Re: Cooked Coolant(??) and Kissed Pistons

["Eric H." <ejham@domain.elided>]

I can't authoritatively comment on the white stuff, but I'd
hazard a guess you'll find similar deposits in all manor of
surprising places on a 100K V6. I'd not worry too much about
it.

The kissed piston issue is a matter for some debate. Most
people will tell you that an Alfa 6 can't survive that sort
of contact. I feel that it has more to do with WHEN the
contact happened. I had a Milano which ran quite strong with
good even compression (ask AlfaBill about the car for a
second opinion), but when I found it a lot-mechanic had
tried and failed to replace a guibo (flex joint.) It seems
he was unaware of the timing belt hop issues involved with
turning the drive shaft the wrong way.

Anyway, presumably the little 'buy here, pay here' lot had
made many attempts to get the car to start. They failed and
I picked up the car from them for well under $1000. I
located the problem (123 cylinder cam WAY out of whack) and
set the timing properly after replacing the belt. She
started immediately and compression checked out fine.

My belief is this: the valves are only seriously damaged if
the collision happens when the engine is running or somehow
turning at high RPMs. Judging from the condition of that
Milano's timing belt, I think that low RPM collision simply
stops the cam from turning and makes the timing belt ratchet
over the stationary pulley. Valve stems aren't butter,
they're designed to absorb quite a bit of force.

I'd continue forth on the engine.

- - Eric H. (very weary from pulling the parts car's engine
today, with that out of the way I got the steering rack out
of a GTV6 in under half an hour!)
1983 GTV6 'Felicite' -- should be back on the road tomorrow
and ready to shop for a body shop
1982 GTV6 -- no engine, no steering column, no drive shaft,
no worries

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