Installing SRI Gold kit today - little help?

Yes, John, we are very familiar with the opinions of the electronics industry that you have diligently shared with us time and time again. I'm referring to your personal stated opinions such as, "If it makes you happy..... I suspect that any improvements seen, real or imaginary, are more due to the break and make effect of pulling the connectors appart and putting them back together, . . ." (#43 http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/308-328/408593-328-love-story-scuderia-rampante-gold-connector-kit-3.html). I'm sorry, but statements such as this are simply laughable especially given that the vast majority of these cars, mine included, underwent multiple rounds of sensors being unplugged, cleaned, and plugged back in well before moving on to the GKC.

 

I'm with JohnK on this too.

FBB ...like I have said over and over....it's the clamping force and fresh crimp.

What does your pic of the old connectors demonstrate? That the factory used an improper tin connector...with a propensity to loose clamping force?

Please....just one of you....just put in writing...what you think the gold does?

You can't.....because you have no idea...and anyone in the scientific community would laugh their ass off at you.

But please...I'm ready for a good laugh...."gold is better because _______"

The fact is....over and over...some off you choose to discredit scientific info because your CEL went away. That is the only reason any of you have offered....that's it. You turn a blind eye to the world (that is laughing at you) thinking this is the only place that would do such a ridiculous thing.

It's like you are a group of heroin addicts that are convincing each other that $1500 shot into your veins is a fantastic idea because it makes you feel good.

Or smokers, not to be desuaded about the risks...even though there is data. In fact, this is the perfect analogy.

So again...."gold is better because ____?" A smoker might say...it makes me feel good. I suspect that's all you can say.

 

So...you threw in the towel...and had every connection redone....until you found the correct one. Laughable to me that you think Gold had anything to do with it.

 

Yes Steve...I'm sure you could just click on my profile and see what I own and drive. It makes me question your inability to solve even the simplest of problems. (I like that you started with a personal attack)

And Steve....I am also a Chemist.....and please don.t be quoted as saying "science can bite you in the ass." It's the unknown variable that bites you in the ass. (Should I even care that you are a geochemist? Does it matter that I am too? We clearly look at the periodic table through different lenses)

And just so I understand you....did I ever say it didn't work? Did JohnK ever say it didn't work?

 

fBB...what are the connectors on the left vs the connectors in the right handed pile?

 

Come on man! Get off this science tells you this and that schite. For a century scientists backed by dumb ass dentists said that silver(mercury) fillings were the cats arse and now they are being blamed for all sorts of immune problems and health issues. Don't get me going on the fluoride thing either as so many think its a great thing too. One only has to wonder why the Nazis put it in their water and why the Germans have since banned it use. There are so many things scientist have told us in the past that after many years have been proven completely wrong. RESULTS are all im interested in not what may happen in the distant future. I drive my car trouble free and with a lot better throttle response than before the SRI gold kit was installed. If any problems arise in the distant future, I will deal with them then but in the mean time I am driving my trouble free 355. John thinks his car is trouble free. Ill bet its not running to its optimum. And yet I too am wondering why John has been a member here for almost 10 years, with so few posts and yet many of them are spent bashing Daves kit. Hmmmmmm.
PS....Yes some of my connectors looked exactly as in Daves pics.

 

FBB, in your own posts you keep bringing up clamping force. As Tim and I have stated, what does gold have to do with it?

Why is it only the engine electronics that that require correction. What about all the other weak, tin plated connectors throughout the car: the top ECU, the suspension ECU, all the connectors to the lights, windows, AC, fuse boxes.... Did Ferrari selectively use garbage connectors only in the engine bay? And let's not forget the fuses and relays. It's amazing that power ever even gets to the Monotonic ECU.

As for new connectors, it is the connector design and underlying metal that controls clamping force, not the plating of the contact area.

Lastly, the gold on tin issue is not one of fretting corrosion. It is one of electrochemical potential differences leading to corrosion. (How many time has that bee stated?) Again, you chose to mislead by diverting attention to a different issue.

The simply truth is that there is no defense against the gold on tin mismatch so you have to pull an Obama and label it as phony.

 

Please tell us how long it will take for the so called "electrochemical" corrosion to happen.
This was your 613th post in almost 10 years.....How many of them are spent attacking Dave? Please do tell. You don't seem to have anywhere near that much to say on anything else. I could understand your attacking something where the end user had complaints...but there isn't one single user complaint here and yet you persist......again hmmmmmmmm...

 

Science works with the best information available and moves forward. We once believed the world was flat, that earth revolved around the sun, that there was only one galaxy in the universe, that the universe was infinite, that lead in gas and paint was harmless, that DDT was safe. Science moves forward.

Yes, my car is trouble free. Trouble free and optimum performance are different issues. I don't drive any of my cars, Ferrari or other wise, "like they were meant to be driven", as is often repeated here. That is probably why my 308 has been so trouble free for 28 years and likely will be the reason my 355 will not develop the kind of problems I read about here as well.

Why have I posted so infrequently over 10 years? Easy. I discovered the site after I retired and, being a long time 308 owner I joined. After a short time I became disillusioned with what I was reading on the 308 forum and stopped checking in. I came back about 3 years ago when I started looking for a 355 and started reading the 355 forum. While I learned a lot about the problems with the 355 I would have to say that if anything what I learned deferred me from making a purchase, that and the fact that I could find the car I wanted. Anyway, while I'm not a particularly social guy I figured I'd give it a try and start positing, you know, be part of the brotherhood. While there are a lot of great guys here who are truly excited about their cars, I also see the same old opinionated BS I see in every forum. So I figured WTF, I'd express my opinion as well. I have definitely never been a follower and don't plan on starting now. So I speak my mind and you are free to disagree.


[Edit]

As for Dave, I could care less one way or the other. What he does or doesn't do has no impact on me and I'm pretty sure what I say will have no impact on him. God, I hope he doesn't rely on selling gold kits to feed his family any more that I rely on selling plans for my loudspeaker design.

 

Ill say again....your car is not running to its optimum. Many on here who thought their 355 was running great soon found that there was untapped power in their cars when they installed the SRI kit. As you said, it was widely thought that the earth was flat. Your right and it took hundreds of years to prove otherwise despite some saying all along that it was not. I don't have hundreds of years to wait for a solution to make my car run the way it should. I'm enjoying it right now before I die. Some people deny deny deny right to the end never having enjoyed the day for what it was.

 

I care about reliability. I could care less if it's putting out 350 or 360 HP. Do you change your spark plugs after every drive? Tear the engine down? No? You car isn't running optimally either. What I care about with all my cars is that I can get in them, they start, and I can go out for a drive and not have to worry about whether I'll make it home on 4 or 8 cylinders or on the back of a flat bed.

 

"Threw in the towel?" What exactly are you talking about Tim? Have you read any of my posts? Start with #5: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/308-328/408593-328-love-story-scuderia-rampante-gold-connector-kit.html. Like johnk, I thought my car was running better than ever. Pre GKC dyno data which can viewed in the above link indeed demonstrated excellent peak performance figures (better than any I have seen published on the net for a naturally aspirated 328). Despite this, I chose to embark on this project with Dave Helms to ask the question: Can a car that is running well run even better with the GKC? The answer 1000+ miles later, HELL YES! If you choose to take the time to read my entries you will also see that not once do I state the opinion that it was the gold that had anything to do with the improvements in my car as you purport above. I could care less what the terminals are coated with, the bottom line is the system as a whole resulted in a better driving car.

 

I am perplexed by this quest to discredit the gold kit when EVERY user so far has evidence that it works...

What is the purpose?


Kai

 

Great post John. As much as I respect Dave, I respect you the same for sharing you experienced opinions here. I don't understand why these discussions need to result in personal attacks.

 

Yes...I did read your post.

And thought about it very critically. You have a 308/328 that is very different from the 355 and the issues are very different....and also the same.

You do not have JPT and PT connections at the ECU. The 355/348/550/ 512tr all use the same ECU and rely on many low voltage circuits to regulate air/fuel ratio. The 308 does not.

What you have are socket connections that were 30 years old. These connections on the 308 run your ignition. So, you have freshened all of your connections and the car runs better.....do you think I am suprised?

No, I am not. I could walk out to my 308 and do the exact same thing. If I were to replace both sides of the harness connections....I would even use GOLD/GOLD mil spec connections. In this case, I think it would be a good idea. The 3-8 is 30 years old and corrosion will occur at these connections...especially if your's saw more water and humidity. We will all need to address this at some point and I feel a gold/gold connector would be better. I also think that the connection type would be better served using a sealed metripak connector. (but that is another thing you did not think about)

Your post should have read....."I replaced all of the connections and grounds in my 308 and it runs better!" (did you ever read where grounding your digiplex boxes added similar power? hmmmm)

The issue is not that your car does or does not run better. I would have an issue if you put GOLD connectors on Tin ECU connections.

GOLD did not make your car run better. You did not have to spend an enormous sum just to pick up 5hp. I feel like you could have read this post, educated yourself, then gone to the garage and done the same thing for less than $100.

The issue here is that the 355 has poor connections at the ECU.....

 

If you would read at 2 pages back and 2 years ago I already reported on the importance of clamping force. OK so we agree! Clamping force is important. JohnK says Ferrari is wonderful. I got 100 pins just extracted for him to evaluate. I will make you the same offer I made him because he has not sent me an address. Would you like me to send you the 100 pins from both ECU's and tell me if there is 1 pin you want in your car? Please put your money where your mouth is.

The SRI pin is working. It has superior clamping force and maintains its integrity. It is so tight that on microscope after 2 years there is no fretting corrosion. Dave claims lower resistance vs. tin tin. I have not measured it. The SRI pin happens to be GOLD. I don't care what it is as long as it gives results. You want to use tin GO FOR IT. We SRI users grant you permission to use whatever you want but please stop the SRI bashing until you got some real world proof on Ferraris that SRI is wrong. WE ARE WAITING! If all you got is post 402 we are the ones that are laughing.

 

FBB...

I really do not believe that JohnK said the ferrari connections are great. I do not read that anywhere.

Could this be a misunderstanding?

You showed 2 piles of connectors. What is the pile on the left and what is the pile on the right? Did they come from different locations?

 

See we agree! Unknown variables and it works. What are the unknown variables that make the SRI gold kit work? Those who can't get past a Gold colored pin will never be able to see the "trees from the forest." While we are driving our cars they will be scratching their heads. What these same people fail to realize is that the Gold kit is what it is "today." It has evolved greatly and improved since I was a beta tester and continues to improve. There are already some pin pin connections that make Gold bugs happy that did not exist when I beta tested. More is added to the system and will continue to be as new items become available. Dave has always said the gold kit was just a baseline for good running.

 

No I don't think so. JohnK comes over loud and clear. Read his post again, it is quite unkind discounting owners and professional mechanics implying that they are neglectful.

The ECU has two sizes of pins JPT and ??? MT?? I'm not sure what they are called.

 

Oh its more than 10 horses and yes I care. Ive met many 355 owners and Ive driven their cars. They don't run like mine at all. The few that ive taken for a ride in mine cannont believe the difference. One guy even went as far as to tell our shop to make his car run like mine. They did and the other day I drove his car and it felt just like mine. This is the only 355 I have ever driven that felt that good. The rest were simply too slow and bogged down a lot when leaving in 1st. Changing your spark plugs every time out makes no perceptible difference but the SRI kit does. If you are ever up in Toronto, please let me know and I will let you drive my car and I guarantee that you will think I have a different engine in my car. Yes ive made other changes in my 355 but the SRI kit made a huge difference and I havnt even installed the main CPU kit yet. The more I read of your posts, the more I'm thinking that you are not a purist but more of "I own a Ferrari, I drive it and put it away blah blah blah. So you don't really care if you are getting the most out of it. I do, and the first 5 years that I had my 355, I got bored with the power range topping off so quickly. There was a lack of real kick. Now for the last 4 years I am not bored and everyday in it feels amazing and cannot be compared to the pre SRI days. Some of us are like that but most are like you blah blah blah. Im the same way with my women, I have to have the best and fortunately for me I found here a long time ago. I have met many of my friends wives and they are blah blah blah but that was their choice. not mine. My blood line is about 40 minutes from the factory where these cars are built. There is lots of great stuff that comes from there and most of it is that way because they go the extra mile to make it that way. Too bad they didn't see the connector issue.

 

Gerry....are you saying that you did all the engine connectors....but NOT the ECU?

 

Those 2 pin types seem to be a BIG issue.

The ones with the "single fingers" will have awful clamping force.

Why are there 2 types?

 

Tim, I'm not sure if you are confused about what model Ferrari I have or if you were not aware that the 328 does indeed utilize JT connections at the Jetronic ECU which relies on low voltage circuits to regulate air fuel ratio on these cars. The Microplex ignition ECU along with all of the sensors which communicate with both ECU's also utilize JT connections (WUR, cold start injector, TPS, tach/TDC sensors, thermotime switch, . . .) As listed in my prior communications, those areas of the car that do have socket connections (engine harness, foot well plugs etc) are replaced with gold on gold contacts with Dave's kit and you'll be excited to learn that Dave chose sealed plugs in these areas (great minds think alike). Regarding your question, "did you ever read where grounding your digiplex boxes added similar power," the 328 does not use digiplex boxes, it utilizes one Marelli Microplex and yes, I was quick to add a separate ground strap to that shortly into ownership, long before the GKC.

 

Can you send me your old crimp connections? I really think the issue is those single fingered connections.

Can you post the close ups of the 2 different types that Ferrari used?

 

To hopefully persuade owners from inflicting unneeded costly damage to their cars for short term imaginary gains.