another Alfa Romeo conversion

Converting To Delco ECU From Carby Or Other Injection Systems
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festy
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another Alfa Romeo conversion

Post by festy »

Hi all,

I first started thinking about converting my '77 GTV to EFI about 10 years ago.
It was originally bought as a parts car to keep my other GTV on the road, but somehow ended up as a track car :shh:
Back then, I looked at the 808 as a possible candidate that fitted my non-existent budget, but no RT and the lack of a thoroughly documented bin turned me off the idea. I started collecting bits and pieces of hardware with the idea of one day buying an aftermarket ECU.
First was the manifold - I was offered an efi manifold off a Bosch spider about 5 years ago, so grabbed it and stuck it in the shed...
A year or two ago I was offered the use of an old Haltec F9 for the project, so I got stuck in and ripped the head off the engine, made the necessary mods to the inlet ports and put it all back together.
Then for one reason or another, the F9 never eventuated, so the car has sat motionless since then.
Then, a week or two ago while googling for something or other efi related, I stumbled upon this forum and saw how far the humble 808 has come in the last few years!
I spent a few days reading as many threads as I could to get an understanding of what I'd need to go the Delco route, then started drawing up an NVRAM board from the various information I could find - which was interesting, considering I'd never actually seen a Delco ECU or memcal in the flesh :oops:
I found the schematic for the '165 which I understand to be the same as the 808 but with the SXR chip (does that make it identical to the 082?) and based my PCB on that.
I spent a week looking for a cheap 808 online, and ended up getting an 082 with a BLCD memcal for $25 8-)
So, I've got a bunch of questions I'll be asking soon - but thought I'd say hi first, and share a couple of pics of what I'm starting with before hitting you all up for answers ;)

Here's the Bosch spider manifold installed
Image

And here's a few of the parts I've collected over the years, in preparation for the eventual conversion:
Image

Next step is to pay a visit to my local wrecker and see if I can get my hands on a loom. I'm hoping they've got an old JE camira I can pillage, otherwise I'll have to cut down a VN loom to the bare necessities.
I still have to sort out injectors, the OEM ones are low impedance hose tail units.
I'd prefer to stick with that style if possible, but haven't been able to find anything that uses a high impedance version of them so might have to end up using o-ring injectors instead.

Don't hold your breath for this conversion to be completed, it'll probably take me another year at the rate I'm going :oops:
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VL400
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Re: another Alfa Romeo conversion

Post by VL400 »

Welcome and nice project :thumbup:
festy wrote:I spent a week looking for a cheap 808 online, and ended up getting an 082 with a BLCD memcal for $25 8-)
Bargain of the year with that one :shock:
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Holden202T
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Re: another Alfa Romeo conversion

Post by Holden202T »

just a tip, you'll only need one of them lift pumps to keep the surge tank full!
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festy
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Re: another Alfa Romeo conversion

Post by festy »

VL400 wrote:Welcome and nice project :thumbup:
Thanks for the welcome. Hopefully I'll be able to contribute something back once I get up to speed with it all.
VL400 wrote:
festy wrote:I spent a week looking for a cheap 808 online, and ended up getting an 082 with a BLCD memcal for $25 8-)
Bargain of the year with that one :shock:
Yeah, that's what I thought. Sometimes it pays to look closely at the photos on ebay, and not just assume the description is correct ;)
Holden202 wrote:just a tip, you'll old need one of them lift pumps to keep the surge tank full!
Yeah, good point. I'm inclined to plumb them both in but only use one though, for the sake of redundancy.
I've had a few of those little square pumps fail in various applications, to the point of not really trusting them too much.

Here's a couple more pics I found from the last time I had it out on a track... it was 2006 :oops:
Image
Image
Image
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Holden202T
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Re: another Alfa Romeo conversion

Post by Holden202T »

festy wrote:
Holden202 wrote:just a tip, you'll only need one of them lift pumps to keep the surge tank full!
Yeah, good point. I'm inclined to plumb them both in but only use one though, for the sake of redundancy.
I've had a few of those little square pumps fail in various applications, to the point of not really trusting them too much.
lol im not surpsied, the one my brother had we got off ebay delivered for like $20 :P
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festy
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Re: another Alfa Romeo conversion

Post by festy »

Will the ECU be upset by not having IAC connected?
The spider manifold has a Solex tb which I've already swapped the WOT switch with a TPS, but there's no provision for idle control.
I've got a VR tb that I could adapt easy enough, but I really want to make this thing look as oem as possible - to the point of sacrificing the extra flow of the larger tb to avoid it looking non-standard.
I couldn't care less if it idles like crap, it's not a road car - but will the ecu be constantly logging codes, or can I just effectively disable IAC movement so the ECU never notices it's missing?
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Holden202T
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Re: another Alfa Romeo conversion

Post by Holden202T »

i don't think it will run too badly without it, but another option is to use the IAC in a vaccum hose into the manifold, but it would mean making a mounting block for it
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festy
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Re: another Alfa Romeo conversion

Post by festy »

Yeah, I suppose I could hide the IAC away under the manifold out of sight, hadn't thought about retrofitting it.
But if I can do without it, I probably will.
BradGTV
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Re: another Alfa Romeo conversion

Post by BradGTV »

hi,
good to see another alfa conversion underway! nice car btw, good offset wheels aswel, just needs to be lowerd a bit ;) is that the only alfa you have?
if you really get stuck with the inlet manifold, ditch the spider one and install a je camira inlet manifold, this would give you the o-ring injectors and an option for a iac!
will you be going with a distributer or wasted spark ignition?
in the next week i will machine a spair pulley, to get rid of the aircon belts, and make up a crank trigger wheel and bolt it to the pulley , if your interested i can make x2 ? would make ur install alot easier as you can simpley 'bolt it on'.
cheers,
brad
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festy
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Re: another Alfa Romeo conversion

Post by festy »

BradGTV wrote:hi,
good to see another alfa conversion underway! nice car btw, good offset wheels aswel, just needs to be lowerd a bit ;) is that the only alfa you have?
No, there's another lurking in the shed next to it.
Image
Image
Those are old photos though, it hasn't been driven in about 10 years :(
You'll notice that those wheels in the other photo actually belong to this car, they were only on the track car temporarily - I normally run a set of 16x7s - hence why with 14" wheels it looks too tall.
BradGTV wrote: if you really get stuck with the inlet manifold, ditch the spider one and install a je camira inlet manifold, this would give you the o-ring injectors and an option for a iac!
It's not that I'm stuck - I've got an o-ring fuel rail almost ready to go, it's just that I'd really like to keep it looking completely stock, considering that the group 5s regs were amended a couple of years ago to now allow OEM efi vehicles.
If I end up having to run o-ring injectors, I'm toying with the idea of making up a cast aluminium rail, it'd look right at home with that plenum ;)
BradGTV wrote: will you be going with a distributer or wasted spark ignition?
I'll be sticking with the Bosch electronic distributor setup initially, but plan b would necessitate it's removal so I'll be making preparations for DIS should I need it in the future.
BradGTV wrote: in the next week i will machine a spair pulley, to get rid of the aircon belts, and make up a crank trigger wheel and bolt it to the pulley , if your interested i can make x2 ? would make ur install alot easier as you can simpley 'bolt it on'.
cheers,
brad
Thanks for the offer, but I've already got the trigger wheel sorted... I think, I haven't tested it yet.
If I give up on trying to keep it all looking original, plan B will involve machining up a new crankshaft pulley to accommodate a small blower.
Then again, maybe I could convince the scrutineers that it's just a big air conditioner compressor? It does get awful hot in italy, after all :shh:
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