ALFAGTV6.COM

[Jim K]

Joking aside, if I could find a job I would consider staying here's. Something in the defense sector would be nice. Anyway, I'm going back to Greeceland on Tuesday. The AlfaCanadese Convention was immensely successful with agreat crowd from both Canada and the US. I sat on the same gable with Andrea Zagato and had a lot to talk about. Shot afew pics of the TZ3....beautiful machine!! Will post when I get home.
Jim K.

[75evo]

JK,

Any chance I can persuade you to come to the Convention in 2013, here in sunny CA. Track will be the famous Sears Point (aka Infineon Raceway). Going to be a couple of nice V6s, including a GTA Jr replica with 3.0 V6.

[Jim K]

Nice proposal, thanks, but the cost would be prohibitive....I was very fortunate to make it to Toronto! I wish it were possible...We could have tech sessions for several days!
Jim K.

[75evo]

We'll don't say no just yet. Maybe we can work something out.

[Jim K]

Well, I'm back in Greeceland (unfortunately) so here are some pics of the Convention, showing the TZ3, SZ, two Callaways, a Montreal and a GTA. There were more than 150 perfect Alfas of all years and models there but I was most impressed by these.
Jim K.

[75evo]

JK,

Nice cars. But did you use a camera phone?

I know Paul the SZ owner, we knew each other since the 90's on the Alfa Digest.

BTW, if you come to next year's event, you can help test some of our cars to setup for the time trials. We're thinking of renting the track the day before the event for practice laps.

Anyway, just keep this in mind, don't say no just yet. We may be able to work something out....

Just imagine days and days of BS'ing about the V6s, transaxles and other shit.

[Jim K]

No camera phone, just my old Olympus 3.2Mp and scaled them down for posting.
Yeah, week-long tech sessions sound good!
Lots of time still, lets wait and see. I proposed to the Alfa Canadese guys they hold their next convention in the Nordschleife....Arrive without cars (of course) and have a great few days on and off the track!
Jim K.

[Jim K]

Ok you all! Out of hibernation! Time to put some life into this thread after so many months!
In the last couple of weeks, I installed the MSD 6530 programmable ignition in the 1.8T, along with a 3bar Weber map sensor. After fiddling for a few days with the two curves (advance vs rpm and retard vs boost) I believe I have come to a point I can talk about it. Driveability so far is excellent and may get even better as I improve on the two curves. In essence, I have taken the std ignition ecu out of the loop while retaining the fuel ecu. I can now run 12* idle advance and even have the effect of vacuum advance when driving light-throttle. Fortunately, there's a long usually empty uphill drive, ideal for hard testing 2nd/3rd/4th gear. For the tests, I removed the plastic duct supplying air to the std intercooler, in order to raise intake temps and be able to come up with a safe advance curve -an effective seat of the pants method. I can now run 1.5-1.6bar boost (22-23psi) and its very easy to light up the tires in 2nd/3rd gears. I have boost from ~2200rpm and city driving is excellent now! Afr's are constantly monitored with the LM1 and my next move is to install the water/air IC (modified std IC), a front mount radiator with circulating pump, the large TD radiator with the twin fans and larger (Weber IW-44) injectors, which will allow me to decrease fuel pressure from the current 3.7bar. All this with the recalibrated std afm, which shows afr's of 14-16.5 in normal driving and 10.5-11.5 under max conditions. With the above proposed changes, I will attempt to operate at 1.8bar (26psi) and if nothing blows up after some weeks of testing , I'll visit the dyno. This will be my last effort with stock fuel ecu and afm. Next step up will be the Weber-Marelli P8 ecu of Fiat Coupe 16VT origin.
Testing/adjusting engines in our present weather conditions must fall under some kind of 'worst case' condition description, especially for turbos! If it finally survives here, it must be good anywhere!
Jim K.

[Greg Gordon]

Nice pictures! The red Callaway with the Maratona kit is my customer's. It's in my shop getting some performance upgrades right now. Forged pistons, modern engine management, and other basic stuff.

Greg

[Mats]

Testing/adjusting engines in our present weather conditions must fall under some kind of 'worst case' condition description, especially for turbos! If it finally survives here, it must be good anywhere!
Jim K.

Do you have 40*C temps now or what do you mean? Cold wearher is the best for turbos!
High altitude + hot air the worst, overspins the turbo.

[Jim K]

I don't want the best conditions for my 'mapping' sessions. I reason that by adjusting advance to avoid knock with a hot intake charge, it will be inherently safer with a cooler charge. And, by testing in warm weather and no std intercooler plastic duct, I definitely have higher intake temps. As a matter of fact, I adjusted the curve in these conditions for 1.5bar max without pinging. I then put the duct back in place and retested. I was able to go a bit more than 1.6bar before I heard pinging. As I said, its a crude seat of the pants method, but it seems to be effective and FREE!
Of course, the afr is hooked up all the time during these 'tests'.
Jim K.

[Mats]

Warm weather? Never been so cold in April since the beginning of time, even the Nürburgring was closed due to snow...

[Jim K]

We got up to 25* a few days ago. I hope it cools off a bit before we really see 30+ days, on our way to 40+, unfortunately. It so happens I like cool weather myself; anything over 15-17*C I don't like.
Jim K.

[Mats]

You should move here...

[Maurizio]

You should move here...

same remark was on my lips.. and I (we) have a small pre wrt Mats, several nice pieces of toll tarmac near us.