2/13/13
A Queen has Arrived, and 330 Engine Rebuild
An old friend arrived at the shop the other day, but you might not
recognize her. This 365GT 2+2 is owned by my friend Mark, and the two
of us spent a few days traveling
to Cavallino several years ago, but in those days the car was
red. Mark drove the car out to California last year with the plans to
have fellow restorer Zac Dugger paint the car and prep it for the FCA
National show in Palm Desert last Fall. The car made it to the show
with a beautiful paint job, but we started noticing issues with the way
the engine was running. Mark wanted to address these issues with the
car back on the East Coast, so we had the car sent from Zac's shop to
me last week.
Zac and I had a couple of discussions about what he found and the work
he did to get the car running well enough to drive around California
while Mark and his wife were out for the FCA National Event, but more
investigation was needed. In talking with Mark about his car, I found
he never really had any major work done with the engine, and when I
asked when the last time he had a "tune up" Mark couldn't remember, so
my first plan of action was to get the car running as best as I could.
The first problem I found was mismatched points in the two
distributors. One set was almost closed and totally out of adjustment.
Since the color of the wires were different, I would assume sometime in
its life, one set was replaced, while the other set was cleaned and
reused. All the points were pitted and worn beyond service, so I
installed new points, set dwell, and phased the distributors on the Sun
Distributor Machine.
I think with the daily use of modern cars, we tend forget the need for
regular service on Vintage cars. Checking point gaps on breaker
ignitions should be done every 5-6 thousand miles and if you're used to
driving modern cars, it's easy to forget this routine service interval.
Mark has driven this car for over 30K miles during his ownership, and
it was amazing it has been so reliable despite the lack of ignition
service!
The 7/12 distributor drive showed some oil inside the housing which
meant the oil seal needed replacing, so a new one was installed. If
theses seals are left to leak, the oil can find its way up into the
distributor housing and foul the points.
The work continued on the engine rebuild at the shop with my
assembling the heads by installing the valves and rocker assemblies. I
checked the spring heights to make sure the right specifications were
followed by the machine shop before installing the springs and rockers.
Once the rockers were installed, and the valve lash was set, I had to
very careful not to put the heads flat on the workbench because it
would be very easy to bend a valve at this point.
Reminder: If you have a Ferrari
related project, car, or idea
you'd like to explore, I'd love to talk to you. I can also help if
you're thinking of buying or selling. This website represents what I
love to do, and I would be happy to help guide you through the Vintage
Ferrari world so if you'd like to do
something together, let me know. It all begins with an e-mail!
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