I hope you have all been well and enjoying your Alfa's.
I recently got the old girl back onto the road last week. The last 10 months she sat in the garage, for i had another car to drive, and was just very busy, etc.
I eventually got her booked in for another tune to have new N/A fuel and ignition maps written.
Was just a conservative tune until i change the exhaust, for what its running now is far from optimal. Its running stock headers, stock exhaust half way until it meets the old turbo 3" exhaust, back to 2" over the transaxle and back to a 3" exit....so exhaust wise she's nowhere....but still goes really well and although a little loud, still sounds really nice.
I greatly miss the pull and torque of the turbo, but i must say driving her N/A again, even with low comp pistons is really nice. It feels alive...and throttle response is amazing.
But after having her back on the road for almost a week, i lost 3rd gear a couple of days ago when i drove it hard from second gear, shifted into 3rd and there was no 3rd gear there, 1st, 2nd 4th and 5th are all fine, so i managed to drive home with no problems.
This is the very first time i have ever had a driveline failure....
So alas after having her back on the road it was my intention to sell her, now that she is tuned, get the exhaust done and o2 sensor in, final dyno tweaks and put her on the market.
I could not sell her earlier, and the reason why i couldn't drive it was because some rough hands by a previous and never used before mechanic damaged my TPS cable...and the wires leading to my map sensor, resulting in my 3bar map sensor getting damaged and eventually dying. So once the tuner spotted those problems almost straight away, the tune was straight forward and running very sweet. So thank you to the mechanic who cost me over $200 for his ham fisted sloppiness.
Also thanks to him, i had trouble selling it in its tune at that time, but the buyers missed out for it turned out to be a simple re-map and she was sorted.
But after driving her the last week...and i drove some long distances...it still blew me away, after all this time with just how it felt and drove...the way it just sits on the road and that perception it gives you behind the wheel. After a 10+ month hiatus...it really grabbed me, even after owning her for 13years now..
So she's all standard now...starts and drives better than when standard. I only have 100rwkw, the low comp pistons did not help at all, but i wasn't expecting anything higher. Each gear rev's out beautifully, clean and hard, but will sound better once i change the stock headers and get a full exhaust done.
I'm now also tempted to remove the OMP seats and put the original seats back in and have them re-upholstered.
I realized the V6 turbo was just too much for the street after driving her recently, its just not needed...although great fun...for melbournes roads here, it was just a wasted investment unless i gave it some track time which very sadly it never got, for it would have done really well.
I'm now very torn about putting it back onto the market...end of the day and despite its age, this little Alfa is driving better than so many other cars i have driven over the last year.
Anyway this post is getting rather long, its an overdue post...i've been meaning to keep in touch, but my life the last year has been very interesting and a little crazy....but in a good way. My health is great so i have had no problems with anything....just my gearbox. I'm living close to Monza Motors, so will be a quick little....and slightly clattering/whirring drive to Hughs workshop.
Never damaged a gearbox before...at least she went going hard ha ha....sigh.
Again i hope you have all been well...it has been great to be re-united with my Alfa..its been too long...and after almost a year...i realized even more just how rare these cars are now.
