Derek's 308 engine rebuild

Hi all,

While the world needs another "How I rebuilt my Ferrari" thread like it needs a hole in the blind cavity for the low/reverse selector rod, I'd like to give back a little in return for all the great advice I have read in this forum.

My engine has been out for a while and I followed Birdman's excellent article. My main observation for anyone starting this endeavour is to buy a rechargeable ratchet and a few short wobble extensions. The hardest job was removing the exhaust manifold nuts and the task seems to have been designed for ambidextrous, double-jointed, arm wrestling midgets. Halfway through the job I went out and bought a Milwaukee rechargeable ratchet (my neighbour understandably disapproves of the noise from my air tools.) After scratching my head, my hands, my arms etc. for a few hours, I ground (even shorter) a short, thin-walled ¼” drive 13mm 6-point socket which did the trick. I also ground narrower the sides of a cheap 13mm flat spanner (wrench) to help it fit into the tight spaces.

As suggested, I used the cheap Harbor Freight lift and a couple of 2”x4” planks under the back wheels, padded the back window, put the strap around the front head, called four mates, and it came out in about 10 minutes. It really helped having extra hands and eyes to see where it was catching and push, pull, and wiggle it out. Getting to that final 10 minutes must have taken me at least 20 hours-- a couple with a stuck splash guard, a few more heating, PB Blasting and massaging oil line connectors and rusted fasteners. Clean out the drive shaft cap screws as they may be full of crud (I stripped one as the hex head wasn’t in far enough so I had to tap in a bigger torx bit and use that plus a vice grip.)

I ordered most of my engine parts this week from Superformance as the pound has tanked. They had the best prices on most parts and allowed me to get the gasket set without head gaskets (I’ll get Cometic from this side of the pond.) I have a table with a few parts suppliers’ prices if anyone wants a copy.)

I’ll get to the tear-down later this week. Cheers, derek
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Patrick, Are you the betting type? I'll wager a few craft ales (not the frothy piss you Antipodeans call beer) that it will be back together by the spring. The big white is coming soon and we'll be up to our dangly bits in snow until April.

Mike, my 308 had been standing in a garage for 16 years when I bought it-- long story involving a leaking water pump, a governor general, two Lambos and two kids. I could have just tried to start it but the crank was tight and the lacquer paint cracked so I decided to rebuild while the paint was being stripped and redone. Good thing I did tear it down as the water in the oil that sat there for 16 years had pitted a couple of bearing journals and at 58k kms the liner bores were almost at their service limit, the wrist pin bushes and valve guides were past limits and the notorious sodium-filled exhaust valves were itching to drop in.
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I am really impressed! Ordered some parts from Superformance last Tuesday evening and they were here this morning (Monday.) Very well packed and the Hill Eng. bearings are gorgeous (yes, I know, I should get out more.) The gasket set looks complete and I can't believe anyone has the gall to ask $14 for each viton cylinder liner o-ring! They are included in the Superformance set but I think I'll get a few hundred made, can't be more than a buck even with a custom mould. The engine bearings look generic and nothing special. I suppose they are not rocket science but given that they cost many times what I paid for Clevite 77 bearings for my 347 Sunbeam Tiger, I was expecting more.

While the cat among the bulls did keep most of the mice away there was a little nest in the folds of (unpainted) thin plate and sheets of soft rock wool. No sign of damage to the wires anywhere but time will tell. The rock wool and layers of fibreglass, mild steel and stainless steel are now out but I'm getting ahead of myself...

 

Ok, so before I get to removing the heads and revealing the silver bullet for that fun endeavour, here is how to test if your engine still has hollow, sodium filled exhaust valves. Since I have my heads off it is easy to test the method and photograph it. The sodium exhaust valves have slightly magnetic heads whereas most, if not all, stainless exhaust valves are austenitic and non-magnetic.

Attach (firmly) a small neodymium magnet to the end of a piece of stiff wire over 145mm long. I used a 7.5mm magnet with a central hole on a 2.5mm wire that I bent a little at the end to shift the magnet edge sideways by 5mm. I also bent a 90 degree "handle" in the wire in the same direction as the magnet's sideways offset so that I knew which way the magnet was "pointing" once I couldn't see it. Mark the wire at about 145-146mm from the magnet. The low-lift USA exhaust cams will be about 145mm and the Euro cams about .5mm more.

Take out a spark plug and turn the engine until that cylinder's exhaust valve is fully open. Feed the magnet down the spark plug tube and into the cylinder until the 145mm mark reaches the end of the plug tube. At this point the magnet will be near the edge of the exhaust valve head if you have the magnet offset towards the exhaust valve. In case you can't see where the exhaust valve is, it is not directly to the side of the plug hole but at an angle of about 30 degrees towards the back of the engine i.e. towards the flywheel.) Tap the magnet on the valve head, listen, you'll hear the tap, and you can feel the magnetic attraction. It is very slight.

To make this more difficult, the seat is also magnetic so the distance from the plug tube to the seat is about 138mm and you will get a magnetic attachment at that distance as well.

I tried all four cylinders in my one head and one cylinder of the other head. All had similar measurements to the seat and valve.
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What is it with the Internet and cats?? I deliver pearls of wisdom-- and get cats! Sadly that is not my garage but I did try to buy the Lambos. No I won't tell you where they are (but I'm open to sizeable bribes.)

 

Yup the Countach was LHD. I hadn't seen one for many years and they are lower and even more impractical than I remembered. Still so striking though...
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I don't think they will ever be sub $100k again-- probably not sub $200k either, until perhaps petrol is no longer available and the nouveau riche in 30-odd years don't know how to drive.