GTA Boat

Hi guys, need some advise here...

A few days ago, there was a flash flood/storm here and the road I was on turned into a river. Car finally died as I went through 2-3 foot water. 3 other Mercedes had the same fate. At one point, the car was floating as I could feel it rocking back and forth! About 6 inches of water came into the foot wells. After the rain calmed down a bit, I (with help from passengers on a bus that was also stuck) managed to push my car out of the stream. It would not restart and had to be towed to the garage.

The garage has informed me that water has gotten into the engine (water present when spark plugs were removed), and depending on further analysis, may be a total loss! Thank God I'm fully insured, but it all seems a bit extreme to me.
Question to you guys: what sort of damage is likely in this situation, and if things need to be replaced/fixed, are there after-market parts (like AutoDelta) that I would be better off with. What I'm saying is, if insurance decides to repair and not write off, I would like to turn a bad situation into an opportunity to do some mods to the car. Or am I just being unrealistic?

Thanks.

I know a few people that have done a similar thing, and while most of the car will dry out, if water has entered the engine (which it sounds like it has) then you are probably looking at a new engine at least - water is somewhat less compressible than air and tends to lunch the engine pretty quickly...

yes if you went through 2-3 feet of water you will have sucked water into the engine through the air intake.
You may be very very lucky, but the normal result is bent conrods and a wrecked engine...
The garage should know how to deal with it but to get the water out turn the engine over on the starter with the sparkplugs removed.

Originally Posted by David C

yes if you went through 2-3 feet of water you will have sucked water into the engine through the air intake.
You may be very very lucky, but the normal result is bent conrods and a wrecked engine...
The garage should know how to deal with it but to get the water out turn the engine over on the starter with the sparkplugs removed.

Engine has now been taken apart and interior gutted. gearbox OK. electrics OK. Carpet will need replacing but otherwise everything looks good. Still awaiting final prognosis on internals... talking about having the engine bored out and polished (translation here, I'm no mechanic) depending on cost. Is this similar to blueprinting?

Hobbes, sorry to hear such a bad news! Are you getting Kingsland to fix it? Do they have the capability of fixing it?

Hi wongakh, I got a sport/racing shop taking care of it. They are Alfa specialists so I should be in good hands. Kinglands would charge a ridiculous amount and I have not been impressed with them in the past. Looks like this will be my excuse to do some mods & upgrades and fingers crossed the engine will turn out better than before . Damage to the rest of the car is practically zero apart from wet carpet... so quite lucky there. No car for at least a month though...

Hi Hobbes, what a good excuse to mod the car! I am waiting for my GTA and hope it will arrive soon. By the way, which tuning shop you are using?

ERP on 8 Shan Kwong Road in Happy Valley. You will see my car in there!

I heard of ERP, I think the owner there is Paul who I may have met in his last shop - BMWorks, coz I took my mini cooper there for some light mod in the past!

Is your GTA a SS version? I think 156GTA SW is pretty rare in HK too! There is one parked in my home car park and it looks pretty mean and nice!

Originally Posted by wongakh

I heard of ERP, I think the owner there is Paul who I may have met in his last shop - BMWorks, coz I took my mini cooper there for some light mod in the past!

Is your GTA a SS version? I think 156GTA SW is pretty rare in HK too! There is one parked in my home car park and it looks pretty mean and nice!

Yep, I'm dealing with Paul. They do a lot work on M3s as well, pretty impressive stuff. My GTA is MT. I drive faster with SS, mainly because I can brake more aggressively with better control, but I love the satisfaction of getting it right in a manual.. plus one electronic gizmo thing less to go wrong!

Hobbes,

Didn't Paul is doing mod on Alfa too! So, what are you going to upgrade?

Looks like 3 pistons and 12 valves need to be replaced. This really sucks as it's neither here nor there. Anyone know if it's worth going for lighter pistons (all 6) and anything that can be done with the valves? And if all new pistons are used, how about boring it out to 3.5 or 3.7 Litres?

Also, the throttle body is shot, and I've read on the AD site that a "Ferrari-derived throttle body" can be used. I have good connections with the people at Ferrari here, so can possibly get a new or used throttle body from a 360 at a good price. Any info on what needs to be done to modify it to use on an Alfa?

I'm driving a Mitsu Pajero i/o now, and missing my GTA very very much!

Moving on in this saga, I am now faced with some choices:

1) Do an engine swap with a new 3.7L one from AD in London (310bhp!)

OR

2) Fix damaged engine
Have entire engine ported
AD ECU remap
BMC carbon airbox
AD LSD
Competition Clutch
AP/Alcon Racing 6 pot 330mm front brakes (currently fty 305mm)
Saclam Exhaust

Both are approx the same price.

I already have Aragasto coilovers with Eibach Prokit AWBs and front upper and lower brace installed, so on the suspenson/chassis side, I think I'm covered.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks!

Losing engine definitly will happen, my brother drove his 155 v6 into a dam during drunken stupor, resulting in blown motor.
He had to have the motor redone.
Cost were approx 65 000 South african rands.
Exchange rate 1 GB pound = 12.50 rands

Hi Hobbes, any idea what power the second option would give?

I would be tempted by the AutoDelta lump, they know what they are doing

I think option 2 would give about a 25 bhp gain. I figure 5 each from the ECU, exhaust, and air intake, plus 10 from getting the engine ported. My main concern is that with the AD 3.7L I will also have to splash out on at least the brakes which run about USD2500 installed. Also, I spoke wiht Jarno (who was quite helpful) and it will take 4 weeks to build plus 4 weeks to ship... but I agree, the AD unit is mightly tempting!

Brakes on a GTA must be so good as standard I would not be too concerned.

i happened to speak to jano last wek about my car, very nice and helpful guy.

if you do go for the AD lump, I would get the better clutch you listed in the second option too theres going to be a lot of torque in there