http://www.totallyalfa.com/blog/index.cfm en-us Sun, 20 May 2012 18:54:14 +0100 Thu, 30 Sep 2010 00:07:00 +0100 BlogCFC http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss garypaulfisher@aol.com garypaulfisher@aol.com garypaulfisher@aol.com no http://www.totallyalfa.com/blog/index.cfm/2010/9/30/The-beginning-of-the-final-push It has been a while since my last entry but to be honest I been flat out shipping out orders. Several dead lines that I made to myself have been and gone, but I really do need to finish off the building up the engine. The only thing stopping me at the moment is the arrival of a special engine stand that I am having made. I have however made progress in one area, as I am now the proud owner of an Emerald K6 engine management system. This was the last of the expensive purchases and means that I have now got all the major components that I need. So once I have my new engine stand I will be getting on with it. Supercharger Project Thu, 30 Sep 2010 00:07:00 +0100 http://www.totallyalfa.com/blog/index.cfm/2010/9/30/The-beginning-of-the-final-push http://www.totallyalfa.com/blog/index.cfm/2010/5/11/Supercharger-Project-Update-2 Things have not really gone to plan. Although Wossner assured me that the pistons would fit my engine if seems that their version of fitting and my version differ. Alfa machine the underside of the piston so that it restricts the lateral movement of the con rod. This insures that the con rod does not rub against the side of the crankshaft journals. Wossner however can not be bothered with this and machine the underside of the piston so that the con rod will rub against the crankshaft. This is not good and the pathetic response I got from Wossner means that I will not be bothering with them anymore. A very helpful guy from Accralite Pistons helped me resolve the problem Wossner left me with. It is a shame that they don't have at present a forged blank that they could make replacement pistons from (As a foot note - if I have to replace the Wossner's any time I will be going to Omega Pistons - they have the right size blank and will machine them to the right dimensions). Supercharger Project Tue, 11 May 2010 14:38:00 +0100 http://www.totallyalfa.com/blog/index.cfm/2010/5/11/Supercharger-Project-Update-2 http://www.totallyalfa.com/blog/index.cfm/2010/2/1/Supercharger-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. Supercharger Project Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:36:00 +0100 http://www.totallyalfa.com/blog/index.cfm/2010/2/1/Supercharger-Update http://www.totallyalfa.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/11/1/Supercharger-Project For a while now I have wanted to put a supercharger on my Twinspark 2.0. I know some off you are saying to yourselves - "why". Well I want to be a little different, I know it's going to cost me but I am hoping that if I finish this project that I will have something worth the effort So far all I have is a pile of parts. The supercharger as I am sure most of you will know is off a BMW/Mini Cooper S. I also have the water pump that bolts to the back of the supercharger. I may use this to power a charge cooler. A inlet manifold for the supercharger was purchased off Ebay. The outlet manifold for the supercharger I cut myself from aluminium ( if anybody wants a aluminium, stainless steel or mild steel outlet plate as shown the picture above, please get in touch with me), I just need to add a piece of 60mm aluminium tube to finish off. My plan is to bolt a bracket to the air conditioning pump bracket mounting points to hold the supercharger in place. I will swap the pulley that is on the supercharger with "up rated Mini pulley" This will allow me to easily remove the pulley so that I can experiment with pulley diameters. I have been reading AJ's (Alfa145 forum) thoughts on the superchargers pulley size and think I will start with a pulley half the size of the crank pulley. This will give me in theory a supercharger spinning at 14,000 rpm when the engine is at maximum revs - 7,000rpm I am hoping that a standard Twinspark auxiliary belt (air con type) will be long enough to drive the supercharger, again time will tell. Supercharger Project Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:34:00 +0100 http://www.totallyalfa.com/blog/index.cfm/2009/11/1/Supercharger-Project