Alfa Romeo Spider 3.7L 24V V6 Build

[street]

Spider Weighs In

Been THRASHING the Spider over the past 3 days and testing all the gear. The suspension issue has been solved, corrected and now being fine-tuned to perfection. Springs on the coilovers are just on the verge of being too soft, but they are now working very well - compliant, smooth and supportive.

Just wrapped up tonight's beating and swung by my Bro's scales. With a full tank, she comes in at 2755 (1250 kg). With stock being 2500, the Spider is only 250 more than that with over 3 times the power. Now, a lot have requested the weight and I always make a point of informing them that the Spider was built with no real consideration to weight.



I added what I wanted and whatever it came to, that was that. In the future, I will shave it bit down here and there if I see the need for it. But for now, the only area that will see reduction is in the doors. More specifically, the window regulators and their wiring.

Went into the city earlier and what can I tell you about that? It was very eventful. We were even forced to stop in the middle of the road while some whipped out their iphones to take a few shots, then let us pass!!

Too funny!!

I can't even begin to describe the sound that comes on when I roll 2nd from 2500-6500...the cams, the ITB's, the exhaust...MAN!! Then do it all over again for third and forth?? Understand this, THIS is what I built her for. She looks just as mean as she sounds and performs. All the thumbs up and straight up respect I get on the road and at gas stations is beyond what I could ever of been prepared for.



This one guy even got out of his car when he caught up to me at a light, put both his arms up in the air and bowed!! He then said, "I would kill to hear that again. You built that? Guy, you matched the body with the perfect sound!!"



street

[SD202]

Im very glad i spent my morning reading through all 26 pages of your build thread. The work is like many have stated simply amazing. The attention to details is great ! i love it and the sound purs like a lion. but growls like a panther. rofl

[street]

Reply.

Im very glad i spent my morning reading through all 26 pages of your build thread. The work is like many have stated simply amazing. The attention to details is great ! i love it and the sound purs like a lion. but growls like a panther. rofl

Thanks SD202! I appreciate your time spent going through it all. I knew that when I first heard that engine, I HAD to make the lines echo that visually. No sleeper concept here. Sounds, Looks. Performs. Period.

street

[street]

Update.

I was testing yet again the other night and rolled over one nasty dip. One section of the undertray took the hit and bent one of the support brackets so that the tray was rubbing the ground. So I quickly pulled over as my cameras relayed to me that smoke was coming out from between the doors and the undertray.

Yikes.

So I hit the kill switch to shut her down. After a few seconds the smoke cleared and I dove down to find the source. My GF was with me and jumped out to direct traffic as I pushed her closer to the curb for further inspection. It was dark so I couldn't really tell where the issue was. I then checked the bay and found a bit of smoke there too. But not much.

Anyway, I didn't want to take any chances, so I called a tow and got her back to the warehouse. It was really late at this point, so decided to get into this the next day.



12 hours later I was at the warehouse trying to determine where the source was and what was burning. I found oil on the passenger side headers and after a lot of searching I found the culprit - the old cam sensor port for the old Bosch system was loose and leaking oil. This oil sensor port is directly above the passenger side headers and some oil had leaked out and poofed up from the jolt like a face full of celebration!! The allen bolt that holds that port closed needed about 10 turns to close. Now I know why I have seen some smoke prior in the headlamps. Well, it's now tightened and cleaned up.



I also rough sectioned the Spider's pan for a bit more clearance and then smoothed the line.



After that she was right back at it for yet even more harder testing tonight. Oh, who am I kidding? At this point it's all flossin, as my Bro Montano says!!

Came in late again tonight and she is back in perfect form. I even tossed the plenums for a quick part of the run for her to yell her return in one day flat. No more smoke as for the first time the headlamps were clear. You can't keep the Spider down. Hell no.



street

[street]

Spider Gets Street-Tuned!!

Met with the Spider's tuner, Tony today to complete Pt.2 of the tuning for the 2012 season - street tuning. I have been waiting and working so hard to get her ready for this appointment since the initial tune - upgraded rad and fan, beaded and tested brakes, adjust the rear suspension, pull the rear fenders, change all fluids again, alignment and so on. All this had to be addressed first so that I could push the Spider with confidence during the street tune assessment. With the Spider now pretty much dialed in, I arrived at Tony's shop and he went straight to work remapping the load cells to smooth out the air/fuel ratios and overall power band.

See, we were running far too rich and it needed to be tweaked to improve the driveability and reduce the jerkiness as low speed associated with the Spider's very sensitive ITB set-up. With those checks in order, fuel economy was also drastically improved. Good. Cause I'm not always near 94!!! And yes, I do carry a jerry-can in the trunk as standard Spider equipment!!

Oh, and speaking of standard equipment, this is the Spider tool kit - a sleek attache case that sits right between and behind the seats. Inside is basically everything I could need to fix most problems. Wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers, allen keys, ect.



Once Tony was finished with the tweaks on his laptop, we headed out for a run to check the feel and numbers. Damn. She is so smooth now, it's unbelievable. Sounds even meaner as well. Complete with all the lean-pops you could ever want from a motor like this. The cams and ITB'S just mesh so well that they must make their presence felt. As soon as I let off the gas, mostly in gear 1 through 3, the over-run sounds give way to one hellish lean pop sessions I have even witnessed.

Just how noticeable? Well, into the night I rolled with my Bro Montano again and we were blazing down a street that has heavy nightclub action. At one of the intersections we were approaching, I was coming in hard in second at about 5500 rpm. I let off and braked for the light when I spotted 3-4 5.0 on foot, hanging out at the intersection keeping an eye on the traffic.

I thought to myself, yup, here we go...

As I was sitting at the light to make my left, I could see 2 of the cops making a beeline for the Spider before I made my left. Did I have to turn around? Nope. I saw them coming a mile away from the driver's side monitor. My Bro Montano was just laughing cause he just pointed to the monitor and said, "Bro, we've got company comin'!!"

So one of the 5.0 says, "Sir, It seems like you have a problem with your exhaust, You should look into fixing it asap."

I said, "Actually, it's built to sound that way, you see the camshafts have this overlap that when....

Then the cop interrupts me and says, "Ok, ok, I get it....just get some lights on your rear tag, OK"

Then the other cop could give a shit. He just kept asking about the car. With special attention to the monitors.

"What's that?", he says.

"Monitors that eliminate all my blind spots", I say.

"Cool! Love the car man!" And he walks away.

After that we rolled by one of my Bros that was doing security at a club and another that works at a hotel. All within the downtown core. It was an awesome night for flossin!! Warm 28 degrees and not a cloud in the night sky. We lit up the road with some sparks while the 3.7 made it sound like it was prime-time on the Gaza Strip!!

Then we kicked in a few high speed highway runs and called it a night. Only issue of the night was an overheated starter relay. Which I guess got too hot since we did go on a slow roll for about a half hour without any real significant reduction in bay heat. That being the case, when we were at my Bro's hotel earlier, she would not re-fire. So I went inside the hotel and got a bag of ice to wrap the relay with. 10 minutes later, she lit up and we were on our way. Quick fix? Upgrade that relay and relocate it into the cabin. Thanks to my Bro Short for always taking my calls. He was right there to give me further options to get her re-fired if the ice was not the answer. Respect Bro.

All in all, a very fun night filled with nasty over-runs, deafening tunnel passes, Beirut gunfire from the cams and breakin' necks and gettin' props EVERYWHERE!!!

Oh, see this shot here of the Spider at Tony's? Something is missing. I'll save that story for another day!!



street

[Rubens]

We def need a video coming in shortly of a tunnel pass.. Otherwise no guarantees for what I'll do to you hahah

[o13b]

Oh, see this shot here of the Spider at Tony's? Something is missing. I'll save that story for another day!!



street

The diffuser strakes? Or the center piece of the exhaust?
Your MR2 as well?

[street]

Replys.

We def need a video coming in shortly of a tunnel pass.. Otherwise no guarantees for what I'll do to you hahah

HAHA! I will do what I can. Soon.

street

The diffuser strakes? Or the center piece of the exhaust?
Your MR2 as well?

Yes the strakes. I returned to the warehouse and only then noticed that one had ripped off. Turns out it only had 3 of the 6 required screws into it for some odd reason. I re-traced my drive and came up empty handed.

No worries. I know where I can get a stock replacement. Within a couple hours, I can have it modified and replaced. So for now, I removed the inside passenger one and will run two strakes till then.

street

[street]

Spider Stays Ahead Of The Curve!!

The streets have spoken and the Spider is a major hit!! Just the other day I was waiting curbside for my GF that was in the bank. All of a sudden this guy rolls by and screems,

"Holy Sh*t! Guy! I have your Alfa on my Tumblr account and set as my wallpaper!!"

He then reaches for his Ipad to show me!!



In other news, Lambo is now just coming to the table with side cameras?? C'mon Lambo. Team Spider implemented that concept over 3.5 years ago!!



Meanwhile in Pebble Beach a few days ago...





Skip all the Pebble Beach BS and clip to 4:29-4:50




street

[street]

Spot The Lows/Fabrication/Lines/Tweaks

Getting in some more high-temp street testing as the other day I ran into a re-firing issue. The problem was an overheated starter relay. So I extended the wires and brought it inside the cabin. No more issues.

Just as I was wrapping up that test, the Spider rolled up upon an unsuspecting stock S4.



street

[street]

Spider Cam (Front)

I decided to play around with a couple angles today with the vid cam and found a spot aiming at both the front and rear tires. I started up front and what was going to be a cool vid, was soon marred by a damn bug!! To top it off, it happened right at the beginning of the vid!! Only then when I finished the run, did I see guts all over the lens!!!

Guess I'll have to shoot another one! Wait. That's a good thing!!

Ready to go!!



Splat!!



street

[street]

Spider Cam (Rear)

I was short on time, so I turned the cam around and quickly shot the rear. The vid is much shorter as I wanted to just get a sense of the angles of what works best. I believe an improvement would be to extend the cam a bit more from the Spider and angle it towards the tire to see more of the inside wheel.

The sound turned out better than the front as the wind was not buffeting the mic as much.

At any rate, YouTube is cooking that vid now and I'll post it up when I have time. For now, here's a screen grab of the angle.



street

[street]

Spider Cam (Rear)

It's a short clip to better illustrate the Spider's 3.7L. Shooting backwards definitely has less mic buffeting and allows the sound to translate closer to what it actually sounds like. I am going to continue to refine the video process in future vids, so stay tuned.

For now, three words;

TURN IT UP!!!

And as always, for God's sake, watch it in 1080p HD.

street

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mEROvAGJdA&feature=plcp"]Alfa Romeo Spider - 3.7L 24V V6 Part 10 - Short Mid-Range Throttle Test Run - YouTube[/ame]

[aeion]

Edit...love the build man. This car is absolutely a work of art in every way.

[soulfly]

Idk what I'm looking at but god damn it's bad ass ^__^