SRI Gold Connector Pin Kit strikes gold!

Dave Helms has struck gold with his gold connector kit.

As many of you know Dave Helm’s of Scuderia Rampante and Scuderia Rampante Inovations has been working on several fixes for Ferrari’s continued lack of development to our cars. I am one of his lucky beta testers and it is time to report my findings. You are going to like what you read. This is a report on his amazing “gold connector kit”.

Many of you know who I am but for those that do not I am not a trained mechanic. I’m a diy’er with decent skills as a part replacer. AKA…pretty much just like you. So if I can do this you can do this. In fact I really believe that the attention to detail needed for this kit really shines when the Ferrari is “your” Ferrari. While I have huge respect for real mechanics I believe that this is an easy project very well suited to diy’ers because you love your Ferrari and will pay the attention needed to do this job right the first time. You are not on a time clock or have 3 jobs going at once with the phone ringing, and that means you can take the time to “measure twice and cut once” , brush clean every wire, make every wire strip the correct length, repair failed cladding, inspect every crimp connection, stress-free re-route every wire bundle, clean every part. This is a labor intensive process but it is a labor of love and the results will be the single best improvement you can make to your Ferrari. That’s right! The single best period. I have rebuilt Ferrari motors since the 308 carb days, moved to quattrovalves, 348’s and then the 550, experienced most models earlier than the 430 and played most of the tricks from fancy cams to nitrous oxide but the best improvement I have ever done is the SRI gold kit.

It is amazing what we have come to accept from Ferrari. We have electrical problems up the wazzu that make Lucas electronics seem like a good idea. Daily there are posts about F1 shift failures, O2 sensors, Pcodes, and MIL’s. The 348/355 board is the most technically savvy board because the cars break all the time and we have to fix them. I turned my 348 into a dedicated racecar and gut out all the wires to make it work properly, all of that pre-SRI gold kit. 99% of the time you have a Ferrari problem you always suspect the wiring first. Most of us hold Bosch in poor regard complicit in Ferrari’s short comings.

We were all wrong. Bosch really does engineer their products. I’m not going to point fingers but I will say that when the OEM Ferrari system is working as it was designed the cars are amazing. Most of you have never experienced a proper running Ferrari. That’s a bold statement. I believe it is true. I honestly believe that Ferraris with the gold connector upgrade will bring an extra few thousand dollars at resale not only because the car runs better but because the car over it’s life will foul less parts and that means less engine wear over it’s lifetime.

The gold connector kit is a series of SRI developed tools to properly prepare the end of the existing wires to receive a special gold tipped pin that will be housed back in its connector plug. I don’t need to tell you about the engineering value of gold but the science is proven. It is a known technology that works. The heart of the kit is the crimping tool that absolutely makes the perfect crimp of this gold pin. Don’t be fooled there is huge time and effort spent right there to source the tool to make the perfect crimp over and over again. You can’t do it with a lesser tool and expect the quality results. There are pin removal/placement tools with very fine details to do their job that can’t be matched by other tools. If you use the wrong tool and strip out the plastic in the connector body the new pin will not float properly in its housing. There are brushes, connector boot application tools, wire stripers and picks. Each aspect of the kit is thought out. Finally, the jewels of the kit are the multi sized gold pins, various connectors, and rubber boots. You cannot just source some gold pins and start crimping with Radio Shack supplies. This kit is a “system” and it all works together so that the results shine at the end. That is why this is a great diy project. No shortcuts can be taken or you cheat yourself of the results. Shortcuts are a “Fail”. Done just right is “nirvana”.

My 348 was a terrible car electronically. I heard the 550’s were bullet proof but did not believe it until I owned one. I was amazed how good the 550 is. In the year plus I have owned it starts every time and just plain runs until you shut it down. Everything works, honestly I did not expect the gold kit to improve my car at all especially since the ECU plugs are virgin unlike the 348/355 which require engine out service and severing of the critical harness to ECU connection multiple times. My car was a typically maintained 550. It has a few ghost CEL lights and a stumble here or there and ran as good if not better than any Ferrari I had ever owned...yes typical for the model, typical Ferrari. As perfect a Ferrari as we have come to “accept”. That’s right…come to “accept”. I completed my major service, including injector clean and testing (part of “my” major service), then tested everything to be properly running. The car was basically the same as before the major. I expected it would be, the old belts had a 3 year old date stamp from a reputable shop. I discovered TSB updates were done by the parts that I could now touch and feel with everything apart. All in all a well maintained car.

I then installed the gold kit in two phases. First phase was everything except the ECU pins and second phase was the 88 pin ECU plugs. Upon first phase installing all the engine compartment gold pins and the underbody I got instant improvement in idle quality, the rpm reved more freely, the car ran more strongly, the occasional check engine light “ghost” was gone, and I got a nice bark above 5000rpm in the exhaust note. The changes were noticeable and subtle. My 550 was running better than it ever did before. The proof of a job well done was passing California smog way under the limits. I was totally sold on the gold kit concept. Fast forward about 6 months and SRI was ready for phase two. Yesterday I complete phase two installing the gold 88 ECU plug pins. OMG! This improvement is bigger than phase one. There is more felt power at the seat of the pants. Idle quality is amazing, that occasional hunt/stumble we all live with is gone!
12 cylinders are so smooth in general but now I’m just plain giddy. The ASR kicks in much more readily because I have to relearn how much throttle to apply. All the bumps and divots around my area I “know how to put power down to” are now met with more wheel spin than before. That’s because there is more power to modulate. Part throttle driveability and moving off the line are way more tractable and progressive. I’ll say driveability again because that is the first driving improvement you notice. We all get lazy sometimes and fail to shift and lug our cars maybe up a small hill and feel the car just about die and we race to stab the clutch in or hit the gas. I can intentionally lug the car and the engine just won’t die. The car makes noticeably less smog. You can smell it! When I do my 10 minute re-learn after cutting the power I am usually “choked to death” out of my garage by the startup smog. On this first startup I was not choking. The system now gets into closed loop faster. Something is happening where the cats are working faster and more efficiently. One day this will all be quantitated on machines. But today I “know” I experience these differences. I am 100% convinced this is the best upgrade a Ferrari can have. I have all these new benefits on a 550 Ferrari that basically worked fine. Can you imagine the benefits on a Ferrari that is prone to more issues like the 348/355’s? I am spoiled. I am ruined. I can own no future Ferrari without the SRI gold kit.

I suspect more good things that are yet to be proven. Will fuel mileage be better if there is all this efficiency? Probably, but I can never keep my 550 full of gas or far away from a new set of tires. Who buys a 12 cylinder Ferrari for mpg anyway? Just think of some of the problems we have. Numerous posts have been made about P-codes for cat efficiency failures. How much of those failures are wiring related? If the cats work properly and O2 sensors feedback to the ECU properly everything else works properly and the wrong feedback is not given to the motor. What happens if the O2 sensors errantly report rich and force the ECU to lean the mixture or vice versa? Premature cat death? Cylinder wash? Valve death? How much less carbon buildup on the back of the valves will we have if the combustion is proper? Remember any computer responds badly to “garbage in garbage out”. How can we expect the Bosch motronic to do its job if the input
sensors can’t get their messages down the wire? How can the car hold that meticulous cam timing when the signals from the crank and cam sensors are not true? The gold connector pin effect every motronic sub-system. Will all these good results last? Over 6 months on phase 1 tells me Yes! Gold conductivity is unquestioned. The special pins are holding their pressure. The ride quality has held and now this new huge jump in quality is being tested. The tools to do the job have been developed by Dave and his testers. Pin pressure, boot design, crimp dynamics, wire cleaning concepts, calling in favors, and making new friends, the effort SRI has gone to designing this kit leaves no stone unturned. I thank Dave Helms for letting me be apart of it. You guys have no idea what you are missing and no idea how big the smile on your face will be on your first drive around the block. This upgrade has teeth! In 30 years of Ferrari tinkering the
SRI gold kit is the most rewarding Ferrari upgrade I have ever done.

The word "Thanks" Scuderia Rampante Innovations is not enough.

http://www.scuderiarampanteinnovations.com/solutions.html

 

Here is what you start with the left two connectors. Here is what you finish with on the right a clean connector with gold pins.
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SRI's gold pins are specialy sourced. Look how the Ferri OEM silver pin has those huge gaps between the tines. Is it any wonder that we have poor connections? This is from my 550 who's ecu connectors have never been removed. What do you think happens to 348/355 silver pins that have two removal/replacement cycles on every engine out service?
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I think ECU block "phase two" very important. Look at this pin I took out of my old connector block. You can see light shine through where an ecu pin is supposed to be gripped. We are talking huge bad contact on an ECU/harness connection that is VIRGIN! That means you guys that need engine out service have a much shorter service life on the ECU/harness connection than me. The white connector block is a real piece of work too. It is very complicated in contruction and I see no way to bend back the old pins for better contact. Any tool you stick in there damages the white connector block. Everything goes in one way "once" as far as I can determine. So if you get a pin failure you are out of luck. On my 2 old white connector blocks there are about 120 total pins and 100% are spread open like this picture. It is no surprise to me that we are chasing ghosts.
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Enginefxr,

I wonder if the cars ever ran right new?

Our Fchat boards are full of low mile new Ferraris with all kinds of electrical issues. We got F1 systems stuck in gear, alarm problems, evap emissions CEL's you name it we see it happen. Rifledriver put is very nicely once regarding an evap CEL in another post. His statement was something like "rediculous rules on emmisions the Fed makes car manufactuers try to follow and the manufactuers doing it the cheapest way possible." I don't know what is in Dave's head but in my mind he sort of makes the assumption that someone engineered the project properly and then the beancounters set the price and we get crappy Ferraris. I think the likes of Dave Helms is reverse engineering the problems trying to find out where the compromises were and voila we have SRI gold kits and SRI silicone hoses, Birdman's fusebox, and Hill engineering's list of products.

 

Rick,

I don't have an engineering answer to your question. I'm sure Maestro Dave can tell you. What I can say is we know we have a problem with the silver pins and new gold pins will only increase our cyclic life. The gold pin is completely different from the oem silver pin. The gold pin not only has gold tips but a completely different body fabrication that prevents the tips from spreading like the failed silver pins. My picture is so-so but you can see at the top the gap is wider than on the bottom. Look closely at your failed silver pins and you will see one side of the gap larger than the other side of the gap so that the gap looks like a shallow "V". There is no way you can get a complete connection onto the male pin. Because of the body design the gold pin can't spread that way. We all think it is about the "gold" but it is about the entire pin. I think it is this cheaper silver pin that is the start of all our problems. Right from the manufacturer we start on day one with differential grip pressure of the wired female silver pin to the Male pins of the sensors/ecu on the car. Again...no wonder we have the problems we have.


An again, no stone has been left unturned. I tell you guys I know quality when I see it. Someone undoubtedly will source his own gold pins and think it is all about the gold. It isn't. It is all about the "SYSTEM" Dave has put together. Don't be fooled a huge amount of R&D has been done for you.
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Funny! Did you notice my last picture? I got self concious about my chubby knobs and poked that failed silver pin through Dave's pretty business card. I needed the black contrast to see the pin outline.

 

I pulled this from another board but it answered here.

My personal thoughts are that a blow by blow is fine if someone wants to do it but it is really not needed and might be kind of tedious becuase the actual mechanics of applying the kit are so easy. There is a diagram in every Ferrari manual that shows all the workings of the engine. It shows the throttle position sensors, maf, cam etc... Basically any wire you see has to end somewhere in a connector and you just change the pins in there. That's it. In your 348 manual shows the access to the ecus and how to press the button to get into diagnostic mode. On the ecu you see a connector. You replace the pins in there. There is not much to it. But yes it is always nice and comforting to just follow a step by step and one still has to have a brain. You can't have brain fade and cross a wire. You can't drop plenum nuts down the intake runner if one is taking off the plenum to replace the injector harness.