97 Alfa Romeo 155 1.8 16v

[888dee]

Now I know it's probably not old enough to be considered retro but I don't see me ever selling this car and there are lots of plans for this thing ;D





to date,
nothing much, k&n panel, stainless exhaust, de-cat, lowered 30mm and home made strutbrace.

in progress,
full engine rebuild, over-bore to 2.0, lightened and balanced crank, rods, fly and clutch, ported and polished head, oil cooler and put back on standard 16" 5 spoke speedlines.

to come (once it's run a bit)
big cams, remap, cda, 146Ti sills

final insanity
diy low pressure turbo

[twinspark]

Nice.

Widebody 155s are fantastic cars - think of them as a prototype 156 (the oily bits are almost identical).

Ref the mods:
You do realise that the 1.8 engine is significantly different to the 2.0? - if I were you, I'd junk the 1.8 and go for a rebuild on the 2.0 lump which is significantly better.

Where are you based? - looks like it's vaguely my neck of the woods (South Wales) - if so, I have a 155 foglamp in my garage you can have for nothing.

[888dee]

there's method in the madness...

the 1.8 block is considerably lighter than the 2.0 and more importantly it doesn't have power sapping and oil consuming balancer shafts

and I'm in Dundee but the 2nd pic was taken not far from Keswick on one of our infamous runs...

[twinspark]

Ahhh, OK.

Personally, I wouldn't have a 4-pot 155 or 156 without the balancer shafts, even if it was in a weekend toy.

Obviously, if you really wanted a lighter lump, you should have started with an 8v TSpark.......

[888dee]

no balancer shafts, hence full balance at the engineers and anyway's the 1.8 16v does very well without them due to the crank being about 2kg lighter than the 2.0 one, but that's different altogether.

[twinspark]

Hmmmm.

Not convinced. Maybe for a track tool. But, from the examples I've driven, I'd pick the 2lt every time. I can see your point, though.

I'm more old-school, however, and prefer the all-alloy 8v lumps. I'd love to build a widebody 155 with a properly sorted 2lt 8v.

[HoTWire]

We were talking about these the other day,.. would make a great track day or hill climb weapon,.. lightness > power ever day

[penski]

I'd have to agree - A sorted widebody 155 would be the shizznat.

Anyway, "for speed, add lighness."

*n

[888dee]

was a bit cheery today, box from the states with me stage one cams, not what I expected after a "customs examination"

[boxerman]

what did they do that for?

[penski]

Wtf...How do they work then? Did customs split each one into three?

*n (seriously confused :/)

[888dee]

I have no idea what the customs guy was expecting to find, I can only assume he thought there maybe something inside the shafts or something, so yes, they have cut each one into 3 bits.

and yes, there was a letter inside the box, something along the lines of during our examination there may have been some damage, if you wish to claim, write to our complaints team....

but where the f*** am I supposed to find another set of stage one 16v twinspark cams from???

[Tarka]

What the fugg!!! Can't believe what I'm seeing on that picture, so its OK to let over half a million Bulgarians drive their untaxed and uninsured FSOs onto our shores but I'll have to chop this up incase it contains weapons grade plutonium!!

PS - I don't mind immigrants TBH just think they should pay UK road tax and insurance.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

What!!! that is astonishing!!!!

Was it some americans who did that?

[bstardchild]

Amazing............................ Can't think of anything else to say other than gutted for you.......

my one customs experience was coming back from Holland in a Carlton (bout 1 year old at the time) got off the ferry with all the other cars and was pulled in for an inspection

They had the seat out, door cards off, carpets lifted & all the contents of the boot out and said thank you sir you can be on your way now - Nothing I hasten to add was put back by them it all sat beside the car.

Took me a while to get it all back in!!!

Needless to say I took my time putting it all back

[888dee]

this was done but a muppet in East Midlands Airport, I have written to them now but I won't be holding my breath waiting for a reply....

[888dee]

Just thought I'd drag up the past lol

Realised I never finished this thread, this car ended up getting just about everything I wanted for it apart from the 4 branch manifold which is now hanging n the garage waiting to be fitted

Pic taken last summer n the way to Milan just after we'd crossed the Milau viaduct




And I guess seen as well over 5 years have past since I started this thread kit can probably be considered almost retro

[recarouk]

what happened with the Cams?

[forde]

yeah i want to know about the cams too

[rodney]

at worse you may have had copies made from the broken cams ,.