My Lancia Delta Integrale 8V restoration project

[tricky]

Go for it, one at a time in sequence.

[WhizzMan]

Ah, if the procedure allows you to completely undo one bolt at the time anyway, you should be fine indeed. I am guessing now that the re-torquing is set at the same time as the changing of oil and other "run in maintenance" jobs. You probably will be okay to do it after a few heat cycles already and not wait for the official service interval?

[samo]

I have been slaving in the garage for a few days now and I have nothing to show. I installed a million plastic little bits. From the steering column surround, fuse box cover,... and of course the ever so important plastic covers for the glove compartment lid hinges!

[Brit01]

I have been slaving in the garage for a few days now and I have nothing to show

Will be worth it in the end. Wish I had so much time to work on my Alfa. I'm lucky to get a few hours every weekend once in a blue moon.
4 hours yesterday and also have nothing to show. Just a new mechanical fuel pump back in it's box because I couldn't get it to prime.
Tell a lie I do have something to show - a nice aroma of petrol which appears to eminate from head to toe!

Keep it up and you'll have a showroom car soon.

Chris

[samo]

Chris my day also has only 24h :)

I just commented on another forum when I received another compliment for my work with an added note "I wish I had as much money/knowledge/time :) I do have a day job, the garage is about 30minutes drive from my home and when I come home there is no one to cook and clean for me so it's not ideal... and you wouldn't believe the sacrifices I made for this project. This is not aimed at you Chris, I can see you are working and doing stuff you love, but i despise people who only wish for stuff to happen while sitting in front of the TV or in Pubs...

Well enough on my "political" views. As I have some pain in my wrist and elbow and can't do much I spent the last 2 days more or less just sorting out stuff in the garage.

I did get the grill back from powder coating and I had to stick it on to see how it looks. It is temporary as the second grill is going to be polished some day...

[WhizzMan]

I can see why Lancia designers decided to have a grill in an alternate color/coating. You may like it, but it is a very large "dark" area and most people want a car to have a "face". I think they would have sold less cars if they sold it in black-on-black and that is eventually what Lancia's prime interest in the design was.

[Brit01]

while sitting in front of the TV or in Pubs.

Very true and have to agree. I could ask what a tv is? Between my work and 2 year old I really try to find time to spend time on my passion (2nd passion of course!).
I think the gastritis developed because I worked so much on my car during the summer (mostly at night when the other 2 were asleep) and was eating all fast food due to not giving myself enough time to cook properly.

Really nice looking Lancia. Keep up the good work and keep healthy.

[samo]

I can see why Lancia designers decided to have a grill in an alternate color/coating. You may like it, but it is a very large "dark" area and most people want a car to have a "face". I think they would have sold less cars if they sold it in black-on-black and that is eventually what Lancia's prime interest in the design was.

I don't think that's the case! The original Mk1 Delta in normal trim had lot's of shiny bits like the door handles, window surrounds.... so it made sense to have the grill shiny also. But the integrale had everything black and only the grill remained. Even this was eventually painted black on the Evos.

Did some finishing work last two days:
-setting up the clutch,
-installing the seal between the grill and bonnet,
-straightening the roof sills,
-and just for avoiding the future questions like "Is it a Golf?" I stuck on the old grill badge. I am still waiting for the new one.

[samo]

Did get to have my first drive in the car after almost 6 years!

As there are a lot of things that can go wrong I decided to start with a 2 km circle around the garage. Did that a 4 times before I had a problem with a flat tire. During those 8 km I had no major issues! Car responded well to the accelerator, brakes still not brilliant as the pads haven't bedded, steering ok, suspension ok, transmission ok. Kept it under 3000rpm. Managed around 80km/h with no problems.

After replacing the flat tire on my next run I started experiencing a missfire. I traced the issue to the distributor rotor arm. It has a plastic wedge inside that keeps it stable on the distributor. And somehow I managed to damage it and that caused the rotor arm to have a wobble. Added to that there seems to be a miss match between the rotor arm and the rotor cap as the rotor arm barely touches the end of the contact point.

You didn't expect this to go smoothly did you?

[tricky]

" You didn't expect this to go smoothly did you? "

Yes, I did ! I had faith !

A flat tyre is small time, well done .

[samo]

You are a true believer tricky!

I changed the distributor cap for an old 16V one which looks identical but seem to work! I have no more miss fires. Car works good. The wheel alignment is totally off and the brakes are only starting to bed in so I am still keeping of the side roads with speeds bellow 90km/h. I kept the engine between 2000-3000 rpm for the first 100km and then between 2000-3500 for the next 100km. Keeping between 1/2 and 3/4 throttle. It's quite hard to change gear at 3500 rpm as the turbo starts working by then and things start moving fast! I am planing to stick to Guy's recommendations for the brake in period.

The only problem encountered today was a that the clutch cable fell off the pedal as the securing C clip fell off the pedal. I am guessing this is due to the fact that powder coating filled the groove too much and the clip didn't sit properly. Will investigate tomorrow.

Short video of the drive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_vvEfOYlfg

Hard to describe the experience. Lets just say that even now at partial throttle bellow 3500 rpm and with bad tires, wheel alignment all off etc after I sat in my Alfa 166 and drove home it felt slow, unresponsive and the steering a bit uninvolved.

[WhizzMan]

Congratulations on the test drive! A shame about the bumper, I do hope you can get that fixed properly. An Alfa 166 is a nice, pretty, comfortable transportation device and for it's size, a very sharp and fine driving car. That being said, it's a whale compared to an Evo and you'll need the 20V diesel or 3.0/3.2 V6 to make it feel remotely close to fast. I'm sticking to my 155 for a reason. ;)

[samo]

I wouldn't be a proper fanatic if I didn't have a proper engine under the hood would I? Mine is a 3.0 V6 the down side is that it has a 4 speed automatic gearbox. Good for comfort but the 0-100 km/h is a disaster. It actually only comes to life above 130 km/h when it reaches the proper revs!

[samo]

Managed to do another 50km before it started raining again...

Brakes are getting better.

Engine running smoother and quieter. Not resisting revs... Reving it up to 3500 rpm for now but its hard to keep it off boost.

I still can't believe how responsive this 80's "primitive" EFI is. I don't care what anybody says this is close to carb like response... Remind me again why do we have to suffer the lazy, stuffed, boring, safe, eco friendly ECUs and EFIs that take 10s to respond. At least the Deltas ECU only has one thing on its mind and thats to get fuel into the engine it doesn't think it's a duck...

[Guy Croft]

THIS IS A FANTASTIC THREAD SAMO! IT REALLY IS.

"8V INTEGRALE 'REBORN..."

GC