308 bought: Newbie questions

Congrats on the purchase Ossi!

I'm sure you will hear from many people here.... but a Ferrari 308 with only 2000
miles, not driven for 7 years, is going to be rather expensive to get driving. I hope
you have a good budget for repairs - or can do them yourself.

YES, you will need a full major service (belts, tensioners, water pump, etc.). But
given the age / lack of use, many other parts will be in poor condition - fuel hoses
being very high on that list.

Don't be tempted to start / drive this car until you've had a full major service or
you could potentially cause very serious damage.

I'm sorry to be blunt - I don't mean to dull your excitement. But a 30 Year old Ferrari
with only 2000 miles and not running for 7 years is potentially very bad news.

Good luck and please keep us all posted!!

Welcome to Ferrari Chat Ossi

Jedi

 

I had a similar experience with my 328. It had been driven about 600 miles in the 7 years prior to purchase. I would suggest a full engine service. I would hunt around locally for the right mechanic. I only did belts when I got the car and had some issues. After 2 years I found a great mechanic who strongly recomended a full service. That was 10 years ago. Since then, the car has run like a Honda - very reliable. Having a great mechanic that knows what he is doing go through the car makes a huge difference. They will find all the weak links and replace them while the engine is open.

 

Ossi, the alternator can be easily rebuilt, as can the starter. They are not special. Consider upgrading the air-conditioning to a rotary compressor from the original style piston compressor. The a/c will work better and use less horsepower when engaged. i would consider replacing the brake flex lines due to age, as well as ALL the fuel lines and hoses. The fuel hoses crack, leak and cause fires! next would be suspension bushings, but some of this stuff you can do as you drive the car for fun off and on. Brake lines and fuel hoses should be done while the timing belt / 30k service is done.

Dont forget to change all the cooling hoses too !!!!

 

If it is rubber or plastic, has fluid of any kind running thru it or around it or it moves, there is your starting place to replace it.

Sorrry, but 99.4532% true.

 

It doesn't sound bad at all BigOJS. I think Jedi misunderstood that the car only went 2000 miles since it's last major a few years ago as opposed to 2000 miles ever. It's basicly mandatory to change the timing belt due to the age of the belt as that seems to be more important than the miles on a belt. Immediately, the fuel lines should be inspected and corected if necessary. Otherwise, the other stuff is done at your discretion as to your interests. A broken water line won't blow up the motor but it may shut you down for a few weeks if it's not dealt with. Enjoy, Brian

Lots of other good advice headed your way. Great sight and resource. Most importantly, drive it and enjoy!!

 

That's correct Brian. My apologies - I mis read the post.



Jedi

 

Congratulations! I'm coming up on hree years of ownership of my '82 308 and I never get tired of any aspect of it: driving, maintaining, or just looking at it. Make sure you locate a good mechanic who is familiar with these cars, if you aren't one yourself.

 

My '83 GTS had right at 20K miles when I bought it in December '07. The previous owner had done the belts and a few other items three years earlier but I decided to start fresh with a complete job.

Cost was $5K for the standard major and another $2K to replace numerous original hoses, bushings, etc. throughout the car that were in the danger zone simply because of age.

 

You are going to have a lot of fun BigO!

I picked up my 84 QV in Nov/09. It had 19100 miles on it and, like yours, had very few miles put on in the last few years before I picked it up.

I had a PPI done in Ft. Lauderdale which showed up nothing that would stop me from driving it home, except rear pads, new tires which I installed and then drove it the 1400+ miles to Houston. I stopped in Ocala Florida at Cavallino Automobili for an oil/filter change on the way as I didn't have time to get that done in Ft. Lauderdale before everything closed up for the day.

The car behaved itself nicely on the drive, but started complaining once I got home. Here is the short list from memory of things you likely have in your immediate future:

- the booster diaphram split so I did a booster/master rebuild, flushed the hydraulic system, and checked all the hoses, calipers, pads etc. Has worked flawlessly since.

- replaced front wheel bearings and seals.

- cleaned the pulley on the clutch cable. This is something you best take a quick look at because if you don't keep it clean it can chew up your clutch cable pretty quickly.

- did the entire cooling system, water pump, thermostat, expansion tank cap, all hoses with new hose clamps all around, rodded out and pressure tested the radiator, replaced the controllers for the fans, and temp sender for the temp gauge. I had some issues with the first thermostat I put in but the next one worked perfectly and have had no problems since. I also rebuilt the cooling fans while I had everything apart as they were pretty much shot. Also added Verel's bleeder screws for ease of bleeding the system and these I very much recommend. Makes life a lot easier.

- replaced the filters in both heater cores.

- did timing belts, tensioner bearings, cam seals, distributor seals and put on new valve cover gaskets while I was at it. No problems since there either.

- replaced both distributor caps, gaskets, rotors and all wires. Also put in a new set of plugs.

- replaced all the fuel hoses/filters I could get at with the engine in the car, also all emission hoses.

- replaced A/C and alternator belts and put on a fresh air filter.

- I had a melted connector on the fuse block for the fuel pump, so I threw on a Birdman fuse block set and have had no issues in that department since either.

- sheet metal repair - this was a Florida car and I guess it saw a lot of salt air. There was rust on everything that wasn't painted or coated and a lot of the metal around the engine bay was just simply gone. Luckily I have done a lot of this kind of work on Alfa's I have owned over the years so wasn't too afraid to dive into the job. Turned out quite nicely as just about everything that needed to be fabricated ended up being finished in black

Once all that was done I started driving the car in anger. As of today I have put on just over 10,000 miles and loved every one of them.

Still on the list are:

- suspension refurb - all bushings, shocks etc.

- fuel system refurb - fuel pump, accumulator, injectors, lines etc. This I will be doing next as I am coming up on 30K and want to pull the motor to do a real good job on the engine bay, fuel tanks etc.

- interior refurb - seats, center console, doors, head liner, carpets. The interior is showing a lot of wear now and really does need some attention. Once I get all the mechanical work completed I will start on that.

- Dash - temp gauge is a bit flaky and I would like to replace lights throughout. Also I need to do the clock. Oh yeah, and I have a broken signal stock base on the signal switch which I want to take out and send to Verel for rebuild.

That's the list I can think of from memory. So far I have been able to do all of this myself with a lot of patience and the usual set of shop tools. The booster/master rebuild I had done at Power Brake of Pomano Beach. Great shop! They had the master sent to a friend of theirs in California to be bored out and sleeved in stainless. Ray Cook, the owner, even saved the original booster decal for me and sent it back via post.

Oh yeah, and like many other Fchatters I have photo-documentation of all of the above if you ever need pics of things in odd states of disrepair.

And one other thing. I had the misfortune of having a huge piece of road debris slam into, and break, my windshield. I eventually found a replacement to fit, but that was an adventure. If you ever need the info I can point you to the thread.

Ciao and good luck,
Paul

 

Paul,

Did you do it all yourself?

Since the initial major, my biggest issue has been the cooling system. Over two years I had the radiator recored, thermostat replaced, water pump rebuilt with a 328 impeller installed, secondary overflow tank installed, new aftermarket high cfm radiator fans installed, and the entire system pressure-tested. The engine now runs about 15-20F cooler across the water temperature range and doesn't heat up in traffic anymore...a satisfactory result.

The only other alarming problem was a sudden onset of occasional backfiring through the exhaust. The solution was easy--replace a failing crank sensor which was causing the front bank to cut out momentarily and force unburnt fuel into the exhaust headers.

Next addon will be Birdman's fuseblocks. I'm not having electrical problems but it's an inexpensive DIY job that can't but improve and protect and is also readily reversable. That's a rationalization...truthfully, I can't resist easily installed addons...have about $2K worth already.

Like you, I also want to pull my engine and do a thorough cleanup and detailing job. I don't have the facilities or time to do it myself so I'll do the best cleanup possible as-is and rationalize pulling the engine at the next belt change.

 

There is a dedicated parts cross-over thread at the top of this section - there are also specialists in the UK & US who can ship parts to you in Finland such as Ricambi Eurospares Superformance Maranello Classic

Its always worth a search here as over the years most questions have been asked before

 

There's a sticky on here somewhere that lists threads for most typical projects. For some reason I can't find it this morning. Some, such as belts, are sort of critical - some not so much. They can be enjoyable reading and give you an idea of what you're getting into with each project. Viper_driver did a great one starting with minor fix-its and ending up with a full re-furb:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=262409

There's also a great one by Newman.

I'm not suggesting you need to go as far as these guys did. It sounds like you have a pretty solid car. JUst take what you need and leave the rest. Unfortunately the search function on this forum can be ahhh......problematical or more likely in my case its operator insufficiency.

Anyway, congrats and enjoy!

 

Late congratulations, BigO