Alfa Romeo 166 V6TB

[peruccy]

Hello chaps!

Let me introduce my latest project. It's an Alfa Romeo 166 V6 Turbo '99 with 111000km on the clock. I bought the car for silly money - 600€. It has been parked for nearly 5 years, because it had an engine failure. Previous owner said, "it only needs to have the head gaskets replaced". I obviously believed him, how silly of me. All the work on the car will be done by my dad and me. Anyways, here's how she looked when I got her...

First thing I did to her, is to replace the dull velour seats with leather ones I had at home. Also from an AR166

Next thing was to get the engine out, and have a look at the "damage"

Main bearing were all worn. So much for "just a head gasket replacement"...

And of course, the crankshaft was also gone

Luckily the block was OK. So we got a new crankshaft

And got to work. First thing we did, was to enlarge the ports on the heads as much as we could...

Intake port before

Exhaust port before

Intake port after

Exhaust port after

Then the engine was disassembled completely

And after 4hours the bottom end had brand new bearings, o-rings, gaskets, seals exc.

Since we didn't know what has been done to this engine, we decided to also do a major service on the engine. New belts, pulleys, spark plugs exc.

And a "few" other bits ready to go on the car, started to pile up. New radiator, A/C condenser, brake discs + pads front and back, brake cables, brake lines, clutch, gaskets, seals, suspension bushes, cv boots, exc. exc.

New valve guides and bearings for the alternator

3" stainless steel exhaust

To be continued...
'talla

 

[Shaggy]

Wow! Love all the detailed pics. Look forward on following this build. Please keep updating it.

 

[johnnny]

I'll have to look again when I'm on my pc (now looking from a tablet), but I love what I saw. How come it's a 2 litre turbo, where are you from? I thought only a few markets received those. That's the one I would personally choose for me if the ones I see over here are not mostly wrecked. Like the pictures of basically a complete engine build!

 

[gman2207]

That looks great, I will own an Alfa myself someday. There's some lovely models over here.

 

[Shaggy]

What ended up being wrong with the engine? I guess it was more then a head gasket.

 

[peruccy]

Thanks!

@Shaggy: The water pump's propeller broke, which led to overheating, which led to failed head gaskets, which led to crankshaft failure. Furthermore, after owning this car for nearly a year, I realized that the previous owner has not taken care of this car very well. Many many things were broken, half repaired, or not repaired at all - just hidden...

@Johnny: I'm from Slovenia. AFAIK, these 2.0 V6 TB engines were only made for Italian, German and our market. These are getting pretty rare, as not that many "survived". Usually they are dirt cheap to get, because they are neglected by their owners. It's not the cheapest car to maintain, so if you buy it for let's say... 600-800€, and you have to replace the clutch, you're looking at 400€ without labor, so... Drive it as long as it goes, then sell it
But I do agree with you completely. A N/A 3.0 or 3.2 V6 is nice, but sooner or later you get bored with stock HP, and the turbo engine is way better tuning wise. Less effort and money, for more gain. And after owning two AR164 V6TB's and one-of-a-kind AR145 V6 TB (AFAIK, no one else has put this engine in a 145 body), I must admit that I love this engine

I sure miss this car!

Sadly I had to take it apart, because I was unable to register it anymore, because of our stupid laws. What has become of this car? A street race project car, which is still in development at the moment. Here's a sneak preview:
You take one of the lightest stock cars, a standard Trabant which weights only 612kg (mostly out of fiberglass)

You cut the modified front end from a AR145 which can hold a V6 TB engine

And "put" it together

But more on this car some other time...

So... back to the AR166 project...
Rear engine mount was looking shabby, so a new OEM one was ordered

Engine assembling

Replacing gaskets, washers, seals exc. in the engine, gearbox and dif, as we go along. A brand new Valeo clutch was also fitted

Then the engine went in. The second mod to the engine, after head porting, was to fit a bigger intake manifold and intake runners from a 3l. The manifold has 0,5l more capacity, and the intake runners are 7mm bigger. We also replaced CV boots for the half shafts and steering rack.

Brand new OEM lambda probe was fitted, with an adapter which keeps the ECU happy, since there will be no pre-cat or main-cat

Intake runners fitted. AFAIK, no one has yet fitted this manifold or 45mm intake runners (stock are 38mm) on this engine. After that day, I knew why, because it was a pain in the #%! to make them fit...

Since the car sat for so long, all the brakes were seized and shot. So a brand new ATE front 310mm discs and ATE ceramic pads were fitted

And for the rear, we fitted 276mm ATE brake discs and normal ATE pads. (ceramic are not available)

Luckily, this car has no rust at all, since it is zinc-coated. To keep it that way, we added some additional protection

Everything around the engine almost done. Only fluids missing...

Material for a custom home-made exhaust. Stainless steel 3" pipes, hangers, flexi pipe, and a second hand Supersprint backbox

Difference between stock exhaust pipe, and 3"

Fluids ready

Just before we started the car, there was a problem. Darn A/C condenser crumbled in my hand as I touched it. So we had to get a new one, together with a new dryer

Looking good next to a shiny new radiator

Home-made middle section of the exhaust

Supersprint mounted. PS: Those orange marks are copper paste

After a successful test drive

Both my Alfa's together (I've sold the 164 last year)

Still a lot to come. To be continued...
'talla

 

[peruccy]

Hm... that's strange. I've made a reply a few days ago, but it still hasn't posted on the forum. Was is deleted?

 

[johnnny]

Hm... that's strange. I've made a reply a few days ago, but it still hasn't posted on the forum. Was is deleted?

Probably you hit the wrong button, or there was an error. I'm subscribed to the threaad, so it would inform me if the new post was actually posted. If you have put in more images, bad luck...

So, how's the build going? Anything new? Where did you manage to find this car? What state is the turbo in?

 

[peruccy]

Duplicate post

 

[peruccy]

I am certain I didn't hit the wrong button, because two days ago, I made a new reply with plenty of new pics. But again, it has not been posted. It said, please wait for the moderator to check your post...

 

[johnnny]

Hm, in that case I hope that we have a mod checking out this thread and that the post will go live... We want the pics!

 

[peruccy]

Duplicate post

 

[peruccy]

Yeah, me too! I just made my third and final attempt on replying, and as soon as I add some pictures, again I got the "moderator must check..." message. I just hope that if eventually, someone does allow my posts, that they won't add all three duplicate posts because that would look silly...

 

[johnnny]

Shaggy pls check this out, we know you want to see the images too!

 

[Shaggy]

Yea, sorry. For some reason it was moderating your post. You can see them now. Build is looking good peruccy. Keep adding to it!

 

[peruccy]

No problem! I'm just glad we sorted it out. I did however edited some of my posts, because all three were added now.

To be continued...
'talla

 

[peruccy]

Moving on...

Both my Bella's together

Since my car didn't leave the factory with a CD-changer and amplifier, I had bought a second hand one

I've also added new floor mats

Then, I've decided I wanted a "Dukes of Hazzard" style horn, so I got one :happy107:

Mounted

I've also added a bit more undercoating protection on the inner wings. These cars have no rust, because they are zinc coated at the factory, but I wanted to keep it rust-free for years to come...

Before...

After...

And a pic of our custom made exhaust. Downpipe is shortened a bit, so it had enough clearance with the bell housing

Removed pre cat

Removed main cat, with only a straight 3" pipe going through it

Mid silencer replaced with a home-made "S" pipe

And at the back, we couldn't get a 3" pipe to fit through and over the back cross-member. So I had a 2,25" stock pipe just before the backbox

At the back I have an original Supersprint backbox. Although it is for the 164 model, we have modified the inlet, so it would fit on a 166

And front connecting pipes to the turbocharger

Barely any space between the connection from the 1-2-3 exhaust manifold to the turbo, and downpipe

As for the interior. Color change from beige to grey was finally done, apart from that odd shape at the middle of the dash. That is a part of the dash, so it cannot be removed. I plan on putting some black vinyl on it in the near future, just so it doesn't stand out so much as with being beige in color

To be continued...
'talla

 

[johnnny]

Really nice to finally see the pics! I don't think they made it for the German market, but we got them, and pretty much all of them over here are rubbish by now due to hard driving and seriously poor maintenance - btw big hello from Belgrade Love the car, and the effort that has been put into keeping it on the road! How does it drive now?

It would also be nice to see that Trabant, it just seems wicked! You have to open a dedicated thread!

 

[peruccy]

Cheers!

I will open a thread for the Trabant in due time, don't worry.

It drives really nice. The suspension on the car is superb. It might be overkill when you think about it - three control arms on each corner, but it sure makes the ride enjoyable.

So, next I had to replace my emblems. Of course, OEM ones are way to expensive for a piece of plastic, so I got an alternative. Stickers might look cheap, but these are in fact of high quality and properly thick. Best 10€ I've spend on the car so far

Installed

Then the oxygen sensor was replaced out of precaution, not necessity

Manual boost controller was next

Then I got a wideband oxygen sensor as well, so I could see what the engine is doing

Once I was going crazy with replacing electrical parts, sensors exc. I had to get an insert for the MAF, and also a crankshaft sensor. I know from experience that on Alfa's, faulty sensor can make you go mad trying to diagnose a problem. So I've decided to replace practically all the sensors on the car with new ones just to be on the safe side, and also for tuning purposes...

This car's engine is very quiet. The Italians made sure of that, since it was suppose to be a luxury cruiser. I don't like quiet. So going in that direction, the resonator chamber in the intake was blocked off

Next I replaced the gasket for the windscreen wiper cover, and the windscreen washer fluid hoses

Then I got connectors for the injectors. I was being methodical with the electrics - once you own an Alfa, you understand why :rofl3:

Next was the front speaker system which got uprated

Since I had a FMIC on both of my previous cars, I've decided to go down a different route on this car. I've decided to use a chargecooler system. So first item to get was a CC. 3" inlet / outlet

Difference between stock and 3" intake

Since this car does not have an oil pressure gauge, nor an oil pressure sensor, an universal one was installed. Some modification was needed of course, to get the sensor installed in the head, where the turbo gets it oil feed

Next on the list, was a bigger throttle body. Since my car uses a fly-by-wire TB, I basically had two options:
- A Ferrari 360 TB
- A Porsche Cayenne Turbo S TB

Both have exactly the same pin-out as Alfa, but have a bigger inlet. Ferrari TB's are getting rare and expensive, so I got a Porsche one instead... Stock vs. Porsche

Stock has 69mm inlet

Outside 75mm

Porsche has 79mm inlet

And 87mm outside

To be continued...
'talla

 

[peruccy]

Next on the list were the vacuum lines around the intake manifold. Since we installed an intake manifold from a 3.0 24V, which has a completely different vacuum line plumbing and mounting holes on the valve cover, we used what pipes/lines there were lying around, so the car was drivable. Now I have decided, it's time to install these lines properly...

New vacuum line

Replacing the old vacuum line

Some more vacuum lines

Replacing this piece of spaghetti of lines (we had to botch something together, to make the car drive, this is what came out)

And installed

Then I got a special tape as used by the factory for wiring harnesses

Some more connectors for the engine sensors

I have also decided to use a 3Bar MAP sensor, so I could squeeze a bit more boost out if the engine. Since this car has no MAP sensor so to speak - with a nipple for reading manifold pressure directly from the intake. Instead, it only uses an old school altitude sensor which has a set value for every altitude and then it translates this into manifold pressure for the ECU. Anyways, this "technology" goes back to the 80's when Audi Quattro's used it for the first time...

Replacing that thing above, with a new 3bar MAP sensor. Now at least, my ECU will have proper manifold pressure readings, not just approximate set values

I've also got a special oil for the engine. Mobil 1 10W60 full synt. It's not cheap, by I know it's one of the best 10W60 oil's out there...

External 300lph fuel pump with cradle

Some more exhaust parts

Now we had all the parts, to make a custom 3" downpipe

This heat shield for the A/C compressor was in the way, so we removed it

We've removed this lot

And installed this lot

Everything installed, together with a brand new front O2 sensor and a wideband O2 sensor

We've also installed a bigger turbo of course! I had this unit on my previous AR145 V6TB, which had only done 5000km. The turbo was rebuilt completely before it went in the AR145, so it would have been a shame not to use it on this car. The turbo in question is a Mitsubishi TD05 Big16G (68mm compressor), where as the stock turbo is a tiny TD05-12B (58mm compressor). I know your DSM owners love that B16G turbo :Big Laugh:

On this turbo, we've also added a Forge Sierra Cosworth T3 wastegate actuator, which can hold 2bar of boost with ease (I've been running that much boost with this turbo before)

MAP sensor installed

Replaced connectors on all the sensors

And a bit of tidying up the cables

The engine was in this state after all that work

To be continued...
'talla