I've been chatting on Messenger with
Youri and realized that it would be possible to exchange the mounting flange on my new Espace-alternator with the original from my Murena. He did that with a Citroën Visa alternator (correct me if I got it wrong, Youri).
The mounting holes are differently located on the Espace-alternator but apart from that and the rating (Original: 55A, new 70A) the alternators are identical. So I took the new one apart, removing the bearing, refitting the bearing in the old flange and fitting the flange with the new bearing on the new alternator coil and rotor shaft. I now have a new alternator with the correct Murena specific mounting flange.
I promise to post some pictures soon. Edit: Pictures added. Model is AS-PL 3007 https://as-pl.com/en/p/A3007Hello Anders,
I originally wondered why you needed to measure for a new alternator belt, as I thought it should be the same as the original, but now I think about it, of course you do not have the water pump pulley any longer. However, the pulley on this new alternator looks smaller than the original? Is that correct? If it is, please be aware that this will cause the alternator to rotate at a higher speed, with subsequent higher wear on bearings, brushes etc.
I'm rather busy with work and other stuff at the moment but I must get the engine lifted off the dolly removing the sump so that I can exchange the gasket. I searched the manual, but I'm unsure if the new cork gasket (with the proper aluminium inserts) should be lubricated when fitted, or if it is best fitted dry?
/Anders
Cork sump gaskets were fitted on many old cars (and I mean pre-war or fifties cars) when the oil used was not the same as we use today, thicker mono or multi-grades compared to the synthetics we now use. The sumps were mostly unstressed tin plate just hung under the block with the oil level well below the gasket line; the engines had low pressure oil systems, and the cars were not so fast nor the road holding so good, to create lengthy oil surge on corners. This gave the cork sump gaskets a much easier time.
The correct procedure for fitting a cork gasket was to soak it in water which made it swell, then fit it and tighten the bolts which squeezed the swollen gasket against the faces and made it seal.
Using oil on a cork gasket is really no good at all. It won't soak in or make it swell, and it won't form a good seal with either surface, or prevent oil soaking into the cork.
Now the engines also never produced the heat they do today, so although the gasket would slowly dry out it would usually not break the seal and what little oil was thrown against the gasket was too thick to seep through the cork gasket, so there was little leakage. Plus old cars were almosted expected to leak a little anyway, and the roads were often dirt, and drives were gravel so they absorbed the small leakage without too much problem.
Now consider a modern car, with a much higher oil pressure, and a synthetic oil which does not have the wax content which made old oils thicker, plus higher running temperatures, and you have a different situation where cork really is now an unsuitable oil sump gasket. Especially in a car like the Murena where you can generate quite some oil surge on cornering!
Add in that the Murena engine and sump have to be rigid together because the power unit is mounted on the sump and gearbox, NOT the block, as with this Simca Type 180 engine in it's originally designed installation in the Chrysler 160/160GT/180, and you can see that the Murena needs a different solution. If you use an original Murena cork gasket with metal inserts then it needs a small bead of silicon gasket sealer around the edge on both sides of the gasket or any other good gasket sealing compound such as Hylomar etc. Even then there will be some small leakage where the oil soaks into the gasket and eventually seeps out on the outside! I have tried a silicon sealer, and Hylomar on different engine builds to see which might be better, but both eventually suffer from a small seepage through the cork, particularly since I always use a fully synthetic oil which is the best oil but will slowly soak into and through the cork.
You stated that you searched the manual for anything about how to fit and seal the sump gasket, but think about it - you won't find anything in any Murena manual! Why? Because they never produced a full 2.2 engine section in the Murena workshop manual. All that was ever provided were some orange supplemental pages about a few things that were different to the engine when fitted in the Tagora (or Chrysler 2-litre/180/160) and since those all had an unstressed tin plate sump hung below a block that was mounted conventionally, it means their gaskets were never subjected to the movement and vibrations that in a Murena will break the seal if the engine is not kept totally solid with the sump.
That is why the spacers were inserted into the cork gasket in the first place - so the bolts could be done up tight and would hold the sump solidly with the engine block without destroying the cork gasket, and prevent movement between the two which will destroy a Tagora gasket in no time. The Tagora 2.2 engine manual has nothing about sump gaskets obviously because their engine mounting and sump are totally conventional and don't need anything special. Anything in a Chrysler 160/180/2-litre manual about fitting sump gaskets will similarly be useless for a Murena 2.2 sump gasket.
Maybe now you see why my solution with no gasket and simply silicon sealant is, I believe, the way to go.
Roy