giulietta sprint – Giuliettas

August 1, 2012

Heater part 2: Heater valve 1493.54.709 and control cable 1488.31.723

Last installment we looked at the heat exchanger box itself, this time I’ll focus on the bits that hook it up and control the incoming hot water: the heater valve and the push/pull cable that controls the valve. The first generation of Sprint’s had a heater valve (1483.54.711) that looked not far removed from a garden tap and you actually had to pop the hood and get out to turn on the flow of hot water to the heater core (if you didn’t realize you were going to want heat before you started out). At some point this was deemed a little old fashioned so a cable operated valve was put to use -cousins of which can be found on Alfa’s for many years to follow.

Valve failure mode(s): hardening of rubber diverter seal, oxidation leading to through pits or breakage, loss.

Control cable failure mode(s): still/difficult operation, cable breakage/cut leading to too short, loss.

The current state of the parts supply has:

The early style heater valve available in reproduction from most sources that service Giulietta’s.
Diaphragm seals available to rebuild original 1493.54.709 heater valves.
Replacement valves that with a little rework will work in place of 1493.54.709.

1493.54.709 with new diaphragm seal installed. Like all rubber things, it just got hard and cracked after 50+ years. The inner plateau seals against the port in the valve body, keeping the water out of the core when not wanted, the outer ring seals to the body to keep it from leaking when it’s open.

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November 12, 2008

Market #58: Very Rough incomplete 56 Sprint

Update 12/2/08: This car reached $3650 with 24 bidders before ending reserve not met. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of this car. As I mentioned before, I am interested in it, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger yesterday while looking at those floors, knowing I have been too chicken to go for it on my SS that doesn’t need this much.

Update 11/25/08: This car is now on eBay. A trunk lid (courtesy of me) and rear glass have been added along with more detailed pictures of the floor and trunk rust. A project for the brave. Opening bid is a realistic $1956 compared to the $6950 asking that was lowered to $5950 when it was on CL. Original engine number for this car was 1315*03053. I may actually bid on this thing.

Giulietta Sprint AR 1493*03146, Engine 1315*40174. This car is available now on Craigslist out of Newport Beach from Fastcars of California. According to Fusi this car was made late in 1956 and the engine came in an early 1956 Spider. These early column shift Sprints don’t come up for sale often and it is doubtful many were made.

This car is likely to define the bottom of the market for early Giulietta Sprints. I’ve seen worse cars being tackled by enthusiasts but those cars are usually purchased for very little money so the first resurrection phase brings their investment up to about this cars starting asking price.

Tusk style bumperettes are odd and give the car a less than sporty makeover. All in all the trim is there and not too bad but the shape of the front looks to me like it has been pushed in a little.

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November 8, 2008

Giulietta Sprint 101 1300 Engine rebuild part 2: depths have been plumbed and the ascent begins.

I have a good honest tired accomplished feeling tonight. I spent about 5 hours on the bottom end of the 101 1300 engine that is going back in the Sprint and I got a lot done.

I brought the 1400 kit I bought along with the head to Glenn Oliveria, local Alfa engineer par excellence and driver of a neat column shift 750 series Giulietta Sprint race car, to get some advise. He measured a few things, thought about it and decided the head had been milled .040″ already and would require a .010″ skim, in addition to a valve job, to be ready for action. He explained what was involved to use the 1400 kit, chamfering the head, measuring valve to piston top clearance, measuring tdc combustion chamber volumes to calculate compression and balance the compression across all 4 cylinders. Oh, and peening the rods might not be a bad idea. Long story short, a $1000+ machining bill would be paid to make the 1400 kit work so I am going to go stock 1300cc 9.1 to 1 compression ratio piston liner set for the Giulietta Sprint.

These holes are about 2 inches deep. When I first started cleaning this up they were barely visible. Lots of crud had gotten in here over the years. I used a drill bit to help auger it out then washed them out. Nice and clean now.
Continue reading “Giulietta Sprint 101 1300 Engine rebuild part 2: depths have been plumbed and the ascent begins.”