[Priest]

Hi Guys

Had my alfa less than a month and beginning to have more issues, but i dont care i love the car and its worth fixing

Anyways, since driving the car i have had a few occasions when accelerating normally the engine seems to struggle slightly and lag through the early revs. This happens when the car is hot and cold and doesnt always happen. I just assumed this was down to the different exhaust back box fitted and with the exhaust flexi pipe needing replaced at the front.

Now driving home yesterday this "lag" happened and a noise came from under the bonnet that i can only describe as plastic objects in a washing machine on full cycle. Obviously i pulled over and the noise was not there on idle. I was just around the corner from my house so i drove it back slowly and popped the bonnet. Initially i thought something had come lose but i couldnt find anything and after getting the wife to press the throttle we noticed the noise seemed to be coming from under the cam belt cover. I left the engine to cool down so i could do some proper diagnosis and not burn myself.

After a while i ran it up and the loud noise wasnt there but the engine sounded slightly louder then normal but not to bad. decided to drive to my mates down the road and on route, when engine seemed to warm up the noise came back and struggled getting the power so i had the "lag" and grinding plastic noise.

As the noise was coming from the cam belt cover we removed the cover, well enough to view the belt and there are lots of teeth missing and on of the cogs seems to be covered in a white chalky substance.

I am arranging the belt change to include variator and water pump but im wondering if the symptoms i have had do link in with the belt or could this be something entirely different and the fact im missing teeth off the cam is a coincidence.

Thanks in advance guys

 

[Joss]

Do not drive it anymore. If it hasn't slipped a tooth yet you are very lucky bu I imagine it has. I think you may have lunched the engine my friend. The best thing you can do now is not start it again. It will need to be towed to the garage. Get it fully inspected but this will be a massive job I'm afraid Good luck Budget best part of £1000 for repairs too

 

[biffa]

My advice on this would be to buy CAM locks, and a new belt, set the car the TDC fit the cam locks and fit a new belt. Then once the new belt is fitted and tensioned (assuming the tensioner it the metal type if not replace the tensioner, in the case of a plastic tensioner a belt kit would be a cheaper option) do a compresion test on all 4 cylinders, your looking for upwards of 100psi and for them to be within 5-10% of each other.

If you have good compresion on all 4 then do a full belt, waterpump, variator change if you dont have good compresion on all 4 then you have bent a valve on atleast one cylinder and you wont have wasted money buying parts for an engine that goosed...

There is a very good guide for changing the timing belt in the engine section or google cam belt on a Twinspark engine

 

[Joss]

Nothing wrong with rebuilding engine Biffa You'd know it was done right then ratehr than buying an unknown donor engine

 

[Thompatruck1]

What Joss said If teeth are missing and the belt has slipped you could have seriously damaged the engine

Do as Joss has suggested, get it towed to the garage and pray!

If you need a replacement head or other bits send me a pm as I'm breaking a 2ltr 156 and may be able to help

@Biffa, I may be wrong but I get the impression Priest doesn't do the work on his cars hence the garage

 

[Priest]

Thanks for the responses guys. I would be more than happy to do the work myself but i think this is well over my head. Plus for the cost of all the kit to test i may aswell pay a garage to do it for me.

I have in the past had engines blow on me, for example my volvo where the big end bearings went and the noise was amazing lol.

The last time the engine was run, just before we diagnosed the cam, it sounded ok and all the noise was coming from under the cam belt casing so i dont think there has been damage to the engine but with the work being done by the garage at least i can get them to check this aswell.

Thanks again and i will update with details when i can

 

[Joss]

You can hear all the bits rattling round that have broken off. Keep us posted and hopefully it won't be too bad.

 

[biffa]

Nothing wrong with rebuilding engine Biffa You'd know it was done right then ratehr than buying an unknown donor engine

I never said not to rebuild???

need to find out if iits broke first, i didnt want to bombard OP with to much otherwise it can get daunting.