crossed a few times and then parked where it has been sitting for over 10 years!  He placed a few calls and tracked down the owner and has made an offer to purchase – so we’re heading out to go extract the car from its resting place and begin working on getting it up and running again.

Porsche 912 parts car home

I took the car to the coin wash today on the trailer.  Cleaned off all the road grime and salt from the trip home and tucked the car away into the garage.  It’s sitting beside the 69 Alfa i picked up off Bring a Trailer back in December.  I left the heat on in the garage with the overhead fans running to let the Porsche dry out.

Unfortunately I dropped the ramp off my trailer onto my finger while unloading the car (I’m not usually this clumsy, i’ve unloaded numerous cars off the trailer and never had a problem) but the finger is quite badly swollen.  I went to the doctor today and they x-ray’d it and told me the finger is broken – looks like i’ll be slow going in the garage for a few weeks until this heals up.

Trip to pickup the Porsche parts car

Today i went to pickup the parts Porsche 912.  I set out early in the morning with my friend Rob and after driving through an almost whiteout snow storm on the Canadian side that let up as quickly as it appeared we were shortly in Michigan and picked up the Porsche.

The car was exactly as described and the seller was a pleasure to deal with.  We couldn’t get the car to fire up, although it would crank over had good compression and would sputter but just wouldn’t fully run.  The seller was kind enough to lend a hand to winch the non-op car onto my trailer.   After loading the car I protected the interior by covering the missing rear and side window with plastic – which i held in place with my festive duct tape!  :)

I wish i could say the drive back was uneventful, but that is not the case.  After running out of fuel and having to walk for 2-miles to get more and being delayed at the boarder while the officers asked a million questions and tried to figure out what paperwork forms to use, and running into some horrible snow storm on the way back we finally made it back home safely albeit quite dirty.  It’s extremely cold out today so i won’t wash the slush off the car just yet – it’s supposed to warm up in the next few days above freezing which will be a better time to clean up this car.

Found a clutch cover for the 69 Alfa

Since the clutch cover the 69 Alfa driver i just picked up was rotten – i decided to email a friend, Ross, who is restoring this 69 Alfa and see if i could use his cover plate as a template to fab up another one.  He emailed me back that day and said his was also rotten, but had found that Classic Alfa in the UK that had started reproducing them.

He said he would be placing an order shortly and we could split on the shipping charges.  So i’m patiently awaiting the arrival of the new part.

 

First project on the 69 Alfa

Today I tackled the front grill on the 69 Alfa.  Somewhere along the way it had been replaced with a 72-74 GTV 2000 grill.  Although the grill wasn’t in bad shape, i had a spare 1750 grill lying around on the shelf that i decided to mount up and give it a more correct look.

69 GTV detailed inspection

Today i put the new 69 Alfa GTV up on the lift for a detailed underside inspection.  When i bought the car i inspected the car sitting on the ground at night with a flashlight.  It appeared to have had the rockers replaced at some point and had patchwork done to the floorboards, but seemed to be relatively solid overall.

Today on the lift i confirmed the car was infact solid.  It had some spots that will need attention (missing front right jack point and some sloppy patchwork on the floor pans that could be cleaned up).  But the car is solid even though it shows some surface rust on the underside – it looks bad, but its very solid.

The rear muffler was hanging at an odd angle. It had snapped off rear section of the muffler pipe which is letting the rear muffler and tip dangle at the rear end of the car.  This will need to be corrected.  The rest of the piping appears in good shape, so i will likely re-purpose the muffler tip and add a straight section of muffler pipe in place of the current rusty muffler.

A few other nice surprises were also discovered.  The car has new lower ball joints and tie rod ends, along with Koni yellow shocks and some brand of Blue lowering springs (not sure what brand they are).  The fuel tank has been reconditioned, new fuel filer, new e-brake cable, new clutch hydraulic line and slave clyinder.  The previous owner of the car also had fully rebuild the engine and transmission (new pistons, liners, head reconditioned with new valve guides, etc, along with the new syncros and bearings as needed in the transmission).

There appears to be some oil on the bottom of transmission bell-housing.  might need either a rear main seal or tansmission input shaft seal.  There is a coverplate over the rod that connects the clutch pedal to the clutch master cylinder.  This cover  appears to be very rusty (disintegrating) but it’s just a sheet metal cover to keep dirt out of the pivot points of the assembly – As this part is non-structural I will either remove it or replace it.  Also the steering box appears to have leaked oil out onto the tierod link bar.  Likely the box will have to be pulled and at very least a new a seal put on.

Overall, i’m very happy with the car so far.  It runs well and drives down the road nicely.  It will make for a great summer driver – now i just have to wait for the weather to warm up!

When it rains….it porsches!

I thought i had missed out on a wet Porsche 912 that was posted on Bring a Trailer.  I had called the seller about an hour or so after it was posted but i was too late as he had already sold the car over the phone.  I left my contact info with the seller incase the buyer fell through and told him i was in the process of restoring the exact same car.

Well today he contacted me and said the deal fell through on the wet Porsche 912.  So a deal was made and i will be heading there in early January to pick it up!

69 GTV

After chatting with the seller for a little bit regarding the history of the car, and having a good look over it a deal was struck and the car was loaded onto the trailer.  The car appears to be a good quality driver that has had some metal repair and patches, but the body is overall very straight and has little rust.  There is some surface rust on the repaired floor pans, but it is all solid and not poorly done.  I will put the car up on the lift this weekend and have good inspection of the underside and start some small updates (replacing the incorrect front grill).   On the way home i stopped at a gas station and took these pics:

1969 Alfa GTV

Today I got an email from Bring a Trailer (one of my favorite websites) that listed a 69 GTV forsale.  I immediately called the phone number in the ad and setup an appointment to go see the car about 1 hour after the BaT email was sent out.

Datsun Parts

I picked up this 71 Datsun 240Z parts car.  The front right frame rail and drivers side floor boards are soft, but other than that its a fairly solid car.  I will start parting this car out shortly so email me if you’d like anything off this car.

Score!

I recalled looking at a Mercedes over a year ago at a local scrap yard.  He had a few parts cars (all 108/109 chassis).  I decided to stop by and found out he had exactly what i needed to fix my car!  He had a 72 280 SEL 4.5L just like the one i have.  A deal was struck for a great price if i pulled the entire harness out of the car myself along with all the engine accessories and the electronic fuel injection and intake manifold.

I spent a cold November day pulling the harness and my friend Rob came along the next day to help finish the job and remove all the accessories off the engine.  I now have most of the parts i need to fix this old Mercedes.

Trailer Fixed!

I showed up at 7am when Trailer Masters opened.  The staff (2 guys) were extremely helpful.  They noticed i had an Ontario trailer plate and remarked i must have been a long way from home.  I explained i still had another 600 miles to go to get back home.

They set me up with a completely new hub, bearings and wheel nuts.  Bad news – when i tried the hub on the axle it didn’t fit!   Turns out the flopping hub/broken bearings had worn a flat spot on the bottom of the axle stub!  They didn’t stock axle stubs, so only option was to file down the damage.  Trailer Masters lent me some files and 30mins later i was back in business!

I bought an extra set of bearings, retaining nut and cotter pin just in case i got stranded again.  Luckily we made it back home, unloaded the car safely in the shop and the trailer repair held up beautifully.