ALFAGTV6.COM

[ALFA GTV6 GP]

Hi guys need help looking at buying this 75 I am on the other side of the country so I can not test drive the car the seller assures me the car has not blown a head gasket no with no signs of oil in the coolant tant he also assures me the car has never been run low on oil. The seller wrote: "The car is currently not running, and is sold AS IS. However the only problem stopping it running is a flat battery and noisy water pump.I have recently spent over $3500 to get this car up and running, but now have to sell as I have no more money to get it going. It only requires a little bit more work and the car will be going well again.
The car was originally off the road as the timing belt snapped and bent the valves while my mum was driving it (it has been her car for the last 3 years as dad had a business car). The car sat around until i decieded to do something about it. I got it all repaired, conisiting of timing belt, valves and springs, new water pump and alot of labour .
The car had been running beautifully when the engine developed a sound and overheated. I told my mum to shut it off and get it towed home. I believe the problem is the water pump developed the loud sound as it is not a quadrifoglio pump, but a standard 75 pump. They vary a bit and this could be why it is stuffed.?
So i believe all that is needed is a charge of the battery and a new alfa 75 quadrifoglio water pump and she should be running great!
Update: Today I charged the battery and the engine started straight away, idles fine. Then after a minute of idling it starts to make the loudish sound. I shut the engine off straight away. I will try to find out why and what is doing this."
It sounds to me like bearing wear but I'm a not a mechanic so please help as the car is cheap all feedback appreciated

p.s. He is sending me a sound file of the noise but described it as tuk tuk tuk ???
Thanks John

[Jim K]

The two pumps are exactly the same apart from the removable pulley of the Quadrifoglio pump, a necessary feature, allowing removal of the Motronic crank pulley without removing the water pump.
Jim K.

[joey]

lol, thats sounds familar !! that car is off ebay right?

mate for me, i wouldn't bother, its approaching 3k and reserve not met... there are running 3.0s on ebay from time to time b/w 4 and 5k with fewer ks..

if you were prepared to truck it over and immediately rebuild the engine/gbox, thats another matter tho... paint does look good.

[ALFA GTV6 GP]

Thanks Jim for the info!
Joey your spot on it's the one from Ebay,It's caught my interest as it's a one owner QV verde and there rare as over here West Coast of OZ.I'd pay $3000 for it for a parts car.
I have a video sound file of the engine running in email form(mvi video clip 1,532kb) and would appreciate if someone could listen to it and give me there prognosis
Thanks John

[joey]

gimme, i can host if u need to..

wankski at hotmail.


yep, i'ld take it for parts, nice skin... but also worth the rebuild ! 200k !

[joey]

sweet, have the file..

hosted here:

http://home.swiftdsl.com.au/~joeyamin/MVI_0948.avi


i have no idea what that is.. sounds really noisy like there's no oil !! i've had one of my engines sound like a diesel like that when it was starved of oil. (dont ask)

i cant hear the characteristic knock of a done bottom end, but it does sound damaged due to its previous stroke so i wouldn't count that out... time to pm baz and jim... i'll do that!

[joey]

the guru has spoken:

Well Joey, offhand, it sounds like valvetrain problem, possibly even a broken valve spring, allowing momentary valve/piston contact. Thats the worst I can make out of the sound, plus a belt bearing gone sour (like the a/c belt stretcher, if you have one). In this last (bearing) case, spray a little WD40 aiming for the bearing innards and watch the sound disappear.
I would take acompression check, to see if I can pinpoint a grossly faulty cylinder. If its indeed a valve spring, it can be changed by a clever mechanic without taking the head off.
A relatively harmless sound sourse would be screwed up tappets or exhaust rockers. Again, from what I hear, it sounds like valve train, a badly worn cam lobe would be very noisy also.
Good luck dude!
Jim K.


it def is noisy, and i dont think its the bottom end thankfully.... oh well, it'll be a bummer if poor dean hurt his heads again... hopefully jim's tricks will save the day, and at worst a decent mech can fix it without major surgery..

[Jim K]

This is no guru talk, its more like rolling dice, you either get it right or not. Unfortunately, many car problems are isolated and finally identified by the process of elimination, as very rarely you can pinpoint the source right from the start!
Jim K.

[joey]

dont worry jim, i think you covered yourself pretty well in the response without having to add another disclaimer...

(md's been getting in your ear hasn't he?, lol)

of course nothing is certain, but as long as we're reasonably sure it's not the catastrophic mains bearing damage like the seller feared .. thats something i guess.