ALFAGTV6.COM

[DaveH]

The past weekend was spent changing my GTV6’s headgaskets*. Many thanks to SamW for the use of his facilities and for sharing his deep reservoir of GTV6 knowledge.

The reason for the headgasket renewal: some oil was starting to pool in the vee between the heads. Every time I drove the car, I had to be careful to park it with the nose pointing up hill.

After removing the brake booster/master cyl, plenum, injectors, intake plumbing, t-belt….it was time to decapitate heads.

When we finally pulled the 1st head, we were in for quite a surprise. The car had original 2-piece gaskets! Are there any cars left out there with 2-piece gaskets?? They’re seriously scary looking gaskets. The rings that fit over the sleeves seem like a good way to go; it’s just the outer gasket that doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. It’s hard and shiny and seems to be made from a single compound, as opposed to modern gaskets with seal line traces encircling every orifice and bolt-hole. It also has a waffle texture, which I thought was odd.

On Sam’s advice, I honed the intake runners as they seemed to have a lot of rough knobby bits internally. Fairly cheap/primitive looking castings really. I didn’t hone them to a completely smooth finish; I just wanted to remove protrusions.

*A lot of other bits and pieces were attended to. Mostly minor things. Have a look at the long list.




Mileage: 56,241

Work Completed:

• Removed brake booster/master cyl to access LH head
• Removed intake, radiator, belts
• Removed plenum, injector rail, intake runners
• Unbolted and removed heads
• Serviced K&N air filter with K&N cleaning kit
• POR15-ed the cooling system Tees (front and rear)
• Changed old 2-piece headgaskets for new 1-piece type
• New intake runner gaskets
• Fitted new sparkplug well seals
• Replaced 2 remaining original coolant hoses: short block-rear T and long T-heater valve
• Replaced all 8mm fuel line from firewall forward.
• Fitted new stainless steel hose clamps to fuel line and coolant hoses where necessary
• Replaced vacuum hose (plenum to master cyl)
• Replaced overflow hose (clutch master cyl to fluid reservoir)
• Installed new camshaft seals and o-rings
• Reinstalled thermostat, housing parts with new gaskets
• Honed intake runners to remove build up
• Fitted new intake runner-plenum hoses (6)
• Renewed oil filler cap gasket seal
• Replaced exhaust manifold gaskets with new ones
• Installed exhaust manifolds, new lockwashers used
• Fitted new oil filter and changed oil (Mobil 1 15W50)
• Changed coolant
• Installed new front brake lines
• Bled front & rear brakes
• Replaced CSI plug at thermostat end for new one
• Cleaned all Bosch connectors with contact cleaner
• Insulated air con hose at exhaust manifold
• Adjusted ignition timing

Oh well, pics attached…

[tImBoWe]

I've got a pair of brand spankers (2 piece h/gaskets) sitting in my storage facility. Along with heaps of other genuine A/R spares that I scored from up north. Came with one of the spare motors.

That is one tidy GTV6 that you have there!!

[DaveH]

Thanks Tim.

You might want to burn those 2-piece gaskets! The ones that came from IAP are a lot more impressive.

So are you selling any spares....?

[tImBoWe]

Yeah! BBQ the boys.
As for the getting rid of my precious spares... Sorry. I've got a 20 foot container sitting at work thats only 1/2 full. It is begging to be filled with more stuff. I love stuff! Obsessive compulsive disorder. Gtv6 stuff. Kawasaki KX500 stuff, and Ducati S/L stuff.