400i questions?

Paul

Welcome to 400 ownership! Could you post some photos?

I don't think anyone has done ignition/fuel injection upgrades, but it is something I've been considering (Electromotive or Bosch) for a while.

I had the headers on my car ceramic-coated for corrosion prevention and it is supposed to help reduce under-hood temps.

Sorry, I don't know any indy mechanics in CO.

Cheers

Aidan

 

I have seen "MSD" used alot on these cars instead of the 'Magneti Marelli' I think cost is the main motive rather than improvment.
Fritz

 

That and the fact that trying to find a working original ignition unit for sale is like trying to perform root canal on yourself.

 

D'oh! Of course, lots of cars have ignition upgrades, usually to MSD or Permatune (which I have on my car).

Aidan

 

pks
As suggested ceramic coating the exhausts is probably a good idea for corrosion prevention. I do not expect a big change in heat in the engine compartment. There are heat shields under the air filters and the sides down below. Although my Lotus BDR motor has wrapped headers due to severe under hood heat issues, I would not suggest you do that with your Ferrari. Wrapping can cause additional corrosion and these headers are not SS unlike the rest of the exhaust system.
Ken

 

Factory exhaust system is not stainless. The factory systems rotted like crazy. If you have stainless it is aftermarket and the only way to go.

 

Aidan,
Was your Perma-tune a rebuilt AEC 104-B module or Perma-tune copy($600.+/-)?
I have to hunt thru my records but I remember them offering:

Replacement equiv. @ $6-800. plus their coil($100.)
Rebuilt AEC104-B mod. @ $1600.
New Marelli 104-B mod @ $2000.

 

+1. I also remember markcF355's experinece with his MSD install last year and the problem of Phantom voltage keeping the MSD module active after turning the key off. His solution was to add a diode to the excitation input of each alternator to block it.
The new Perma-tune mods supposedly increases the spark energy by a factor of 5, eliminating plug fouling. Supposed to use their coil in this application (#SC010).

http://www.permatune.com/ignition-ferrari-aec-103b.html

I think that 103b.html was supposed to be 104b.

 

I have no idea. Bill Pollard fitted it under Dave's ownership.

 

Doing this from memory, which lately hasn't been worth a dam.

When I bought it there was a Permetune unit bolted to the same mount the factory unit uses. It was the wrong one. It was from a 911 which will work but it has a 5800 rpm rev-limiter built in. The factory Magneti Marelli was missing. I had Bill buy and install a new correct unit from Permatune, $800 I think, check the records I gave you Aidan.

 

I replaced my Dinoplex with an MSD unit and had significant improvement. Starts quicker and runs cleaner. Kept the Dinoplex in place and hid the MSD.

Al
84 400iA 50605

 

When I bought my 400i a few years ago, I had the stock ignition and it was horrible. The car would up and die on me when at idle and not start all the time. I did all the testing to determine what the problem was and it all indicated the Marelli dinoplex was not working properly. I installed a MSD unit (I think a 6A) in the same location as the Marelli unit and the car starts and runs great. It cost about $300 total. Ordered special from MSD so it would work on the 12 cylinder.

 

Btw, you can use the standard MSD--no need to have a modified version. 2 things are affected;
- the max RPM for an 8-cylinder may be 10,000 RPM; so this means 6600rpm when used on a V12 with a single distributor.
- the multiple sparks stop at 2,000rpm, not 3,000. Frankly, I'm not convinced that there is such a thing as a second chance of the spark at high RPM....either you hit it on time, or there is no power. If you have bad mixture at low RPM, better to fix it (not hope the ignition will remedy it).

I put an Electromotive on my 308 before, instead of worrying about dual distributor timing and $1000 worth of distributor caps...It installed easily (well, if you consider the neat work a friend did to make a bracket for the sensor, and the job the machine shop did to put the timing wheel on the harmonic balancer). I was happy with the result. But at least, the single V12 distributor is less worry. If the distributor had an advance problem, you could set it for fixed advance and use something like an external timiing computer with the MSD. In that case, you will need the timing computer to be modified for the 12-cylinder timing (since the total advance amount and progression are setup for the wrong cylinder size).

Summit racing sells a copy of the MSD (may be exactly the MSD, after all) for just $119...Lee