Alfa Romeo 156 2.5 V6
Discussion
rxe said:
That rust - you need to fill the inside of that section with dinitrol or similar. See my GTA thread on Alfaowner. It all starts from the inside....
Do they rust inside the front box sections?I fitted a new pair of track rod ends, I removed the inners just to check there was no play and nothing was bent from the crash. Parts for these cars are very cheap.
The old shell was sent off to be made into baked bean cans, sad to see her go really.
I decided to go all out on the manifolds and downpipes and ordered from the renowned Alfa exhaust maker Wizard. The quality is amazing, they are a lot higher quality than the orignals, and a lot lighter. Removing the pair of manifold cats should also bring a decent performance gain, a remap maybe in order although the standard CF3 ecu is quite adaptable. They are expensive, I tried to offset it from the money from selling the shell, various scrap, spare dials, climate, pipes, I sold a spare set of wheels which all covered about a 1/3rd of the cost.
On the rear bank, with the heatshield it clears the oil cooler nicely, theres enough room to get your hand from underneath with the oil filter. I fitted a plastic bracket (that fell off the old twinny somewhere) for the cooler pipes attached to the other side of the ps pipes.
I just need to fit and route the oil cooler pipes, and now the engine is ready to go back in. I cant wait to fire it up again :-) I hope it all goes back in ok with the suspension and subframe all still attached...
Yes - they rust inside the box sections. Mainly towards the firewall. If you look from underneath, there are a series of holes in the bottom of the box section around the engine mounts - absolutely fill these with dinitrol or similar. The main area that starts to go is the double skinned bit behind the spring - roughly where the brake pipes attach.
The engine went back in ok, it was a little tricky getting it all aligned at the same time, I lowered the car down over the pallet, aligning first the top of the struts with the shock towers, then the steering rack, then lots of swearing, tilting and shoving to get the subframe in the right position, then finally the engine mounts. I made sure the gear linkages routed through before bolting the subframe in position, then everything connected back to the engine. I did bolt up the entire centre section, then realised I forgot the heat shields and had lower it and do it again!
I connected the handbrake, steering column to the rack so it steered again, and then bled the clutch system, as the pedal finally got pressure and sprung back it did feel like the car was starting to be woken up and becoming alive again.
Everything else was connected back up. Battery put on charge.
The power steering cooler was mounted to the opposite side, I didnt need to modify it other than removing the long pipework that goes across the front end, I just removed the bracket and turned it around. Its mounted so its in line with the bumper vent next to the foglight.
I found the horns were both in the way of my oil cooler setup, so I mounted them on the wing bracket so they are higher up. Then mounted the oil cooler and routed the pipework. The aeroquip 'push' fittings for these were really hard to get on as you need hands and arms like Popeye to fit them, Im not sure I would use them again but will see how reliable then end up being. The cooler pipes were routed so they could not be grounded, and I fitted stainless braiding to the bottom pipe to protect it. Im going to fit a vent behind the cooler in the wheel arch and possibly some ducting.
I also fitted a pair of refurbished calipers courtesy of my mate at Biggred, and refitted the performance friction pads.
I connected the handbrake, steering column to the rack so it steered again, and then bled the clutch system, as the pedal finally got pressure and sprung back it did feel like the car was starting to be woken up and becoming alive again.
Everything else was connected back up. Battery put on charge.
The power steering cooler was mounted to the opposite side, I didnt need to modify it other than removing the long pipework that goes across the front end, I just removed the bracket and turned it around. Its mounted so its in line with the bumper vent next to the foglight.
I found the horns were both in the way of my oil cooler setup, so I mounted them on the wing bracket so they are higher up. Then mounted the oil cooler and routed the pipework. The aeroquip 'push' fittings for these were really hard to get on as you need hands and arms like Popeye to fit them, Im not sure I would use them again but will see how reliable then end up being. The cooler pipes were routed so they could not be grounded, and I fitted stainless braiding to the bottom pipe to protect it. Im going to fit a vent behind the cooler in the wheel arch and possibly some ducting.
I also fitted a pair of refurbished calipers courtesy of my mate at Biggred, and refitted the performance friction pads.
Paul S4 said:
I am sure you have considered this, but I have seen some Alfa threads where they have fitted a remote oil filter to make oil changes easier...
I did consider that, Ive seen kit cars with Alfa V6s relocate the filter, but I thought it would make the final route to and from the filter, then cooler too long? As the relocated filter ideally should be fitted at the rear top of the engine bay, then the pipes routing over the top of the engine to the front.Great to see so much love going into a 156 V6. I did a similar 'shell/engine swap' on a Lancia Delta Martini many, many moons ago so it brought back memories of all the little differences you come up against when the two cars don't quite match.
I actually run a silver '99 156 V6 manual with 92k as a hack, having run others in the past, and agree they are very characterful cars with a wonderful engine note, although I am wincing at the pumps having moved over from a 147 JTD... I get roughly half the fuel mileage...
I have to say your engine bay look fabulous; my last one had 50k on the clock and looked similarly clean and shiny, but that was 15 years ago when they were modern. My current example is becoming scruffy, although to my eyes still the most attractive car in almost any car park!.
I occupy that position where the car is just a cheap banger, and will probably be broken up if/when major malfunction occurs. I do have a 2006 registered example however, which is in better condition but sadly falls into a comically high tax bracket at over £500 p.a. so will probably end up tracked, or broken for spares.
I actually run a silver '99 156 V6 manual with 92k as a hack, having run others in the past, and agree they are very characterful cars with a wonderful engine note, although I am wincing at the pumps having moved over from a 147 JTD... I get roughly half the fuel mileage...
I have to say your engine bay look fabulous; my last one had 50k on the clock and looked similarly clean and shiny, but that was 15 years ago when they were modern. My current example is becoming scruffy, although to my eyes still the most attractive car in almost any car park!.
I occupy that position where the car is just a cheap banger, and will probably be broken up if/when major malfunction occurs. I do have a 2006 registered example however, which is in better condition but sadly falls into a comically high tax bracket at over £500 p.a. so will probably end up tracked, or broken for spares.
Neil-91ezs said:
Great to see so much love going into a 156 V6. I did a similar 'shell/engine swap' on a Lancia Delta Martini many, many moons ago so it brought back memories of all the little differences you come up against when the two cars don't quite match.
I actually run a silver '99 156 V6 manual with 92k as a hack, having run others in the past, and agree they are very characterful cars with a wonderful engine note, although I am wincing at the pumps having moved over from a 147 JTD... I get roughly half the fuel mileage...
I have to say your engine bay look fabulous; my last one had 50k on the clock and looked similarly clean and shiny, but that was 15 years ago when they were modern. My current example is becoming scruffy, although to my eyes still the most attractive car in almost any car park!.
I occupy that position where the car is just a cheap banger, and will probably be broken up if/when major malfunction occurs. I do have a 2006 registered example however, which is in better condition but sadly falls into a comically high tax bracket at over £500 p.a. so will probably end up tracked, or broken for spares.
Thanks, its suprising whats different, or what changes over a 2 year production span, even in parts which look identical (such as the abs module) change internally, the differences in the bodyshells did throw me off though! The earlier Twinny has more sound deadening, and was missing a couple of captive nuts in the engine bay (understandable), curiously the V6 had an extra brace fitted in the bulkhead too, and the suspension forks I took over from the original V6 were alloy, but the twinnys were a heavier steel. I like working on cars and getting my hands dirty so enjoyed the rebuild, although I havnt got around to connecting up the wiring looms yet, only the engine and dash is wired in....!! The engine is turning over.I actually run a silver '99 156 V6 manual with 92k as a hack, having run others in the past, and agree they are very characterful cars with a wonderful engine note, although I am wincing at the pumps having moved over from a 147 JTD... I get roughly half the fuel mileage...
I have to say your engine bay look fabulous; my last one had 50k on the clock and looked similarly clean and shiny, but that was 15 years ago when they were modern. My current example is becoming scruffy, although to my eyes still the most attractive car in almost any car park!.
I occupy that position where the car is just a cheap banger, and will probably be broken up if/when major malfunction occurs. I do have a 2006 registered example however, which is in better condition but sadly falls into a comically high tax bracket at over £500 p.a. so will probably end up tracked, or broken for spares.
I have seen the odd late registered 2.5 156 with silly tax rates, Im not sure what the tax will be on mine when I inform the DVLA because its a euro3 engine in a euro2 car..
I still have a diesel 159 as my daily, which has been reliable and economical, but I dont enjoy driving it, due for replacement soon though for a petrol Giulia (hopefully).
Had a couple of setbacks this week, I went to connect everything back up and found the dashboard loom was wired differently for the V6 engine bay loom so transferred that, then the ABS module mini loom went across too which includes the wiring for all 4 abs sensors. Because I changed the dash loom, the main body loom which goes to the back of the car and back round also had to be replaced which involves stripping the interior (which I was going to do anyway to fully check the floorpans), and because I changed the body loom I had to replace each of the 4 looms for the doors too... A nice suprise while the door cards were off is that all 6 door speakers are made by Alpine.
The V6 loom didnt have the wiring to the pretty hefty #7 and #8 speakers on the parcel shelf for some reason.. but has some extra fuses/relays in the boot that dont seem to do anything, further investigation needed but will leave them disconnected for now, everything else connected to the V6 loom fine apart from the sunroof which had a different size socket, so I changed that. The only wiring left in place from the twinny was for the aerial and the cd changer.
Once everything was wired up I turned the ignition on, to my horror petrol was being sprayed all over the engine bay and onto the windscreen!! The crappy plastic clip to the fuel rail was leaking, petrol was also in between the nylon line and the rubber protective sleeve so somehow its got damaged, so the top engine bay line needs replacing. I also had to remove the bottom coolant hose as it was leaking, replacements pipe has been ordered.
For now Ive disconnected the fuel pump relay so I can check everything else which all seems to be ok, I will replace the fuel line with the correct standard hose, or make a new nylon line with the correct dorman connectors.
The final setback was when I went to change the oil, the magnetic sump plug was rounded off and overtightened. I had to borrow some Irwin bolts to finally get it off, I was very lucky the threads on the sump were not stripped as I had to use my breaker bar with the Irwin to finally crack it off. I filled the car up with Millers 10w40w fully syntetic, all 6.2 litres of it!! Ive turned the engine over on the starter motor to circulate it a bit.
I refitted the bumper and arch linings, the lining on the oil cooler side had a vent fitted for any hot air to escape and encourage air to pass through.
While I was messing around in the boot for the wiring loom I noticed the bumper has a crack in it which spoils the whole rear end. If anyone has a mint 612 silver saloon bumper, Id be very interested?
The V6 loom didnt have the wiring to the pretty hefty #7 and #8 speakers on the parcel shelf for some reason.. but has some extra fuses/relays in the boot that dont seem to do anything, further investigation needed but will leave them disconnected for now, everything else connected to the V6 loom fine apart from the sunroof which had a different size socket, so I changed that. The only wiring left in place from the twinny was for the aerial and the cd changer.
Once everything was wired up I turned the ignition on, to my horror petrol was being sprayed all over the engine bay and onto the windscreen!! The crappy plastic clip to the fuel rail was leaking, petrol was also in between the nylon line and the rubber protective sleeve so somehow its got damaged, so the top engine bay line needs replacing. I also had to remove the bottom coolant hose as it was leaking, replacements pipe has been ordered.
For now Ive disconnected the fuel pump relay so I can check everything else which all seems to be ok, I will replace the fuel line with the correct standard hose, or make a new nylon line with the correct dorman connectors.
The final setback was when I went to change the oil, the magnetic sump plug was rounded off and overtightened. I had to borrow some Irwin bolts to finally get it off, I was very lucky the threads on the sump were not stripped as I had to use my breaker bar with the Irwin to finally crack it off. I filled the car up with Millers 10w40w fully syntetic, all 6.2 litres of it!! Ive turned the engine over on the starter motor to circulate it a bit.
I refitted the bumper and arch linings, the lining on the oil cooler side had a vent fitted for any hot air to escape and encourage air to pass through.
While I was messing around in the boot for the wiring loom I noticed the bumper has a crack in it which spoils the whole rear end. If anyone has a mint 612 silver saloon bumper, Id be very interested?
Edited by davebem on Saturday 21st October 18:07
My engine bay looked like that 8 years ago 
My 05 156 v6 deserves the treatment yours is getting/got but sadly it needs to much spending on it but as a weekend car its hanging on in there.Suspension refresh is needed and a new timing belt/waterpump/idler is due next year so next year will be my last year with it..
I will miss it for sure....enjoy yours
My 05 156 v6 deserves the treatment yours is getting/got but sadly it needs to much spending on it but as a weekend car its hanging on in there.Suspension refresh is needed and a new timing belt/waterpump/idler is due next year so next year will be my last year with it..
I will miss it for sure....enjoy yours
Great thread Dave, thanks for sharing all that. I just wish I had the space and the experience to do a nuts n bolts restoration of my 156 V6. I’m paying out a lot for garage time to do the major stuff and the less serious stuff myself in the barn where the car lives!
Never mind, the car is worth it - I love mine to bits and have also tracked it, although after reading about your mishap, I’m reconsidering doing that again!
Never mind, the car is worth it - I love mine to bits and have also tracked it, although after reading about your mishap, I’m reconsidering doing that again!
MarkwG said:
Love that little grill! Is that home produced or available somewhere, looks like a neat solution to a problem I have!
It was random ebayness:https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Louvre-Vents-Plastic-Bl...
Edited by davebem on Tuesday 31st October 20:17
Slowly getting somewhere. Ive replaced the fuel line with some SAE J30 R9 fuel hose and correct type hose clips. Im looking for a proffesional opinion on this, will this type of hose take the high engine bay temps?
My attention is now back on the body, whilst I had the interior out (from changing the loom) I checked around for rust. On the drivers side as initially suspected the rear footwell has some holes. I think they rust here when the sound proofing is not pushed in properly from the factory. I could get my fingers under it and lift it off as it was not fully affixed to the floor and was laid bridging over the corrugated bottom, leaving a gap for moisture to sit and get trapped. The passenger side was fine and the insulation was correctly installed. I guess it was someones job in the Pomigliano d'Arco factory to lay this, and this is why so many 156s are scrapped/broken up.
Im looking for someone in Leicestershire area to weld this up for me, I have replacement rear sections cut from the original car that was rust free. These have the insulation on and its laid correctly.
My attention is now back on the body, whilst I had the interior out (from changing the loom) I checked around for rust. On the drivers side as initially suspected the rear footwell has some holes. I think they rust here when the sound proofing is not pushed in properly from the factory. I could get my fingers under it and lift it off as it was not fully affixed to the floor and was laid bridging over the corrugated bottom, leaving a gap for moisture to sit and get trapped. The passenger side was fine and the insulation was correctly installed. I guess it was someones job in the Pomigliano d'Arco factory to lay this, and this is why so many 156s are scrapped/broken up.
Im looking for someone in Leicestershire area to weld this up for me, I have replacement rear sections cut from the original car that was rust free. These have the insulation on and its laid correctly.
Good update. My first car was made at that same factory. It was a Nissan. Do you know which one?
Re the floor repair, it’d be wise to remove the sound deadening if you want to weld the old panel onto the new cars floor. It’d be quite straightforward to cut and shape a repair panel as an alternative method.
Re the floor repair, it’d be wise to remove the sound deadening if you want to weld the old panel onto the new cars floor. It’d be quite straightforward to cut and shape a repair panel as an alternative method.
helix402 said:
Good update. My first car was made at that same factory. It was a Nissan. Do you know which one?
Re the floor repair, it’d be wise to remove the sound deadening if you want to weld the old panel onto the new cars floor. It’d be quite straightforward to cut and shape a repair panel as an alternative method.
A Nissan Sunny Europe? Alfasud engineRe the floor repair, it’d be wise to remove the sound deadening if you want to weld the old panel onto the new cars floor. It’d be quite straightforward to cut and shape a repair panel as an alternative method.
helix402 said:
Close! Nissan Cherry Europe. Superb engine, shame about the body. I rebadged it as an Arna, it’s replacement was a real Sud, 1.5ti no less.
Sounds interesting, they are as rare as hens teeth now. Id like to see a pic of yours, that factory seem to always cock up on something, even right up to the last alfas made there (159?)..they put the wrong PS fluid in on 2/3rds of the production run!Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff