Mate's Milano not well

[M3 Mitch]

My mate's 87 milano silver died on him a couple of weeks ago and he's just now getting around to trying to fix. The car had developed the habit of going dead when he would drop to idle after a run, otherwise it seemed to run OK. He changed out Lodge plugs for NGK on my suggestion, the Lodges were quite dirty and #1,2 and 5,6 were apparently very oily when he took them out. Having noticed no spark, on my suggestion he replaced the igniton module. Today he tried again - Tried to start, no go. He has spark, (put a spare plug in a wire and held against the valve cover - saw a decent spark while someone else cranked - but won't start. His coolant level goes up when he's cranking. This is a US spec car.

I'm thinking head gasket failure. Is this common on these cars? Any other ideas?

I would suggest a leakdown test but I think this would just about have to be head gasket failure. The odd thing is he has not overheated the car or otherwise provoked this sort of thing. Maybe this partiular V-6 does not need much provocation to fail head gaskets?

Thanks!

Mitch

[Avocet]

Would this be a 12 valve V6 164 by any chance? IF so,head gaskets are rare but not unknown. Coolant going up in the header tank might just be the return hose puking a bit of water back in as the water pump starts to turn so a compression test would certainly be a good start before you take the heads off (the "rear" head is a pig to do in the car!) Also have a look at the distributor cap and rotor arm if you haven't already done so. Mine had similar symptoms and the rotor arm had all but completely melted. As far as the idle speed goes, the US spec one probably has catalysts and idle speed control so the idle speed control valve might be poorly. It sits on the back of the plenum chamber and is dead easy to change - just one bolt holds it into the chamber with a clip going round the body of the valve.

[tr7v8]

OK Milano is the US name for the best Alfa ever the 75! Although this is a V6.
Worth asking on alfadigest as thats more US orientated than here.
Are the injector firing, check with NOID lamp, their are loads of
earths at the back of the heads that get loose & dirty, which
could be the problem. Check the timing is roughly right with a
timing light.

Jim


>> Edited by tr7v8 on Monday 9th January 19:13