330 GTC and problems already!

I am happy to have acquired a '67 330 GTC but several problems have popped up and my ownership trial of an older Ferrari has begun with a fury.

First, the car was damaged in transport and you can follow the thread, "Car damaged in transport...any experience?" Apparently, the car hit the top of the transporter and damaged the roof. Nice thing to see when your Ferrari comes off the truck. Anyway, the saga continues and you can read and see the pics in the aforementioned thread.

Second, after driving the car around for several days, the brakes seem to have gone away. The pedal is hard, but I don't think I am getting the power boost. Pressing hard on the pedal gives stopping power, but its not like it was. I have bled the brakes and checked the pads and rotors. All look fine. I am also getting plenty of vacuum to the booster. I believe the power booster has gone bad and I will have that checked once I get the car back from the body shop.

All part of owning a Ferrari!

About the car. It is a 5, including me, owner car and the previous owner had it for 35 years. It has a completely original interior as well as "some" of the original paint, but areas have been repaired. I have a complete toolkit and all books and brochures. The engine was rebuilt and has about 11k miles on it. This is the strongest 330 I have ever driven.

I hope to get the car back from the body shop next week and then it goes to my mechanic to diagnose the brakes and re-jet the carbs. It was previously located at high altitude and is now at sea level.

I look forward to driving the car and attending the events in my area as well as meeting other Ferrari enthusiasts!

Photos below are from the previous owner.
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Tough to say.

I know the previous owner of 35 years drove the car about once a month and was meticulous about maintenance. His drive, which I test drove, were around the canyons of Utah and involved some serious accelerations but little brake work. The car drove perfectly when I got it for a couple of days and then the brakes suddenly lost power. I feel it is coincidence that they went out. The jets need to be changed because of the dramatic drop in altitude, 5000' to sea level. Everything else on the car works perfectly. The car has AC but it is not connected. No need to overheat the engine.

Hopefully I can get everything rectified quickly so I can enjoy driving!!

I will keep everyone updated.

 

I agree with your comments and I appreciate your advice.

I would not worry too much with occasional drives at different elevations, but having the car jetted for high elevation and bringing it down to sea level permanently, I don't want the car running to lean. Not good for the valves...

Brief runs won't do too much damage but running your car either too rich or too lean for an extended time can cause some serious damage to your engine as well as not getting optimal performance.

The car will be put on a dyno and have the air/fuel mixture and exhaust gas analyzed to find the correct jetting for both the idle and main jets.

I'll let you know how it turns out. May not have to change anything!

 

Finally got the power booster and master cylinder back!

Parts look great!

Hopefully we will be back on the road by next weekend. It's been a long and frustrating summer with no car.

Once the brakes are back we will retune the carbs with the new jets and see how she does!

I really can't wait
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Booster is in and brakes are working great.

Right before the test drive, the mechanical fuel pump started leaking...

We now need to rebuild the pump.

This is never-ending!

 

I'm not sure. The car came with the alloys originally. Someone here with more knowledge than I could probably answer that.

Honestly, I never noticed it until you just brought it to my attention! In any case it now has a cap.

 

I picked the car up last Saturday but the weekend was poor weather around here so I didn't have a chance to drive it much. Just from the shop to my house which is less than 3 miles. I was just happy to finally have it back in my garage!
Hopefully I'll be able to go for a good drive this weekend and see how the car drives with the new jetting.

My mechanic took it for several test drives and he was very impressed with the way it drove. He kept raving about how strong the motor was and how smooth the car drove.

Now that fall is here I hope to be taking it out often.
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I do have the original wheels and they look pretty nice but I would have them refinished if I was going to put them back on. I like the look of the Borranis way more however I understand these wheels tend to flex quite a bit. I'm not a racer so I'm not too worried.

The car has always been red. Aside from the front left and roof (due to a shipping incident) the paint is original.

 

Ok, here's what we found out with the "sea level" jets. Driving impression- couldn't tell any difference. Car still ran really strong but their was no discernible change. I am getting a little more noise from the carbs, like more air intake noise when you rev the engine from idle but I'm not sure the carbs are totally tuned in. There is no hesitation and the exhaust appears to be clean and has a good burn color.

The dyno revealed a +3 horsepower gain, but that is within the testing margin of error so I'm not too sure if that means anything. The sniffer indicated that we are actually putting out more hydrocarbons than before, but intuitively, that makes sense. More air-more fuel-more combustion by-products. We will have to put more miles on the new setup to get a better baseline but I haven't had a whole lot of time to drive the car. Weather and family events are really impacting my fun time! I'll take the plugs out and give them a visual examination after more runs and check the burn.

The brakes are working great and I'm very happy with the rebuild. They did a fantastic job and the servo and master cylinder look awesome. It actually cost less than what I expected and was quit reasonable. If anyone is in need, let me know and I'll let you know who I used. Turn around was about 3 weeks.

The fuel system is now free from leaks. We will obviously have to keep monitoring the lines. The car has never had ethanol fuel in it, but I guess age will deteriorate anything no matter how careful you are.

As for now, I'm pretty happy with what we have accomplished and I'm excited to continue the fine tuning process. This car is really fun to drive and I hope to have more opportunities to get out there before winter gets here. I feel the weather in the northeast is setting in pretty quickly.

As an aside, if anyone has a bead on a windshield, please let me know. Mine is totally blasted! I have a second from the previous owner, but it has a crack in the lower right.