Re: alfa-digest V7 #318 Mark's newfound POWER and Rich's converter advice...

["Peter L. Krause" <pkrause@xxxxxxx>]

It certainly is gratifying to see in print Mark Jones glowing evaluation
of all of his recent investment in his (wife's) 164...The most important
kernel to take away from this is that often there is a false majesty
ascribed to the most basic repair and performance modifications by those
who seek to inflate the value of their merchandise or services. The key
is to follow meticulously the path of first establishing a baseline,
then improving on that established standard. The airflow improvement in
the heads that were done for Mark resulted from enlarging and shaping
the bowl under the intake valve area, profiling the exposed area of the
intake guide and paying attention to establishing the correct
positioning and contour of the valve-seat mating area. Careful assembly
reaps significant rewards. It is important to note that notable
performance enhancements were made in Mark's case without sacrificing
driveability and throttle response. I need to be careful in pointing out
that the degradation in performance of the 112K mile car had occurred so
gradually that any refreshing would have been an improvement. 1:32s at
Summit Point is a very serious time for a car driven over public roads
and capable of meeting exhaust emission requirements, Mark! My
congratulations!
Rich of CO, I'm afraid that you are WAY off base in your observation to
the fellow in Washington state regarding catalytic converters. If you
would check any or all of your owners manuals, workshop manuals and spec
sticker in the engine compartment of your Balocco, you will see that
correct CO measured BEFORE the converter at the CO tap on the downpipe
for tune-up purposes is .7%, plus or minus .5%. Any Alfa in proper
running condition, especially the Bosch injected cars, should meet
emissions requirements (CO and HC for us non BAR-90 crowd) without a
converter. Even SPICA cars are designed to operate at 1.2% CO and a
maximum of 300 PPM HC as old as 1972! The converter is for the reduction
of NOx and other byproducts...       -Peter Krause

------------------------------