Hi:
Saw some notes in the Alpines Digest talking about super / turbo charging
the Alpine engine.
Looked into this a long time back when I was racing a late model Series V
1725. The bottom end of this engine is quite good. The problem with
increasing the compression on this engine is blow-by to either the water
jacket ports or less likely the adjacent cylinder. The distance between the
cylinder and the water jacket ports on the head is very small. Overcoming
this problem takes a fair bit of work on the head to add metal to the water
jacket ports thereby providing some room to mill a grove and install a
copper compression ring around the cylinder. Relying on the original gasket
to prevent blow-by under hi-compression is not recommended.
At the time (1977 - 1980) the engine was configured with 13.5:1 compression,
dual DCOE40's and ran on aviation gas. It was a screamer! Later (1981) I
de-tuned the engine, installed it in a Series IV GT automatic and ran it as
an every-day street motor for some 5 years. I drive the GT automatic very
infrequently and it is clear that the motor needs work - future project...
Nevertheless the engine has a great heart and has been quite reliable.
I will be interested to learn if anyone has successfully super / turbo
charged the engine and what mods they made to make the engine reliable.
Smiles,
Wayne
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