Alfa Pages

[joninaustralia]

Yes its true!

My 16v 1991 must have problems or something - it is clearly less quick than my 1987 33 1.5 twin carb. The 16v idles smoothly, does not overheat, does not make any strange sounds and looks very tidy -plus I am using 95 octane fuel. What could be wrong? I'm not familar with tweaking fuel injected cars. I have replaced the air filter, the oil with 10w 40 oil (finally got the stuck sump plug done) I have replace the ignition leads also, and run two bottles of fuel injector cleaner through the tank (Valoline syntech Fuel Injection cleaner). Any ideas on the low power output? I used to have a 1.7 8v 1990 33 in the UK which was much faster than this 16v - I remember you had to use a light accelerator foot to stop the wheels spinning! Could it just be a knackered engine? Its done 180,000km but does not smoke. Any ideas appreciated!

[tvatavuk]

It can allways be Clutch plate, rear sticking callipers, lousy oil/air/fuel filter but it has high millage and some power is surely lost? With injection cleaners you somethimes notice loss of power.
16v is somewhat smoother then 8v up to 4000rpm that is (some say that it has less torque then 8v up to 3000 rpm)
What brand of oul did you use? In case you decide to use 0w40 full synt like Mobil 1, you should be able to notice less time needed to reach rpm limiter, but it could also leak in case of worn oil ring and seals.
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Tino Vatavuk
Little black dress which replaced Alfa Romeo 33 S 16v Permanent 4 GMo

[Ben_nz]

Assuming there's nothing wrong with the car, are you revving it enough? I've never driven a 16v but they're supposed to be less torquey and need to be revved more to get the extra power.
Perhaps there could be some kind of air leak or something wrong with one of the sensors that is causing the ECU to limit the power output, retard ignition timing, get the mixture wrong etc. I don't know what the possibilities are. Do 33 catalytic converters ever get blocked?

[paddy granger]

Odd! Could it perhaps be the fuel flow that isn't right? As in a rusty tank with a blocking filter? Is the power delivery smooth at full throttle, or slightly jerky?

Maybe it is something simple like the accelerator cable not being adjusted properly, so that you don't get full throttle?

Might also be a good idea to check the sparkplugs if you haven't already done this.

@ tvatavuk - we used Wynns injection cleaner on our 1351cc IE and it worked a treat.

[Guest]

im not sure about alfas but i know with novas there is a little bush on the throttle linkage and as this wheres you dont get full throtltle. it suprised me how much difference it made changing it

[Morgan]

It maybe the problem of the timing belt isn't on the right position(timing problem, should adjust the timing belt).
We found one 145 1.7 boxer 16V ran poor with this problem.

[RFlower]

You should also check the ignition timing
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Dick Flower, Nr. Carcassonne. '94 Trofeo 1.4 ie (F), '93 Imola 1.3/1.4 ie (now for breaking) (F), '91 1.7 ie (GB)(spare car), '86 Sprint 1.5 QV (F). '87 VW Syncro camper (F), '73 NSU Ro80 (F), '99 Fiat Seicento (F)