New Alfa - pick your brains

[blindswelledrat]

Hello all.
THought I would pop in and say hello.
I just bought myself a 166 3.0 v6 which against all the odds I absolutely love.
Driving it down the motorway yesterday, though, got me a little confused.

I was suprised at how high revving it is eg:95mph is at 6000 revs in 6th gear with the red line at 7000.
THis brings me on to my confusion. This is the first car I have driven in years which doesnt have a rev limiter. You seem to be able to rev through the red up to 8000 revs. But you need it. By my reckoning the redline would start at about 110 mph which is an extremely low top speed for a car of this nature.
Further, if I remember rightly-it only goes up to 8000 (125mph) even thought its theoretical top speed is nearer 150 (or so I have read).

So what is the score with these engines? Is the redline irrelevant? Or is my car completely weird becasue it actually seems almost wrong.

[touching cloth]

That doesn't sound at all right, 6000rpm for 95mph in top gear??? They couldn't quote a top speed that is in excess of the redline I am sure, so that would make your top speed only about 110mph which is crazy.

Only two thoughts I can come up with are, there has been a gearbox problem in the past and someone has fitted one from a scrappy that has the wrong ratios for the car (unlikely I would think)... 2nd one is (and you are going to love this) the speedo is fked and you were firing along at closer to 130 or something thinking you were doing sub 100, did everyone else appear to be going slowly?

Edited by touching cloth on Monday 17th November 16:52

[blindswelledrat]

touching cloth said:

)... 2nd one is (and you are going to love this) the speedo is fked and you were firing along at closer to 130 or something thinking you were doing sub 100, did everyone else appear to be going slowly?

NO-cant be that. Might be slightly out but it is certainly spot on at 50 mph (average speed cameras in the roadworks) and definitely not massively our top end.
Gear ratios did seem a bit wierd but fuel consumtion was ok and the engine still felt confortable at those kind of revs (as opposed to a normal car where you can feel the revs above a certain speed.)
I assumed it must just be a quirky charachteristic of the alfa engine.

Now I am worried its not.....

[stu_the_flat]

You clutch is about to go. My 2.5 166 will happily do 80 at 3000 RPM

When replacing your clutch get Q2 fitted evidently its fantastic.

Other things to watch out for are the belt timing changes 72,000 miles or 5 years but most people prefer 60,000 or 4 years.

And the suspension (which I am in the processes of doing now.

Get along to

http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/alfa-164-and-166/

and intorduce your self.

Stuart

[blindswelledrat]

stu_the_flat said:

You clutch is about to go.

Are you certain?
It is not actually 'slipping' and I havent noticed it in any other way.
How much are clutches?

I bought the car from a bloke on that site so I thought I would just ask here first.

[stu_the_flat]

Show me a link to the car?

Maybe you should post it over there as there is much more expertise.

The engine should be very torquey. On a normal journey I would not go about 3500RPM as all the power I need is there.

[blindswelledrat]

stu_the_flat said:

Show me a link to the car?

Maybe you should post it over there as there is much more expertise.

The engine should be very torquey. On a normal journey I would not go about 3500RPM as all the power I need is there.

Probably will tonight.
Im starting to feel a little uncomfortable right now.
Already I was a little disappointed at how slow it was.....

[blindswelledrat]

OH and I was struck by how untorquey it felt

[jamieboy]

stu_the_flat said:

My 2.5 166 will happily do 80 at 3000 RPM

Sounds about right, my old 3.0 GTV did about 27mph/1000rpm in 6th.

Not sure what the problem is, I'd expect it would be obvious if the clutch was slipping as badly as that, but there's definitely something not right with it.

[jamieboy]

blindswelledrat said:

OH and I was struck by how untorquey it felt

Not entirely surprised by that, more or less the same engine in the GTV gives its best above 4000rpm, peak torque is up about 5000rpm

I guess how torquey it feels also depends what car you've come out of, which is some sort of Mitsubishi evo, isn't it?

Regardless, if it's redlining at 110mph, then it's not right.

Edited by jamieboy on Monday 17th November 17:19

[stu_the_flat]

Heres an cheap solution. the mafs are really prone to failing and if they are replaced by cheap ebay ones the power can go down by 50BHP

Try unpluging the maf and see how the performace has changed.

Here is a link to show you how.

http://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/alfa-164-and-166/13...

[tricky 100]

blindswelledrat said:

stu_the_flat said:

You clutch is about to go.

Are you certain?
It is not actually 'slipping' and I havent noticed it in any other way.
How much are clutches?

I bought the car from a bloke on that site so I thought I would just ask here first.

Try putting it in 4th gear then see if it stalls when you try and pull away .

[skeggysteve]

blindswelledrat said:

I was suprised at how high revving it is eg:95mph is at 6000 revs in 6th gear with the red line at 7000.

Well Alfa engines do like to rev - forget throttle pedal think more on/off switch

Having said that 6000rpm for 95mph doesn't sound right at all.

I had a 2.5 version until a few months ago and if I remember 70mph was around the 3k mark.

As it's an Alfa I'd go with an electrical fault/problem - any Alfa that doesn't have an electrical problem is probably not on the road

[blindswelledrat]

I think I have worked out what the problem is, courtesy of a bright idea from Carrera2.

I am fairly sure it is the Rev counter running 1/3 revs higher than it is actually doing. I noticed this from a list on the other site of what it should do in each gear.
Everything clicks into place when I think like that. Everything which seemed 'a bit odd' with the car tallies with me not actually taking it above 4000 revs.
Further-when I got home I took it for a spin and drove it straight through the rev counter and used speed as a guide instead of revs. The car is transformed. Suddenly it is as quick as it should be and feels brilliant.
I thought it was 'a bit slow' yesterday and I am now convinced it is because I never actually went above 4000 revs.

Now I am rubbish mechanically but C2 reckons it sounds like the rev counter might be counting 6 cylinders sparks on the basis that it is a four cylinder car i.e. counting a thrid more revs.

Any guesses?

[Le Man]

Agree with the previous poster. You sound to have a 2.0 rev counter.