Supercharger Project Update

Well things have been moving along slowly. I now have a spare engine which I will be rebuilding and adding the supercharger to. This has thrown up a problem. The air conditioning pump bracket which I have and intended to mount the supercharger on does not seem to the right one. The bracket I have seems to be from a 1.6 engine as interferes with the bits and pieces to do with the balance shafts. Hopefully next week a different bracket will be arriving and that this time it will fit.

After finally admitting to myself that I will never have the time to rebuild my spare engine myself I dispatched it to Hamlin's Engineering who are based in Bridgwater. They will be re boring it to except the Wossner forged low compression pistons that I bought from TSR Performance again based in Bridgwater. The crankshaft will be checked and machined/balanced as necessary. While the engine block is with Hamlins I will also get them to skim the flywheel already for a new clutch.

So that is the engine block rebuild underway. The cylinder head will be next, I will probably let Hamlins have this as well. So they can check it over, clean it up and regrind the valves seats.

The plan is then to fabricate the bracket which will hold the supercharger in place. As I explained previously I intend to used the fixing points that normally hold the air conditioning pump.

After a lengthy discussion on the Alfa145 forum I do not think that the standard crankshaft etc. will be up to copping with my target power output of 220 bhp. I have decided however to concentrate on getting the engine and supercharger together and working (with a reduced target power output) before I invest in a new up rated crankshaft, con rods etc.

In closing this update I just want to say that the plan with the ignition system is to junk the OEM ecu and fit in place an Emerald unit. I decide to go for this unit because I quite like the idea of being to be able to select different "maps" while driving along. I believe you can have up to three, so - a MOT/economy map and two levels of fun maps should give me enough options.