With Spring upon us (we really didn't have a Winter here in the Northeast this year), it's time to look at a couple modest upgrades which won't take up several weekends to complete. No heads to pull, no transmissions to remove, no seized bolts to break off and curse at; nope, we're talking about relatively simple bolt-on upgrades, addressing the two most vital components of any internal combustion engine - spark and fuel delivery.
When I first learned of this product a few years ago, I was skeptical, to say the least. A set of spark plug wires claiming to increase horsepower? Surely this was a gimmick product by a company which would disappear within a year or two I presumed. Three years later, Nology Engineering (http://www.nology.com / (800) 665-6491) appears to be not only surviving, but thriving, so further investigation was warranted.
To begin with, the Nology HotWires are more than just a set of heavy-duty replacement ignition wires; essentially, they are an ignition upgrade as well. Each wire contains an in-line capacitor which allows energy dispensed from the coil to accumulate in the capacitor until the voltage at each spark plug electrode reaches the ionization point. At that instant, the built-up electrical energy is released over a very short duration, creating a more powerful and precise spark. If you'll remember from physics class, power is a function of energy over time, so it would seem the Nology concept of a more powerful spark delivered over a shorter time interval is sound. But does it work in the real world, you ask?
First, it would (of course) be necessary to remove the old wires and install the new ones. On the Alfa 164, this is more challenging than most cars since the intake plenum blocks easy access to the 1-2-3 bank of plugs. Rest assured however, the wires can be removed without removing the plenum - a pair of pliers may be helpful. To eliminate any possibility of mis-connecting the new wires, I would suggest installing one wire at a time, shortest wires first. Since the HotWires use an angled boot, you will find it more natural to route the wires along the top of the cam cover rather than the "up, over, and down" approach the factory wires navigate. The factory wire guides will not work with the Nology wires (due to size and location), so you'll probably want to use some nylon wire wraps to keep things neat. Also, be sure to install the ground strap included with each wire to either an intake plenum or cam cover bolt.
Upon starting the car with the newly installed Nology HotWires, there was a noticeable difference, even in just the cold idle performance - it seemed smoother and less laborious. Under part-throttle driving, the motor felt more willing to rev and in need of less throttle for the same amount of acceleration. Overall, the drive-ability of the car has been improved enough to easily justify the additional expense (vs. stock) of these wires, especially if your 8-year old original wires are due for replacement.
But wait, there's more! Ever since re-installing the motor back in my car, I've known I had a minor exhaust leak ahead of the O2 sensor (causing a somewhat overly rich mixture) which I planned on fixing when I installed the Stebro headers latter this Spring. Unfortunately, I had to get my car inspected in the mean time, which includes emissions output testing here in New Jersey. On my first attempt, the 164 was promptly failed with a hydrocarbon output of 356 ppm. Doing nothing other than installing the HotWires, I returned to the inspection station the following day and promptly passed with a reading of 173 ppm; a reduction of over 50%! Frankly, this is still too high, but the known problem will be attended to shortly. However, I feel this helped to demonstrate that the Nology wires were, in fact, enabling the generation of cleaner, and more efficient power (also evidenced by my 5% increase in fuel mileage).
Despite any number of filters which fuel passes through before entering the combustion chambers of the venerable V6, wax and/or varnish can build up on the fuel injectors over time. If you've ever seen what these hardened deposits look like, you know that a bottle of "Brand X" injector cleaner will have a difficult time removing these deposits by itself. If left unattended, fuel flow and injector spray pattern can be negatively effected, resulting in driveability problems such as stumbling, uneven idle, hard starting, and loss of horsepower/fuel efficiency.
Fortunately, there is an answer to this potential problem. Marren Motor Sports (http://www.injector.com (203) 732-4565), has a great deal of expertise with racing modern fuel-injected vehicles, and that expertise has led them to develop a business involved with selling, cleaning and servicing fuel injectors. Before cleaning, the injectors are base-line tested for spray pattern and volume flow. Next, each injector is stripped down and ultrasonically cleaned and then tested to ensure that the volume flow of all the injectors falls within 4% of each other. Finally, Marren replaces the o-ring, cap, and in-line filter on each injector (included with the $23.75 cost per injector) before returning them to you within a day or two.
As you can see from the report shown below (supplied with every injector service), the before and after results on my six injectors were fairly obvious. There was an improvement in flow with every injector, some much more dramatic than others. The overall volume deviation between injectors shrank from 17.6% to 2%.
Removing the injectors from the motor is not a terribly difficult job to do, but whenever dealing with fuel it is important to proceed cautiously and have a fire extinguisher handy. The first step is quite important (unless you have some sort of masochistic desire to spray fuel into your eyes). Remove the fuel pump relay (driver's side, above radiator), and start the car. In short order, the motor will stop (it might not even start), indicating that the fuel pressure has been bled from the fuel rail. At this time, you can proceed with unbolting the fuel rails and disconnecting the rubber fuel lines. Incidentally, this would be a great time to replace these rubber lines as they are very prone to degradation (I still have some 4-ply blue silicon fuel line if anyone is interested). As the fuel rail is pulled upward, the injectors will likely stay with the rail and you can simply pull each one from the rail after removing the entire assembly from the motor.
With better fuel flow and a bigger spark to burn it, these two projects are a well-matched pair of projects for any fuel-injected vehicle. While they won't result in super-charger like performance improvements, they will result in small improvements which can be "bolted-on" over the weekend.