The build goes ever on. I had been resisting working on the Sprint for the last two weeks and concentrated on organizing and consolidating my parts, tools and the like. Yesterday I had a surprise few hours of freedom so I decided to run to the shop and get back on the Sprint. The first order of business was hooking up the new exhaust front section I got in the mail a few weeks ago. I used M8 x 1.25 stainless socket head cap screws with flat and lock washers I had laying around to bolt the exhaust to the manifold with an NOS copper gasket in between sourced locally. I needed help supporting the exhaust to get the bolts started but after that it was easy. The pipe is closer to the floor than I like so I will have to see if it’s a motor mount, engine mount or pipe bend problem once everything is installed.

Here’s the new pipe mounted to the manifold with the asbestos heat shield bent out of the way. The oil pressure line is very close to the header with the heat shield in between. I plan on seeing if the pressure line can be bent or turned on the banjo bolt.

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You may remember I earlier wrote about distributors and what I should do for one for this engine rebuild. I had the Lucas unit that was originally in this car in a box so I assumed I would just get it re-bushed, put new points, condenser etc in it and use it. I dropped it off a Jaan’s shop and a few days later he called me to tell me the shaft and drive section was all home-made and that it would not be cost effective to fix it, and that at its best it still wouldn’t be as good as a Bosch or Marelli unit. The next day I started pulling the 1600 apart that is going in the SS and I realized the Marelli distributor installed on it would be perfect for the 1300 rebuild, especially if I ever went with a Veloce spec conversion as it is a 750/101 spec unit.

Here it is, fresh off the 00121 engine I am going to start rebuilding soon for the SS. It doesn’t look like much but the shaft spins nicely without having any side to side play. I am told these are pretty hard to find and expensive, so I will be careful.

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I spent rainy Saturday and Sunday afternoons at the shop this weekend working on all the little loose ends that need to be tied in order to start the engine for the first time.  I started out with painting and installing the starter.  Once I had the starter bolted up and looking good I found the gasket and all the fasteners I set aside for the intake manifold and went to mount it.  The height of the engine didn’t allow the manifold to clear the rail in the engine bay so I had to jack the engine up about an inch on the passenger side and this allowed it to slip by.  Once the manifold was on I found the new thermostat and gasket along with the used thermostat housing I bought from Glenn a few weeks back.  This was all straight forward to install.

As usual, the finished picture first.  The red in the engine compartment came out good.  Not great, just good.  I think the level of finish in the engine compartment will match the rest of the car if I leave the valve cover alone.

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I had a lot of time this weekend to work on the Sprint engine rebuild and I got a lot done.  I had been stressing out about getting the cam timing set but it turned out to be an easy process.  I still need to get a dial indicator to find TDC perfectly, but it is very close right now.  All I did to set the cam timing is I pulled the adjustment lock bolts out, loosened the vernier adjusters, connected the timing chain and tensioned it, verified TDC and cam marks again then tightened the lot up and reinstalled the adjustment lock bolts.  I put a little red locktite on the big cam nuts and bent the lock tabs over.  I still need to install new cotter pins in the adjustment lock bolts.  Once that was done it was a downhill coast until I broke a stud off …

Here it is, cam timing adjusted, everything torqued and cam chain tensioned.  I plan on dousing this all with oil before the initial start-up, probably a few weeks away.

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Here it is, probably my last post of 2008. I might have squeezed one more in and wrote about one of the Sprint Veloce Lightweights for sale in Europe right now but I have been busy keeping up the usual holiday schedule and another post doesn’t seem likely.

This post is mainly to catch up on two busy days at the shop trying to get as close as possible to having the Sprint on the road before the end of the year. The first picture in the series is a teaser and should be farther along in the series, but I like it since the Sprint can be seen watching my progress in the background.

I suppose the color of the turn signal lens could be called ‘impatient Orange’. When this was taken I had just made all the head nuts finger tight after fishing the timing chain up through the timing case.

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Another pretty part ready for installation.  As with just about everything else relating to this 101 1300 rebuild, the waterpump is not just an off the shelf purchased part that gets to be bolted on.  Theoretically the waterpump is an owner servicable part and rebuild kits are available, but years in a hostile environment means the average, or even above average DIY Alfa owner is going to need help.

I pressed the impeller out of the bearings and found it to be in good shape with little corrosion or wear on the bearing and sealing surfaces.  Once the impeller was out I removed the snap ring that positioned the outer bearing and that is where I got hung up.  I wasn’t sure which way to try and press the bearings out and the special seal with the toleranced mounting flange and spring was all corroded.  At this point I decided I could irrepairably damage the pump if I wasn’t careful so I put all the parts in a plastic bag and delivered it, along with my rod bearings to John Norman Racing where Dan Marvin rebuilt it.

101 1300 waterpumps are no longer available, so if yours has a problem treat it gently, don’t assume you can buy a new one.

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I am trying to figure out how it happened. It was supposed to be so easy, pull the 1750 out, put the 1300 in, scratch my head over some fit problems and voila! I’m back on the road. Okay, so I discovered the 1300 was stuck and suddenly I’m rebuilding it. Parts are bought and so on and then next thing I know I find myself at John Norman racing lugging in my cylinder head. Warped, cracked and 10 thousandths from being too short means I had to buy a different, rebuildable head.

New valves, guides with stem seals, lots of machine work and all set up and ready to go. I hope I can put the bottom end together to be worthy of this head.

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You may remember I made a plan to detail the engine compartment of the Sprint as part of the engine rebuild. While waiting for the Piston and liner set to arrive, for the head and water pump to be rebuilt and other things I have no control over to get done I tackled the engine compartment. The firewall and inner fenders etc had silver rattle can spray paint over green car paint over the original red. On top of the paint was a lot of gooey oily debris from the last 20,000 miles of commuting and events this car has done.

The first step was to take a picture to see where everything should go when the paint is dry. Next I used Simple green and scrubbed the engine compartment then followed that up with power washing. Once it was dry I removed all the firewall grommets and associated brackets and wet sanded the old paint to make it smooth. I had delusions about going down to the bare metal but this car is sort of an original scruffy car so I decided a quick go over followed by some matched car paint put in a rattle can would be ‘good enough’.

I got your attention with the nice done detail shot of the drivers corner. The brake fluid can leaks so I had bare metal to work with in this area. The smaller grommet brackets are just polished up with mag polish, the larger steering column bracket was bead blasted and painted ‘dull aluminum’ silver. The new rubber grommet for the steering column was $50 AND it required extensive shaping with a razor blade to get it to fit. The throttle linkage was blasted and painted and installed through a new rubber piece.

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