Hey William! Had the Maserati bug since the late 90's. Owned a total of 5 biturbo's, done numerous projects on those so know them well. Was also a co-founder of the Norwegian club 2003. Inlcuded some pictures taken by PO. Weather not really right for pictures now Just had the car at rust proofing shop, car filled up with Lanolin from bottom and up. It's a fantastic car, schizo personality Lovely interior, racing derived engine and a comfortable ride, but when you push it, it settles and can be driven quite hard if you want to. Cheers! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Did this job on my Merak last year. The DCNFs, are quite easy to work on. I've done some work on other Webers, they where a bit more fiddly. I used a ultrasonic bath, and that was very effective. The blue tint on the carbs dissapeared, but the where crispy clean. Next time I would use a different soap solution in the bath.
Hello Jarle... Welcome to QPIII ownership... Glad you have joined us!! I know you were/are very active on the Biturbozentrum over at Yahoo Groups... Have read many of your postings over there while working on my 85 Biturbo.. Pictures can be found on my 1982 QPIII thread somewhere here in Ferrarichat.. I will be adding to that thread soon! Tony (TheStash) has indicated he did not take apart the butterfly assemblies during his carb rebuild.. They were not sticky, so apparently not necessary.. When you did your Merak last year, what did you do about the butterfly assemblies? Did you take them apart? As mine are sticky, I don't think I have a choice.. I will need to disassemble them. Tony.. By the way.. Thanks for posting the videos! Mike
Hey, thanks for the welcome! I do post on the Biturbo forum every now and then. Will post more later this winter, when I commence the work on my 2.24v. My butterflies where not sticky, so did not take them apart. I am always nervous when mounting stuff that can fall off down the intake So since mine moved freely, I saw no reason to do that. However, if the reason for your sticky shafts is dirt or corrosion, it could be a ultrasonic bath will remove it and make them move nicely. To prevent later corrosion, you make another bath, 2stroke oil and gas (pretty thick 2stroke mixture). And lower the carbs into the bath and leave it there for a few days. Leaves a lasting coating. I have a good friend and neighbour who is a very experienced Rally Mechanic, I've learned a lot of stuff from him! He told me to do this, and then I listen
Bitten? Swallowed is probably more apt in his case. Norway and he's driving a QPIII as a daily driver. Must be all that reindeer meat he eats LOL
Hey Jarle there are better solutions to this problem. I outlined them over on Yahoo VLG. The Henkle product Alodine is great for reforming the surface chemically into a protective coating but you have to get the metal completely exposed and mark free first otherwise it comes out uneven looking. Because my carbs were heavily corroded and stained I glass bead blasted them after the normal cleaning process and used and then the Alodine dip. They turned out great and have stayed that way too. The race car is still on hold but the Espada gets new front seats and few other interior repairs in about a month. Your QPIII looks good, nice color combination. CharlieA as a handle???
Bob, it's actually quite nice on snow And as I said, a thorough Lanolin treatment will keep the salt at bay. I hope Got a welder and a car lift, so will deal with anything that arrives. Reindeer is terrific food Bob, you should try it!
Jarle(Charlie) Adolfsen(A) I didn't want to spoil my season, so wanted the carbs finished as soon as possible. Will consider taking them off later. The twostroke oil solution has worked, though the carbs look a bit dull. I do like the colors, it suits the character of the car. There are some scrathces and a few dents, but I will fix that. Glad to hear your Espada is still going strong. Done anything to your Bora yet?
Speaking of QP3s - this one has popped up in Houston. Either someone went to a lot of trouble to convert it, or this is a European version. I can understand bringing in a 5-speed, but why would anyone import another automatic? I would "rescue" it like I did my current one, but I have a feeling there's an endless supply of these things. 1984 Maserati Quattroporte
Looks like a European car to me, both front and rear bumpers, headlights, and no smog stuff in the engine bay. The white interior is a bit unusual, IIRC it was common in the cars delivered to the middle east and otherwise by special order only. Really a pain to keep clean... There has been talk of creating a QP3 registry, while they seem to be lurking under every rock in the US, quite a few seem to have been wrecked or parted out. It would be interesting to know how many are actually left. For $2500, I'd consider picking it up as a parts car.
Hi Jarle, congratulations on a beautiful car and welcome to the club . I actually spoke to the guy selling that car a few weeks ago, apparently he's bought another one he's going to fix up and get running and sell. Seems yours was sitting in a collection in Sweden for 15 years, more or less unused, and the engine was seized, I think he suspected water in the petrol that had caused some rust in a cylinder, but I'm not sure. He got it running, changed the head gasket, and put it up for sale, as far as I understand. Judging from the pictures, it looks to be in really nice condition. What do you plan to do as far as maintenance and restoration goes? You might be lucky to have a car that doesn't require a whole lot. If you get a chance, let us know what mileage you get. The PO said he routinely got 1.2 - 1.4 liter/10km, my best is 1.6l/10km. I do need to rebuild my carbs though, so I'll keep an eye on it and see if it changes. Looking forward to hearing and seeing more of your car here!
Thanks for the videos, I had bookmarked them myself earlier. After a run on the dyno, the shop said I should rebuild the carbs and found that one was leaking. That would explain the periodic rough running, they also discovered that two spark plug wires were fine at idle, but didn't provide spark at speed/under load, so I've replaced all the leads. Might as well use all 8 cylinders ;-) So I've ordered a rebuild kit from this place: Maserati Enthusiasts' Page (next to last article, from Daniel in Germany) And new Grose jets from this gentleman: Marketplace:John Titus - Citroen-SM-wiki (more info here: The Grose Jet | JIM'S GARAGE) I'm not going to start on the carbs until I've gotten a better handle on the starting issue. I want to know that when I turn the key, if it doesn't start it's due to the carbs, and not have to guess if it's the starter or something else going on...! Did you empty the fuel tank before pulling the carbs, or simply plug/clamp the fuel line connected to them? What are you all using as carburetor cleaner? Last I looked, there was only a can of "fuel injector cleaner" at the local auto shop. When I asked for carb cleaner they looked at me funny, like they didn't know what a carburetor was... Will you do the tuning and synchronizing yourself? Color tune and an air flow meter? Looking forward to hearing more about your progress.
I'm game for a QP3 registry, know my way around wordpress and programming in general. Would be real interresting to know how many are left, and how many are in buckets
Hey! Well, like you say the car has been standing still for some time. But before I bought it, I did extensive testing and checks on the car. The compression checks out, and the oil consumption is less than I expected. Less than my Merak. I also had my Rally mechanic friend to go through the car, and do some more checks while on his lift. I also drove the car everyday for two weeks to check what it was like to use everyday. I am prepared to take the engine out if that is needed, but the way it looks now that will not needed for some time. It does run wonderfull, temp is perfect, heating works and it starts easily. Even in -10C. There are some things I wan to do to it, but not of very important character. Since I drive the car everyday I have a good grip on the consumption. I drive back and forth to work, around 400kmtrs a week. And I fill around 60ltrs. Which gives me about 1.5. 1.2-1.4 on the freeway I think is doable. There is no whine from gearbox, diff or anything. Car runs straight. Only annoying thing is creaking from the front suspension. Bushing change will be done soon. Cheers, Jarle
Hi I have it ready to go with the support of one of the other websites so we can do the whole thing. Just need to get some energy and push the button.
I simply pulled the fuel line from the filter in the engine compartment. There's no return line on mine. Only a small amount of gas came out and I was ready for it with a small container. I'm using gumout carburetor cleaner. Got it from a local auto parts store. You should find a new auto parts store if they don't know what a carburetor is. I'm not a complete fanatic on how beautiful they look. I just make sure the insides are well cleaned and they weren't really dirty in the inside. I think someone cleaned them at least once in the past but didn't take enough time synchronizing them. All the air bypass screws were fully seated on all 4 carbs! Also there were no gaskets between the air horns (I think that's what they are called) and the air cleaner mounting plate. The kits from MIE come with two of each gasket. But they did forget one filter. I opted to keep my original brass ones anyway. They were perfect. Yes. I have a colortune and the airflow meter is on order from e-bay. If you search on Weber dcnf tuning you'll find some very informative videos. It looks pretty straightforward but time consuming. I just finished the last carb yesterday so now I need to put them all back in. I go slow so it'll be a while yet before I try it. Plus it's cold out and I obviously need to have the garage door open during the tuning so there's that too... Tony
I should elaborate regarding those gaskets. The MIE set comes with 2 top gaskets for each kit. That's because you need to place a 1st gasket onto the top of the carb then the air cleaner housing plate goes on top of that gasket. Then the second gasket goes on top of the air cleaner housing plate and then finally the air horn gets bolted down onto that second gasket. I imagine this is a special setup for the QPIII but I could be wrong because I have no experience with other DCNF equipped car.
Thanks for the gasket info. I'll have a look at the rebuild set I purchased and see if there are 2 sets of gaskets included. I'm familiar with carb cleaner, just that here (Euroland) they are pretty strict as far as chemicals go, love selling stuff in tiny, almost unusable sizes (would love a bucket of carb cleaner with dip basket, but Amazon won't ship it), and getting a hold of stuff like this is non trivial. In the meantime I'm looking around to see if I can find a place that does ultrasonic cleaning, that would probably be even better than a chemical bath. Thanks again for the tips and advice. I'm looking forward to getting this and the starter issues taken care of by the end of the year.
I would be tempted to send to Gower & Lee caburettor reconditioning service They seem to have a great service. There were some places in the US discussed earlier also. However, you seem to be able to do your own work which is great.
Hi my 86 was a Swiss delivery and had a dummy emergency fuel pump button and no emergency fuel pump. However, it did have the wiring for the emergency fuel pump in the system unused. As you may recall the power to the fuel pump died. The shop ALSA jury rigged the existing fuel pump to run on the emergency fuel pump wiring as the wiring for the regular fuel pump is dead. Any ideas how to trace this and where to look. I have some books but they don't seem helpful on this? It does not seem to run through the TEDEL boxes so where would it be. Best Wm
Hey QP3! This one should work fine? New 3L Professional Ultrasonic cleaner Bath with Heater Basket Cover Free | eBay And afterwards you can clean parts or tools in it. Works like a charm! Dishsoap and citrus mixture is a good fluid to use.
Hello William... I am not sure this will be of help to you, but here is what I found in some information I have: Some Euro cars after a certain number came with a fuel pump similar to that found on the Biturbo. Only one pump was installed and the emergency pump button was not used for activating the second fuel pump, as a second pump wasn't there. My notes indicate the button was used for cutting out the electrical circuit of the unit 101 which, in the case of an accident/damage, will cut the fuel pump off. Further indications are the new fuel pump group is not interchangeable with the previous. Unfortunately, I cannot confirm this information as my car has the two pump group. Here is more regarding the USA cars: Some USA cars have had their Emergency Pump switch removed and a new type 101-A unit with different electric circuit fuel pump feeding installed. It continues to indicate that the two units (101 and 101-A) are interchangeable but with different glass fuse amperages. Again, I cannot confirm this information as my car has the two pump groups. Looking further in the info I have, I find the following regarding the 101 box: Tedel 101 box controls the door locks, fuel pump and aux (emergency ?) fuel pump. Further info indicates that when the 101 box receives a signal from the inertia switch, it operates the door locks, trunk lock, gas filler cap, and stops the primary fuel pump causing the engine to stall, in the event of a hard impact. The 101 box has a glass fuse incorporated and can be serviced externally. Further notes indicate that in case of a malfunction of either the inertia switch or the Tedel 101 box, the emergency pump may be operated to bring spare fuel pump into use. This seems a bit confusing to me, but could mean the place to start looking is at the Tedel 101 box. Is yours a 101 or is it a 101-A? Since you used the emergency pump switch wiring to power your fuel pump and it works, it may be that you have a problem with the inertia switch or the 101 or 101-A box.. All this is speculative, and I would need to do a lot more research in the information I have, but this may be a place to start looking. Mike
Here's a shot that illustrates how the air cleaner mounting plate is sandwiched between the top of the carburetor and the "air horn". I call them air horns but in section 10 of the spare parts manual its called "Air intake manifold" #61. For some reason my car has an additional spacer which is shown also in section 10 #80. You can see the spacer in the picture on top of the plate but under the "air horns". I guess I was wrong. the dual gaskets do exist on mine but are so badly deteriorated I missed them. Tony Image Unavailable, Please Login
Tony - when I pull the fuel line off the fuel rail, it leaks fuel. Fast, and without any sign of stoping. I'm pretty sure I could drain the fuel tank that way. I'll see if I can find something to plug it while the carbs are off the car. William - I had a similar problem a few years back, from memory there is a fuse in one of the boxes in the passenger floor well that goes to the main fuel pump. It may be in the Tedel box, I don't recall. I can have a look in my notes and the service/electrical manual later today. As far as the carb rebuild, I want to tackle that one myself. That's one of the points of having a classic, is being able to work on it. It's therapeutic (when it runs, at least!) Jarle - thanks for the tip, but I was hoping to find some place that could do the ultrasonic cleaning for me. Trying to avoid buying stuff when possible. Cheers!
