ALFAGTV6.COM

[Daniel]

Ok, some of you know me but here's the background and then I'll keep adding details as I get a chance.

The addiction was caused by my parents with a red '78 alfetta which is the car that I officially learned to drive in. This thing would happily rev to 8000 rpm (yes that is way off the tacho but I calculated it off the speed) and was eventually retired due to rust at 365000 km. The engine and box still run in a friend's car.
My sister had an '82 GTV and my parents had an '85 GTV (now with 164 3.0 12v fitted) that replaced the alfetta when I, and then my brother had it.
My car started life as a '84 GTV which I bought when I completed my mechanical engineering degree. The idea was to inject the 2.0 and tweek it up from there but when a local lad kindly rolled his Alfa90, I bought up all the bits and converted it to a GTV6.
I stripped the motor down, lightened & balanced pistons and rods, lightly ported it, shaved 5.5kg off the engine flywheel and rebalanced the whole crank assembly, shaved down the heads by 1mm, etc - you get the picture here. I also removed the rev limiter (you may have guessed that I like revs). All of this went into the GTV along with the brakes, 5 stud hubs and wheels from the 90. I had a full custom exhaust system that started with 41mm primaries and finished with a great crackle from twin 48mm tips (a little small but no drone at highway speed). I also retained the 4.1 transaxle from the 2.0. This combo went fairly well but I eventually chewed up one of the planetaries in the diff and so started the process of further modification.
In our next episode, we'll cover the fitting of a 75TS trans and its associated difficulties

[Daniel]

So I'd worked out that the standard 2.0 diff was not going to do the job anymore. I managed to source a twinspark transaxle and fitted it like, well, like it was made to fit. The TS & '84 GTV half shafts are exactly the same, as are the brakes, so no fitting issues. I also used the TS clutch with no issues.
The one problem is the speedo drive - the GTV had a gear driven electronic setup but the TS runs a hall effect sensor and has 6 splines on the output shaft. A bit of research and some electronic jiggery pokery sorted this out (you can now buy this setup from MD).
I retained the standard linkage setup but only because I didn't particularly like the isostatic one - I did get all of the bits with the TS box but it was all pretty sloppy.
So now the car was pretty good, tall in first but that gave the WRX boys something to think about as they sneezed into second and you passed them still winding up first.
Handling had been somewhat sorted when I did the engine swap. I ran 25mm torsion bars up front and rear springs to match (can't remember the rate), 27mm front & 24mm rear AR bars and koni sports shocks.
The car went and handled quite well but I started to think the brakes were just not up to scratch and that will be the subject of my next ramble.
I'll also get some pics together to show some of this stuff.

[Daniel]

Ok, so next I decided that I needed to stop better.
Much searching of cataloges led me to a 300mm rotor with almost the same offset as the Alfa one. I matched this to Mazda RX7 4 spot calipers (my budget doesn't stretch as far as Brembo) and managed to squeeze the whole lot into the 90 wheels albeit using a 12mm thick wheel spacer. I actually didn't get get to fitting the brakes behind these wheels, instead I found a set of 16x8" wheels that were about 5kg lighter than the 90 ones but (being Japanese in origin) only came in 5x114.3 stud pattern. So I changed my stud pattern to match. This actually made the brake fitup much easier and offset the extra rotor mass.
I have done nothing to the rear brakes (as yet but still investigating) except remove the pressure reducing valve - later models and 75s/milanos didnt have it anyway. When you jump on the brakes, the rear squats and then the nose tries to bury itself in the bitumen (good tyres help here). I have also yet to source a larger master cylinder - BMW 25mm / 25.4mm or VW Kombi 27mm. I could also look at the 164 24mm one. I'll try them out and see.
This was the extent of the evolution of this car for a number of years but then I decided the species needed to evolve further .... I needed MORE POWER.

[pancho]

I'm loving this writeup.

But not loving those mazda wheels

[joey]

lol pancho, i remember those same comments on the old site...

dan, looks awesome... and really taseful mods imo..not too many white gtv6s out there either...

without wanting to derail, so the alfetta brake booster doesn't interfer with the v6? why did they switch to that big and ugly thing for the v6 models?? a new alfetta booster is certainly cheaper, and better looking IMHO.

[Daniel]

Pancho, the Mazda wheels suited me well due to the fact that they were light (less than 6kg!), big (16x8") and CHEAP (about a tenth of the price of anything aftermarket). They are probably not the prettiest looking things (and not my first choice) but are very effective.

Joey, sorry to disapoint but the car isn't staying white. Due to all of the extra work like the roll cage and some rust removal (you're making me jump ahead here) it is getting a respray. Any guess to the colour - what colour would make it at least 2 seconds a lap quicker ??
I couldn't say why Alfa switched to the different booster with the V6 but the Alfetta one definitely fits with the V6.

I'll get my notes and pics together for the next set of mods - fitting a 164 3.0 12v into a GTV 2.0.
Until then, here's a couple of my previous distractions -
The first is a '78 X1/9 that I fitted with a Lancia Delta 1500 and close ratio 5 speed.
The second is a '81 911SC fitted with '89 Carrera 3.2 engine, turbo brakes and a heap of other good kit.
Both fun cars but neither were Alfa.

[MD]

I know jet black makes 'em go faster..

[Daniel]

Back to the real stuff.
So the next stage of conversion was the fitting of a 164 12v into a GTV2.0.
My thanks here to my parents for letting me experiment on their car, an ’85 GTV with a 2 litre modified to all JK’s specs, except the JK303 cams (we had 10548s), and with a few extra of my own mods. This 2.0 went pretty hard and had great torque but the low quality and decreasing availability of leaded fuel led my Dad to the decision of putting in a later 3.0 V6.
It took me a good number of months of nights and weekends to get the 12v ready for insertion into the ’85. Being from a 164, this engine needed a few mods to fit it.
Once again a donor 90 was found - sorry to all of you 90 drivers out there but I have found them to be good cheap donor cars for conversion parts. It provided sump, oil pump, distributor, flywheel, front half of the tail shaft, engine mounts including the bits cut from the chassis, rear engine mount (bell housing), complete transaxle (I’d learned the standard GTV one wouldn’t handle the 2.5, so I wasn’t going to even try it on the 3.0), brakes, thermostat housing (point all of the hoses in the right directions) and numerous other parts that I forget now.
A 4mm spacer had to be made for the end of the transverse engine’s shorter crank to bring the flywheel back to the correct position and a few accessory pulleys were also made to suit.
The biggest job was taking the throttle body from the “back” of the plenum and putting it into the “side” so the engine could be mounted facing the right direction without the throttle body trying to suck the occupants through the firewall. Keeping the 164 plenum allowed us to retain the bigger diameter, longer 164 intake runners and fit the 3.0 V6 under a standard 2L bonnet.
Once the 4 cylinder engine was out, the front halves of the V6 chassis engine mounts were welded in. Then the rest just fell into place, attach all hoses and wiring (part of all of those nights and weekends went into making a Motronic harness from a 164 suit a GTV) and start….. and start ya bastard….. and it didn’t !!
Lesson for all those trying this at home – GET THE INJECTORS CLEANED. It turned out that 1 was running at about 10% and the other 5 were completely gummed shut.
Reinstall cleaned injectors and start…and it did.
At this stage it used the exhaust manifolds from the 90 and bits of both the GTV and 90 exhaust system but eventually inherited the complete system from my 2.5.
This car is now a rocket even with the 3.5 diff ratio and makes a good highway cruiser too. There is plenty of grunt, enough to come out of roundabouts sideways in 3rg gear, and better fuel economy than the 2.0 ever had. I am now fitting bigger brakes to match the performance – 295mm rotors and 4 spot callipers should pull it up.
All of this has been the lead-up to putting the 24v into my car but I’ll have to get in and do the write up on that one.

[Daniel]

And some pics of the 164 engine in the GTV, almost ready to run
I'll also try to dig up some pics of the plenum mod and add them later.

[Daniel]

And the pics on how I modified the plenum.
Yes I do realise that I'd have trouble getting the air from the throttle to the plenum but as you can see from above I eventually shaped infill pieces and had them welded in.

[Daniel]

Just finished (except for the bigger master cylinder which I will get this week) the big brake setup on Dad's GTV.
I did it a little differently to the way I did mine a while back. This one has 295mm rotors mounted on the outside of the hubs, still using the Mazda FC calipers. Simple caliper mount brackets but had to machine the hubs and press on adapter rings. Finished with late model spyder 16" wheels wnd Falken Azenis tyres.
It definitely needs a 25mm master cylinder to reduce the pedal travel but it stops beautifully

[Daniel]

And here's how it looks now -

[Alfettish]

The Alfetta 2.0 can run on premium. In fact my (very good) mechanic recommends it.

[cchan]

Hi Daniel,

I like your pictures and your car. Wow, you went to alot of effort. Quick question. Now that you have it done. I type of improvements to you feel you have??

[Daniel]

Alfettish - I agree, the alfetta engine can run on premium but it would never have gotten the kind of performance the V6 has given.

cchan - Mine's not yet complete but Dad's is great. With the 3.0, it feels almost as quick as my Porsche 911 was (see above). It's absolutely amazing to drive.

Mine is now almost ready to paint, only the last bits of prep work to be done. I'll try to post up a couple of pics of the shell prepped and ready and the cage all finished. Performance should be ok with a target weight of 1050kg and around 250hp at the flywheel.