ALFAGTV6.COM

[PietereQ]

Well It's been a while, and I figured that it made more sense to start a new thread, since my GTV6 has long ceased being a road car anyway and the pictures in the old thread are lost as well.
My thanks go to the amazing, helpful community of this forum, that shared all that precious alfa transaxle knowledge throughout all those fifteen years! And special thanks to Kevin and Jim, whom I've been nagging with many questions, parts, drawing requests and whatnot.

I know most traffic has gone to facebook, but I still this forum is the go-to place regarding transaxle alfas, and I feel like I owe something back to share, to this place which has been so helpful in my gtv6 journey.
So in 2017 I've managed to get my hands on a low mileage motor from Italy, allegedly sourced from ex-government 166. The Best part was, that it was listed as a 3.0 so I guess I got lucky there haha. 0.2 l to be precise.
I didn't do much work on the engine next year except for the typical rwd conversion bucket list; mating with rwd sump, the flywheel spacer, thermostat conversion, bigger plenum, etc.

Then the engine sat for some more time, I was then still toying with maybe trying to drop and start the engine as it was. Meanwhile, I changed job and moved to another city, and figured if I'm gonna go broke with finishing the car anyway, It should be done the right way ie have the engine compeletely rebuilt. Just decided not to go crazy, so completely stock engine with wilder cams. So yea in the end it was a low mileage motor with two bent valves, and one liner needing replacement due to rust - was probably sitting for a while. The rest of the list included main bearing bore alignment, new bearings, piston rings, new tappets, and lifters, now I kinda regret that I didn't go whit stiffer valve springs, well maybe next year..

In the meantime as the engine was rebuilt I was gathering the remaining necessary bits.
As all of my flywheels had hairline cracks, I decided to go with lightweight alu unit from OK Tech, new clutch plate and resurfaced pressure plate.

Kinda regret not contacting Jim regarding his headers before ordering headers from Extreme Tuning. Don’t get me wrong, they are excellent quality, and well worth the money. Its just with those upwards primaries, if you are not running ITB’s, then things get more complicated with a single throttle setup.

[PietereQ]

Once the engine was rebuilt, the work could resume. As for the engine management, the choice was easy here; went for Ecumaster EMU Black which is most popular stand alone in my neck of the woods, also very hard to beat in terms of price/quality. And for long time I really wanted to have a simple programmable dash, so went with 7” ADU display unit.
Since there was so much work with the wiring anyway, the stock 3.2 engine loom was also thrown in the bin and new one made from scratch. Also, haven’t seen any TFSI coils on alfa V6’s before. They are a perfect fit, way cheaper, and easily available as opposed to oem Alfa coils.
You might remember in Kevins 116 V6 thread I used metal gasket as a template, without O ring, well as the more experienced collegues here said it may not seal properly, well they were right Went ittle overkill and revised the design, and had that plate cut out from stainless steel.
After starting up the engine, and uploading base map for break in, I could already feel that the motor was pulling crazy strong even on small loads. Those few break in days were challenging to say the least But finally 3 oil changes later, final tune time.

Right from the first pull we were seeing 280+ hp on the base map so I knew 300 hp should be possible. That’s the part where I think, I should have invested into harder springs. There was a noticeable power drop after 6K rpm, and turning the cam wheels (both advancing and retarding) didn’t do much, and only after fiddling with ignition, the engine finally reached the 300 hp mark. Looks like valvesprings are struggling with those cams(276 deg 10.10 lift) Maybe you guys can chime in on this? Anyway I’m very happy with the result, feels quite different to drive to say the least, the last time I drove my GTV6 it was pulling 150 hp haha.

So that’s it, first trackday is in a couple of weeks so I see how it goes.

[MD]

HI Peter,

A very nice practical and minimalist outcome for all you dedication. Nice job mate.
...one thing I don't understand is why you left that wrap around condom on your steering wheel ?? Impact protection of some kind perhaps?

You know how it goes, I can't just let you get off Scott free

Bullshit aside, a question. Are those headers stainless steel ? If they are not, the insulation wrap will cause a serious corrosion in quick time and you'll be looking for a new set in 12 months time. I they are stainless, then it's a smart move.

I also take it that this is a dedicated track car. Unless you intend to do night racing, the headlights are pointless and you should save them as they are now scarce and costly to replace. Easy enough to make a dummy replacement set and allow more cool air under the bonnet.

A personal choice. I can't say that I have ever felt that removing the front bumper bar is a satisfactory look. I know why you have done it of course and lot of people do the same. Something else needs to replace it and restore the lines of the front end. The factory design is almost perfect and very hard to improve on and none of my efforts are satisfactory whatsoever. Maybe it's something yet to be decided upon but at the end of the day, it's your car.

Once again Peter, a great job.

[KevinR]

That’s extremely neat ! Like the extension on the oil filler neck . The cold air intake with the drive by wire throttle body also very neat ! As Jim said keep those revs under 7800 with those valve springs will be fine. Question is do you really need to go above 7500rpm ?
By the way MD also has his steering wheel wrapped and is just jealous to see it on your car . As a matter of fact his gear knob is also wrapped
Are you still running a heater in your car ? I ask because the pressure rating on those water bottle caps is higher that the system can handle .

[PietereQ]

Thanks for the kind words guys!

...one thing I don't understand is why you left that wrap around condom on your steering wheel ?? Impact protection of some kind perhaps?

Had my face wrapped for last two+ years, so what do you expect it was only natural to wrap all contact surfaces haha

Mike, those headers are stainless, no worries. Regarding the front of the car, I don't even have the front bumper this was a Zender GTV6 and I sold the bodykit to some dude in Spain eons ago. But I kinda like just the stock spoiler, not to ground hugging and still goes along with the side profile of the car, but it's a time attack toy, so looks come second'ish

That’s extremely neat ! Like the extension on the oil filler neck . The cold air intake with the drive by wire throttle body also very neat ! As Jim said keep those revs under 7800 with those valve springs will be fine. Question is do you really need to go above 7500rpm ?
By the way MD also has his steering wheel wrapped and is just jealous to see it on your car . As a matter of fact his gear knob is also wrapped
Are you still running a heater in your car ? I ask because the pressure rating on those water bottle caps is higher that the system can handle .

The shop that helped me finish the car builds 700hp drift cars, mostly JDMs. Thats their bread and butter, so it was nice to have some ideas out of the alfa box, such as that oil filler neck (wanted to move it front like it's mostly done), TFSI coils (thought of sourcing oem ones), and that DBW throttle. Like many I was worried about the throttle response, and wanted to go mechanical at first, and I'm glad I didn't. Doesn't really make much sense when running modern stand alone such as EMU, where you can set up launch control, flat shift, rev matching, different maps for wet conditions, and bunch of other cool stuff I'm probably not even aware of Anyway throttle progression is linear and the response is razor sharp, that DBW is a completely different beast as opposed to what we are used in modern cars for instance.
The heater is gone, which leads me to think I'll probably need an electric one for the rainy days.

[Zamani]

Awesome Pieter! Which cams are these? I’m guessing Catcams, seeing you have cat cam gears. Saw your vids on YouTube, car sounds great!!!

MD,

Mate you should stop wrapping things.

[Zamani]

Link to dyno video

https://youtu.be/9JUKpFQ4RLk

Smooth idle

https://youtu.be/Msl7s4lQxeA

What starter are you using? It sounds like a non alfa starter. Wondering if it’s a Brise starter

[PietereQ]

Thanks Zam!

Just using Catcams cam wheels, the cams themeselves are regrinds of factory cams. As for starter yes, it sounds different than the stock chainsmoker cough starter Now I'm using Alfa GT 3.2 starter, those headers wouldn't clear stock starter.

[KevinR]

Hi Pieter
How did your track day go as you mentioned one was coming up . I see Extreme tuning exhausts also do headers for 24v that don’t come upwards like yours but also merge in one just past the engine mount . Any sound clips ?

[Zamani]

I pasted the YouTube link to the Dyno video and idling video above. Car sounds good.

[PietereQ]

Hi Pieter
How did your track day go as you mentioned one was coming up . I see Extreme tuning exhausts also do headers for 24v that don’t come upwards like yours but also merge in one just past the engine mount . Any sound clips ?

Hey! forgot to make an update, I guess it sounds not bad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MxrZhZzCQ4

Just checked their site, looks like a new product, nice! By the time I was ordering mine, shorties were available only for the 12v.

As for the car, everything ran great, which doesnt mean there isnt lots of ironing out, especially around suspension and steering.

Also I'm looking for solution to the following: I have this issue with oil pressure on two corners that require long, hard braking ~190 km/h to roughly 70-80. Fortunately the EMU is set up in such a way, that if oil pressure drops below 0.4bar it kills the engine. On two occasions I had the oil pressure warning come up, when I was trying to clock in a hotter lap.
I made a baffle to acommodate the fact that the chain driven pumps sits further back at the engine, but that seems not to work in racing conditions with slicks. Any ideas apart from dry sump? I remember seeing on some Scandinavian forum, someone did work on the pump housing, and relocated the pump intake back to the front of the sump. Can't find it anymore. I know I cant be the only one facing such issue and there has to be some solution for this.

[MD]

Hey Polski. Good to see you out there giving motorsport a crack. As long as you are quicker than Kevin that's all that counts.

Had a very quick think about your request. If the pick up point is your only concern, I think it plausible to just relocate it using your existing pump. My Picasso drawing shows a substitute fitting over the suction point connected to anew pipe running to the front of the pan. At this point, the pipe would need a custom attachment for a hand made suction head with its own filter shape. I expect that could be round or rectangular-now matter what ever works.

The centre baffling would need modifying to accommodate this suggestion. The tube itself could be of any shape for the best fit.

[Zamani]

So it looks like the FWD pickup literally has a corner case. I’d say reduce the number of flaps to just ones first and see if that helps. Otherwise look into adding a sump spacer or OKTech’s CNC’d lower sump like the one used in davide Cironi’s 3.3 project. I think that adds a bit more oil volume (need to confirm that) to the back. This is if you want to avoid an engine out mod.

Otherwise, I’d do what MD says. Surprisingly sometimes MD does give good advice

[MD]

Surprises me too.
You can never surprise Kevin. Has his guard up 24/7. Sleeps with one eye open. The other one is intermittent. Onya Kevin !

[PietereQ]

Was waiting for the photoshop master to show up eventually
Moving the pump intake forward seems like best of both worlds, however I remember there was little space between the screen and the bottom of the pan, I don't know whether adding spacer would help, the oil will still slosh to the front of the sump under hard braking. Well... back to the drawing board