[alfa] Rebuilt Alfetta Engine Officially Broken In

[TJCallahan@xxxxxxx]

The NWARC (host of the '05 convention) toured Oregon wineries this past 
weekend and a wonderful time was had by all.

No more wonderful a time was had by anyone than by yours truly. We took the 
Alfetta on the tour (reference recent rebuild update post) and it reliably 
transported us around the tour. Yes, yes, YES!!!

While the exterior is, to be generous, a bit rough, the engine bay is 
strikingly clean and well sorted. It impressed a number of the tour participants, 
once the hood (bonnet) was opened.

The engine, wound out to the 6000 rpm redline quite often, performed very 
well and the car handled itself well in the hands of a nervous driver. We ran the 
first leg in the company of several V6 cars and did respectably well - 
managing to keep within sight of the car in front of us (mostly), not frustrate the 
driver to the rear of us (too much), and staying married to the rev limiter 
sitting in the passenger seat.

The Alfetta, you may recall, had Wes Ingram's 'A16' cams installed (they're 
advertised on his site, I'm not certain whose design they are) during the 
recent rebuild. The cams are advertised as increasing the hp some and bringing the 
torque curve up flat across the power band. They run at the top limits of the 
standard SPICA pump, so the original pump remained installed. I hoped they 
would allow the Alfetta the opportunity to get out of its own way on the street 
(the 116 chassis is fairly heavy). Turns out that they *do* allow this and some 
more.

We felt the engine pull strongly from about 2500 rpm on up to red line, and 
it felt as if there was more power to be had beyond the limit. The increase in 
torque was very noticeable - any time the right foot was lowered, the car 
moved well. With the original cams, depressing the right foot depressed the 
driver, too. The car would make more noise but wouldn't move any faster. With the 
A16 cams, the car just jumped up and moved.

We put just over 600 miles on the engine in about 48 hours, most of it was 
above 4000 rpm. The engine now has 1000 miles on it (the oil/filter was just 
changed for the second time, the head re-torque is tomorrow) and is officially 
declared broken in. BTW, I checked with some Alfa racers - they don't have a 
break-in period, unless you want to count the idle in the paddock.

The drive was very nice. So was the wine, BTW. Pinot was the wine of the 
weekend - the wineries were beautiful, the vintners knowledgeable and charming, 
and the wine tasty. Everything from the chateau's to the 'Wine Ghetto' was 
fascinating. Northwest Oregon awaits you all, come visit.

Emmo, I trust you got home OK, we didn't get a call from you on the way home.

Now to decide whether to do the bodywork or the suspension next ...

Tom
Seattle
6310123 (resting and pouting)
7711615 (the 'Tart' - strutting all over the place now)
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