Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Any experience with gas in oil? SPICA fuel injection. 79 Alfa Romeo Spider.?

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 dont know that model at all but in general all systems only have a few ways to get fuel into the oil. First place would be if there is a mechanical fuel pump. A mechanical pump has some sort of connection to the internals of the engine so if there is an internal problem with the pump it could end up pumping fuel into the engine, it could also still be pumping enough to the rest of the system to keep running so you would not think to look there. Second place would be if there is some sort of fuel pressure regulator. Many fuel pressure regulators use manifold vacuum as a reference to set the pressure. If there is an internal problem with the regulator it could then let fuel get sucked direct into the intake. Same as the fuel pump it could still be delivering enough fuel to the rest of the system. Last place is from the injectors. The injectors could be leaking all the time or something could be wrong with the system and they are just being told to deliver too much fuel.



Dont drive it till you get it figured out. The fuel washes the oil off the internals so its like running with no oil. There was enough of those systems around it should not be too hard to find someone that knows them and how to work on them.Any experience with gas in oil? SPICA fuel injection. 79 Alfa Romeo Spider.?
This question is far from resolved. What you have is some guesses that are useless at best.

Use Google.

Look up Alfa Romeo in Atlanta.

Or, go directly to the source - Italian Motor Works.

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Any experience with gas in oil? SPICA fuel injection. 79 Alfa Romeo Spider.?
running rich dirty fuel system out of adjustment maybe choke sticking carburator needs rebuilding maybe