Re: Alfa V6 and carbs?

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Responding to Benjamin's question about carbed V6s, Henrik Hasager wrote "The
Alfa 6 (roughly an enlarged Alfetta Sedan) used carbs as well as a front
mounted gearbox, as known from the 105 series. I'd say that getting hold of
the mainfolds of these may be difficult as would the 6  vertical single barrel
Dell'Orto FRPA's", and Richard Welty added "if memory serves, there was a
GTV-6 variant in south africa which had down draft carbs instead of injection.
i think it had a 3.0L v-6."

"Getting hold of the manifolds of these" (for the Alfa 6, also called the Alfa
Sei to avoid confusion with other six-cylinder Alfas) might not be too
difficult, but wouldn't be sufficient; the heads are different also. Swap
both, or neither, if you chose.

The South African carbureted 3.0L V6 was, I understand, an autonomous local
project to locally homologate a limited production car for a local competition
program, but South African digestisti should have the definitive word. It does
not show up on any of the factory lists which I have seen, which include some
pretty odd variants. I do have an article on them- road impressions, not a
formal road test - I believe in "Supercar Classics", a usually delightful
magazine I haven't seen lately. It may have been in one of the other British
glossies, though.

Fabricating manifolds for a carbed V6, whether 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 or larger, should
present no problems - easier, I would think, than building headers. A V6
manifold which I have seen photos of, both on some sedan variants and in one
case on a coupe, (but all Bosch injected) has horizontal crossover runners
from a split plenum (half over each valve cover) joined at one end. A
carbureted version could permit a low hoodline and possibly useful ram effects
from long runners. I'm not sure I would want to pay for (or tune) either six
single-throat horizontal Webers or two three-throat horizontal Webers. Others
might relish the possibilities -

Lastly, Henrik Hasager's "as well as a front mounted gearbox, as known from
the 105 series" could be misinterpreted to mean that it used a version of the
unified 102/106/105/115.gearbox; it did indeed use a front mounted gearbox,
but it was the ZF also used in the Montreal.

The US information source on using Sei systems to modify US-spec cars would be
Hans Milo, of the Italian Motor Works near Atlanta. He has run both a carbed,
ZF boxed 2.5 V6 1973 GT Veloce and a carbed 3.0 GTV6; enjoys tinkering and
does it well -

John H.
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