348 Engine Out!!

Finally managed to remove the front chain cover to check drive, chains and tensioners. Rather than the cam belt drive shaft sliding out of the case bearing, the rear shaft bearing managed to work out of the block. Seems like that the cover bearing is stuck to the shaft pretty tightly, but I'll be able to get it out now that it's off.

After reviewing things, per TSB10-34 posted on Ricambi's website, it looks like I have the updated rear bearing (the one that came out of the block with the shaft), but have the old oil pump chain tensioner I'm still waiting for confirmation from David at Ricambi (while Daniel's on vacation) before ordering everything I should need...gaskets, o-rings, tensioners, valve shims, etc.

Below are a few pics. Also - I called the "Mississippi water pump guy" and he will rebuild my water pump for $99. Real nice honest guy... wants to send the pump so I'm satisfied with it, before he invoices me. That's rare these days!! Since No Doubt and I think a few others have used his services successfully, this is the way I'm going on the WP! Waiting for parts now.....
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Yeah - it is great having this place as a resource... and you're definitely included in the resource category, Ernie! David at Ricambi says the TSB actually covered several incremental changes, so I'm thinking that my car has the bearing upgrade stuff, but apparently not the tensioner. Anyway, I am posting this stuff hoping that the pics and discussion help some other folks.

BTW - I searched and found a number of threads with similar pics, and here's one that caused me to think the cover should have slid off of the cam belt drive shaft. Don't recall details to give pic credit, but I recall it seemed to be from an actual Ferrari tech.
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Not too much to post in past week or so since I'm mostly waiting for parts. I did receive new valve shims from Ricambi, and it may be of use for some owners to cover a few things I've found as I worked through selecting new shims.

Since both intake and exhaust allowable clearance range is just 0.002", it's important to make sure you carefully measure the old shims and make sure the correct new shims are ordered. After removing shims, the bottom of the shims actually show wear around only the outer circumference. There's no wear on the center of the bottom side of the shims, but of course the cam lobe will wear more of the center of the top of the shim. In spite of this wear, I haven't found on my old shims that the center thickness varies much from the outer circumference thickness. But I think it's worthwhile to still check thickness of the shims at the center and outer circumference, to make sure a shim hasn't become worn asymmetrically.

I found that my new shims were mostly the correct thickness as marked on them, but I did find a few that were about 0.001" too thin. Using these would result in valve clearances also being off about 0.001". So it is also worthwhile to make sure to check that the new shims measure the thickness marked on the bottom.

I first measured my shims with a micrometer, but to doublecheck and make sure I hadn't made a mistake on the few new ones that measured too thin, I decided to use a small granite surface plate and 0.001" dial indicator that I have. Some people won't have these, but this setup really saved a lot of time, and was more convenient!! You also can quickly rotate the shim to check that the thickness doesn't vary much around the circumference to the center. Most new shims varied very little, but I did find a few that were the right thickness, but still seemed to vary +/- .0003" or so from one side to the other, or from the center to outer circumference.

For those who haven't seen the inside of our water pumps... check my disassembled pump. I sent off the pump with the rotor to the Mississippi water pump guy... Dick Jordan. Check out my pics. Hope I have parts and can post a lot more progress next week sometime.
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My alternator was dirty from oil so I wanted to clean it up, and I also decided to replace the regulator and rectifier circuits with new parts, to hopefully prevent any failure before my next Major inspection. I referred to Ernie's great thread... Thanks Ernie!

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=142329 Per this thread, I used the following parts from Holcombe Direct :

1 11-RN-10 ND,70 AMP,113mm OD $17.50 $17.50
1 09-VRH2005-4A ND,14.5 Volt Set $11.10 $11.10

GeorgeW in Ernie's thread seemed to have a somewhat different alternator on his car, so I'm posting pics showing my alternator, which seems to be basically the same as Ernie's. My car is a 1992 and is VIN 90690, Engine 28098, Assembly No. 07744.

One other thing is that the green electrical connector on Ernie's was smooth, and pulled straight out. My connector is also green, but has a lot of extra tabs around the circumference. Mine didn't pull out easily and so I spent a lot of time trying to figure out which tabs might be interfering with getting the plug out. But I finally managed to pull it out by just getting a good grip on it without having to worry about all the supplementary tabs. Very confusing and strange!

Also note that my current regulator has the 2 extra gound straps on the side that Ernie mentioned his didn't, but it does have heat cracks along the case, so I'm glad I'm replacing it.
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Ernie kindly put me in touch with the source in California for the USI regulator that he used. Ernie felt this regulator was better, since it seemed to have 2 extra ground straps. Since my existing regulator also had these straps, I wanted to get the USI if I could, instead of the Regitar that might work but didn't have the straps.

The Calif Source said he used to work here in Phoenix, and put me in touch with Rick at Turbo and Electric here, and said he knew that they could also get the regulator for me. Rick at T&E looked into this for me, and I visited him yesterday. At first Rick thought that what they had in stock would work, but after seeing mine, Rick saw the extra 2 straps and said those were leads to a capacitor that's included with some regulators. Not sure what the function and how necessary it is to have the capacitor.

Rick was finally able to crossreference directly with Nippondenso and order one for me from them. This was all he could find. Nippondenso usually stocks these, but was out, but they're due in again next month. I ordered one... since I can wait with everything else I have to do to get my engine back in the car. The bad news is that the cost is $100. But I'd rather be safe and get the proper one, and not have to worry about my old original one failing.... now that I have the alternator apart!

I told Rick at T&D that others may want to contact him to also order these regulators. They mostly rebuild turbos and alternators/starters, etc. mostly for the large truck industry. They also can rebuild if you want. Their website is:

348 Brothers! Just posting an update on latest on my alternator rebuild. If you want to see pics, you can check my Major service thread a couple posts above.

Ernie kindly put me in touch with the source in California for the USI regulator that he used. Ernie felt this regulator was better, since it seemed to have 2 extra ground straps. Since my existing regulator also had these straps, I wanted to get the USI if I could, instead of the Regitar that might work but didn't have the straps.

The Calif Source said he used to work here in Phoenix, and put me in touch with Rick at Turbo and Electric here, and said he knew that they could also get the regulator for me. Rick at T&E looked into this for me, and I visited him yesterday. At first Rick thought that what they had in stock would work, but after seeing mine, Rick saw the extra 2 straps and said those were leads to a capacitor that's included with some regulators. Not sure what the function and how necessary it is to have the capacitor.

Rick was finally able to crossreference directly with Nippondenso and order one for me from them. This was all he could find. Nippondenso usually stocks these, but was out, but they're due in again next month. I ordered one... since I can wait with everything else I have to do to get my engine back in the car. The bad news is that the cost is $100. But I'd rather be safe and get the proper one, and not have to worry about my old original one failing.... now that I have the alternator apart!

I told Rick at T&D that others may want to contact him to also order these regulators. They mostly rebuild turbos and alternators/starters, etc. mostly for the large truck industry. They also can rebuild if you want. I'll post their contact info in my thread, or feel free to let me know if you'd like more info. Their website is http://www.turboandelectric.com/index.html

Not sure.. they may even be located in other cities. I'll post final result of my alternator rebuild and regulator I get next month when it's done.

 

Daniel at Ricambi got in some more valve shims, and had one size that I needed that he mic'd to correct as stamped on the shim. So he sent that one to me and it measured exactly correct. Not Daniel's fault... some from the factory measure correct and some don't.

But I still needed 2 other sizes that measured exactly as stamped, and I decided to contact Ferrparts. They said they confirmed they could order ones that actually measured as stamped (we'll see!), so I'm waiting for those and a couple other minor items so I can finally start getting cams, belts, etc. back together!!

 

I rec'd my water pump back promptly from the Mississippi Water Pump Guy... Dick Jordan. I'm very satisfied with the results... very nicely finished, nicely stoned gasket mating surfaces, and a nice gasket to boot! Take a look at pics.... Of course, I only sent the actual rotor half of the pump. My friend Steve (ex 400i, 308GT4 and now 328GTS owner... THANKS STEVE) glass beaded the other part of the pump.

The glass beading came out shinier than from Jordan's. Jordan says he uses a ball bearing cleaner (I'm sure very small bearings), which doesn't take off any material... but you can see it comes out a little more like cast iron.. darker. Not exactly sure how I may try to match the finishes yet.

Jordan said he replaced the seals (of course), but says he tests the bearings with an electronic bearing test machine, and if they are good, he reinstalls them. If not, he replaces them. He could not remember what he did with mine. Not a problem for me... at least one Ferrari parts source told me most owners just run to fail.
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I refinished my valve covers with the VHT hi-temp wrinkle paint. Last time I used wrinkle was 20yrs ago with my 275GTB, and I think I ended up stripping and refinishing valve covers for that car at least 3 times before I was satisfied. I wasn't too happy with results after this first try... paint tended to run off high spots, and was harder to keep thick on sides. So I had varied wrinkle quality in different areas of the valve cover. See pics...

So I decided to go to Arizona Powder Coat and have them finish them in red wrinkle that they have. I prefer coarser wrinkles, but at least this finish is more durable, and can be scrubbed, or whatever, and should not flake, etc. I've attached a pic of the a red wrinkle coupon from Az. Powder Coat below to help folks decide if they want to use wrinkle powder coat.
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Mostly I have lots of pics, but I will probably have a fastener here or there that I may have to figure out how to match up!

I'm sure Jordan will replace them if the customer wants... I just made the mistake of not asking until after he had finished the pump. However, bearings can be funny. Dick apparently has an electronic bearing tester ($12000 he says) that measures vibration levels in the bearings and looks for indications of "incipient failure". These testers look at the type of vibration, and if they see certain vibration signatures that look like it's running rough, you can see that and know the bearing definitely needs replacing. I'm not guaranteeing this is the machine he has, but I suspect that's the case. Even new bearings can fail prematurely So I feel Dick was certain the bearings were good at this time, if he didn't replace them.

The parts source (very reputable on Ferrichat) said you can't get factory bearings... have to buy the whole pump ($$$$). And so most owners just run until the bearings show or have a problem (not really to failure ) Jordan is using some aftermarket bearing, so there's no guarantee that they will last longer or be better than OEM, but he really seems reputable, and has rebuilt Ferrari pumps of all types. I definitely don't want to have the pump fail not good for the very critical timing belt!!!!

 

Thanks.. but it was too uneven, so I took them to the Powdercoater and get them back in about 2wks. I'll post pics when they are powdercoating

 

Yup! At least the bearings were either tested or replaced, and new seals... so I'm no WORSE off

 

Just posting a couple more pics.... Last week I removed the old timing belt "idler" tensioner bearing and replaced it with a new Hill Engineering unit.

I used a "3-jaw" puller that I had. The jaws were not long enough to get around the whole bearing, so I just pulled on the pulley itself, and it came off of the bearing.

I was then able to get on the bearing and pull the bearing and shaft out of the mount. I stuck a couple 1/4" deep sockets into the center of the bearing and shaft to use as the puller "brace point". I recall Ernie suggested doing this in one of his posts above... that's the ticket Ernie!!

Then I used the original washer "spacer" and pressed in the new Hill Engineering unit. Hope this helps others see how this assembly comes apart.
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Just picked up my powder coated valve covers today. Overall they are glossier than the sample coupon I rec'd, but the wrinkle quality is also more coarse than the coupon, which I like. First pic is one cover with the sample coupon, with camera flash, and the other 2 are pics under a light without flash. I plan to still sand off some lettering, etc. to hi-lite the covers.

Still waiting for 1 washer to be able to start putting the chains and chain tensioner system together, and then to the valve train, belts, etc. !!
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