Re: Newbie Questions

[Simon Favre <simon@domain.elided>]

Deborah Witherden wrote:

>I have recently purchased an '86 Graduate with 130k miles, and I have a
>few questions:

Congrats on your purchase, and welcome to the Digest.

>What kind of oil do these cars run best on? dino or Synthetic? Any
>particular fav brands? Any to avoid? What about gear and diff? Swepco?
>Redline? or run of the mill brands.

Congratulations again. You've just rekindled the infamous oil thread!
;=( Seriously, this does come up pretty often. In Southern California,
I would run 20W50 engine oil all year round. Kendall is good oil. I also
use Valvoline. In spite of the commercials, I don't think regular Castrol
holds up as well. Change the oil and filter every 3000 miles and you'll
be fine. On the subject of synthetic, there are some issues. Your car
does have quite a few miles on it. If it has not been run with synthetic
most of that time, I would hesistate to change. Synthetic has a tendency
to make new leaks appear by magic on high-mileage motors. It has also
been reported to dislodge old varnish that can cause cam damage. Switching
an old motor to synthetic can cause problems. If the motor has been run
with synthetic, there are several good choices. I run Mobil 1 15W50 in a
race motor that's holding up pretty well. I don't have any other favorites.

For gear oil, there are about as many choices. Swepco is good stuff. Do
you have a source that doesn't charge an arm and a leg? Many are now
using Redline. The recommendations I've heard are 75W90 in the LSD rear
ends, and MT90 in the gear boxes. Some have reported that MTL is too
thin and boils out of Spider gearboxes. YMMV. I'm using some stuff
called Royal Purple Max Gear in my race car's transaxle.

>Does someone have a speeds in gear chart available on the web, I don't
>trust this speedo too much.

Sorry, no info. 

>What should the idle oil pressure be? 

Pretty low, almost non-existant when hot. The senders and gauges are not 
very accurate, either.

>Is there a maintenance FAQ on the web somewhere?

There is a Spider FAQ you should get hold of. Try the following URL:

http://www.delanet.com/~sents/cgi-bin/ecsw.cgi?form_action=view_all_records

There's also good stuff on the St Louis club site:

http://www.catenary.com/victor/isaluti/

>Are there any known bugs with these cars?

Almost every electrical problem can be traced to a bad ground somewhere.
Properly maintained, they will run reliably. 

>I occasionally go to the Pomona swap meet hunting for P-car parts, is
>there a section for Alfas there? Are there good parts sources in So Cal,
>or on the web?

Alfa Ricambi is in your area (Glendale?). They can still be reached at
1-800-225-ALFA. Their URL and a few other parts suppliers are:

http://www.arricambi.com/
http://www.international-auto.com/
http://www.centerlinealfa.com/
http://mastroalfa.com/parts.htm

I have no financial connection, and this list is certainly not complete,
etc. etc. etc.

For AROC club info:
http://www.aroc-usa.org/

Enjoy!

Simon Favre
Milpitas, CA
'62 Giulietta Spider
'67 GTV

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