Just a few questions sorry

[smiffy 33]

Just a few questions probably been asked before.
Want to get rid of the power steering and go to unassisted. Did any of the earlier 33 or sud have unassisted racks?

The engine is 1.7 16v motronic, love the sound of carbs and the look af the engine bay with carbs in there. Now the question is can I just stick a pair of carbs on with some adapter plates? Would I need a different dizzy and would the flywheel need to be changed?

Can you still get new control arms or best yo clean the old up and paint and put some powerflex bushes in?

Are koni yellows better than reds? I've got a pair of red fronts spare. I think there yellows on at the minute.

I heard many moons ago that the racers used to cut the tank in half so the exhaust can go straight through rather than having the 90deg bends on it. I'm looking at doing this?

I'll need new discs but struggling to find some drilled/grooved ones, any preferred ones?

Thanks in advance

[LooLooSud33Spider]

Hi Smiffy. I can only speak of the UK market But all 33s were unassisted until the advent of the S3 fuel injected cars I don’t recall any carbed cars having power steering. But it was fitted to 1.5 ie. 1.7ie 1.7 16v and the boxer engines 145/6 cars
I have retro fitted Power steering to a 8v 1.7 carbed sprint For an elderly client who was struggling. And we took all the components off a S3 16v .

If your taking the motronic system off you’ll need to fit a regular electronic dizzy as the ecu controls the fueling and ign. Some models (145/6 boxers and a few very very late 16v 33) had distributorless And I’ve used that in my engine. but I’m using an Omex programmable system..
the Dizzy on the motronic cars was just an empty housing with a rotor arm And cap and had no ign gubbins.
You don’t need to swap the flywheel unless you want to get it’s weight down .
You can fit carbs but will need some manifolds theres guy in Greece who does them.

The yellow Konis are The “Sport“ versions I think the Valving was slightly different but both are adjustable

Lou

[Veesix75]

Yes on the power steering, series 1 and 2 33’s were non assisted.

Brake disks, I use standard 33 vented, plain old ebc, no drills or grooves. I’d invest in brake pads first such as carbon lorraine. I was specifically told by a race preparer not to bother with drilled / grooved in standard calipers..

Are your konis standard or have the been re-valved for lower suspension / race setup ? If so I doubt the colour makes any difference as it’s down to the revalve. I’ve used lellows re-valved , and currently have reds revalved, the reds are top adjustable on the car, the yellows aren’t if I remember rightly.

Lou is right, off the shelf the yellows were stiffer than reds.

Exhaust, unless your going hi power, high revs then exhaust might not matter that much, but straight thru means the gasses get out quicker. A high quality manifold is more important I’d suggest.

Half tank, yep, but it is part fuel supply, keeping a good head of fuel to prevent starvation round bends, and weight saving by not having to fill a full size tank with excess fuel.

[smiffy 33]

Cheers guys I'll definitely do the steering rack then. Yep the dizzy is just an empty housing with a rotor arm. I'll search for the Greek guy lol. It's got an equal length manifold on at the moment but it's a bit fooked so will get it replaced.
Regarding the shocks I dont know if they've been re valved or not, any way to tell?
Thanks guys.

[LooLooSud33Spider]

No way to tell about the valving unless it’s Been scribbled on in black marker pen
I’ve got some Almost new sport rears with race valves

[Veesix75]

Lou - if revalved and lowered, doesn’t the operating range of the shock change ? As in all the stiffness is at the bottom end of the shock ? I honestly can’t remember fully but I’m sure I had some that were soft as anything fully extended and then went super stiff at the bottom - however I never used them and they might have simply been knackered ?

Logically my question doesn’t make sense as I guess it should be consistent throughout ?

[LooLooSud33Spider]

The Koni valve is quite a basic thing when you adjust them your basically opening or closing the valve. As a result The valve flow should be pretty constant on the rebound

[KevJTD]

On the Car SOS TV show they went and had some KONI shocks rebuilt on the Astra GTE they did.
The valving is just a disc with holes in that restricts the oil flow, to change the stiffness on them required a strip down and change the disc valve.
That was of course for dampers without external adjustment, like the yellow KONI...

[bobkelso]

Hi, confirming and adding some details about the with/without power steering mod:

I think it is from the late 1989-1994 models (S3) that all the engine blocks (hydraulic tappets) have the predisposition holes for the hydraulic steering pump and car can have or not power steering

You can find S3 models, carbed or iniected, with or without power steering, eventually you can take componentes more modern possible also from one s3 donor not power assisted if you can find one

Notice this:

you will need to change also the steering harms (or do a modification), because they have different diameter holes depending they will attach to a power stering rack or normal steering rack;

another variable in steering harms type is that from 1992 they have been upgraded in the outside part to have a more precise and modern system to regulate wheel convergence

So S3 steering harms exist in four different type:

-> for power assisted steering old version
-> for power assisted new version (from 1992) with a more precise regulation system
-> for not power assisted old version (different holes respect power assisted one)
-> for not power assisted new version (from 1992) with a more precise regulation system

About S2 model:

You can use also a S2 as a donor of a not powered steering rack and harms for your S3; steering harms taken from S2 are only the old type with the less precise convergence regulation

Probably most or all engine block of S2 models (engine with mechanical tappets) don't have the predisposition holes for the hydraulic pump ( not sure if some exception had it, eventually 1.7 8v i.e. 1988 ??);
you can drill these holes in a S2 engine block and retrofit a hydraulic pump and a power steering rack from S3 (some have done it also adding instead an electric hydraulic pump from Opel or similar, but electric pump could be a bit more noisy; I have read here some have also fittet a complete modern electric steering kit without hydraulic system, it is lighter but not sure if it has the same precision/sensibility of the S3 stock hydraulic system)..
Of course a not assisted steering rack is the lightest of all the options

[rsfruitbat]

I fitted an EPS system from a Renault clio.
One of the best mods i have done

Rsfruitbat

[LooLooSud33Spider]

Ade is that tweakable as far as are you able adjust the amount of Assistance ?

[smiffy 33]

I fitted an EPS system from a Renault clio.
One of the best mods i have done

Rsfruitbat

This sounds interesting. What model please?

[KevJTD]

Any car that has EPS can be used as a donor car parts supply, Corsa used to be the fav as there's so many in the scrapyards!

You can also vary the assistance level on a simple dial control which I believe just restricts the power flow?

[KevJTD]

This kit would save you the trouble of going to the scrappy...

Same place I got the tilt jig from.

http://leonbirchall.co.uk/easysteer/diy-kit.html

[rsfruitbat]

Hi all mine is from a Renault clio early 2000's i think.
Looked at using corsa stuff but both B and C systems are a lot bigger than the clio.
But problem I found with the conversion is the column on the Alfa is so short there isn't really the room to splice it in. The eps system is the same size.
Mine is adjustable via a knob.

Rsfruitbat