ALFAGTV6.COM

[GarthW]

All i'm saying GP is that your having an overseas buyer build something for you which you dont get to see, call me paraniod but i just wouldnt do it...How many years ago you talking..? Now i know for a fact Harrison would not have charged you $30k for a 12v hot N/A, Benninca, yes for sure, they are very expensive...but i would like to ask what you managed to get your rebuild done for, compared to what you were quoted, but it would be rude so i'll leave that.

Bottom line is, when it comes to cars, particulary an engine, there's no way on earth i'd have one shipped from overseas, but you have tried it and by having 30BHP-50BHP more, your alot happier, and so you should be, but a 30bhp jump can easily be achieved with good engine management, let alone what cams or compression your running...and i know Harrison and Benninca have quoted at least 220bhp, so for your overseas efforts, your getting 30bhp more...

Companys in Oz...Gas Motorsports, Maztech Of Melbourne, Pac Performance, Bits of Italy, Fiat and Alfa, but ok mainly turbo motors, but damn i'd happily give my engine to Gas Motorsports for a rebuild, they are amazing. Being Alfa relevant doesnt really matter in my book, if the mechanic is good enough....Beninca work mainly on Porsches lol...

You said when you have the funds the risk is negated with professionals, well if funds wasnt an issue, why you trying to save and worried about exchange rate?
Sorry but just doesnt compute...and Harrison is a total professional, same with Beninca lol.

hehe @ Duk, yeah will remember that.

[SimonB]

Let me get this straight, British people actually think of eighties Ford cars as reliable? We are talking about the Escort, the Sierra, Scorpio/Granada, Orion and all other pieces of $hit I might have missed? Oh, the Fiesta!

I don't think anyone in Sweden or any northern country would think of that gang as anything else then useless rustbuckets youonly had because you couldn't afford anything decent.

Remember that Clarkson writes in Britain for the British audience, generally speaking, there is actually a reason for why the British people are living isolated on an island...

Yes those old 80s Fords were reliable, at least compared to BL rubbish we were used to at the time! My 90s Ford everyday car just keeps on going in spite of being given no attention at all, I just drive it. It feels cheap next to my Alfa but then it was and is cheap. My dad had a Mk 1 Fiesta for a few years with zero problems despite it being a company car and thrashed everywhere. Alfa GTV6s need specialist attention but are then excellent cars. I nearly sold mine in Spain before I found one who knew how to fix it properly (Lozano Motorsport in Valencia). Now looking for the same thing around here...

[GarthW]

Alfa GTV6's needing specialist attention...?...i drove mine hard every day for years and never had a problem, especially an Alfetta 2.0 coupe i had, for nearly 4 years it had nothing done to it, and i thrashed it daily, drove from Melb all the way up the east coast to Port Douglas in it, then stayed in Brisbane for a year where it was really driven hard, all i have to say about all this is that some of you have simply experienced bad workmanship in relation to whatever Alfa's you drive...

And the Alfetta i bought for cheap was built by a backyard mechanic who simply did everything right and it was bullet proof, it went and drove hard and never, ever gave me trouble, specialist attention....

[Duk]

I have to agree with Garth, there isn't anything amazing about the Alfa's that should scare off any half decent mechanic. If they can't to a good job on 1 of these things, then they're just crap at their job.

I also found my old '80 Giulietta to be very reliable except for it's hunger for alternator brush's. Synchro's were flogged to death too, but that's just part of the fun.
That car was awsome fun !

There just seams to be to much unjustified mystisism associated with transaxle Alfa's.

Except for their electrical systems! That is deffinately some weird Italian Vodo magic shit gone mental!

[ALFA GTV6 GP]

Hey Garth thanks for your honest response.

However,your examples are laughable and you would make a terrible poker player.Two rotary specialists a drag /import guy and a Fiat guy.

I'm on this Alfa forum to get advice /contacts from Alfa Romeo specialists.

Also you missed the whole point you compared my road car 3.3 12v V6 250Bhp Atw's to Harrison and Beninca's race engines.My road car has 30+ Bhp runs on pump gas has 12 fewer valves idles perfectly and running carbis.

So what I am saying, is the power from the Ozzie Alfa specialist is way down and way over priced compared to overseas.

My two race/track motors are expected to yeild even more Bhp. I try not to guess post. I will not post figures till I have them dynoed on the same dyno for all to compare and comment.

Garth your later post comparing a 4 cylinder DOHC chain drive Alfetta 2.0 is also irrelevant.

I respect your opinion and enjoy interacting on these kind of posts .My sole purpose was to see if there is a engine builder in Oz that can build me a engine with more power than the ones I already have.

My search continues.

John

[SimonB]

When I say specialist attention I mean a mechanic who knows what he or she is doing! Some of the things they did to it in Spain before I found a decent mechanic were just laughable. People said to me "don't go to Lozano, they are expensive! (€36 an hour!)" this advice probably cost me thousands plus weeks of grief. I totally agree Garth, I used mine for over a year with just routine maintenance including daily use and trips to the UK without problems. But then a neighbourhood mechanic got hold of it... By the way there are some great Alfa mechanics in the UK and probably France too, you just can't take it anywhere to be fixed. I guess the answer is to get a place in the country and some tools and start doing my own stuff again.

[MR2 Zig]

A good mechanic is hard to find.....seems so much of anywhere. I don't have the money to go thru several to find a good one so I do my own work. Not everyone can do their own mechanic-ing....and you REALLY don't want me doing your accounting. Folks tend to be good at a couple of things and bad at others. My.02.

[Mats]

I guess whan you live in eternal sunshine even an eighties Ford can be reliable, but why does the Brits like them?

Anyway, I share the drive-for-many-years-without-issues saga. And sure, it may be more difficult to change the cambelt on an Alfa V6 but I think the problem is that there are so few Alfas so they never bothered to get the manuals for them...

[Zamani]

SOHC V6 RWD timing belt change is easy, btw. 24V = nightmare.

[mjr]

never had no trouble with my fords had a 78 fiesta 1300 cross flow sport, 81 Xr2, and 84 Xr3. I loved everyone of em. The Xr2 and Xr3 were brilliant cars, never missed a beat, or rusted. quick as fck, and handled. I miss them both. The fiesta was good too, though it used to eat a set of points every 2000 miles, ha ha, otherwise it was indestructible The xr2 and xr3 were built quite nicely, the 78 fiesta wasn't as good, as did start to rust, though no where near as bad as my mates alfa sud, which sounded awsome, but rusted bad, and broke down every other week with carb and spark issues, he used the local alfa dealer retards, hence why it broke all the time my xr3 and xr2 were serviced by the same dealership in the ford workshops, and never had an issue with either. go figure? Sidlows if I rember rightly. My other mate had a gtv6 and a sprint , he used some old italian mechanic his dad knew instead, who raced. suprise suprise, he never missed a beat with either car. mind you the sprint started eating itself from the ground up too. lol. Just goes to prove the alfas in the hands of the UK dealerships gibbons was a disaster

[SimonB]

My best friend had an Alfasud in the early 90s, he did everything on it himself and it was very reliable until the rust took over. Every major problem I have had on my GTV6 could be traced back to a mistake by a mechanic including not putting loctite on the driveshaft splines

My dad drove the Fiesta when we lived in sunny Manchester Still British weather is obviously not as destructive as Swedish. My Escort saw plenty of rain in Portugal, it rains A LOT in the North but snow only once on a ski weekend.

We drive these cars because we love them and its all worth it

[patzo_3l]

just me 2 cents but i dont personally think that there is some big secret that say for example a mechanic from south africa or the u.s would know over for example a mechanic from oz. there is no big secret, air and fuel go boom lol. i mean when it comes down to the crunch and you are pushing hp numbers, sure there may be a small trick here and there that an experienced person may know, but from experience that difference is never huge horsepower, most of the time its maybe a more drivebale engine, or durability issue or yes maybe a few hp here and there.

the bottom line than is that some people will work for far less money than others and undervalue their work, or the otherside of the story that you get what you pay for. i mean taking the factor of foreign exchange rates out of the equation, people arnet stupid, if 10 mechanics for instance charge x amount for a certain rebuild, and one manages to do so for half the price, what do you expect? in this world nothing is for free and i belive that noone is gona give you a best price bc you were friendly to them on an email enquiry. its cheap bc of 2 options, one could be bc corners were cut, or the other one bc the guy worked for a very low rate, and probly at a loss. you then must ask yourself the question which do you think it is???? i know my answer.

the last point is the "i thrash it and it never broke factor" which also is misconsepted most of the time. most of these cheap kobs may well go fro years withoput a hitch and have a brief squirt here and there, but i doubt they are reliable if geniunely driven hard. the thing i have learned since car racing is the fact that a track racer mostly uses the best parts with the best technologies with the best methods, the best of everything, and we always still have issues with high hp and reliability. yet for instance youll get a guy come up to you and tell you that he has the same setup, with more power and its reliable because he thrashes it all the time. im always left biting my tonque when this happens and it really gets to me. i mean racers must be stupid??? really if we use the best bits and spend top dollar but the same can be achieved for far less, than what the hell are we doing lol

[kevin]

patzo you are so right. Best scenario is you learn slowly how to do your own motors. I wont let anyone go near my race motor so i only blame myself when some thing goes wrong. Half the problem with mechanics is they always leave your engine to the last minute and then they forget to tighten some crucial bolts in there mad rush or there appi forgot to do it . I can guarantee that 99% of the time every issue is related to a loose bolt,nut or clamp.. Genarally machining and tolerances are pretty good amongst the alfa guys .
When it comes to power every one claims they have more power so you can never win. I know for a fact my 3.7 has the least power of any 3.7 here by long way but hey its got killer torque.
Ps patzo what series are you racing in?

[Mats]

I have realized that "thrashing it all the time" means very different things to different people...

Personally I almost never thrash my cars, it wears them out quickly. However, some people might think that my driving is sometimes thrashing but they are wrong.

[GarthW]

Yeah no worries GP, but harrisons engine is a 12v 3.3, not a 24v.

\As for saying about the companys here who send stuff/build engines for overseas clients...i'm merely saying for us, here in Australia we are well reconised and its a great achievement, damn who makes the best engine mangement systems(aftermarket) in the world...we do. I know thats different again, but for what we have accomplished in this country, its great, compared to some european countries we should be very proud.

And again i'd never go overseas for an engine rebuild, our mechanics here are 1st class, nuff said. Each to their own at the end of the day...