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[Paul Lewis]

Hi all. I have been having some problems with my M reg 16 Valve 33 and the way it runs. This is not helped by the fact that I live out in the sticks in North Wales and Alfa specialists are virtually non-existant in this part of the world.
The car is low mileage (62,000) and was well maintained before I bought it in July last year. It has had the belts changed and recently has had a new CAT, a supersprint back box, a new Lambda sensor and new plugs, HT leads and cap and rotor. Basically the car has been running rough for some time now particularly when the engine is cold. It feels as though the engine is 'missing' and almost as if it is unwilling to run. The engine never seems to be close to cutting out but feels jumpy and like it won't rev. I have had the car on a diagnostic and that picked up that the lambda was knackered so I had it replaced and also the throttle potentiometer with a s/h one as I was told that it was also faulty. i thought this would cure the rough running but it didn't. Anyway the rest of the problem is that the car is losing coolant but not through a leak in the system. It is being blown out of the expansion tank through the overflow pipe. I was worried that I might have blown a head gasket so I got my local garage (non-Alfa) to check it out. They reckon the head gaskets are fine but cannot explain the reason for the coolant being pushed out of the system. Could this problem be linked to the bad running??

Maybe the car does have a blown gasket and they haven't picked it up?? The way they tested it was by analysing the exhaust gas and also they put a sensor (filled with liquid that changed colour to indicate a fault) over the expansion tank filler?? Obviously I hope it isn't the head gasket because that is an expensive job. Anyway I have topped up the coolant several times to the correct level but it just keeps getting blown out of the system. Could it just be a faulty cap? The garage also told me that there didn't seem to be much pressure in the water system as the hoses from the radiator were very easy to compress and that the system should have a certain amount of pressure. Is it full of air? I am really worried as the car does seems to be getting worse and running rough even when the engine is hot, whereas before it was fine when hot, yet rough as hell when cold. HELP????!!!!
Cheers Paul

[Marcin]

Hi,

more reliable test for broken head gaskets would be the compression test. If the compression is much lower in one of the cylinders, it could indicate a broken head gasket.

Also check the injectors. Once my car was running rough, I removed the injectors and found a lot of debris where the fuel lines are connected to the injectors. Also cleaning of the inner parts of the injectors could help; people recommend ultrasonic cleaning, but you could start with a fuel additive.

Recently I also had a coolant leak, it turned out to be the reservoir. It was broken at the bottom, very difficult to identify, and it made me loose 1 liter of coolant very 2 days. I was told, that the reservoir failure is quite common on the 33. Also, don't fill the cooling system with water, it will evaporate and leave the system via the pressure cap.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Marcin

[gritsop]

Hi,

I had also problem with my coolant reservoir when it was broken in the bottom like Marcin said.

It had a big crack about 5cm long and water was escaping only when the water was hot and thus losing coolant in quite enough quantity without understanding it.

Also check the possibillity that you have loss of water not in water form but in vapor form.My radiator had a leak that occured at about 60-70 C - above that it did not lose a drop

Also the union that holds in place the alternator has under it a square shaped gasket which most of the times it burns out from the years since underneath the water pump is located and thus great heat is accumulated.

This had happened to me ; I was observing that white deposits were accumulating around the area of the union - so I replaced everything: radiator, all hoses, the above gasket and now I do not have ANY sort of coolant leakage, the water level is always the same.

Hope this helps,
_________________
Thanassis Gritsopoulos
1991 Alfa 33 1.4 IE
2001 Alfa 147 1.6 Distinctive

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