Alfa Romeo’s Iconic Flat-Six Engine: Reliability, Repairability, and Future Investment

Between 1979 and 2005, Alfa Romeo produced a flat-six engine with an amazing sound and impressive character. You can still buy cars powered by it cheaply today, and definitely do it. Prices will rise dramatically in the coming years.

The surprising advantage of the engine from the pen of designer Giuseppe Busso is reliability, or repairability. As it was made by hand, it is not a problem to repair it with a little mechanical Latin.

It emerged from the oil crisis

The original intention of Mr. Buss was to make the unit dynamic, but mainly economical. The construction was created during the oil crisis of the 1970s. A significantly undersquare bore ratio and meant a low mean piston speed, and therefore frictional and kinematic losses. Only one camshaft in each head also contributed to lower friction, but also to decent timing reliability.

At the same time, however, he followed the lowest possible pumping losses and the most efficient fulfillment. The valves are not next to each other under the cam, as is the case with single-cam engines, but on the respective sides – intake to cold (inside V), exhaust to hot (outside V). The camshaft does not run through the middle of the head, but closer to the cold side. He controls the intake valves directly, the exhaust via the push rod.

The adjustment of the valve clearances is specific – the intakes are adjusted with washers under the cup (a common thing in Italian cars) and have a prescribed large clearance of 0.50 mm, the exhausts are then adjusted with a screw to a surprisingly smaller clearance of 0.25 or 0.27 (turbo engines). The problem is that even in the paid workshop data, the values ​​are shown the other way around. “However, with proper maintenance, 12V motors last almost forever, I even have a piece here with more than half a million kilometers. And above all, they have unexpectedly low consumption – even in the large 164 3.0 V6, they normally drive for nine liters,” explains Vojtěch Ondráček, who is renovating an older Alfa Romeo in the garage with a friend.

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2023-10-24 16:52:00
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