My 16 year old grandson recently bought a '79 Spider with SPICA fuel injection. We changed the oil the day we took it off the trailer. The car seemed to be running rich but had good oil pressure. We put about 300 miles on it and changed the oil again. After about 50 miles I noticed less oil pressure. At about 75 miles the car shut off at a stop signal. I checked the oil and found it contained gas. I drove it about 2 miles to a garage. The oil in the crankcase contained so much gas it was flammable. The mechanic says it cannot be the fuel pump because it delivers gas at too low a pressure to cause the problem. There is no indication that the head is cracked and no oil leaks. Are there any repair manuals that might address how gas would get into the oil? Any suggestions?Any experience with gas in oil? SPICA fuel injection. 79 Alfa Romeo Spider.?
I wasn't familiar with the SPICA system, so I looked it up and found a good description in the first source. This has some great info, and a warning that pretty nearly every original fuel pump has failed and the rest are due at any time. It even gives some ways to go with it.
Apparently the mechanical injection system uses a fuel pump and regulator arrangement similar to that used by modern fuel injectors but operating around 10-15 psi. The puzzling part is that none of the fuel path goes to the engine until it goes to the injectors.
What I'm not seeing is the connection between the injector pump and the engine. If the pump is actually mounted so there is a geared connection between the two that must be where the gas is flowing. If not I am stumped.
