Alfa Romeo Forum banner

Brera 2.4 swirl flap bar off

Tags
bar flap swirl
4K views 25 replies 7 participants last post by  gibot123 
#1 ·
Hi I know there are few threads on here about this but I can't seem to find definite answers,yesterday I noticed that the swirl flap bar has come off been looking for those brass cap kits to re-attach it but only seem to do kits for 4 pot engines I take it the caps are the same for 5 cylinder, all flaps seem to be moving freely and actuator is working, also what are people's thoughts on these blanking plugs after removing the swirl flaps, or am I going to be looking at brand new manifold?
Thanks in advance
 
#4 ·
no nothing with mine. Its a qtronic not a manual. To be fair i am looking to remap as i feel it could do with a bit of a boost so to speak though i am comparing to my other car which is an e39 530d m sport. Thats also had the swirl flaps deleted and has not suffered from any power loss for what its worth.

I did hear someone say about power loss perhaps on another thread but its not something i have seen.

hth
 
#5 ·
You wont notice if the flas is removed, but will get black smoke under heavy acceleration/high RPM if they are closed all the time.

I removed mine ½ a year ago due to leakage and have noticed no difference at all. They are only closed at start-time & low rpm to improve torque.

While removing them, its a must to split the manifold & get it cleaned as there can (will!) be several mm of tar-ish soot inside it.
 
#9 ·
Ive not usd the brass caps but they are readily available on EBay and an easy fix.
If you plan to do the work yourself (swirl flap delete) then it's cheap enough. If you pay a specialist then it is a labour intensive repair as the timing belt has to come off which will need to be replace together with the idlers and water pump (allow £800-£1K)!?

I removed the actuator bar on my 2.4 last weekend to prevent more wear and bonded them in the open position for the moment pending deletion when the belts are next due. Runs more smoothly with no obvious disadvantages. Just a thought!? Might save some time and money.
 
#10 ·
I did the same to mine on Sunday, disconnected the arm and silicone sealed the flaps in the open position. I would also agree the car runs much much better and seems to have more power?
I have a new manifold on its way, talking to some engine rebuilders they reckon £320 to £475 to swap out. I will blank out the swirl valves before they fit it and supply any other bits they need such as gaskets etc.
For the time being it will run as is for a month or two.
 
#14 ·
But don't you have to remove the retched thing to blank the swirl valves and clean, is this what you mean by splitting it?
You make it sound easy!!
My reasons for buying a spare are 2 fold....1) I can blank it at my leisure and make sure it's right & 2) I can sell the one I remove so someone else can (if they wish) do the same?
 
#15 ·
Sorry, prob. Because im danish, but dont understand what you mean by "retched thing" :) Thers torx-screws that hold the manifold together (Manifold is a 2-piece thing with upper/lower sections, youll see easily when you get it off :) )

1. Takes about 10 mins to remove old ones & mount the plugs.
2. A new is approx. 170 Pounds, so very limited what its worth when P&P comes on top of salesprices

Again, as its a perhaps total 1 hour job cleaning & blanking the manifold, cant see why anyone would want a secondhand as theres no breakable parts once the flaps has been removed/plugged...But hey, im known to have a tight closed wallet, so perhaps just me that doesnt get it ;-) :-D

But new/re-use, best of luck to you with the project :)
 
#16 ·
Here's a couple of pics just if your wonder wether you should remove and clean the manifold .




Auto part Car


Auto part


Auto part Engine Automotive engine part Transmission part


This is one that I am cleaning ready to swap and fit the swirl flap blanking kit to. Just look at the gunk in the 2nd pic this is as it is in your inlet . Its like tar :hurl: 3rd pic is of one half nearly cleaned it takes about 1.5-2 hrs to do properly by hand and 2 cans of carb cleaner.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Chipmik
#17 ·
I am a bit concered about the earlier post about putting them in the open position' as when I took the one in the pics apart without the bar, it is very difficult to know where open and shut is.
When I was messing about with them it seems that fully open is about 10 O'clock or 8 O'clock depending on which way up (had mine on a bench ) but where I thought was open was closed ?? !!
When there is no rod they will spin 360 deg's .
 
#19 ·
These posts are confusing me!!??
On a 2.4 (210bhp) diesel Brera 2007 - Are you SURE the aluminium inlet manifold splits in half, I don't think it does??
Secondly, the fully open position it towards the cam belt on this particular car, fully closed towards the battery.
CAN MY INLET MANIFOLD BE SPLIT TO CLEAN AND REMOVE SWIRL FLAPS?
 
#22 ·
Apart from the extra cyl the basics are the same the intake is just longer with 1 extra swirl flap/intake. Iff you could only see half of it it would be difficult to tell the difference.
Are you asking about removal of the intake or the cleaning and flap replacement.
If its the later the job is the same.
 
#23 ·
Once off undo all the torx bolts and pry apart . Then clean the inside. If you use the blanking kit available it should come with the sealer/glue and all the metal plugs.
You will need to knock out the flaps and replace with the new plugs.
They need pressing home with a strong G clamp/press .
You need to use the sealer round the edges and base that meets the outer face of the inlet hole.

When in place, do 1 at a time (and don't go mad with the sealer its more of a glue to keep them from vibrating out as much as anything and to guarantee a seal) clean off any excess and leave for a few hours to ensure the sealer is set.

There should be instructions in the kit , but there is a video/pics online to demonstrate excatly what to do.
Fairly straight forward .


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Swirl-Fla...348460?hash=item282419962c:g:EiMAAOSwo4pYJF9i

Just check the size of the hole I'm pretty sure that this is the kit for your car ( 18.5 mm holes) but there is a 15mm kit but sure these are for the earlier 156 JTD.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ChulaVista101
#25 ·
Can it be split while on the car for cleaning?
May be possible but the 1/2 left in place couldn't be cleaned without making a right old mess of the engine bay and running the risk of getting all sorts of crud down the inlet tract to the valves.
This is the final plugged version - you can just see where some of the bolts holding it together are located
 

Attachments

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top