RE: oil pressure, uneven running..

["Jeff Greenfield" <alfaguy@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Bob -

The upper sump will come out with the engine in the car. You will need to
unbolt the engine mounts from the crossmember, and possibly remove them to
make things easier. I have a fixture that rests in the rain gutters of the
front fenders with a threaded hook on it to allow me to support the engine.

You could also use a come-a-long attached to something solid overhead in the
garage, or and engine crane (cherry picker).

Pick the engine up as high as you can, the limiting factor is when the bell
housing hits the transmission tunnel. Watch the cooling fan on the front of
the engine, as it will sometimes interfere with the radiator or shroud.

Once the engine is as high as it can go the upper sump will slide right out.

Replacement of the plugs is pretty straightforward. Clean the hole(s) in the
crank as well as possible, and use some red loctite on the plug(s) prior to
tapping them in. The plug goes into a tapered hole and is longer than it
needs to be. So when you've tapped it in as far as it will go, there might
still be some material sticking out.

Use a small chisel, along the axis of the plug to stake it in place and the
remaining material will fall away. Do not use a chisel at 90 degrees to the
plug to break the excess off as that will most certainly loosen the plug.

There is enough room to work around the crossmember, although some of the
plugs are easier to get to with the engine in the car than others.

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-alfa@domain.elided [mailto:owner-alfa@domain.elided] On Behalf Of Bob
Smith
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2003 9:43 AM
To: Jeff Greenfield
Cc: greg@domain.elided; 'James Montebello'; alfa@domain.elided
Subject: Re: oil pressure, uneven running..

I'd love to hear more details about how you accomplish this with the
engine in the car.

My 76 Spider showed exactly the symptoms described in this thread.  Its
pressure was always a bit low and then suddenly dropped about 10lbs
lower. Is it unique to Alfas that when the pressure shows an unusually
low reading the first thought is "gee, the gauge must be broken"?  I
replaced the sending unit and then installed a conventional (not
electronic) gauge...  all of which showed the same low readings...
before I finally thought "maybe something's wrong with the engine".  In
the meantime I've probably put enough miles on the thing with low
pressure that I may have worn main bearings now.

I pulled the lower pan off several months ago and sure enough found the
remains of two plugs.  I have a feeling one came out right after the
engine was rebuilt years ago.  The second is probably the most recently
noticed pressure drop. The car has been sitting in my garage ever since
waiting for me to get enthused enough to pull the engine.  How did you
go about removing the upper sump?  Did you undo the engine mounts and
hoist it slightly?  It doesn't seem as if there'd be enough room to
work around that support beam that goes under the engine.  Any hints
that keep me from pulling the engine would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Bob Smith
Waco, TX  '76 Spider

On Tuesday, August 5, 2003, at 10:19  PM, Jeff Greenfield wrote:
>
>
> The offending plug (or plugs) can be replaced with the engine in the
> car.
> You will need to remove the sump (upper section). You can then (with
> some
> difficulty) tap a new plug into place.
>
> My recollection is that the worst one to replace with the engine in
> the car
> is the rear most one, but it can be done as I've managed to do it.
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