GTV ts

[alfadave]

Yes, the TS cars I had seemed to use more than their fair share of oil.
I never really understood why.
But they needed regular topping up, which of course not every owner does.

[KevJTD]

From lookinmg at the piston rings I suspect they went too far in minimising friction losses, they are incredibly small compared to anything I've seen before.
I'll take a comparison pic with an integrale piston next week to show what I mean.
I guess that with the rings, and in particular the oil scraper rings they are too thin to properly clean the bores and thus oil gets left behind.
Just my theory.

[KevJTD]

As promised, a comparison picture between an integrale piston and the GTV, as you can see the rings are much wider on the integrale in particular the oil control ring which is 4mm on the integrale and only 2mm on the GTV.
Also there are no oil holes in the piston ring groove so not only is the capacity to scrape oil half, there is nowhere for the oil to go! There is a drop off at the gudgeon pin but no substitute for a tried and trusted method.

[KevJTD]

I've started to strip and clean a few parts. The oil pump for instance.
Thankfully there was no damage to it, a slight mark on the faceplate which was easy to block out and make flat again.
The pick up gauze got cleaned thoroughly to flush out any debris but no be sure I decided to take apart the gauze plate.
Simple enough, the holder is just peened over onto the extension tube.
Really glad I did as despite being cleaned in both directions in the wash tank many times there was still a nasty build up of crank shell flakes including one long strand.

[LooLooSud33Spider]

Nice work Kev. If I have to remove the sump for any reason I always remove the gauze from the pick up for cleaning. even if the engines ok

[KevJTD]

The original block is stripped and away at the local machine shop with the head having a light skim to the face to ensure a nice seal.
Replacement crankshaft cleaned and ready for fitting.
I have a set of pistons from the donor spares engine that I'll be using hopefully, they have wider rings (3mm oil control ring) and drain holes. They also have Teflon coating on the skirts. Not sure if they are from an upgraded design used to combat the oil usage issues, they are Alfa branded ones and rings are avaialbe for them, so are OE spec.
Everything to hand now to start the rebuild so once I have the block back I'll hone it and start the rebuild.

[LooLooSud33Spider]

Cool. If you need any tech info just shout

[KevJTD]

Cool. If you need any tech info just shout

Will do, thanks

[alfadave]

Interesting about the TS pistons.

Seems like they downgraded the spec from CF1 to CF2 by fitting different pistons?

[LooLooSud33Spider]

Evening Kev. As I’m having a clean up i had a look at the pistons out of the original engine from the spider. As you can see these have oil ring drain holes. I can confirm These pistons are from a 99 CF2.

Lou

[KevJTD]

Now there's a thing.
The TS engine in the 145 was a peach and used hardly any oil, a CF1 motor.
156's I've had in the past have all liked a drop and were the newer cars, CF2 or CF3 motors I guess?
Could Alfa have cocked it up on the later engines?
My car is a CF2 indeed but a 2001 engine, a change of design between yours and mine?
Both size of rings were listed as being for mine, yet it had those smaller ring widths with no oil drain holes in the pistons.
The pistons in the picture (right side, integrale ones on the left) are the ones that came out. Also note that the skirt doesn't fully go around at the piston base. The ones I will be using are the same design as yours, but with the addition of the Teflon coating.

[KevJTD]

OK, it's been 2 weeks since I posted.
TBH not much has been done, I hadn't the inclination as the car has been in limbo since I came out of the local Post Office and saw this as I walked to the car.

Now I can't comment too much on what happened as its still being investigated by the Police as the other driver who reversed into my car didn't stop, but was caught on cctv, so I'll say no more on that.

The good news is that today I have been informed that the car is to be repaired rather than written off as I first feared. It seems nowadays there's more thoughts to repair rather than discard, years ago it would have been assessed as needing a new rear quarter panel (good luck finding one) and with the labour required it would have been regarded as a total loss.
But no, as the guy in the crash repair centre told me today, they do all they can to save panels rather than replace now as the tools and knowledge they now have to reshape panels is way better than it was 20 or 30 years ago when I last had anything to do with insurance repairs.

I've also asked the bodyshop to sort out the niggly bits on the car too, the damaged bonnet and the rear spoiler that's peeled it's lacquer off. OK that's a cost to me rather than through the insurers, but as it will get a full machine polish after the quarter repairs anyway I'm hoping it will come back to me sparkling like never before.
Well not for a good few years anyway!

[KevJTD]

I did get the head and block back from the machine shop last week but have held off starting the rebuild, at least until I knew it would be needed!

The head was pretty much bang on, one pass at a thousand of an inch was enough.

The block however needed a few passes as one corner wasn't good enough, about 5 thou he said.

So shows it pays to have both done.

[Kegsti66]

Scary that the block was worse than the head mate.
Let's face it, it is not often the engine is completely stripped down like yours.
Bet you can't wait to get the GTV back. really pleased for you.

[KevJTD]

Yes, odd isn't it that the cast iron block was out of true. Guess the head could flex enough to follow the contour a bit but at least I know now I'm dealing with two flat surfaces!

Checking the bearing clearances with plastigauge it's obvious to see why the piston isn't uniformal at the base of the skirt, runs very close to the crank position sensor ring. Never realised how close the balance webs get on bdc either.

All good so crank fitted to the freshly painted block, new piston rings so starting to get on with it now I know I need it!

[Kegsti66]

Unusual colour choice there Kev, good the internals were not damaged.

[alfadave]

Paint left over from the BMC Gold Seal days?

[KevJTD]

It's funny really, the original block was mostly grey but there were a few bare patches and I like to replace or protect the core plugs but couldn't find any grey Hammerite.
I didn't fancy red or black so picked this colour, and it only occured to me that it looked like the old gold seal units after I'd painted it!

On another note the car has gone into the bodyshop this week...

[junior]

Hope it comes back from the body shop looking great. That would be nice for you after all the hassle from a lousy driver.

I backed into a Intergrale recently and it was most embarrassing to walk into the workshop and admit it.

Glad i did though and got lucky as hit the tougher part of the Lancia with the softest bit of my Toyota, so not too bad.

[KevJTD]

Hope it comes back from the body shop looking great. That would be nice for you after all the hassle from a lousy driver.

I backed into a Intergrale recently and it was most embarrassing to walk into the workshop and admit it.

Glad i did though and got lucky as hit the tougher part of the Lancia with the softest bit of my Toyota, so not too bad.

Hopefully it will be done tomorrow, had a message update today saying it's at the machine polish stage.
They have been great really at the bodyshop, regular updates on how it's going, predicted to be done on Wednesday 30th from last week looks like it'll be about right.
With the bonnet repaired and the rear spolier redone it should look great...

[Kegsti66]

Good to hear mate, we will need a picture.

[KevJTD]

Well, as promised they called this afternoon to say it's done, and take payment of course!
Dropping it off to me tomorrow..looking forward to seeing it again, hopefully all shiny .

I must say although it was a pain for it to be damaged, the repait stage has been painless.
They kept updating me via an App, as well as a few text messages so you weren't left wondering how things were progressing.
Last week they gave the predicted finish date of today, and that's the date it was done, no drama, no hassle and no excuses.

[Kegsti66]

[KevJTD]

Along with the big ding in the rear quarter courtesy of the reversing kamikaze Renault of a few weeks ago I also asked the bodyshop to repaint the rear spoiler as it was all speckled with lacquer peel.
The bonnet though had a big chip out of it above the passenger headlight opening (plastic bonnet remember) and a couple of cracks at the base of the opening, probably from someone's enthusiastic closing at some point, or closing it down enthusiastically onto something that shouldn't have been there! Either way it needed repairing.

[KevJTD]

Today it came back looking of so fresh and way better than it has for years.
The bonnet repair is invisible, you just wouldn't know it had been done.

The rear spoiler too looks smashing.

[KevJTD]

The accident damage though, again you'd be hard pressed to know anything had happened.
I've done a bit of painting but can hold my hands up that the professionals really are a step above.

[LooLooSud33Spider]

Looking good Kev.

[KevJTD]

Overall I think the car looks incredibly better than it ever did, I even like the green colour now! Almost as a torquoise sheen to it, not nearly as dark a green as it looked now its all shiny.
My only regret is not instructing them to do more, the colour match on the bonnet edge to the passenger door isn't perfect in some lights, I should have asked them to blend it in even if that would bump the price up, but the shine on the bonnet now is superb as before it was fairly dull even after a good polish up in my hands.
Again, leave these specialist jobs to the specialists.

Chuffed with it now though, very presentable indeed. Also looks like they gave the wheels a tidy too, not a full paint up but they were more scuffed I'm sure, but maybe the rose tinted specs are fogging up!

[Kegsti66]

Looks great Kev, she has buffed up very nice and looks really smart.
Repairs look spot on, I didn't realise how bad the damage on the bonnet was.

[KevJTD]

Yes mate, the bonnet had a deep chip out of it and cracks too so not in great shape, unlike now!
Brought the car home this afternoon, still such a great car to drive. And no bad thing to look at either.
Makes me more keen to make it even better.
I'll order new front lower suspension arms and roll bar links and bushes ready for when the engine gets swapped back over, at the same time the subframe will go off to be blasted and powder coated.
The rear end will also get the arms removed and blasted/powder coated as they seem to be a weak spot and are very expensive.
The sill covers will also come off to see if there's any issues there, I know I want to scrape off and redo the protection to the sill edge before any issues start as some has shruken and seperated, a bit of effort and prep now saves the welder being used in the future. Car should be good for a few years yet then.