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Alfa Romeo 33 16V by Lucio Cadeddu (webmaster)

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The 33 16V has been the most powerful 33 ever made. The glorious Boxer 1712 cc was equipped with 4 valves per cylinder back in 1990.
You may want to take a look at the impressive specs.
I own that car and know HER pretty well. My 16V is mostly stock. Here are some mods I've made:

Impressions on these mods

Pros and cons

Pros

Dudes, this car's FAST. Scary fast. Acceleration is brutal and it's very difficult to avoid the front tires spinning all the time during acceleration or when shifting to 2nd or to 3rd gear.
Also, even if the powered steering dampens the violent reactions of the wheels, it is difficult to hold a straight line when accelerating in 1st gear.
Things can become difficult if you decide to test acceleration during a slow turn.
For the first seconds the car violently understeers and when you lift the accelerator a bit the rear end reacts turning understeer into an almost unpredictable oversteer.
So you need to KNOW exactly WHEN and HOW MUCH countersteer to avoid the car escaping from your hands literally.

Stock shocks are a little bit on the soft side, given the power, and so I decided to stiffen them a bit working on the oil ports of the shocks.
This way the reactions of the car are more violent but even more controllable and during acceleration the front wheels stay almost glued to the road.

Despite the fact that this engine likes high rpms (max power at 6600) it is still possible to run at 1200 rpm in 5th gear for smooth urban driving.
If you don't press the accelerator too hard it is possible to accelerate smootly from 40-50 kph (27-30 mph).

The 33 16V is a bit like Dr.Jekill and Mr.Hyde:
below 3500 rpm it's almost a family car, smooth and easy to drive. Fuel consumption can be pretty low if you keep your right foot *quiet*.
When you push the car harder, over 4500 (till 7000), the quiet comfy car becomes a wild beast, roars and accelerates better than many sporting 2.0s.
It seems like there's a turbocharger waiting to pump air into the engine *on demand*.
I have so much fun with friends when they go out with me (and my car) for the first time.
I usually drive smooth for a while, playing some easy-listening CD, then I press the accelerator and in a fraction of second the quiet trip becomes an adrenaline-raiser joy.

Another pro of this engine is its sound.
The boxer engines have a family sound that makes very easy to detect a 33 among traffic. The 1.7 16V has even a more distinctive racey note that becomes a *wild roar* once you exceed 4500 rpm.

The luggage compartment is one of the things I prefer most. Spacious, easy to access and HUGE if you want it to be (ie rear seats full down).

Cons

Well, after all it's an Alfa so it MUST have some drawbacks. Here are some:
The 2nd gear syncro. Noisy and very weak. Let me add that shifting is not all that good. Sometimes gears are HARD to select and even noisy.
The brakes. Simply put the brakes are not well suited for this car. They're very prone to fading and emergency stops are a little bit intimidating. For this reason I've decided to change everyhing: discs, pads and tubes.
Turning circle. Parking a 33 like it was a common car can be somewhat challenging. The turning circle is definitely TOO WIDE and you need to make several manouvers before parking the car in a narrow place.
Driving position and interiors. The pedals are definitely too near each other so, to make things even worse I decided to mount Momo racing pedals (wider)...
Then it is almost impossible to assume an ideal driving position. When your arms are comfy (flexed) your knees are almost hitting the dashbord and when your legs are comfy (streched) your arms are too far from the steering wheel.
Also, 2nd rear mirror (other than the driving side one) is almost a must due to the fact that the rear view, using the central rear mirror, is seriously affected by the geometry of the car.
There's no much space for documents, maps, CDs or cassettes into the dashbord.
I've been able to put 12 CDs into it using a special bag with inner sleeves.
The water pump and the powered steering pump. These are two devices very prone to fast aging and can become noisy pretty soon. It seems the powered steering pump is noisy *by default* in the 33s.
Engine. The idle is somewhat erratic and it varies from 1100 to 800 rpm. For the 33 16V without cat it SHOULD be 900, slightly more for the catalyzed version.
Given the fact this engine has a double personality, accelerations in 5th gear starting from 70 kph (48 mph) are a bit lazy. At those speeds the engine is turning at 2500 rpm, very far from the *max torque* zone (4500 rpm). Standard tests 70-120 kph (48-80 mph) give a still respectable 17,2 secs but many turbocharged cars in the same category can do much better. For this reason accelerating from 130/140 kph (90 mph) is far more exciting being the car far more responsive and lively. You can reach 200 kph (135 mph) before you can realize what's happening...

Impressions on the mods I've made

Brakes.
Everything has improved: efficiency, fading resistance and *feel*.
As a first step I'd advice changing the brakes hoses (tubes) with teflon-stainless steel ones.
The feeling at the pedal greatly improves and the free-play almost disappears giving you a smooth and progressive action.
Rotors and pads should be changed at the same time.
Braking efficiency is somehing you never have enough, given that the 33 16V easily exceeds 200 kph (130 mph). Hi-tech rotors and racing pads are the only way to go.
Exhaust.
The Supersprint exhaust is a piece of art. It is HUGE and with a lovely burble note that adds something to the beatiful sound of the 16V boxer engine.
I've noticed a clear increase of torque, and a slight increase of power. You should expect to get 5 or 6 more hps from this mod.
A dyno-test is soon to come.
Air filter.
The Kingdragon filter is very similar to the well-known K&N, that is oil-impregnated cotton. Lab test showed the Kingdragon slightly more air-permeable than the K&N, for what that matters.
The effect of the filter, installed before the exhaust, is clear:
it speeds up throttle response and give a slight plus of torque. The sound of the engine becomes more *racey* too.
Plugs.
I've used Bosch tri-pinned plugs on my car ever since.
Then I've decided to push the envelope a little bit harder installing the plugs which are considered among the best available in the market: the TorqueMaster's.
These spark plugs use a kind of *field effect* to get better spark exposure.
I've found these plugs to work quite well with my engine, at least they weren't worse than the stock ones :-)
Jokes aside, I've noticed a slightly more regular idle and a slightly better mileage but I haven't noticed any power or torque increase, clearly the previous plugs were working quite well (and were brand new).
I'd like to point out that I've not dyno-tested the car after this *tuning* so I can't say that the overall power or torque figures haven't increased (or decreased): by now I'm just reporting my *throttle feelings* and, as you may argue, it is way difficult to tell the difference that one or two extra hps may have on performance, especially if your car is already pretty fast. Can you tell the difference of a tenth of a second while accelearating from 0 to 60 mph ? I can't.
I believe, but I may be dead wrong, that in order to *tell* the difference you need at least 5 or 6 extra hps, everything else is just hype.
Another big *plus* of these plugs is that they are designed to last for many thousand miles, without any need to brush'n'clean 'em.

Conclusions

He who buys a 33 16V should know what to expect from this car: lightning fast accelerations, violent reactions and adrenalined driving.
It can still be a quite comfy car for long trips since it is not particularly noisy at standard highway speeds.
After all it's an Alfa: a great engine into a pure_fun package.

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Copyright © 1997 Lucio Cadeddu

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