Ferrari has an MOT

Finally felt well enough, and it stopped raining, and I had time to sort the MOT out on the Ferrari.

Figured I would just take it into the local MOT testing station and see what happens. It was a fifty-odd quid gamble, but actually it should have passed.

First thing then was to run it up after six weeks of being dormant and check for any problems. Italian cars laid up like this just seem to break and need a good run to free up the piston rings to that stop smoking. So I ran it up and round the block a few times and made sure it was properly warmed up. Noted that the handbrake was coming up a little high, one indicator was not working but that was about it.

Sorted the indicator down to a loose earth connector in the rear boot, and fiddled with the rear calliper adjustment screws and cable adjustment until I got the lever down to about 3 clicks - check out Birdman's guide to this job.

Changed the spark plugs for a fresh set of NGK BP5ES. Previously running BP6ES which are cooler plugs, so I just thought I'd give the 5's a try to see how they fowl. Noticed three plugs where dirty to the three mixture screws may need a tweak - summer job eh. Really they all need doing with a gas analyser as I set them by ear, so not bad really as 5 out of 8 are running well and this set of plugs has lasted the longest in terms of fowling since I've owned the car.

Anyway, the car passed it's MOT with no problems so we are back on the road again.

Swine flu and Ferraris

Not sure really, but think I had swine flu in later October/November. It was rough and as a result the 308 didn't turn a wheel for over 6 weeks :(

The MOT ran out and I missed my legal opportunity to drive it down to Nick Cartwright's to get it tested and serviced. So it's sat in the garage, cold and unused, with not MOT.

Oh and it seems to have rained for weeks.

Nothing to report

Since the major oil leaks were fixed I've had a trouble free summer in the Dino driving it as often as I can. Autumn is on it's way so it's time to think about the car's annual service (oils, brake fluid, MOT etc.) and how to store it over winter. Thinking of using a carcoon this year as the car had condensation on it in my garage last winter.

Cam drive pulley seals replaced on my Ferrari 308 GT4

I pulled the forward cam belt (doing them one at a time), and went to fit my three-arm pulley to pull the cam drive pulley, but it just slid off without much effort which was nice. Then I spotted the reason for a big oil leak - the seal came out with the pulley! After 30+ years in there it was hard like plastic so must have hardly been sealing the drive shaft at all. At least then I didn't have to work out how to extract it. The key came out pretty easy too with a brass drift. With the retaining circlip removed you can pull the outer bearing with a small bearing puller tool.


Nice new seal then onto the rear drive pulley



After a test run it seems that the drive pulley leaks are no more. That's two down, several more to go...

Leak not fixed on my Ferrari 308

When I took the car out for a test run it was still leaking oil from the belts end. Not the crankshaft seal that I just replaced (see below) but the seals behind the cambelt drive pulleys. Urgh. this means the belts have to come off, and I have to do the full job of removing cam drive pulleys (with silly pin nut locknut), replace old seals and whilst I'm in there replace the cam drive pulley outer bearings. Put it all back together with new timing belts (damn - only just had these replaced in November) and I may as well put in new belt tensioner bearings - I had these lying round from an ebay purchase a few months ago - good thinking ahead me thinks.



Made a makeshift cam lock tool from two pieces of wood cut to fit the camshaft pulleys (95mm diameter) and bolted together ensures the cams won't move by accident. also the position of everything is marked up with correction fluid as a reference and the crankshaft is set at PM1-4 timing mark.

Is the leak fixed ?

Well hopefully at least one of the leaks is fixed. I replaced the belts end crankshaft seal (£8) a few days ago but I've not had chance to fire it up yet to check it. I used the screw in the seal and slide hammer method, whereby you drill a small hole through the metal part of the seal cover, screw a self-tapper into the hole, grip it and pull the seal out. I made a nylon tube tool which fitted snugly over the crankshaft to insert the new seal in squarely.

A little leak...

The car has been running well since the last post and has seen quite a bit of use. None of the winter misfires, but warm (inside the car) with all the heat we've been having.

I've been noticing the usual engine oil leaks have been increasing, particularly on the belts end of the engine. Of course this is where it all happens, so I pulled the wheel arch liner and rear cambelt cover to have a better look. It could be the crankshaft seal which looks reasonably do-able and cheap from Superformance (image Copyright Superperformance) so watch this space for that job. I also climbed down into my pit to check the sump nuts and seal - all looked ok, although I hear that oil can run down the studs which hold the sump on, but simple nyloc or acorn nuts seem to solve that.

I noticed that the gear shift rod was rubbing on one of the coolant pipes, so I wrapped the pipe with a hose clip to protect it as it for now.

Krispy Kreme donuts and V8 engines

Went to the Krispy Kreme meeting of the American Auto club (next to the Trafford Centre, Manchester). They meet here every first Sunday of the month and the weather this time was nice. Great turn-out and a real American feel to the meet being next to Krispy Kreme - and I had a donut, mmm.

Ferrari to the Sahara

A friend knowing I had a Ferrari gave me a great article from a 1995 Car magazine where the editors borrowed a F512M from Ferrari and drove it from Modena to the edge of the Sahara via Morroca. Take a look at the original article here.

Rust, what rust...

If like me you're a classic Italian car fan then rust is not your friend. I've never seen rust on any other make like I've seen on a 70's Fiat or Alfa and even a Ferrari. But worry not, if you really don't want to deal with rust and want a classic Italian car with metal work like it came from the factory take a look on the Italian ebay and search for "Oldtimer" + "the car of your choice". So for example to see some nice rust free Fiat 128's click here. Ok, they are more expensive than a basket case over here, the steering wheel is on the wrong side and of course they are a long way away. But really, it's not so difficult to take a flight to southern Italy and drive your new rust free car home.

Oooo it's cold and my Dino doesn't like it

I went to work (6 miles) today (5-7°) in my Dino and it didn't really get warm or very driveable for much of the way. It's like driving a steam engine when it's cold - the engine is fine, but the gearbox is stiff and only get's nice to drive once the engine water and oil temps are up - they didn't move much today so my left arm did a work out. But hey I still took the car out and it was sunny :)

£2 well spent on my Ferrari Dino

On a cold and frosty winters night I returned to the car after work to find a flat battery because I had left the side lights on. All I wanted to do was go home, but it was not to be. 45 minute wait then - 3 minutes with the AA man and the car was running - very annoying.

A quick search on ebay revealed a "lights on reminder" for £1.99 Basically it's just a simple 12v buzzer which you attach the positive to a lighting circuit (e.g. dash or side light feed) and negetive to a switched live (e.g. indicator power). Without looking at the wiring diagram in too much detail it seems that the switched live goes to earth once the ignition is switched off allowing current to flow to the buzzer if you have left the lights on. Well worth £2.

$30 dollar tool kills a Ferrari engine

Interesting and unfortunate thread on Ferrari Chat thread about a piece being sucked off a cheap EMPI synchronometer (carburettor balancing flow meter) and destroying a valve and piston on a 308 engine.

Make sure no bits can fall off your flow meter when you are balancing your carbs - could be expensive!

I used this very brand of flow meter to sync my carbs last year - could have been a horror story. Now I'm not going to panic, I'll just fit some kind of gauze to the meter next time I use it.