Merak Power

Hi,

I am seriously considering rebuilding my Merak SS engine next year. Can anyone tell me what power they have seen on a rolling road after a rebuild and what improvements come from what. ...IE any tips?
There was a John Spelic who claimed to have seen 275 BHP a few years back. Does anyone else get close to this and if so how is it done!!


Julian

 

all the merak ss ever needed was bora power. the merak was simply the prettiest car on the road in her day. a bit more grunt would have been oh so fine.

i loved my ss and never got tired of looking at her profile or enjoying the view from the drivers seat...a super cool dash layout too!!!

good luck in your rebuild and search for 275hp.

pcb

 

In theory, it's easy to get that degree of HP boost, but the question is always: can the engine handle it? You could slap on a Supercharger or a big Turbocharger & get that much, but what stresses would that impart on the internal components?

I honestly don't know what the capacity of that engine could be, but 275hp is still less than 100hp/litre, so it's certainly not unheard of - albeit in more modern engine designs.

If it were me, I'd be looking for incremental gains at various points along the line... for example, could you custom-fab an exhaut system that'd get you an additional 10-15 HP? Maseratinet sells a high-output ignition system for these... could that get you a little extra? Twin-turbos, each with a mild boost? How much could you get out of that?

Things along those lines.

I don't think I would try it without a totally refurbed engine, though - otherwise you could easily end up with zero horsepower.

 

If you are serious about it, you should remove the engine and put it in storage, then buy a second hand engine from a spare parts shop and tune that one. That way, you can revert the car to its original state and you also have a backup in case your tuned engine blows up.

 

I agree, put away the original and find something else. One of Maserati's national service techs told me a story in the 1980s about a drug dealer's seized Merak that he cleaned up and stuck a Biturbo engine in.

I have no idea if it was true but you can easily get a lot more than 275 HP from a late stock Biturbo engine such as the one's used in either the Barchetta or the the Ghibli Cup cars. The size and weight would be very amenable and at least it would be from the same family. Then again, if you want real muscle just get the real thing. Buy a Bora. It's probably easier, maybe even cheaper in the end. I think the Bora will appreciate better than a modified Merak.

Bob S.

 

Not too many Merak SS engines up for sale these days and no , I can't afford a Bora. I do need to rebuild my engine since it smokes pretty heavily so why not get the most out of a rebuild? I am not after the most power at any cost but any improvement would be useful. Any other Merak owners disagree out there?
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Modifying Maserati engines for any significant power gains is an expensive proposition.

There are a few other website that discuss the Merak/SM engine and what's involved. You could try some of those.

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Sport-Maserati-L/?yguid=60231725

There's been quite a bit of discussion about these engines over the years on that website. There are others as well.
There are some rebuilt ones available from Eurospares.

Best of luck and enjoy your car.

Bob S.

 

Well, that's very different than the general idea I got from your original post. For example, if your car is smoking pretty heavily, I'm relatively certain that you're losing enough compression efficiency to the point where you're not even putting out close to stock horsepower... a proper, stock rebuild might be all it takes to make you happy compared to the performance you're experiencing now, for example.

As for getting more out of a rebuild - I can't say... I'm not personally aware of what other options might be viable, such as boring it out, or perhaps getting some custom cams made, etc. It's not a small-block Chevy, so I would think the options are rather limited - short of fairly expensive custom machinery.

 

That would be me.

That rebuild took place about 10 years ago. The motor was of course a Merak ss motor and there was quite a bit done to it.

There was so much done. I will include what I recall
The pistons were made by Ross racing pistons and I had them poking out of the cylinder .010 which made the quench .040-.050 ish. The motor was overbored .010 and the piston dome was actually quite a bit smaller (a good thing) due to the raised piston deck and increased combustion efficiency. Compression was in the neighborhood of 10.5:1. Maserati motors had the same issue Ferrari motors of this era had, which is they allowed the piston to be buried in the chamber .050 while at TDC. Really terrible but they didn't know any better. Crank and rods were balanced and the crank had quite a bit of weight removed by boat-tailing the counter-weights. The block was line-bored straight.

Flow work on the heads (I cannot recall the flow numbers before or after!) were done by a shop in the Champaign-Urbana area Illinois. This guy also did my engine balancing and I actually never even went to their shop. The place I was building the motor at (mainly a dirt track racing shop) uses this fellow and they took the stuff over with them one day and had it all done. The heads flowed a good 10% more though. New valves from Ferrea IIRC.

Cams were a grind done by I want to say Elgin or Megacycle. I cannot recall who did it, but lift was changed something like +.050. I changed the valve springs and retainers to accomodate the extra lift. The cam spec was something like intake: 242 duration @ .050 and .410 lift. It's been a while so the figures are most likely not entirely accurate but I'm in the ball park. I cannt recall what I set the cams to, but I recall it ran best and made best power being extremely tight LSA, just like a Ferrari motor.

The engine was dyno'd at a little engine dyno shop dirt track racers in central Illinois use quite a bit in I want to say Farmer City, IL. This dyno mostly does 700-800bhp chevy motors and it took quite a bit of time to get the merak motor lined up and in for testing. This engine ran incredibly hot as all the power was made at the upper end and the crank journals are thick so they generate all kinds of heat. Power was something like 272 @ 7200rpm.


A lot of work went into this thing and I don't think I would do it this way again. Too much heat and too many other mods required to keep it running soundly. A vanilla rebuild with higher compression pistons leaving everything else stock is the easiest way and these motors are good for another 15-20bhp in high compression pistons with an optimised quench on their own. 240-250 at the crank is undoubtedly not unreasonable with pistons, proper jetting, and an infinite radius cut valve job. Lots of tuning of course. Carburetors are fun.

 

Great post, John!

 

Thanks. I learned more working on that engine and more specifically working on it in that machine shop with the masters around giving me pointers than I have learned anywhere else. Those guys rebuilt and worked on just about anything and had been doing it since the early 60s. They had just done a Countach engine and had a truck engine 15 feet away from it. Beautiful work too. It's one thing to have a machine shop and it's another to have one with people who actually know what they are doing inside.

 

No offense intended, but...

if you want more power, why not consider buying a new contemporary car?

 

Exactly. That's the way to go. The work it takes to get more muscle from an older car is rewarding but very difficult and will end up costing more than what a newer car would be. Classic cars are great and I intend on pretty much keeping mine as they are. Classic and vanilla

 

Because then he'd have a contemporary car, not the World's Fastest Merak!

I say save your Merak engine & find a wrecked NSX somewhere - ENGINE SWAP!

 

And could we ask, How did it go afterwards?

 

Did you mean me? If so, I didn't do an engine swap - I was just thinking out loud.

Now if I can just find a wrecked NSX.....

 

The original engine is definately staying. I like the engine, the noise and the car. The company car has 317 KW so I'm happy with the classic status of the Merak and what it will and won't do....But if I'm spending money on new pistons and gas flowing the heads I was interested in what the gains might be. I'm very encouraged by what John was suggesting might be attainable without going for power at any cost

 

The words "Maserati" and "cost" are inexorably linked so fuggetabout doin' it on the cheap.

 

Great to hear everyone kicking around some great ideas!

Ciao,
George

 

When you do it, please make sure to post pics & specs!

 

No Problem.... Research phase is just beginning!!

I'd like to drive the car before pulling the engine out, its been a long year rebuilding suspension. Ferrari rear shocks [ ! ] and new front springs. [ original shocks were damaged internally on one side at the rear ]
Pictures later if you want!
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I second that! For those of us that may have a rebuild in their future, it would be a great help.

 

It drove more like a Ferrari than a Maserati after. The low-end power Maser's are known for was in the engine, but up a couple thousand rpm. The car was still very easy to drive on the streets, but when you opened it up you needed to make for sure you were going to get into a high rpm otherwise there was no point. There was a tiny bit more power in the regular stock power band, but the real difference came over 5500rpm-7000rpm.