First supercarDriver magazine

Our expanding group of super car drivers released their first magazine. With 80+ pages or real cars and real owners this is a good start to the public facing side of the club. My Ferrari Dino 308 GT4 is featured pp40-47 in an article about 30 years of Ferraris - nice.

Take a look at www.supercardriver.com for more information on how to join in with our regular activities - all super cars welcome :)


Image ©2010 Supercar Driver Ltd

New MOT another 12 months on the road.

After the brake rebuild I checked the car over and took it for its annual inspection (MOT) which it duly passed to my delight - well I would hope so given the amount of work I do on the car. The only comment was that it took some time to pass emissions and the inspector had to run the car up warm. Of course the carbed 308 Ferraris aren't particularly happy at idle and can easily get fouled plugs. The car has not seen any long high speed runs in the last few months so it's no surprise that emissions was touch and go. The piston rings on older cars need some use to get them sealing properly and my car could also do with an oil change which often effects emissions. I'll get on with that when the weather warms up.

Ferrari 308 brake calliper rebuild part 2

Looking at the brake pistons it was clear that I would benefit from fitting new ones. Remember that they are the same as Porsche 911 ones (47.97mm x 30 mm) and I bought four new ones and the required seal kit from a company called BiggRed - total cost around £120.

You can see the rust removed to reveal shiny casting ready to be reassembled. De-grease the whole thing and plenty of compressed air to make sure there is absolutely no dirt in the callipers.

Fit the new hudraulic seals and pistons with a little brake fluid on the piston as you push it in. I also add some brake grease (red) around the piston as I finally push it down into the calliper housing.

The cut-away on the mating face of the piston has to point towards the forward rotation of the brake disc (brake rotor).



Then fit new dust seals and spring clips - these can be a PITA to fit.

All rebuilt now and ready to re-install on the car. These callipers could do with a gold repaint really, but they still look ok from through the wheels so I will wait until summer to do this.





After rebuilding both front callipers with new stainless steel pistons and new seals I decided to also fit new discs bought from the BremboShop and of course new pads (same as Alfa Spider).

So finally all new brakes and no more pulling to the right :)

Ferrari 308 seized front brake calliper

So I was out driving with the SuperCarDriver guys the other week in my Ferrari Dino 308 GT4 starting pulling to the right (drivers side UK) under braking. I've never really looked at the front brake callipers so I suspect it is time for a rebuild.

The original brake callipers on the 308 are made by ATE and are in fact the same as fitted to the late 1970's Porsche 911 which means that rebuild kits and in fact new callipers and pistons are easy to come by.


So I pulled the left hand calliper pads to take a look and sure enough one of the pistons was seized. So definitely time for a rebuild.

Whilst the hydraulics were still connected and with the pads removed I used the brake pedal to push the pistons out as far as they would go as getting seized ones out once the callipers is removed can be hard.




Next thing was to remove the calliper and remove the pistons. It's normal to use compressed air to pump the pistons out of a removed calliper - clamp the one you don't want to come out first.

This worked finally and the seized outer piston came out. A bit of air also removed the free inner piston to reveal the cause of the seizure - rust of course.



You can see that there is no rust inside the cylinder area but you can see the rust on the thin section after the groove where the hydraulic seal goes. I used a dremel type drill to remove this surface rust - being careful not to mark the inner cylinder area. I also cleaned out the seal groove which showed some signs of rust.


Clean up and rebuild in the next post :)

Don't forget to polish the inside of your Ferrari wheels

There's nothing like being able to eat your dinner off the inside of your wheels ;) Give them a wash inside every six months or so and they'll stay like this forever.

Noisy bearing or not ? Ferrari 308

After pulling the alternator/water pump belt and starting the car there was no noise, but when I reinstalled the belt still no noise. Hmm, never quite got to the bottom of that one, but it could have been recent lack of use I guess.

Noisy bearing on the Ferrari 308

Been a while since I've posted.

I started my GT4 up yesterday after about 3 weeks of not running it and got a kind of tinkling, clicking, rattling noise. Difficult to describe, but sounded like a well worn and/or dry ball bearing.

I did the cam belts about 18 months ago and fitted new non-genuine tensioner bearings. One of the tensioners I pulled off was free running - had that dry/loose bearing feel when you spun it - but I didn't know this until I pulled it off so it wasn't making any grumbling sounds. The two new bearings were as they should be with no spin-on if you held the inner race and tried to spin the outer. Thus I don't think it could be the tensioners - I'll be putting some Hill Engineering ones on though at the next belt change as they are pretty cheap really.

So the question - does this sound like worn out water pump bearing(s) or generator bearing(s)?

Finally, the sound can clearly be heard at the belts end but gets less and less and a few minutes after starting is gone. When I started the car today there was very little evidence of it - but it was still there a little just after start-up.

I'll pull the generator/pump belt tomorrow and start the engine and see. That should quickly eliminate it, although it seems to be more apparent the longer I leave the car between runs.

Neither the water pump or generator have been touched since I've owned the car (4 years) so they are my prime suspects.

Watch this space.

Ferrari photo shoot

Nice sunny Sunday and a few of us from www.SuperCarDriver.com were invited to bring our cars for a Ferrari photo shoot for the website. My Dino 308 GT4 in the middle. Others in the picture, 355 Spyder, 308 GTS, 328 GTS, 360 Spyder and 430 CS.

Ferrari Dino 308GT4 Driveshaft seal replacement

So I got stuck in an tackled the drive shaft seal. First thing was to remove the axle from the car. Undoing the M8 hex bolts was ok for the inner C.V. joint using a long extension and a tough 8mm hex drive - turning the axle each time to get to the next bolt. The nuts are the locking type and were original so had probably never been off but they weren't rusty at least - they need a spanner on though until the bolt comes out. With the inner joint separated you need to remove the outer one to remove the axle. I needed to use the 8mm drive straight onto the bolts and jam the hub. I ended up removing the brake, disc, shock absorber, top A-arm and hum carrier to have a good clean around and better access to the axle and drive flange in the gearbox.








Everything out



The offending seal. Note the RTV sealant in the drive flange bolt hole. Oil can leak through the differantial, through the bolt in to the C.V. joints to you have to seal it when intalling the drive flange. I used ThreeBond/HondaBond.

With the axle and other bits out of the way it's easy to remove the one bolt to remove the drive flang, but I drained the transmission oil on my Ferrari Dino 308 GT4 first as I was going to change it anyway and I followed Robert Garvin's great tutorial on Birdman's website. The old seal came out of the differential case pretty easily and was rock hard as all the other seals I've replaced have been. New seal from www.superformance.co.uk for about £5 pushed into place and the drive flange refitted. Had a clean up with degreaser and a toothbrush whilst access was easy and also stripped both C.V. joints on the axle and fitted new boots and repacked with fresh grease - I figured the old ones must be 30 years old as they also looked original. It's a dirty job replacing C.V. grease but it's done now at least on the passenger side. With it all bolted up and a few good runs there's only a hint of oil residue, so no dripping leaks as before and now surprise given the state of the old seal. I was a little concerned that the inner drive flange had noticeable play when the axle was off, but R&D in Manchester seemed to think it was not too bad as did Nick Cartwright - thanks for the advice.

On to the next leak - drive flange seal :)

I've been getting oil spun up from the passenger side CV joint so investigated the cause. I ruled out leaks from the cam covers and resealed the cam end cover with some Hondabond and cleaned the CV joint and drive flange from the transmission. A short run revealed oil leaks moving outwards in lines from the drive seal on the differential cover confirming the drive flange seal to be the culprit. The main issue is that it is flicking oil up onto the rear exhaust manifold which is not clever, and it's also getting oil all over my lovely clean engine :)



It's a cheap part (£5), but will require the CV joint and drive flange to be removed. It all looks quite accessible but the CV bolts might be really tight - watch this space.

Ferrari Owners CLub Northwest Concours June 2010

I was invited to the Ferrari Owners CLub Northwest Concours June 13th. The weather forecast was dodgy but it turned out perfect. Around 50 cars in attendance including: 250 GT Cal, F40, 512 TR, BB512, Dyatona, Dinos, 360, 430, SuperAmerica, 308, 328, 348, 355 - wow that was an expensive field.

Enjoy the pictures.

Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder by Scaglietti and Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona

AutoItalia Stanford Hall 2010

This is a great show if you love Italian cars. Lots of rare cars show up is the weather is good and this time it was. Here's my Dino with an Enzo and F40 on the Ferrari section. The Ferrari Owners Club were welcoming despite me not being a club member and I plan on attending the Northwest Ferrari Concours meeting this Sunday 13th at Cranage Hall - a mere 20 miles down the road from me :) Enjoy the pictures from AutoItalia:

Didsbury and South Manchester car show July 11th

Well it's official now. If you are in Manchester and have classic car we are holding Didsbury's first car show on the afternoon of July 11th and it's all free. Register your car at http://www.didsburycarshow.org/ We have planned for around 50 or 60 cars and places are filling up so register now.

Tatton Park Classic and Performance Car show June 5th and 6th

The annual Tatton Park Classic and Performance Car show takes place 5/6th June at Tatton Park in Cheshire near J19 on the M6. This year I think we will see a large number of Italian cars and I'll have by Dino there too.

June 6th also sees the annual Auto Italia event at Stanford Hall, near Lutterworth and the start of the M6. Another great show with lots of Italian exotica (if it doesn't rain!)

Insurance for your Ferrari 308

Well ok, so it's not really Ferrari but I've discovered a new insurance company for my fleet of classic cars and I have to recommend them. I've been insured with Footman James for many years but the prices were creeping up. I was told of a company called Classicline and they did slash huge amounts off my insurance bill. For example the insurance on my 1957 VW bus was quoted as over £400 with FJ but Classicline wanted just £189 for the same level of cover. For my Ferrari 308 they quoted around £100 less than Footman James and they came out about the cheapest for my 1996 Porsche 911 and accepted me not having any No-Claims-Bonus on the basis that I had been using classic car policies for a long time.

Most importantly in our modern times is the personal experience with Classicline - I get the feeling that actually remember me whenever I have to talk to them - sorry but I don't think you get that with www.confused.com

Spring is coming

Although it is still pretty cold here the sun has been out and the roads have been dry for the last week. So I've managed to get some 308 time in, all is well with the car although I need to think about an brake fluid flush and oil change. Checked the rear brake adjustment (you have to take up the slack with adjusting screws) using Birdman's tutorial and noted some fluid came out of the passenger side adjuster screw cover. I'd rebuilt the drivers side calliper a few years ago so I expect the passenger side rear one could do with new seals now. Nice picture of the wheels.

At last, dry roads.

Finally after a month of cold weather and lingering frost and snow the temperature has moved towards 10º and the roads are dry. I took the Dino out for a blast around the M60. All was good, no misfires, no leaks just a howling V8 and lots of smiles - roll on the warmer weather

Brrrrrrr run the Dino up

It's getting even colder here in the UK. There has been about 6" of snow followed by freezing temperatures with -12º predicted for tonight (Jan 7th) in Manchester. As it was sunny out today and with the car being sat unused in freezing temperatures I ran it up until properly warm for about 30 minutes. Not ideal to run these engines on idle for so long as they don't warm up quick enough and the spark plugs get dirty. ad to dig my way into the garage after defrosting the padlocks with a hair-dryer. The Dino started perfectly once the fuel had filled the carbs so no problems - it would just be nice to actually drive it, but the snow and ice will probably be around for at least another week from now.

Ferrari 308 in the snow is a no go

It's been cold and snowy here in the UK for the past few weeks, so no chance for me to get the Dino out. We've had lots of frozen snow which thawed a few days ago then it went and snowed again. Maybe tomorrow...