Alfa Romeo 1.6 Boxer engine rebuild - any advice?

[Nomad]

Hi folks.
I'm used to rebuilding most motors but this is the first boxer motor I've worked on and it has a few quirks.


The car is an Alfa 145 from the early 90's, I don't know the history but it's had scrapyard engine fitted sometime before I bought it.
The new problem is water leaking into cylinder #4 and it's blowing water out of the expansion tank - there are signs of historical overheating which might have been why the original motor was removed.
Car paperwork says the original was 1.4 checking the engine numbers on the block the new engine is 1.6

Questions.

Red square in the photo:
I bought an Alfa 145 boxer 1.6 rebuild kit from AutoDoc - everything lines up apart from one hole in the camcover gasket. Any ideas why it's wrong?
Could the engine have come out of something apart from a 145 (maybe a 33 ?) or is it a different model year to the gasket kit?
Some of the other holes look odd in the photo - ignore them, they're fine when the gasket is held in place.

Red circles (4) in the photo:
I can't find any torque settings for these cam carrier bolts - any suggestions?



The good news is when the boxer is running happy it's a great engine in a great handling car
The downside is that if the head gasket goes, you have 2 that need doing (mine started blowing water into cylinder #4 - a common problem).

 

[dobbslc]

Mmm are the gaskets handed for the left and right sides?
As in are there two slightly different gaskets in the kit?
I very nearly bought a 2.0 145 Cloverleaf years ago, jeez did it shift. But that had the twin spark engine in.

 

[Nomad]

All gaskets look like identical pairs.
The head gaskets are interchangeable.
The problem "camcover" plastic sheet gaskets have the same fault on both heads, no way to fit them upside down due to offset head bolts etc.

I'm happy the gasket set is correct for an Alfa 1.6 boxer engine but this 1 gasket isn't quite right for the 1.6 boxer fitted in my car and I don;t know anything about the differences on Alfa engines.

I've always said there's never a dull day with thsi car - regardless if it's working of if I'm trying to fix some fault.

 

[m_c]

There has most likely been some kind of design revision during the live of the engine, which the aftermarket suppliers either haven't been aware off, or decided not to bother manufacturing both options.