Alfa Engine Position

[igosling]

All,

Engine back from a major refurb and as ever have come across the perennial problem of the thermostat housing touching the rear chassis member. But....

My first point is that I filed out the engine mounting holes to allow me to shuffle the enegine over a bit, but it all all gets dragged back into position when you put the engine stay on. Anyone got any other ideas? I am assuming take a large hammer to othe stay to move it over the required amount !!

But then...
Secondly, when I measure the distiance between the drive flanges coming out of the diff and the rear discs, there is a 15mm difference (400mm offside and 385mm nearside). Can you take up this much 'slack' in the CV/Driveshaft assemblies?

But finally....
The issue is that the engine needs to move to the offside to even out 15mm difference, but needs to move to the nearside to prevent the thermostat touch the rear chassis!!

The thermostat piece I can live with. May, as some of you have, just need to cut and reweld the diagonal stay at some stage. But in the case of the uneven distance between flange and rear hub has anyone ever noticed this before and will the final assembly take up the slack.

Regards

Iain

[igosling]

Drive shaft adaptor plates are different widths !!! Must think before I write in future !!

But still begs the question of how to move the engine over and get it to stay put. Any thoughts?

Apologies

Iain

[AndyH]

Hi,

Been there... very frustrating... Does the top engine steady brace line up? It did in my car. This led me to believe that all the mountings had been welded 6-7mm out of position.

Why Gerry can't fix this is beyond me...

Thought about cut and re-weld of tube, but if you measure up, you'll probably find that the engine really does need to move over to get correct spacing for driveshafts / CV's.

I filed the engine mounting and shuffled the engine over... Don't let the thick, cast Alfa mounting put you off. It's pretty soft and files away no problem.

Once you've filed and shuffled the engine across, you'll find that the top brace bar does not line up any more, but there is enough play in the bushes to allow you to get a bolt it.

Andrew

[Chris J]

May, as some of you have, just need to cut and reweld the diagonal stay at some stage.

As I understand it, with the 164 engine, the diagonal strut must be shifted over with the fuel tank modified to suit?

[AndyH]

Hi,

If you discuss this with Gerry, he will recommend elongating the engine mounting bracket holes.

Andrew

[guy mayers]

As I understand it, with the 164 engine, the diagonal strut must be shifted over with the fuel tank modified to suit?

The tank and diagonal strut need modifying if you're converting from Beta to Alfa. Remove the tank and the strut then drop the new engine in and put the strut back with enough clearance on the thermostat then have the tank modified to suit!

Guy

[kolynos]

To keep everything simple I raised the engine by about 8-10mm inserting spacers between the chassis & engine mountings on the O/S [thermostat side]as well as elongating the holes.Cant quite remember but I think I had a 6mm spacer under the n/s mount but I may have taken it out because I managed to get the engine to sit level on its mountings & keeping a healthy gap between thermostat & brace bar.Hope that helps...
Dave...

[igosling]

All,

Thanks for the feedback. I have a try of the 'lifting' option and take a view of the engine stay also. get back to you in a few days with the outcome

Iain

[chris.richard]

When doing my Beta to Alfa conversion, I had to weld in my own mounts. I managed to get the driveshaft adapters positioned to within a millimetre of symmetrical. I then tacked the mount cups and steady bar onto the chassis with the engine in place. Not quite the same situation as you though. It seems strange that the chassis comes from the factory with squint mounts.