That is a significant milestone! Congratulations!
That is a significant milestone! Congratulations!
nice... a red Alfa 
Thanks everyone. Definitely wasn't the best use of my weekend, but I'm really glad I did it 
Crackers: You know, there's just no getting around it. I've decided that while I'm away from the car I'm just going to have to play with the paint gun and my welder until I get halfway decent at it
So, still lots of work going on, but not a lot of time to type. Here's the skinny:
Plugs all look about like this:
I gapped them to .030 with my "Mezzanine gapping tool like this:
Compression was almost 155psi dead across the board, except number 6 which looked more like this:
I remembered while the engine was sitting I once fogged the cylinders with wd40 and may have even put a little oil down the holes (like somewhere between a tsp and tbsp.) which might be why my compression tester looked like this after each cylinder:
Cam timing was dead nuts on:
aaaaaand I ended up with the engine looking like this:
I have the new injectors ready for swap, and hope to have it all back together today.
good times.
Edit: I also put my mighty vac on my spare distributor to watch the advance vs vacuum. It's identical to the one installed in the car (seems to quit moving at about 200mbar even though the chart I have claims continuous advance up to 500mbar)
You totally should! Painting is my favorite part of putting a car together. If I hadn't turned out to be colorblind I'd probably be doing it professionally today.
In reply to Crackers:
get yourself some of these and have at it...
I've seriously considered those before, but I'm TERRIBLE about eyewear, and those are too $$$ for me to lose/scratch beyond usability every 2 weeks.
I bought like 7 sets of shaded safety glasses two weeks ago on clearance. I am only sure about the location of one pair ATM. LOL
Great job on the paint, congrats!!
Thanks dan!
Sorry no updates. Neither internet explorer nor Firefox will open grm's website at work now 
I got the valve cover back on, cowl panels painted and installed, tail lights in (brake lights work, waiting license plate lights to op check the rest), license plate on the car (not a legal one), hatch strut in, and the fuel pump stopped working. Lots of pictures taken but I hate photobucketing from my phone.
I'll try to get some loaded this weekend (maybe... if i'm not in the garage instead)
Sorry guys. I feel like y'all are missing the best part of the movie
Holy carp! GRM is working on my computer!!! (I get bored and try the site what feels like every hour, but is probably more like 5 minutes)
anyhoo, the updates of statuses:
The engine is back together but still no change in the idle quality.
(For the record, putting the plenum on before the valve cover was a bad idea. But I didn't want to put everything on hold while I ran to the store for more black RTV)
I noticed the AFM I'm using isn't the one that was installed in the car when I bought it, so I'm going to swap that next but it's pretty low on my priority list right now, and I probably will quit messing with it after that.
After that day was a work day so I brought my cowl panels in for lunch-time painting
aaaaaand then I decided I was tired of mechanical things and wanted to play with the pretty bits a bit, so I did the mirrors, badging, cowl panel install, tea tray install, and the like (stalling really, because I didn't want to mess with that shifter)
After all that the valve cover got put on and I turned the engine over only to find out I left tons of stuff disconnected.
it goes like this:
Crank, no start. oh! I forgot the coil was unplugged for the compression check.
Plug, crank, no start. oh, the ignition box is disconnected too
plug crank, no start. ??????????
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don't hear the fuel pump. (checks. no workie). Sh***t
It took me about a days worth of work to find out what was wrong with the fuel pump. there were two connections to the fuse box that were a bit intermittent. I'd get one, and the other would disconnect (unbeknownst to me). I'd get that one and the other would disconnect itself. Eventually I got it (and like I said, no change in the idle).
After that I was irritated enough with mechanicals, I went back to pretty bits (hatch strut, and tail lights, and stuff)
Then it was a new day
Being fresh I decided to go at that shifter. Essentially I need the old base, and the new top. In practice there was TONS to it. I welded it on 180deg off at first, couldn't get the modified shifter to seat in its housing. took the housing out. Hacksawed parts off to make it work. It's in now and I hope I never have to think of it again. (I also split my head open on a jack stand. That sucked, but I still couldn't stop...)
that last picture is the... grommet? I hacksawed to make fit. The picture above it are the two housings for the shifters. One takes the bushing type shifter, and one takes the ball type shifter. It turns out they are NOT interchangeable.
But it shifts now, and that's what's important (well, as far as I can tell while it's on jack stands)
again, tired from mechanical stuff, I went back to pretty stuff and put the front end together:
Grill, headlights, and horn in. Of those only the highbeams work. I'm thinking I got a bad relay, but I'll check tonight when I get home
(high beams shining on the ground)
Good (frantic) times
To give you guys an idea of the timeline. I leave April 1st, but the movers start packing up our house on the 27th. This means I could potentially lose 99% of my tooling by Monday 
In reply to Hungary Bill:
Jesus good luck with the time line!
And get some damn gloves or wash your hands, your going to get that pretty red paint all dirty
java230 wrote: In reply to Hungary Bill: Jesus good luck with the time line! And get some damn gloves or wash your hands, your going to get that pretty red paint all dirty
That's how I whacked my head. I was trying to crawl out from under the car without touching it and then... bam! (still didn't touch the car though )
Not slackin, I promise.
I'm pushing it to the end but I'm still having photobucket/GRM issues on my computers (Photobucket runs slower that thick snot on a glacier on my home computers and GRM still is intermittent on my work computers). A quick spoiler alert: The headlight problem was just the switch actuator (me). It turns out you're supposed to spin the switch, not flip it... The rest of the car..? Well, stay tuned 
Always good times
Hungary Bill wrote: Not slackin, I promise. I'm pushing it to the end but I'm still having photobucket/GRM issues on my computers (Photobucket runs slower that thick snot on a glacier on my home computers and GRM still is intermittent on my work computers). A quick spoiler alert: The headlight problem was just the switch actuator (me). It turns out you're supposed to spin the switch, not flip it... The rest of the car..? Well, stay tuned
So much alfa in this post.
Hungary Bill wrote: It turns out you're supposed to spin the switch, not flip it...
I'm sorry, I should have kept up on reading this thread....as I passed that post I thought "I wonder if he has driven it enough to realize the switch rota-....oh."
Oh crap, they're multiplying
Pictured above are the only two GTV6's I've ever seen in real live 
Hungary Bill wrote: Pictured above are the only two GTV6's I've ever seen in real live
When you are done, are you going back to the Pacific NW? Both Portland and Seattle have a good AROC club. I know you have spent a lot of time on Alfabb, but you need to get out more.
Portland is a GREAT chapter, too... They've done two conventions while I've been a member (I only went to one, but it was a blast).
I'm not quite sure I'm going to head back to the PNW any time soon. We were kind of hoping to parlay this work trip into another European tour (rough life, I know). The idea would be to ship the car to wherever we are next since Kuwait wont let us ship in cars older than 10 years old
Instead of closing the photobucket page, I just closed the GRM page I was writing my update on.
berkeley. The alfa is still getting me and I'm halfway around the damn world!
Chrome! Right click, reopen closed tab....
Ok, take 2
Sorry it's taken a while but I'll try my best to capture the going ons the best I can remember. It's been a few days since I've landed and I'm still kind of working through the jet lag and lack of alcohol in this country
Here goes:
I thought it was odd my lights didnt work. I usually do a light check when I buy a car and something like "lack of headlights" is something I would most definitely remember. With that in mind I went to town with my trusty multi-meter looking for the faulty component. I got as far as the light switch before I came to my head scratcher: There are four wires going out, none of them have voltage except when I click the flash to pass. I have 12v going in... (insert head scratching here, as I really dont want to admit I have a bad switch). I dont remember how it happened, but for some reason or another I tried spinning the switch and it worked.
Pictures of switch spinning:
Ta da! See them working? YAY!
So after I got the lights working again (cough cough) the last thing on my electrical list was the blinkers. They weren't working and I figured asking GRM to relay this car down to Austin without a working set of turn signals was a bit much to ask (I was picturing other cars waving at us doing hand signals, and tickets for improper lane changes, and whatnot). So back in with my meter I went. Except I was in a bleeding hurry and I didn't want to waste another day on something I didnt have to.
I ended up finding a 12v tab on the back of the fuse box that wasn't being used, and I simply hooked the switch up to that. You have to click click click the switch manually to get the blinkers to blink, but who the heck cares? they work.
For that, I call this next picture "I'm in a hurry, they work, I dont care"
With all my electricals working under the column, I figure now is a good time to take the steering wheel off to install the column trim. It's not exactly necessary, but it makes life easy and I have another wheel I want to install.
Unfortunately the old wheel didn't want to come off the column. I call this next one: "I will win because I have tools. I may not have the right tools, but I have tools"
Unfortunately the my little puller didnt have the reach I needed so I had to use a socket on the column to seat it against. The smallest socket I had that would reach, it turns out, was JUST fat enough to damage the first one or two threads on the threaded portion of the column. So while I did get the steering wheel off, and can install my new wheel, I can't get the nut that holds it together to thread on... berkeley
So that went in the "later later" bin
After that fiasco I decided I really needed a win, so I put on the passenger side door card. Having practiced already once on the driver's side, this went on lickity-split.
I think I called it a night after that.
Speaking of bins. My Alfa parts storage area is looking great! I cant take photos of everything I do, but here's just how much gets installed behind the scenes
I know I post a lot of redundant stuff and trivial details, but I promise there are boxes of stuff too small for even me to post about them! (floor mats, and things like that)
Either way, back on my basement shelf I think there are only two or three full boxes of Alfa spares, and for once they genuinely ARE spares Whooda thought that was going to happen any time soon?
The next day I'm sent out to run errands. Mrs. Hungary knows I'm going to try to get this car registered (it was a saturday, that will come in to play later) but she doesnt know I'm going to do some shopping for a die set.
Unfortunately neither Sears or Lowes has a die set that goes up to the size I need (no, not even the 100+ tap and die set at sears). I cant remember what it topped out at (13mm I think) but I'm pretty sure my stud is 15mm fat, with an unknown pitch. So I came home with this
You can see right on the package that this beast tops out at 13mil, but I figure I can cross that bridge later. Well, when later eventually came and (spoiler alert) I was right about being able to get it into the grooves but it didn't stinking work. I think it's a combination of the size of the stud, the nature of the tool, and the location of the threads that need repaired that caused it to fail (it just kind of fell off the end when it got to the part that needed fixin)
Rewind a bit, and I'm still out running errands. So I stop by the department of licensing but of course they're closed. This is a problem for a few reasons:
1) That means I wont be able to start this process until Monday
2) By "this process" I mean the endless chain of idiots that are just going to send me back and forth to the state patrol office because they cant read the chip in my title that has the cars "year" information. I have a document from the records department at Alfa Romeo that says my car was built on my birthday in 1981 but they didn't buy it last time, and I have no reason to believe they'll buy it this time
3) I'm moving. The movers are coming monday and I need to be THERE and not running around town playing with my car.
So in desperation I go to a small private licensing office and right away I almost walked right out. They are PACKED!!!! wall to wall, standing room only and I feel like Beetle Juice (sp?) pulling that long ass ticket only to find out they're on #7. Besides, I'm already pessimistic based on previous DOL experiences (it took a month with the Impala, and that was a Chevy!)
But I wait.
and wait
and wait...
I finally get up to the counter and turbo lips greets me at the other side (and boy is she MOVING!). They're about to close and you can tell she wants to get people moving OUT the door.
The conversation is still a bit fuzzy, but it goes something like this:
"that's the manufacturer, GTV6 is the model"
"I have this document that says it was made in October of ninteen eighty...."
"Well, it SURE iS!"
(type type type on my phone) "its xxxx pounds"
(scribble scribble scribble)
I even got to keep my Slovakian title (that's that green card with the chip). I wanted to hug her
(the suspension kind, and the emotional kind)
With my string of good luck at the licensing office, I figured I was in the clear. The movers were coming on Monday but that means I still had Sunday to wrap things up. I figured now would be a good time to replace those awful shocks that were under the car. Besides, I thought a few of you might want to have a little fun with the old girl and a set of fine German dampers would do you nice.
If YOU are planning on installing a set of fine German dampers in your GTV6, here's what you'll need:
A basic set of combination wrenches and a generic socket set
5mm allen key
a drill with a 6mm bit
an angle grinder with an abrasive blade
a torch
gloves and a bucket of water
Muscles (to compress the dampers)
Channel locks, or similar pliers wrapped in blue tape.
Scribe or small screwdriver
We'll start with the rears:
First remove the old struts. To do so you're going to need to pull the back seat forward to access what we'll call the upper stud-mount window (the lowers are easy enough to figure out):
As you can see, a bit of safety wire was left on this one because the previous installers didnt have "muscles". We do, so use those muscles to compress the new dampers until they fit in the wheel well. Align the bottom first, then quickly scoot under the car and do your best to align the upper stud to the top mount hole while the damper decompresses itself (get lots of dirt in your eye in the process). If you didnt get it on your first try, don't worry there should be plenty of dirt left to fall in your eyes while you go for round 2 or even three if necessary.
NOW! Attempt to use that allen key to hold that upper damper stud stationary while twisting that nylock bolt on 1/8 turn at a time. quickly realize that there is no room in the window for such a method and get the drill
Using your best judgement drill a hole in the top of the support big enough for your allen key to fit (ideally this will fall directly in line with the stud). Also marvel a bit at the design of the rear strut support. Notice that while it is a PAIN in the tush to service the vehicle, the designers essentially integrated a rear strut bar into the design of the car...
Zip back on track
Stick the allen key in the new hole (long side down) and begin the painstakingly SLOW process of twisting that nylock nut on 1/8 turn at a time (did I mention I was short on time?)
Realize that the other rear damper doesnt have a similar provision for an allen key (only after drilling the hole.
Get those pliers, and wrap them in blue tape. Again twist nylock nut on 1/8 turn at a time while desperately squeezing the stud with all your might to keep it from turning because lets face it 1/8 turn is bad enough. If it gives even a little bit you're going to add hours to the evolution. Be sure to booger up your tape, pliers, and stud threads in the process...
for the love of pete, dont forget your various bushings or washers or you'll be starting all over again...
Before you know it, you'll have one whole corner done! (applause)
On to the fronts.
The front's have a bit of a different mounting system. It's a similar stud mount on the top, but the bottom is a pillow mount with a bar that goes through it and mounts to the A-arm. Some adjustment is necessary, and of course it's just a touch more than what billstein designed into their system. here goes:
First, remove the old stuff. Here's a picture for comparison:
In the pictured configuration, compress the new strut and attempt to stuff it in its intended location. It's going to take a few tries to tetris that beast in there so take your time, I'll wait.
....
....
....
Got it? Goood!
Now line up the bottom two mounting points and make sure the top stud is through the hole. Install the first of the bolts that hold the bottom mount on. Quickly realize that the other hole is a mere FRACTION off of where it needs to be. Attempt to install the bolt anyways and then briefly consider the option of just having one bolt in... Go get angle grinder with abrasive blade.
Remove the strut using your muscles (and your new tetris like skills) and turn that hole mount that wasn't cooperating into a fork mount (because, lets face it: we're long passed playing around at this point)
Repeat install process and associated wait time joke here
shoot, that was easy! Now it's just an alley key and another wrench away from being done!
Except one of the dampers doesn't HAVE an allen key provision!!!! (that's right. This Alfa is so "Alfa" that even the German parts I order for it don't work as they should)
Contemplate the plier option again and decide "enough is enough" and grab that propane torch
That's right. We're melting that everloving nylock crap right out of this nut (be sure to use gloves!). Melt it 'till it catches fire and blow it out. Use your scribe (or small flathead screwdriver) to pull the stuff out and toss the nut in a bucket of water.
Grumble and swear while it cools.
When cooled install nut onto stud.
Ta-da! easy peasy!
Congratulations, you survived what may very well be the most aggravating Bilstein install in history (and this coming from a guy who once SAT on his RX-7's macpherson strut setup to get a set of Tokikos installed because he didn't own a spring compressor!)
Holy balls.
Next up...
I scored majorly on this one. I went to work on my last day and asked our tool crib (and supply) guy if he had any expired aircraft sealant that he was going to throw away. Well, he didn't have anything expired, but he DID have two tubes of Mil-8802 that started leaking from their packaging and he was just about to throw them away (hey, the Alfa may be fighting, but it looks like SOMEBODY is on my side). As it so happens two tubes is what I need (and 8802 is what an aircraft needs to seal up it's fuel tanks. Insert Elwood Blues's quote about adhesive and "strong stuff" here)
The rest was just a matter of getting the lower trim installed (the lower screws to the upper and kind of "clamps" everything in pace). Dress up the squeeze-out, and remove the tape!
Done and done
Man, am I feeling good at this point or what!?! When this thing comes off the dollies I am going to have one lean mean street fighting mo-sheen.
Except how is anyone going to know that without.... STICKERS!!!!
Going back a bit: Another thing I did on my last day at work was use my lunch break to hit up a sticker shop in Tacoma. I told them what I wanted and they told me "good news, you meet the $40 minimum price. They should be ready in about a week!"
PFFT! Lady, we dont have a week and as soon as you said "minimum $40" I was already looking for a way to back out. She was nice though and told me a swap meet on the corner had a section that was open every day and inside was a guy with a vinyl cutter. Well "a guy" was actually a family, and they were awesome. I think I paid $25 out the door for autocross legal numbers and class letters. I had the feeling that one of you guys might want to take this beast to your local cone dodging club, and who was I not to instigate that a bit
Also on the docket were about a million stickers from my GRM secret santa. They come in many shapes and sizes (mighty car mods, bullet bill, speed racer, alfa logos, etc) but my favorite was the "Hungary Bill" Grassroots sticker
I also ordered a few stickers in advance from E-bay:
Continental tires
Agip fuel (italian)
obligatory quadrifoglio (quadrifoglio story here )
In the end, I had what I call the "Grassroots Team Dynamics Tribute" (The Team Dynamics is the car I've often posted here) and it turned out a little something like this:
Not a bad push. But those last two pictures were taken Monday morning and the movers were already inside my house, doing their best to make it look like this:
You would think it'd be easy just letting them do their thing, but in actuality you find yourself in three places at one answering questions about what goes where and so on. Mrs. Hungary and I take turns herding the kids out of the way, and most of the week we're confined to a room or to for eating etc while the movers go to town on the rest of the house. Somehow or another I managed to find a second to take the Alfa around the block only to discover it only has 3rd through 5th gear. Apparently my bodge job of a shifter didn't do as well as I had hoped and it doesnt quite have enough throw to swing it in to first or second.
I had hoped to take the car to a local "Cars and Coffee" that was having a "Supercar" themed show, but instead Clockwork Garage, Mezzanine, and our new friend Piotr (owner of the other Alfa in the picture below) had to come back to my place (to get all my old garage chemicals that couldnt be packed, but also to see the Alfa)a
Going over some of the faults we decided to open the hood, only to break the hood release cable
I fumed on that for about a second until I realized that we were down to the wire and hood release cable broken or not, first and second missing or not, idling or not, blinkers blinking or not, I'm about to be away from the Alfa for quite some time. So if this thing is going to turn a wheel in anger it had better be now.
So what do I do? Well, install a car seat of course!
But first I gotta slap a zip tie on that steering wheel so it doesnt come off in my hand (hey, safety first, right? ).
I get the Hungarling loaded up, we get the engine started, let'er warm up a bit and into reverse she goes.
I back out of the garage while traffic is light, push the shifter towards third (secretly hoping for a miriacle that somehow allows this thing to find first) only to have the shifter come right off in my hands.
I dont even miss a beat.
I pull up the shift boot, reach in there as deep as I can with my fingers and grab the sharp nub that's left and push with all my might.
click into third she goes.
Up go the revs, and slowly out goes the clutch. (it actually does pretty well). The engine is slow to come up through the lower part of the power band, but as she gets into her normal operating range she starts to pull.
then she starts to pull even more
and more
and pretty soon we're doing god knows what down our main street in third gear (I plugged in the speed-o, but it still doesnt work).
We're about 2-blocks away from the next light when I decide to turn around and then we do it all again. I slow and speed up (hard) a few times and before we know it we're back at the garage.
so what did the big guy think?
Three years of work and one third gear run makes it all worth it 
So how do I wrap this up? Well, let's call it a tie.
In it's condition we obviously cant go through with the GRM chain/relay south, but a lot of what was originally on the list has been taken care of. I argue that with one more week of work I could have had it all done. Sometimes I think back and wonder about why I chose to work some of the areas I did when time was so tight, but I think I always had it in the back of my head that shipping the car was an option. If I was going to GRM relay this beast I wanted it to be all or nothing.
So a tie it is.
If I needed I could push the issue and risk catastrophic damage to the Alfa by going through with the relay, I could ask some of our local grm buddies for help with the shifter, and I could do a lot of things to kick open the door the car seems to endlessly try to close. But I think a tie is fitting. She'll go to M4ff3w on a trailer, and over the next however-many years or months or whatever I'll snag a new (correct) shifter, a new hood release cable, and a die set and either I'll go back at it when I get it again, or M4ff3w will tinker with it and drive it. But I think how she's sitting now is a fitting end to the battle the two of us seem to have going. She's together, she better, and with just a "little more" effort she could be driven. Perhaps even reliably.
Well.... "reliably" for an Alfa
Let's call this: End, Chapter 1
Cheers everyone!
java230 wrote: Chrome! Right click, reopen closed tab....
facepalm.
Well, I guess next time I know
Awesome Bill!!!
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