Balance Motor Works - not just a GarageBalance Motor Works - not just a Garage

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Brakes
  • Cambelt Change
  • Car Servicing & MOT in Sussex
  • Carbon Cleaning
  • Classic Cars
  • Clutch and Gearbox
  • DPF Problems?
  • Dry Ice Blasting
  • Engine Work & Rebuilds
  • Lanoguard Treatment in Sussex
  • Rust Repair & Chassis Restoration
  • Toyota
  • Vehicle Diagnostics & Electrics
  • Why visit BN5 9XH?
01273 915045

Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 JTS Carbon Clean

Julian
Thursday, 17 March 2022 / Published in Carbon Clean with Walnuts, Classic Cars

Alfa Romeo 156 2.0 JTS Carbon Clean

Alfa Romeo 2.0 JTS engine
The Alfa Romeo 2.0 JTS engine is a Direct Fuel Injection verson of the Twin Spark engine

The Alfa Romeo 156 is a stunning looking car, be it The original version designed by Walter De Silva, or the facelifted design as in this case, styled by Giugiaro. When it was released in 1997 Frankfurt Motor Show it was a sensation and went on to win the 1998 European Car of the Year award. The 156 became the 3rd best selling Alfa Romeo of all time, behind the 33 and the seminal Alfasud.

The glorious 156 GTA - picture from Wikipedia
The glorious 156 GTA with Alfa Busso 3.2 V6

The facelifted 156 brought a classic front end design that was continued in the later 159. Along with the facelift to the body shell, the 2.0 Twinspark was updated to become the 2.0 JTS (Jet Thrust Stoichiometric). This boosted torque from 138 lb⋅ft to 152 lb⋅ft and HP from 155HP to 165HP. This engine also featured in the shapely GT.

facelift-Giugiaro-156
Here’s our customers car – still sporting some of the Saharan sands that blew over recently

Unfortunately direct injection engines have a significant downside, because fuel is not injected into the intake port, carbon builds up in this area slowly strangling the engine’s performance.

This JTS engine had covered 130000 miles and was one of the most clogged up we’ve seen. Airflow readings suggested it was making around 120HP, in reality it felt like 100HP on the road.

Alfa JTS inlet valve before
Picture of Inlet Valves before cleaning

It wasn’t until we started the carbon cleaning with walnut shells, that we realise just how much carbon was in the port.

Alfa 156 JTS Inlet after initial walnut blast
Alfa 156 JTS Inlet after initial walnut blast – so clogged it’s filling the ports!

Doing this job was a bit like pushing mud uphill and took a good 6 hours of work to get rid of the build up. Not to mention many hours to remove and refit the manifold which involves loosening an engine mount to get clearance.

Alfa JTS inlet valve after walnut blast
As you can see we got there eventually – this picture shows the valves clean and ready to flow some air

The proof of any carbon clean is in the driving. We checked the Air Flow and it’s now moving 16.9 lb of air in a minute. You may wonder why lb min? Seems old fashioned? Well on pump fuel lb min is very useful as all you need to do it stick a zero on the end to estimate HP. So it seems that we’ve got all the original Ponies back in the stable. This car now feels genuinely rapid, albeit the gears are still long for emissions reasons, but it’s put the pep back and it fizzes like an Alfa should.

  • Tweet

What you can read next

FIAT Coupe 20v VIS – Lanoguard & Recommission
Porsche 911 993 Carrera – Quickshift and WEVO Engine Mounts
Alfa GT 2.0 JTS – Walnut Blast

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Toyota Avensis Estate Lanoguard

    A good solid reliable Toyota showing a fair bit...
  • Alfa Romeo Spider sill repair

    The original Alfa Romeo Spider was made famous ...
  • Honda S2000 – wheel refurbishment, welding and Lanoguard

    I’m not sure why the S2000 isn’t mo...
  • Ford Focus RS Lanoguard

    Like so many cars we see, this one looked great...
  • E36 M3 in for a rocker cover gasket – simple job?

    Surely a simple job? This car had an engine oil...

Recent Comments

  • Julian on BMW E36 M3 Restoration Works
  • David Woodwards on BMW E36 M3 Restoration Works
  • Julian on Audi TTS Restoration – can a 2010 car really be this rusty?
  • Michael Jardine on Audi TTS Restoration – can a 2010 car really be this rusty?
  • Julian on Audi TTS Restoration – can a 2010 car really be this rusty?

Archives

  • May 2025
  • October 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • February 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • October 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • November 2021
  • September 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • November 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019

Categories

  • BMW
  • Brakes
  • Cambelts
  • Carbon Clean with Walnuts
  • Classic Cars
  • Clutch and Gearbox
  • Diagnostics & Emissions
  • Engine Work
  • Exhausts
  • Fault Diagnosis
  • Lanoguard
  • Porsche
  • Restomods
  • Restoration
  • Suspension
  • Toyota
  • Wheels & Tyres

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
Payment Methods

CONTACT US

Phone

01273 915045

Email

info@balancemotorworks.co.uk

TOP