1/20/08
Cavallino 08: Heading Home
We had a short six hour drive north to Savannah before stopping at my
sister's house for the night. The plan was to leave Savannah at about 6
am to get Mark back to Maryland, and for me to drive the last 5 hours
home to Upstate New York in one day.
We weren't on the road for more than 5 minutes heading northbound on
I95 when we were jolted by a loud bang. I looked out the rear of the
car and saw a trail of sparks shooting out the back of the Ferrari.
Mark immediately pulled over onto the soft shoulder. My mind raced in
those 15 seconds trying to diagnose what could have made the noise.
After finding nothing obvious, and no leaks from under the car, Mark
started walking back down the highway towards something large on the
side of the road. Following a scrape mark behind the car, we found this
three ball class three trailer hitch in the soft dirt! Pulling off the
road must have dislodged the hitch from whatever it was caught on under
the car. The picture shows how Mark felt about our collecting some new
parts with his Ferrari.
Since there was no apparent damage, and the car seemed to running O.K.,
we drove the car out of the danger of being parked on the side of a
major interstate. About 20 minutes of driving, the sun came up, so we
pulled over into a rest stop for a better look at the damage. It didn't
take long for me to find the point of impact with our trailer hitch.
The right side exhaust was all but completely collapsed like a tin can!
I went to the rear of the car and found about 10% flow out of one of
the pipes, and a little more out of the other one. My first thought was
to get a drill and cut holes in the pipe before the crushed sections to
limp home, but I decided to consult some of my fellow Ferrari
mechanics.
My first call was to Sean, a co-worker at Sport Auto in Connecticut. I
told him about our predicament, and he suggested looking at the header
pipes to see if they were overheating from the restriction, He agreed
that drilling holes was probably a good idea, and suggested to even try
opening up the crushed sections with a pair of large vice grips. We
pulled over a third time to inspect the headers, but didn't see
anything glowing. I even spit on the header pipes to see if any of the
restricted pipes sizzled any more than the adjacent cylinders. All
things checked out O.K., so we headed down the road some more.
It was now late enough in the morning to call François, and
after I told him the story, her replied simply, "No. You have to pull
over!" He explained that we stood the chance of blowing a head gasket
if there was enough restriction on the exhaust!
I motioned to Mark to cut the revs back, and to pull over, because
often times when François gives a stern warning like that, it's
not just theoretical, but he's probably seen it happen!
Our first stop was at a truck stop to look for a drill. The owner was
late for work and when one of his mechanics relayed the story to him,
he was not amused or helpful. His thinly veiled resistance to help two
guys with a "ferrin car," had us heading back down the interstate
looking for a muffler shop.
I remember reading once that the two most useful tools to keep in your
vintage car was a cell phone and an Auto Club card, but I would have to
add third item. I turned on my GPS box and found a muffler shop 10
miles away, and had it direct us to their door.
Bob's Masterbend Muffler in Walterboro, South Carolina had Mark's
Ferrari on their four post lift in a matter of minutes, with clear view
of the damage. I was glad we stopped to make this repair.
The owner assessed the situation, and was fine with drilling holes in
the pipes to get us down the road, but offered to section new pipe in
place of the damaged pipe for a more permanent repair. Mark,
incredulously asked if he could do such a repair, and in
a-matter-of-fact deep southern accent, replied, "It is what I do for a
livin'!
He showed me where he planned to cut the pipe, and we talked about
rewelding some of the old hangers on the new sections of pipe, and we
left the owner to his work.
Within an hour he had new pipes bent and welded in place. The bends
were not mandrel bends like the original Ansa system, but with the some
grinding of the welds, and some black paint, it'll be hard to spot the
new pipe without a sharp eye.
It only cost Mark $120 bucks for the repair and we were only delayed
2-1/2 hours since our incident. I shudder to think how much worse the
consequences could have been, but instead we made out easy, got a great
story to tell, and Mark got a free three ball trailer hitch in the deal!
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