1.12.2003-The New Year and Winter Doldrums

The past month has brought little in the way of Alfa tinkering.  The Christmas holidays and my preoccupation with a leaking gearbox in my old BMW CS have prevented me from spending any real quality time with Shakespeare.  I was also at a point where I needed to get the engine up off its dolly and on to my engine stand which necessitated an appropriate adaptor.  Jim Steck of AutoComponenti makes such an adaptor and I ordered one from him.  He too was busy during the holidays and it was just this week that I finally received the adaptor.  The workmanship and quality of finish is excellent, better than I could have done myself.  It was $35 well spent. 

With this part now in hand I could bolt it to the block and mount it in the stand.   A unique feature of Jim's part is that it picks up the engine mount studs on the right side of the block which then allows the engine to rotate on it's latitudinal axis (rather than longitudinally as with most engine stands).  It fits in to a standard Harbor Freight engine stand.

I  turned the engine upside down and removed the two pieces of the oil pan, the front timing cover, and the oil pump. I also began removing main bearing caps.  To me this is the most exciting and interesting part of engine disassembly as you are able at once to determine the relative health of the engine.  It's like looking at history.   I was not sure what to expect because I had no idea as to the car's maintenance or overhaul records but this engine has definitely been apart before.  As you can see from the pictures, the main bearing journals are in very good condition.  At this point a regrind seems completely unnecessary although I've not yet mic'd the journals and done a full inspection.  The #4 big-end journal (visible in the last picture) is also in good condition.  I have not yet removed the rest of the connecting rods, I'm most interested in #3 as I believe that's the source of the knock that the engine was making when you'd rev the throttle from idle.  It also appears that some previous owner had the crank's oil galleys tapped for threaded plugs.  I was going to do this myself and am happy to see it's already been done.  Now I don't need to worry about them falling out in the future.

I continue to be impressed with the quality of this engine.  It really is a little jewel to work on, if a little dirty.  The engine is filthy and the front cover, oil pan and other auxilliary parts all spent lots of time being scrubbed down in the solvent tank.  After the first wash they're starting to look more like engine parts and less like junkyard trash.  The fins on the lower part of the oil pan are not too badly damaged although you can see where it's hit hard ground before.  Dressing them up with a file before it's reinstalled will help appearances a great deal.  I plan on installing a sump guard to the car to prevent future damage to this pretty piece.

I'm almost ready to remove the crankshaft from the block.  I just need to figure out how to pull the gear off the crankshaft and pull the #5 main bearing from its "mortised" place in the rear of the block.  Then I should be able to get a clear understanding of not only the crank's health, but also that of the pistons and liners.

Hopefully I'll be able to get those tasks completed before the end of next weekend.

Ciao!

TJ