Those are diesels, right Fred? Could we get some specs on the engine and drivetrain?

Jim

Check out:

http://www.alfaromeo.com/com/#/models/159sw

200hp turbo petrol
134hp turbo diesel

M.

The 170 hp turbo-diesel looks interesting...

Jim

How about a "Tata" air motor with 1-2 aditional cylinders running on CNG ? This would give more than 165 mi. driving range, "little footprint" and like this forum, won't run out of air, there, I'm exhausted. Cheers, roverman.

All of my experience is with the 170hp 1.9 diesel and 6 speed trans.
With nearly 300 ftlbs. of torque these things pull like freight trains.
I hear that the 2.0 doesn't rev as nicely, but I'll let you know soon. I have rented a Giulietta for the next trip.

Cheers
Fred

So I think while you're over there you should ship back an engine and tranny out of one of these. I'm sure we can figure out something to do with it...

Did you mention a mpg figure?

Jim

A little outdated, but some decent info on camless engins.

http://autospeed.com/cms/A_0910/article.html?popularArticle

I like this exercise, but I suspect is better suited for "slide valve" applications. They could be much lighter than poppets and no  crashing on the seats. Slide valves should work well on a "headless/opposed piston design with laser ignition". Onward, roverman.

All diesel engines are direct injected and have been for the last 25 years. All of the cars coming out of Korea are direct injected and the mazda Skyactive 3 is direct injected/turbocharged with 14 to 1 compression on 87 octane fuel. It is the direct injection that allows them to use regular fuel without devastating detonation.

There may be a VW engine in our future. If all goes according to plan we will be trailering home a wrecked '04 vw station wagon donor this friday. Now the '04 is a common rail engine so it uses electrical injectors.  These appear to be 3 stage peak-and-hold types so even a MegaSquirt-3 controller falls a little short at this point. The vw harness will be needed. Meaning the oem immobilizer will be in play.

This seems to be an increasingly common thread when considering the newer engines. Was a time when a battery cable and an ignition wire were about all you needed. The older diesels are still attractive for a similar reason. These newer ones are a whole different game.

Jim

Jim B., You are always doing things the hard way! If anyone can do it you can! Check out this Common Rail wiring harness:

PerhapsI should show that to Matthew before Friday!
On the plus side, if we pull this off by the end he will have picked up knowledge that it took me decades to acquire.
And no doubt will learn something about patience. If I can pass those things along then in my book it is a win. Even if it never gets finished for some reason. But farbetter if it does.

Jim