ALFAGTV6.COM

We are currently testing the Alfa Nord engine with a supercharger. So far, so good. The car has been driven from Oklahoma to southern California, and is now in Sacramento. It should be back in a week or two, at which point we will turn up the boost and see how much power we can get.

The engine is in my dad's Milano. It's essentially a stock L-Jet Spider engine with the following mods:

8.5:1 JE pistons

No VVT, standard U.S. Spec Spica cams (circa 1976-1977) with the lobe centers set at 114 deg (we may move them to 102 deg for more power after the break in period).

SDS injection and ignition.

The engine is otherwise stock including all the manifolding.

We are currently running it with just 3-4psi for the break in period. It seems to have about as much power as a stock 2.5 V6. It runs on 87 octane fuel with no problems.

Here is a picture. I will put a description of the supercharging system and some videos up in the next post.

The supercharger kit is quite similar in design to my V6 kit. It uses an MP62 and is suitable for 150-275 flywheel horsepower on the 2.0. Obviously 275hp would require forged pistons, headers, probably head work and more.

This kit is intended for the Alfa Spider. We are testing it on the Milano primarily to verify the strength of the mounts and some of the new aluminum parts. I just don't drive my Spider enough to get any viable long term data. My dad on the other hand will put 5000 miles on his car in a couple months.

The Spider kit is identical except for the discharge port design. The design in the picture is specific to the Milano, and it doesn't flow well. I will be making some changes to it as soon as the car gets back. The Spider's discharge port on the other hand flows very well.

This car is set up with an air to air intercooler, SDS injection, Stage 5M injectors, and a computer controlled water/methanol injection system. This intercooler is now an option for the V6 Milano supercharger kits. It's almost as effective as the liquid to air unit, and a lot less expensive. It also reduces the complexity and clutter in the engine bay as compared to a liquid to air unit. This intercooler WILL NOT fit a Spider or a GTV6, it's a Milano only unit.

Noise was a big consideration in this application. The supercharger is relatively quiet. In fact, it's essentially silent during off boost driving. I can't hear it at all in normal driving. When on boost it emits the normal supercharger whine. I think the typical Spider owner will want a relatively quiet blower, so that was a big design consideration.

We currently have one liquid to air intercooling option for the Spider. I am working on others.

Here is an on boost video. Sorry about the wind noise at higher speed. I help the camera too close to the open window.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JApy18dbneo

Here is the off boost video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjBZAEpq5UI

I am sort of a "Johnny come lately" to the Nord engine party. Most of my work has been focused on the V6. I must say that I am impressed with the old Nord engine. It has a lot of great features, that make it ideal for supercharging. So many in fact, that I think it was designed that way intentionally.

Greg Gordon,
www.hiperformancestore.com

Nice work!

I must say, the idea of horsepwer in the low to mid 200's, with torque to match, in a 105 series chassis, would be pretty exciting.

I'd say your are onto a bigger market than with the v6 kit (ie heaps more people modify the 4cyl than the v6 - at least out here anyway), especially if it will fit spider and 105 gtv, as well as the 116 gtv of course (which has more room anyhow).

Thanks Jason:

This kit will easily fit the Spider with the exception of that discharge port. Of course all the stuff around the kit won't. For example that intercooler won't fit a Spider, neither will that inlet piping.

The piping on the intake side of the blower is designed for noise control, and it really works well in that respect. Under the "no free lunch" category it does cause a minor response issue. The plenum is now effectively bigger because it includes the volume in all the piping downstream of the throttle, the intercooler, and the supercharger. What this means is that when you close the throttle, the engine still has about a one second supply of air before the RPM starts to drop. We largely dialed this issue out by setting the SDS fuel cut off parameters in such a way that when we let off on the throttle it cuts off fuel. So during that one second it has air, it doesn't have fuel anyway so the RPM drops like normal.

The minor issue here is that at some point, the fuel has to turn back on or the engine wouldn't idle. That point is set to 2000rpm. So below 2000 rpm the response when you let off on the throttle is relatively poor.

Greg

Hi Greg, Can you pm the cost of the kit for a spider(S4) model 1993-94. Dont know how you fit anything in that engine bay as its tight already. Would i have to do any cutting of bodywork ? Our Rand has dropped 20% to the dollar over the past two weeks so its a bit gloomy. can it it just be bolt on or would I have to chainge pistons . Thanks kevin

Hi Kevin,

I am sending a PM although I don't have pricing information yet, let alone dyno results or various other things I need before I sell them.

The way it fits in the spider is a little different than on the Milano. The supercharger, mounts, intake port, and belt tensioner are identical. The discharge port is totally different and its outlet points across the engine to the intake plenum. This keeps the tall part of the port farther back where there is more vertical clearance. The discharge pipe then runs over the top of the engine just like the stock L-Jet intake pipe.

Greg