Alfa Pages

[micap]

Lately I have experienced a problem with my engine. Sometimes the engine runs very rough, both at idle and when cruising at about 2-2500 rpms. It is like the engine is only running on 3 cylinders, but if I give it some more rpms and when accelerating hard the engine runs pretty smooth.
It has also been using water, and when I lifted the oil cap and found mayo on the inside, I was pretty sure that I had a broken head gasket. So I decided to do a compression test with the following result:

Cyl. 1 - 160 psi
Cyl. 2 - 170 psi
Cyl. 3 - 155 psi
Cyl. 4 - 165 psi

Could this indicate a broken gasket on the left cylinder bank? Also, all the spark plugs had a yellow like color on the insulator, and one of them had a cracked insulator. I know this can't be good, but what could be causing this?
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/Michael

ex 89 1.7 QV
now 85 1.5 QV with 1.7 engine.

[PJ]

I had exactly the same problem lately and in my case, a good clean of the idle and main jets in the carbs did the trick. Take off the plug leads one by one when idling to identify which is the problem cylinder, then remove the airbox and air inlet manifolds in one go by 6 screws (2 long, 4 short, 3 each side) then remove both jets from problem choke and blow / squirt carb cleaner through jets. Worked for me. Then flush with carb / fuel cleaner and set mixtures. You won't know yourself.

[Buck Bundy]

I don't think those compression readings are really telling you anything. They would have to be worse than that to feel it.

Buck
_________________
Sprint Veloce 1.5 - Ebay £310!!! (In need of TLC)

[PJ]

Yep. Regards the pressure readings, I checked mine aswell and got 11, 11, 11 and 10.6 bar which is about 165 and 159 p.s.i. The pressure kit says that so long as the cylinders are within 10% of each other, nothing major is wrong.
Used Redex cleaner through the carbs and cylinders and also put into the petrol, went up the street leaving a trail of thick smoke which eventually died off, but the idle and cruise problem returned. Cleaned all main and idle jets again and problem gone. Now have a water leak - it's just one thing after the next with these Alfas !!!