Carlo

They are called "Roma" so far I know. And they seem to be made from unobtainium. 8x18 ET38 5x98 225/40-18 Because of the high ET I needed 15mm spacers up front for looks AND to clear the Brembo's (so I end up with effectively ET23, the same as Sienna's with 5mm Spacer). On the rear I use 20mm spacers (=>ET18). I have seen four sets till now, all on Dutch cars, two on 156's, one on a GTV and one set I stumbled over in a shed on a breakers yard.. That last set is mine now, the only set I have seen in real life till now. Good possible that my set was on one of the cars I saw on the net.

Did some 3000km to southern France in August. No cooling issues with the FMIC setup in combination with 1x 15" SPAL Fan (instead of 2x 10" OEM Fan) a standard 34mm radiator and airconditioning "ON" @ 30 Degrees Celsius. Also slow driving and much power on mountain passes. So... as expected.. no need for fancy alloy radiators and the removal of the airconditioning. Only a temperature controlled fan on the oil cooler would be not a bad idea: I think oil-cooling performance is next to nothing when driving slowly..

Coincedence; I have exactly the same intercooler on my TB.. but didn't cut away anything from the crossmember. I used 54mm silicone hses and 55mm stainless steel piping. This is a bit bigger I see. He also kept the original radiator and airconditoner like me. What turbo is on it? Mine is running on 1,2 bar but I can't go higher than 5500rpm because from that point it is going to run lean because of the original MotorManagement and injectors. The Squadra Chips help a bit to give more fuel I guess.. but still not enough, the injectors run out of flow at 5500rpm so it will have +/-220-240hp @ 5500rpm I guess. When the rpm can go up the horses will go up accordingly..

Last week I fitted Eibach -20mm springs @ the front: - in reality -30mm - looks are great /perfect now! - ride is a total dissapointment!

Thanks guys, Speed tested @ 200km/h

Back from snowboarding in Austria... And about 2000km mostly Autobahn later (mostly left lane ), the TB did a great job! Speeds mainly between 130-160km/h and just 1L fuel for every 10kms. I think that is not bad at all for a 23 year old car...

Unfortunately there was a very strong drone on low revs till 3000 with the new exhaust setup which was unbareable. So last weekend I made a variant of a Helmholtz resonator which is adjustable in volume to see what gives best results... Right at the start it was MUCH beter!! Next is to play with the volume of the resonance chamber. ☺

Soundcheck was not good possible yet.. Car is still on my carlift.. But it sounded not super loud (fortunately). Material is Stainless steel 304 (what else? )

The Roma 8x18 rims are on.. this weekend started on the 4x70mm Ragazzon.. almost finished..

Cosmetics..

The wideband lambda tells me that it is running lean at high revs (around 6000rpm). With normal driving it runs perfectly lambda 1 (well..14.8 instead of 14.7, just a little lean or a small fault in the measurement). Full boost till 5000/5500 is good at AFR 12, after that it starts to lean out via 13 @ 6000 and 15 @ 6500. (12 to 12.5 is good for full throttle). First thing is to change fuel filter.. Maybe it makes a difference.. and I want to change it anyway. ☺ After that the original MM has to make place for the MS2. First thing is installing the EGT probes. The bungs are already welded in just after the manifolds.

Last weekend I connected the boost control solenoid again. Measured the boost before and after: 0,4bar vs 1,2bar @ 6400rpm! It was running wel.. but now.. Reallyyy a lot of power! But well... common sence tells me it shouldn't give more power than the original setup: Original motor management, injectors and Squadra chips. This weekend I connect my TechEdge lambda controller to see what the AFR is.

In my case it looks like it was only the AlfaCode... The connectors on the yellow box I think. It works perfectly again... but still fingers crossed.. In my TB on the location above the right front wheel there are only relais for the cooling fans and airco.

Well... After Christmas I went for a trip to Belgium with my girlfriend... First stop was the local fuel station... After filling up the Alfa Code light didn't go off anymore => dead engine... Fortunately my girl said to me: "Esta la vida!" :-) Left the TB at the fuel station and took the 156 from my dad and there we go.. When I came back two days later it just started right away.. Took it back home and left it there for some days.. Checking de Code light a couple of times but now the light didnt go off.. Next weekend tried again.. yes! Let's go for a ride. Sunday it started too, so went straight to my garage for checking the connection of the Alfa Code related stuf (antenna and yellow box). Checked all, found nothing wrong.. Put some contact spray on the connectors and well... all keeps on working now... Now building up some statistics: making contact in the morning, afternoon and evening and see if the light goes off. Result after 5days = 100%

Ah, yes! It is with a V not U. APK has basically the same effect I think.. But also: some people need to be protected against their ignorance..

In the UK it is called MOT and in Spain it is ITV. Here in The Netherlands it is APK. It is a anual technical test for safety and environmental crap.

Yeah! New MOT is on the TB! First time in 9 (nine) years! First 200km are done.. It drives veryyy well.. For now the waste gate is directly connected without the Pierburgh valve. So boost will be 0,5bar or so. But still it is very strong en smooth.

Unfortunately the downpipe + rest of exhaust has to be on for use on the street!

Well... it is alive! https://youtu.be/PGTXnkCVECk Here a video without downpipe (now fitted).. Did some testing on the industrial area where my Man-Cave is on low boost (wastegate for now directly connected to boost after intercooler). The waste gate is fully open @ 0,5bar. Low boost for now because I am running the standard motormanagement with Squadra chips which are made for a standard engine setup. I mentioned that the boost comes in at the same or even a bit earlier than the original turbo (2400-2500rpm). Below that rpm the engine is happy pulling as well. Because of the low boost the engine behaves like a bigger non turbo engine, without a big push in the back. I pulled full throttle till 5500 or so. No strange behaviour because of the mods (bigger turbo, downpipe and intercooler). Need some finishing this weekend and than next week hopefully going for a fresh MOT.

Well... the one I have now is a new OEM one, the thick version. Should be enough I guess..... I put also some effort in it to make sure the air wich enters the bumper intake actualy goes thru the radiator, sealed all around. Also drilled the crossmember in front of it. And kept the airconditioner..

@kunev Airco is still there. I put the lower part a little backwards like 2cm. Bumper has to be cut and all further plastic parts didnt fit anymore. Made some new stuff out of aluminium and pp (air duct to the radiator). You can see it on the picture. Also a SPAL 15" fan instead of the original twin fans because I used the 166TB headers and the front one needs more space.

Tha IC looks very "boxy"... not the most efficient one I guess. I think the pipes are bigger diameter than what I used. I used OD 55mm (ID 52mm) stainless and ID 54mm silicone which is the same as standard.

@Thanos The length of the pipes doesnt matter that much. And.. in fact the length is even less than the setup from the pictures you posted. I think they end up with more pipe length and a smaller and less efficient intercooler.

It is not realy big.. It is more that the original is realy small! 😄 The bigger the better (to some extend..). This one is 180mm high.. at some point I almost decided to drop this one and go for the 230mm version.. Next common sense came back again..just in time! 🤣 The cooling area is twice as big now and for the boosted air the area is also twice as big to run thru. So it means there is less drag for the boosted air and it stays twice as long in the intercooler (travels slower). It means this intercooler is in effect FOUR times bigger. AND in a much better position. ☺

Ready for the bumper to go on... ☺