Solved blue cloud and other issues

[Sam Kass <samkass@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

In my introduction e-mail I promised to post back a summary of people's 
advice and my solutions to my laundry list of issues.  In the last week 
I've taken it in to a professional (Eddie at Silicon Valley Performance, 
nearby and recommended by two list members,) and now have a much better 
idea of what kind of state my car is in.  It's now all set to do my big 
road trip next week, Yosimite->Death Valley->Barstow->Santa Barbara and 
back.

1. The first issue is the tach.  Diagnosis?  Tach broken.  Would be 
anywhere from $200 to $325 to get it removed, sent out to be repaired, 
and re-installed, and would take the better part of a week.  Or I could 
do the removal and reassembly myself and just pay the $75-$200 estimated 
repair cost.  I'll deal with it when I get back.
2&3. Seat stuff.  Didn't look at it, but some list members had some 
suggestions I'll comment on when I try them.
4. Bolt.  Apparently these bolts are everywhere and common.  Yay.
5. Rust in wheel well.  Haven't done anything about it yet.
6. Spare key.  There are key blanks for auction on eBay.  They are not 
"original" but are reproductions that work.  However, the eBay price 
started $1 more than the price you can find on their web site, 
keys4classics.com, if you order directly from them.  I guess they figure 
lazy people will just buy whatever is posted on eBay.
7. Heater fan switch.  Silicon Valley Performance (I'll just refer to 
them as SVP) had a spare.  Fan works.  Some may snicker at me, but this 
is the only part so far that has cancelled a pleasure drive through the 
coastal hills when it got too cold, and I definitely wanted it working 
for Yosimite.
8. "Clunk" when shifting into 3rd.  Eddie at SVP told me that this was 
probably nothing serious, and that some Alfas even do this from the 
factory.  Just be more careful shifting and it shouldn't cause any harm. 
Nonetheless, it feels a little better now so perhaps when he topped off 
the fluids that helped a little.
9. Blue smoke.  This one turned into a biggie this past weekend, getting 
way worse.  A day after coming back from SVP with a relatively clean 
bill of health, every 15 minutes or so my car would suddenly start 
spewing HUGE blue smoke clouds for 2-5 seconds at a time, then clear up 
as if nothing was wrong.  It looked like I was playing Spy Hunter and 
did the smokescreen, or my engine had caught fire or something.  I was 
worried that my engine needed a complete rebuild, and so much for taking 
the Alfa on the road trip.  But then Mark Denovich suggested that this 
didn't sound like a oil control ring problem, which would be consistent 
and get steadily worse, and to instead check the oil vapor separator. 
Once I figured out what the heck that was, I disconnected one of the 
hoses and found the outlet pipe was half clogged with rusty, oily, goo. 
Goo that would break off in slimy chunks and be fed directly back into 
my air intake and into the cylinders.  I removed the thing and cleaned 
out the separator with some heavy-duty carb cleaner, then scraped and 
wiped the insides of the hoses as well as I could.  After putting it all 
back together, no more smoke!  I will do a full writeup for Mark's wiki, 
but this is definitely something to check if you're getting 
hard-to-reproduce puffs of blue smoke.  It's listed as a standard 
maintenance item, but is apparently often overlooked and there are no 
good instructions I could find on how to do it.
10. Brakes squeal.  According to Eddie at SVP, my right-front calipers 
were providing very little stopping power, and the front brake system-- 
hoses, calipers, discs, pads, etc.-- needed replacing.  Now no more 
squeaking or pulling, and better braking!
11-13. Misc stuff.
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