by Jon Inge – NW Alfa Romeo Club Communications Director (published with permission)

Finally, let’s take a look at the various improvements Wes and Herb have been able to make to the SPICA units over the years.

• upgraded cam follower. This follower looks something like a ballpoint pen and moves with every movement of the throttle pedal, riding the surface of the 3-D cam to determine how much fuel the plungers deliver. The tiny .017” ball in its tip eventually sticks and develops a flat spot. Due to the leverage in the linkage, this has a noticeable effect on performance and emissions. Worse, the ball can suddenly rotate in its housing, abruptly moving off the flat spot and changing the fuel mixture again. All rebuilt SPICA pumps are fitted with an oversize ball in the tip of the follower, one that doesn’t stick or wear out.
• timing mark on the drive belt pully. With no factory marking the belt was often fitted incorrectly, leading to inaccurate timing of the injection pulses.
• Higher-quality re-manufactured thermostatic actuators. Poor cold starting due to faulty units led many owners and mechanics to install a bypass switch to cut out the cold start solenoid, which led to its own problems. Better actuators have virtually eliminated cold-start problems.
• replacement of the deceleration solenoid microswitch in
  a hard-to-reach location under the pump. This was often ignored as the pump has to come off to reach it.
• improved technique for tightening the tiny screws clamping the gears to the pump plungers so they no longer work loose after high mileages. The plunger/gear sets are also calibrated on a flow bench to within 1% variation.
• improved mounting of the spring on the tie-rod clip and fitting a damper spring inside the altitude compensator return spring, eliminating breakage from vibration for both. I started this series out of curiosity why someone would go to great lengths to replace the electronic injection on a Twin Spark engine with a mechanical SPICA system. I ended with a profound respect for its quality and performance. Alfa saved a lot of money when they switched to electronic fuel injection, but performance took a significant hit. If you have a SPICA Alfa, treasure it; you have a real gem.