As with many people before me, and i'm sure many in the future, I am currently rebuilding a Merak SS engine. 1977 The car was purchased after being in storage for some time with a dismantled engine, I went against my first rule of buying a car to restore, Buy It Complete!! Much easier to rebuild if you have taken it apart, how ever I have no regrets. My question to put out there is this, does anyone know of any differences between the Exhaust and Inlet cams, other than the timing marks. For example, are the lifts different, measurement from toe to heel? I have measured and basically difference between pairs are about .07 mm. This could be down to wear as 2 cams appear newer. Are there differences in the toe profiles, again have tried to check this and it appears no distinct variation. I have 2 cams stamped with an " R " possibly a pair for the RH cyl ? One of these definitely fits in exhaust bank 4-6 cyls as it has been sleeved over size! Bit of a long post, apologies, but any information would be greatly appreciated. I have already e-mail Enrico's Pages from which some questions were answered. Paul
Paul, I am sure someone with chime in with your answer.. I also have an engine in pieces and would love for you to post your progress on Fchat for me and others that are interested. Anyway hope someone can answer your questions, Regards,
Paul, Yes please share as I have one in bits as well and will start it over the xmas break! Cheers Mark
Do you have these documents from Ivan Ruiz's site? http://www.thecarnut.com/Manuals/SM_Engine_Rebuild.pdf http://www.thecarnut.com/Manuals/SM_Spare_parts_1.pdf http://www.thecarnut.com/Manuals/SM_Spare_parts_2.pdf http://www.thecarnut.com/Manuals/SM_wiring_layout.pdf
Thank you GLB, I have seen these documents, in principal the SM engine is the same, the SS has a higher output and I imagine this was achieved in the head design which means there may be differences! Hi Gary, Yes, intakes are larger as in opening the valve more, but would the difference of only .07mm be enough to categorically say one is exhaust the other is inlet, when one set of cams appears older. It's the last piece of the puzzle I have not yet been able to confirm Most of the rebuild has gone well, have had the cylinder liners honed, crank ground and balanced, bottom end is all assembled. I made one major mistake, I had the valve guides replaced, which is a no no, this caused a water leak from around the new guides out through the exhaust port. I then had to have over size guides made, re-fitted to the heads and then ceramic sealed. I believe the better way is to have the existing guides machined with new guides fitted into those existing ones. I am no expert on engines but have rebuilt many in the past and cannot afford a Maserati company to do it for me, we all love a challenge. Though this engine is quite unique!!
Have you been over to this website yet? Lot's of Merak and SM folks over there and a couple of fellows who know quite a bit about these engines. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Sport-Maserati-L/conversations/messages Over here in the USA there's Jerry Hathaway, Dave Burham and others as well.
