The 308 dream, realized

Thank you, Robert. It will be another good bit of learning.....more Ferrari 101

 

I dug into the passenger door today, to have a look at the window problem. It was a great thing to do anyway, as I was able to get really familiar with the door mechanisms. I was delighted to find that the cable was in mint condition and had not snapped or come undone (the P.O. had done a great job installing a new one a few years ago). The clamping nuts for the window glass had simply fallen off. I took a trip to Lowe's for some nice Nylocs and washers and tightened it all up nicely on the glass. I spent a good amount of time lubricating the pulleys, lubricating the window guides and aligning the glass. With some quality time spent lining it up to the seals and B-pillar and adjusting travel, I was back in business. The original mounting on the cable had left a slight "dimple" in it, which gave me a great ballpark location to start from. The door panel came off without a hitch and it gave me a good opportunity to treat the leather of the entire panel. While in there, I did find that the original 1985 Boston Acoustics driver had wasted away (I'm assuming that the other one is in similar shape). The hinge had rotted, which isn't too surprising. It's going to be fun to pick up a new set of speakers and get them in the doors. Speaker installation will take me back to the old days
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Quality time in the garage today. I changed her over to Castrol GTX 20W50 with great results (I'd been running 10W40). The pressure had been lower than I'd like and temps were up, with some tappet noise. At running temperature, the 40 is just too thin for this car. As of this afternoon's run, the engine has quieted down, pressure is up to earlier levels and running temperatures (coolant and oil) are down.

Also drained the gearbox (was it ever ready for it) and put in some Red Line 75W90NS. A noticeable improvement. She's shifting like buttah. It has really never bothered me, but I'll be curious how second gear goes now, cold.

**Note that these are simply my findings....your results may vary

 

I took the car out for its first cold run after my gearbox oil change. With the Red Line 75W90NS, as others have reported, she popped right into second right away. A great bonus.

 

A great day spent on dropping out her tired coolant supply and digging into some much-neglected components. I started with re-engineering the front plumbing, adding a drain/flush fitting. I managed to cut into the hose and capture the coolant without the customary Prestone Facial (though I was sprayed pretty well). After I buttoned up the front and gave the skid plate a nice Aluminum Oxide blast, I got into the engine compartment to work on my goal of lowering the car's running temperature. I managed to get the thermostat housing off with a few raps of my dead blow hammer and some artful wiggling

Hey, I wonder how much the mangled thermostat contributed to my erratic running temps? Destroyed rubber seal, destroyed/missing crush washers under the nylocs, frozen (nearly closed/fully extended) thermostat piston and a completely decomposed gasket. It's going to be a pleasure to button her up tomorrow with the new 82C thermostat and intact seals, a dab of anaerobic sealer, new batch of coolant and a dose of Red Line Water Wetter. When she comes down off the stands, she'll be a happy lass. The morning will be spent cleaning and polishing the flanges, possibly with a nice blasting of the housing itself.

Folks....is that the OEM (1985) thermostat by chance? Note also the blown-out solder at the top of the frame.
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Another great maintenance morning, with retirement of the old NGK BP7ES plugs. For those new to the job, I shot a photo of the tools of the trade for my QV. A very simple job. The socket drive is 3/8" with a 3" extension and swivel on it. The thinner the wall of your socket, the easier the job will be. My old Craftsman is perfect for this car. The original Ferrari plug tool didn't come with the car, but this system works great. A 6" length of 7/16" heater hose will let you easily manipulate the plugs in and out. I just loosen them until they can be hand-turned, then put the hose down the recess and slip it onto the porcelain insulator. The 6" length of hose works great for the rear and front banks.

Make it easy on yourself: Remove the air intake hose (I then cover the throttle body and FD openings with ziploc bags), and blow out each plug recess with compressed air before you remove each plug. To place the new plug, slip it into the end of the hose, apply a small dab of anti-seize and ease it into the recess. The hose is also good for prevention of cross-threading. To verify that you're into the head, simply tug on the hose a bit. I do them one at a time. To make sure that my connections are good, I place the extender on the plug first (wiggling it around a big with my fingertip until it snaps down onto the plug), then I install the wire cap itself, working it around until it firmly clicks onto the extender and the dust cap seats itself fully into the valve cover. Always adjust your cables so that they're not making contact with each other and make sure that they're securely clipped into the loom(s).

**I put new BP7ES plugs back in (gapped to .025) as they run really well for me. They can be had very reasonably at Amazon.com
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That was my guess, a real shame. The installation was lousy to begin with. With what I found in there, the water flow in that channel was pretty bad to zero. After this weekend's work, I headed out on the freeway yesterday. Running temps are 100% normal. I smell hot engine and not a hint of coolant. That's a happy car.

 

I'm going to check the paperwork tonight, to see if that t-stat went in with the radiator change in '93. With these cars and how they're treated sometimes, you never know.

 

You're very welcome, Douglas. The next time I'm down there, I'm going to clean that valve up with a brass brush and paint it up a bit with POR-15. Yes, it is a good idea to check out those hoses while you're down there. Once the car is securely up, you'll see the aluminum access panel up front, bordered by just a few bolts and washers. If you're unsure of the hoses' age, it's best to toss them out, with the clamps. There were two different makes of hoses on my front pipes, so who knows what their history was. Better that they go. They are 41mm and I found them at O'Reilly Auto Parts here (Gates Vulco, very tough). They can be removed easily, as the pipes to the front can move quite a bit. With a dab of silicone paste on the pipes, the new ones go on very easily. If the pipes are rough with deposits, etc., you can buff them with a Scotch-Brite pad as Rob Garven and others here have noted. Mine were clean and smooth. If you have any questions about draining it down, etc., just let me know. Draining is easiest from the heater hose that tees in up there. It's more controllable, but have a bucket ready......and high enough to be very close to the car I cut mine halfway up, opened up the expansion tank cap, thermostat and radiator bleed screws, then pulled the hose down as needed to control the opening and flow. You have to be patient, as it will chug air as it goes and coolant will come out in surges toward the end (you'll hear the vacuum letting go each time). Once the system was empty, I did the hoses and added my drain fitting.

 

The new 82C unit from Superformance UK, to which I added an air bleed hole. Subaru/BMW pro pal John put me on to anaerobic sealer, which is great stuff. The thermostat is responding really well and temperatures are great. New 10mm Nylocs and washers from Lowe's. After the job, I took a good amount of time to hand-wash the front of the engine with water (spray bottle) and compressed air. There was a lot of coolant residue in there. Not a coolant leak in sight now.
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I installed the new Boston (Acoustics) Mobile Audio SE65s tonight. The original rear sill tweeters from '90 are Bostons (as were the tattered door speakers) so it appealed to my sense of order to keep it all matched up. The old Pioneer now cranks out Journey and Everything But The Girl nicely....
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I took some quality time this morning to install the new crystal in the face of my clock big thanks to Crowndog. It is beautiful.

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Thank you, sir. The clock needs some work to get the second hand moving, but it does keep time, at least.

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Hi Glen. Not yet. I'm going to do the transaxle seals, rebuild the drive shafts, get new injectors in and do the cooling and fuel lines. After that, I'll be into the blower, probably during the coming winter. I've got one that's seized up due to lack of use and corrosion. I'll dig around in here in the meantime though. I remember one of the guys fabricating a mount and I know that Dr. Kananga has been working on ducting.