Chrome_GT

Similar to what runamuck has said.:

The capri has a panel above the radiator, maybe your escort is supposed to have one - is it there? Apparently Capris don't cool well if these panels are missing

I wouldn't worry bout your operating temp as i've also seen 93° on alot of cars.

If your still worried here's some thoughts:

Thermostat change - My understanding is that a lower temped thermostat will only open sooner. Therefore it will take longer to get to 93°, but you will still get to 93° anyway. So changing thermostat will not change your final operating temperature, it'll just change how you get there.

Other options

-Fit an electric water pump of higher flow rate. I don't know the output of your mechanical pump but higher flow rates can help a bit.

-Check radiator core for may be blocked or missing cooling fins. To recore your escort rad it'll cost about $200

-Check timing - you may be running engine hot by having too much retard in your timing.

-Check fuel delivery - may be lean

-Chenge to an electric fan which is more efficient at pulling air through. Common mod to old cars anyway for horsepower and to help them warm up.

-Have experimented with water wetter, didn't make any difference

-Try running less antifreeze. Antifreeze isn't as good as pure water at heat transfer. Pure water is optimal

I've got the Capri and Mini with AMI. I've found their prices to be pretty good, excess reducs heaps. I was 21 or so when i joined up.

Capri under normal AMI insurance was at approx 500 premium with approx 550 excess

Capri under classic AMI insurance is at approx 80 premium with approx 100 excess

One of the forum members (owns a green rx7) is an AMI agent. He knows his stuff and helped me out with setting up another cars insurance. Shout out if your here.

Abarth - Man that is an awesome looking car. White is hard to find but so so good. Have started using forum at www.alfa156.net. Same login

Oh - and its quick!!!!

I FINALLY GOT ONE!!!!

1st: Finally got the balls to go test drive one a few days ago - I hated it. It was a 2.0l Selespeed 2001 with clth interior. Was cheap but found it boring and hated the interior.

2nd: Then drove a Silver 1999 2.5l V6 6speed Manual 95000km - loved the way it drove but i didn't like the colour. Yeah I know that's kind of gay but it looked boring. Had a nice black leather interior but a few tatters. There were a few other alarm bells aswell. Didn't really trust the sellers and it had been on sale for at least a few months. However this was definitely the drivetrain i wanted.

3rd: Red 1998 2.5l V6 6speed manual 73000km - almost immaculate and looked shit hot. Interior is mint in black leather. All original including the alfa romeo kenwood head unit and stacker. So i Bought it

Hey,

For the last couple of years on cold days my Capri has a bit of an issue starting. Timing, Fuel and Compression would appear to be ok. But i usually found a change of condensor and points fixed it. However - I have since narrowed it down to being moisture. My car has issues only on wet or damp days and an instant cure is heating the distributor area with a heatgun or hair dryer with dissy cap removed. May sound stupid but give it a go.

If Cortina temp Gauges are anything like Capri temp gauges then they are pretty useless. The Fords used a variety of sensors and gauges. My Capri reads right at the bottom of the scale most of the time. Used to read below lowest marker but it changed when i changed the thermostat.

You'll know if your car overheats, preignition, detonating and run-on comes to mind.

Thread Gauges - George Henry tools manchester st, Avon engineering wordsworth st.

Bolts - Blacks fasteners on Carlyle st or Edl fasteners coleridge st.

I've heard many rumours about ramflos catching fire. Even spoke to a customer once who had actually had it happen. Go for a K&N Both my cars havem

I Had similar problem on the Capri - 5speed fitted.

Cortina Mk5 2.0l cables have the correct ends on them but the inner cable is too long relative to the outer sleeve. Actual Capri ones aren't available.

Solution - Buy the MK5 cortina one, take it into safeRbrakes or similar company and get inner cable shortened by 40-50mm. Either that or get a spacer made which would spigot into the cable housing at the gearbox end.

I'm not sure how this applies to your esky so trial fit whatever you get before shortening it

Yeah Repco don't help out by training you up on cars. Customers can get hell shitty but there's often times where the customer is wrong.

3yrs ago Supercheap chch was offering 13 starting plus bonuses but only 25% discount on parts. At the same time Repco was 11 starting, with cost plus 10%. That 10% climbed though.

Noticed prices are really skyrocketing at repco. batteries qwhich were $85 two years ago are now $115, dissy cap was 32 retail, now 55 retail in one year!! Even with my green card i get shafted. Still occasionally get one of the guys i worked with behind the counter. Who you know for sure.

1 may not necessarily be at the front.

Do this to check cambelt is set correctly

1)Turn engine using big spanner on crank pulley (Lowest Pulley) until zero marker on pulley is lined with timing pointer

2)look at camshaft pulley, is the pointer at the bottom?

3) Take of dissy cap. Is the rot pointing towards a scribed line on the uper rim of the distributor. (This scribed line marks the location of where Number one should be).

Let us know how you go - check points gap is opening too. It's easy to do. Take cap and rotor off, put car in gear, rock car backwards and forwards so the cam lobes lift the points. Check for a gap. If gap is crap then it'll run like shit

Seen the same on 2 stroke bike barrels. Manufacturer would have just made them all equal on purpose as it keeps the casting simple and they wouldn't have known where hotspots would have been until testing. Then once they are made they would have done all the testing to determine hotspots, then gaskets would have been finalised.

Never puled apart a modern engine, this thing probably doesn't happen anymore due to CFD.

Well - I found the reason for running on two cyls:

Compressions 180, 30, 30, 170. With a nice puff coming from 3 when testing 2 and vice versa. Guess I'll be replacing the Headgasket tonight

Anyway still interested to see if anyone else with the same distributor has heaps of endfloat on the rotor drive

Can someone please pull off their cap and see if there is much axial play is the rotor drive shaft? I'd expect a little bit but the 4mm I'm getting seems a bit excessive. Bosch distributor setup has a red dissy cap, the black one is a motorcraft setup. I think their is another setup too. Oh yeah, for an OHC 2000cc Pinto.

I've been having problems with dissy caps wearing out after 3 months of everyday driving. The one on their now has unusual wear which suggests the rotor is moving up and down. The Capri is currently running on two cyls :{ Working on that right now

Yeah we used to each have numbers we'd memorised. Took a year or so for them to catch on that the numbers had been used heaps so they deleted them. When I left a couple years ago they were beginning to get a bit anal about vcoding, now i think only mangaing staff have the ability too.

Yeah Staff discount is sooo good at Repco. Cost + 9 to 12% basically. I recommend anyone on here without a job or career get down there. Saved big money on the capri and mini. Plus by working there you can usually get trade dscount at other places. Worked there for 3 or 4 years while studying. When they have they're 25% off sales thats the best time to get accessories cos seats, steroeos etc are below trade and often below staff prices.

What you want is a cash card in green. Yellows crap, blue is in the middle. Managers discression what you get or whether you get one at all. Try telling them you are part of the committee for oldschool -a well respected classic car community ;p

Dunno the 929 ignition system but if your fouling points too often then it'd be worth replacing the condensor. Cheap as so worth doing whenever you replace points.

Have heard of Pick a Part before. What makes Pick a part different from a standard wrecker? I've never really had much luck finding bits i need from wreckers - i tend to by donor cars bad habit

Good comments.

Good to see everyone seems to like the looks of them. The Look of a car is definitely important to me. I was interested in the selespeed or manual. However now i'd probably go for a straight manual now after hearing what you've got to say. Now it's the whole house deposit or car decision to make

Haha yeah thats the kind of thing people have complained about. Warning lights and intermittent electrical problems. Also parts and servicing costs are pretty high apparently. Was looking at Audis originally but for same price and year the A4s look real boring unles lowered on nice wheels. Interior of Audis is pretty uninspiring aswell. The Alfas are always marketed as drivers cars - I love driving!!!

Lately I've ben getting sick of the problems which come with owning oldschool cars. It might be time for a newschool daily (i'll keep the others though).

Does anyone here have any experience with 1998-2002 Alfa Romeos? I've had my eye on a selespeed tiptronic 156. They appeal to me because I'd like something that stands out a bit, is a 4 door sedan or saloon, and that i'd be happy to drive for another 3 years or so. I've read some reviews where owners have complained about unreliability.

Mods - reposition this thread if there is a Newschool discussion section.

I had a driveshaft made at CircleTrak Engineering CHCH. They'd be the place to go if it requires anything more than a disassembly and reassembly.

Have you tried these leads?

Do they really interfere?

The impression I got was that high supression leads were introduced to minimise interference with ECUs etc.

Does using spiral wire leads improve performance cos if they do I'd rather my car went well and I'll just listen to MP3 CDs?

If using high resistance leads means the ignition system requiring more maintenace then I'd rather avoid this.