the lvferraripilot engine rebuild thread

Second heat cycle yesterday evening. I warmed the thing up and adjusted the idle and balance quite a bit. WOW is it smooth. Very crisp throttle response from idle and any rpm for that matter.

 

One thing I forgot to mention. I always like to note with forged pistons if they 'rattle' or not while cold as many of them do until hot. This does not rattle at all but there is a big difference from cold running to hot running. Much bigger then before, but I suppose that is because all is new and not quite broken in etc

 

They are the only way to go with any rebuild for performance use. Using stock cast pistons is in the dark ages.

 

spark plug pics!

these are the BP7ES which are clearly too hot. observe the heat mark on the ground strap which goes well past the apex. Going with BP8ES tonight although I have a feeling WOT runs under load the BP8ES will still be too hot. We shall see. Good starting point though.
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BP8ES did it. No more hot running

 

Made a bit of a victory lap around the neighborhood last night. Whatever slight stumble off idle that was there before is gone. Never went over 3k but it's not hard to tell the difference.

 

back on the ground!

These 16" wheels feel like I have power steering now. Can't believe how much easier they are at low speeds.
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exactly. hanging in a droop for a while. it settled down after my victory lap. good observation!

 

Thanks for the advice! Most of the pics were taken with my iphone. Good tip regardless

 

I removed the US heat shielding and painted the exhaust manifolds with super high temperature manifold paint. Very clean look above and below plus the original US heat shielding was looking ratty. Euro cars come with their manifolds like this.

FIRST DRIVE ATTEMPT:
I back out of my driveway and hear a big CLUNK front the right front when I hit the brakes. I immediately pull back in, remove the wheel and see the caliper is disconnected. Frustrated, I went inside and had a evening libation. The following day I look closer and see not one, but both dog ears which attach the caliper to the suspension had snapped. More jiggling causes a tiny wrench to fall out. I walk to the back of my driveway and notice a 17mm socket sitting right about there I stopped............then I thought about my 1 1/2 little girl who was playing by this wheel the other day........with a wrench in her hand. YUP, I hit the brake pedal and the caliper snaps due to the positioning of the wrench between the caliper and disc. Fast forward a few hours......

I call a local Porsche wrecking yard for a 911sc ATE 'A' series caliper. For those of you doing this, know that Porsche mounted their calipers to the front of the disc while Ferrari mounted them to the rear. So a front left 911 caliper is actually a right front 308 caliper. I picked up a caliper I was told was 'ok'............right. I get the thing back and it is frozen solid. I soak the caliper moving areas overnight in PB blaster and the following day spent about an hour and a half removing the brake pistons. The came out, but it was a nasty fight. Thankfully the inside of the caliper had surface rust and no pitting. Cleaned up with light sanding, more PB blaster soaking, and a caliper rebuild kit I had randomly sitting around my garage (strange, I know) and am currently in the process of refitting and bleeding etc. This fiasco will see it's end later today and a valuable lesson has been learned about watching your kids with tools..........especially when near a Ferrari.

 

that would be an original Ansa sport FE2020. The thing doesn't with 16lbs. Super light and great sounding little unit.

 

Hmmm better lock up the wrenches. She looks crafty!

brake caliper and current engine bay pics. I removed the oil line which attaches to the oil filter housing and sent it to a hose place to be replaced. No notice in the records that is had ever been done so I figure it's better safe than sorry with this one. It was crimped a bit when removing the engine and is has not been leaking. Refreshing anyway. Old and cracking
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First real drive took place this evening. I took it very easy accelerating and decelerating in various gears with various throttle openings. I superficially set the idle and carb tune knowing they would need to be changed very shortly. I am almost certain the rings have seated because the 900-1000 rpm idle fully warmed magically went to about 2500-3000 rpm. I will tear into it again this weekend and reset the carbs a bit further.

On another note, as I suspected the BP8ES plugs are still too hot, but not by a large margin this time. The car is driveable with 8s but I can tell hard driving would heat things up a ton. Going to BP9ES.