MartynH

Hi Darren,
I have had my 2.0TS 156 SW from new, 2001, I went to Autodelta, and had a remap by "Jano" and the intake conversion, which is basically remove the cone from the air box, fit a sports flow filter BMC and fit the V6 intake trumpet.
The BHP gain was about 5 to 7, but the torque curve is fantastic making the car completely differnet and very tractable, pulling away from 1k revs instead of 3k, top end slightly up in the sense that it certainly gets there quicker and smoother, pull off from standing is much better, and less gear changing required for sustained cruising.
As for exhaust, I tried the longlife route, absolute waste of space unless you want to sound like anold wellington bomber, went back and changed it, had a straight through less restrictive centre box but refitted the standard rear box, makes it breath better but no headaches still hear thatv lovely TS singing away.
As for brakes, yes they are crap, I fitted "Red Dot" grooved all round with their fast road pads, which have a higher temp rating, but be warned, they need warming up in the morning, after a few miles they are really great, can squeak a bit when stopping at low speeds, its because they do not use asbestos anymore (i think).
As a little bonus I get 50 extra miles per tank of fuel than I did before the remap etc.
The only way that you will get massive increase in performance is fast road cams, but then you may loose some of the low down tractability and possibly inherit some lumpy low revs, ask Autodelta, also with the extra stress of higher lift/long duration cams you will need to be even more concerned about cambelt changes, possibly every 20 to 25k miles to be safe.
The remapping at Autodelta takes into account the air intake mods, so it is better to sort out this part first, then once set up the ecu will learn, after a remap no more supermarket fuel for the best performance.
These are not just my opinions but from what I have experienced and been told by Autodelta, who are in North Acton W3, they were the first and original people to write the mapping and also supply others with their software.
In conclusion the brakes are always worth the effort and really easy to do.
The Remap is a must to extract the Alfa potential, as these cars like most are set up for a cross section of users from the factory, and for different countries, as for the intake, yes the breathing can be improved, no need to go mad, just do the de cone, and the V6/GTA trumpet, with a either a standard or free flow filter....to answer your question about the oiled filters damaging your MAF, well actually it is people who who over oil them that ruins the MAF, when done it should be a very slight whisp of a spray, not a bloody soaking.
Regards MartynH