RE: 86 Spider - Who's (which cam cap) on first?

["Jeff Greenfield" <alfaguy@domain.elided>]

There should be a '1' stamped into the cylinder head (usually along the
surface where the valve cover gasket sits) which will correspond with the
'1' on the cam cap. As I recall, the #1 cam cap is always the front exhaust,
#3 is the rear exhaust, #4 is the rear intake and so on ending with #6 at
the front on the intake side.

I believe that the cam timing for an '86 is quite different from intake to
exhaust so yes, this could in fact be the problem. Also make sure that the
variable cam timing device is working properly. I've fixed a few cars where
the circuitry inside the white plastic cap that fits onto the cam solenoid
have failed. The procedure to verify the proper operation of this is in the
factory repair manual.

Also, the vertical grooves on the cam caps go towards the inside of the
engine.

As an aside, I've heard of the cam caps being mixed up/reversed on Ferrari
308 engines during routine valve adjustments. They do not survive this as
this will cause the cams to seize which equals very big dollars to fix.
Needless to say, I'm always extremely careful to not mix up cam caps, or any
of the valve hardware for that matter when I've removed them, especially on
Ferraris.

Jeff - Crew Chief Dovetail Racing ITB Alfa #42



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-alfa@domain.elided [mailto:owner-alfa@domain.elided] On Behalf Of
Daegrigg (Don)
Sent: Monday, January 20, 2003 8:37 AM
To: alfa@domain.elided
Subject: 86 Spider - Who's (which cam cap) on first?

After a rebuild (rings up) on 110K Graduate, last summer, I had a very lumpy
idle.  One possibility was that I had gotten the front bearing caps with the
timing marks reversed.  I know the caps have numbers stamped on them but I
can't find any notation in my manual as to which one is Number One - exhaust
side or intake side.  Convention would suggest the intake side is numero Uno
- Yes?

If anyone knows for SURE, please chime in.

Thanks,

Don
PS.  If the caps were reversed, would this be enough to throw the
timing/idle off?
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