Alfa Pages

Joel · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 1:51 pm Post subject: Head gaskets, valves?

Hello guys and girls,
I've got a bit of a problem with my engine. The car hasn't been on the road for the last two and a half years. I bought it off my brother and his wife, in the last couple of months that they had it it was running rough and loosing power but it wasn't too bad. Since i've had it I've re-sprayed it and it was started every now and then but never driven. The last few times i started it it was hard to start and keep running. I did a compression test and one cylinder on each bank had next to no compression, from memory one was around 40 and the other was 70ish. Oil and coolant were both fine. I talked to my local Alfa specialist and he told me it was unlikley to be two head gaskets at the same time. So whats the problem? Is it burnt out or stuck/damaged valve? I'll hopefully drop the engine out tomorrow and have a look, is a blown head gasket easy to spot? Is there any thing else it could be?

hugh jinjin · Alfasud Joined: 04 Sep 2004 Posts: 68 Location: Glasgow

check for worn cam lobes first very common and will give exactly these symptoms.

Joel · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2007 2:24 pm Post subject:

sorry i should have said the heads were re-built and have done about 45,000km. I dont know exactly what was done, I'll try to find the receipt, i've got over $12,000 worth of receipts from previous owners