Alfa Romeo GTV (916) - Azzurro Nuvola
Discussion
Thanks - I am amassing parts and trying to get time with a reputeable Alfa fancier. Just need the time!
Alfa used less of late but continues to be our reliable runner when nothing other than two humans need to be transported.
One item that has bother me since purchase was a handbrake sleeve that had lost its button and had torn velcro issues. I finally succumbed to a breaker's offer of £20 for a better unit, which arrived with a broken plastic fitment. Fortunately my original one was in one piece, so cleaned up the new one, added a shot of Gorilla glue and its made a small but significant difference.
One small wheel centre went adrift, but I found some spares when we bough the car in the glove box.
It continues to pass the 'turn back to look at it once parked' test.
Alfa used less of late but continues to be our reliable runner when nothing other than two humans need to be transported.
One item that has bother me since purchase was a handbrake sleeve that had lost its button and had torn velcro issues. I finally succumbed to a breaker's offer of £20 for a better unit, which arrived with a broken plastic fitment. Fortunately my original one was in one piece, so cleaned up the new one, added a shot of Gorilla glue and its made a small but significant difference.
One small wheel centre went adrift, but I found some spares when we bough the car in the glove box.
It continues to pass the 'turn back to look at it once parked' test.
From purchase the temeperature gauge has either stayed at 55 (all winter) or shot up to 110 (stationary traffic in summer). The latter has thankfully been solved by the fan resistor and wiring surgery documented in prior pages.
The former is a well known twinspark 16v issue - the thermostat sticks open. Unlike most of the fleet this isnt a simple £7 part with a hilariously named jiggle pin. No - Alfa had to make multi-pronged itesm that evolved throughout the car's lifecycle.
With summer approaching (ish) I splashed out with the Alfa Club discount on AlfaSHop for the CF2 stat, which arrived swiftly and is a Magneti Marelli part.
Access is deceptive - the thermostat is rgiht there when you open the bonnet, but if I was doing this again I would remove the air intake assembly for better access. This was an hour of 'single click spannering' due to the entrails all over the place!
Whenever I see one of these clips my heart sinks. I refuse to buy a special tool, and instead always replace them with hose clamps.
Rusty clamps ahoy.
Some time later... the hoses were well and truly 'soft rusted' on, despite the rubber being mainly pliable some serious screwdriver prodding was required to get this little beast out. The old stat appears to have some brazing on the bottom joint... any Alfa aficionadoes know if this was standard?
Old and new. I put a light smear of gasket sealant on the new rubber seal, swapped over the temp sensor and naturally sourced some hose clamps that looked less like cocao dusted truffles.
Lost about 2.5 litres of coolant into the pan, nothing too dramatic.
New thermostat had some differences, including the 'locator groove' being 90 degrees out. Leatherman deployed to swiftly sort out that issue.
A generous dose of red OAT and distilled water later, the car was ready. Total time spent on the change - 30 minutes. Total time wire brushing hose clamps, finding new hose clamps, adjusting other hose clamps unrelated to this project and cleaning other bits of the engine irrelevant to this item - 60 minutes.
Short drive today, and temp back where it belongs! Phew. So far, so good. Likely some air locks to work through so will monitor.
The former is a well known twinspark 16v issue - the thermostat sticks open. Unlike most of the fleet this isnt a simple £7 part with a hilariously named jiggle pin. No - Alfa had to make multi-pronged itesm that evolved throughout the car's lifecycle.
With summer approaching (ish) I splashed out with the Alfa Club discount on AlfaSHop for the CF2 stat, which arrived swiftly and is a Magneti Marelli part.
Access is deceptive - the thermostat is rgiht there when you open the bonnet, but if I was doing this again I would remove the air intake assembly for better access. This was an hour of 'single click spannering' due to the entrails all over the place!
Whenever I see one of these clips my heart sinks. I refuse to buy a special tool, and instead always replace them with hose clamps.
Rusty clamps ahoy.
Some time later... the hoses were well and truly 'soft rusted' on, despite the rubber being mainly pliable some serious screwdriver prodding was required to get this little beast out. The old stat appears to have some brazing on the bottom joint... any Alfa aficionadoes know if this was standard?
Old and new. I put a light smear of gasket sealant on the new rubber seal, swapped over the temp sensor and naturally sourced some hose clamps that looked less like cocao dusted truffles.
Lost about 2.5 litres of coolant into the pan, nothing too dramatic.
New thermostat had some differences, including the 'locator groove' being 90 degrees out. Leatherman deployed to swiftly sort out that issue.
A generous dose of red OAT and distilled water later, the car was ready. Total time spent on the change - 30 minutes. Total time wire brushing hose clamps, finding new hose clamps, adjusting other hose clamps unrelated to this project and cleaning other bits of the engine irrelevant to this item - 60 minutes.
Short drive today, and temp back where it belongs! Phew. So far, so good. Likely some air locks to work through so will monitor.
The combination of a working thermostat and warm weather prompted the cooling fan to fail last week - my wife reported a burning small and climbing temperature gauge in traffic after work...
After an eBay seller wasted my time for four days, I am very grateful to CloverParts for sorting out a fan assembly and getting it to me in doublequick time. They even supplied two connector clips (which we will come to later...) to ensure I could fix the hacked wiring.
The connector here had been truly fudged with electrical tape - as the fan overheated the tape melted and most of the plastic here was in a Daliesque mess.
Luckily removal was easy - two 10mm bolts under the slam panel, and nothing on the bottom other than a slot, so the whole assembly can be unplugged and wrestled out under the bonnet release cable.
Newly in from Cloverparts... I asked for a good fan and connector. "Do you need a good shroud?" they asked. "No, mine is fine"...well a true mongrel turned up.
Fair bit of fluids for 10mm bolts and both were quickly split into components.
Old fan was cofnirmed as seized - straight in the bin.
It was then I spotted the issue - original shround on top, Cloverpart below...
Ugh. The front impact that this car defintiely had had deforemd the bottom of the shroud, the creasing and compression a bit easier to see here:
Bottom original twisted support:
There was nothing for it - I had to get to work on the 'new' item. Goggles, ear defenders and power tools... sorry neighbours...
Some time later it actually came up nicely.
It was not good enough to give the full Bilt Hamber treatment though - for time and bothersome sake I just attached it with Hammerite.
Three coats will do. Reassembly of the good parts nice and easy with the 'best of both'.
Back in the engine bay, the original wires were a coagulated meltyburn mess.
Fortunately with a Stanley blade and paid of small pliers they came up good enough for a wire brushing.
The supplied clip was taken apart leaning on my years of Rover/Alfa/Honda clip dissassembly, and I'm very happy to say it went back together in a satisfying manner.
Easy reassembly - let's hope it works correctly for the rest of the summer at least!
Ready for the commute.
And I'm ready for the evening with Glastonbury.
After an eBay seller wasted my time for four days, I am very grateful to CloverParts for sorting out a fan assembly and getting it to me in doublequick time. They even supplied two connector clips (which we will come to later...) to ensure I could fix the hacked wiring.
The connector here had been truly fudged with electrical tape - as the fan overheated the tape melted and most of the plastic here was in a Daliesque mess.
Luckily removal was easy - two 10mm bolts under the slam panel, and nothing on the bottom other than a slot, so the whole assembly can be unplugged and wrestled out under the bonnet release cable.
Newly in from Cloverparts... I asked for a good fan and connector. "Do you need a good shroud?" they asked. "No, mine is fine"...well a true mongrel turned up.
Fair bit of fluids for 10mm bolts and both were quickly split into components.
Old fan was cofnirmed as seized - straight in the bin.
It was then I spotted the issue - original shround on top, Cloverpart below...
Ugh. The front impact that this car defintiely had had deforemd the bottom of the shroud, the creasing and compression a bit easier to see here:
Bottom original twisted support:
There was nothing for it - I had to get to work on the 'new' item. Goggles, ear defenders and power tools... sorry neighbours...
Some time later it actually came up nicely.
It was not good enough to give the full Bilt Hamber treatment though - for time and bothersome sake I just attached it with Hammerite.
Three coats will do. Reassembly of the good parts nice and easy with the 'best of both'.
Back in the engine bay, the original wires were a coagulated meltyburn mess.
Fortunately with a Stanley blade and paid of small pliers they came up good enough for a wire brushing.
The supplied clip was taken apart leaning on my years of Rover/Alfa/Honda clip dissassembly, and I'm very happy to say it went back together in a satisfying manner.
Easy reassembly - let's hope it works correctly for the rest of the summer at least!
Ready for the commute.
And I'm ready for the evening with Glastonbury.
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