1977 308GTB 21291

Hello,

Acquired this car a few months back and thought I would post it here and encourage any and all suggestions/feedback.

This was a local car that I had seen approximately 20 years ago and after a brief conversation with an acquaintance I found myself in a garage looking at this beauty, and 2 days later it was in my garage. I wasn't looking to purchase another car as I have had my 86 Testarossa for the past 15 years and I continue to enjoy it as much as the first day I got it. This car is missing the tool kit and some odds and ends, at some point one of the previous owners swapped out the factory seats for some Recaro's. Once the pandemic restrictions are lifted I will head down to GT car parts in Phoenix and pick up some goodies, hopefully they will have some seats.

The car ran pretty well when I acquired it and it came with a great service history going back to the early 80's. The first documentation I have is for a Dr. A Williams in San Antonio, it then jumped to Mark Clark in New Mexico then Missouri. It then moved to New Mexico and a Mr. Joe Martz around 1995, then to Mark Boyd in Virginia and lastly to a George Parker in Virginia. The car then moved up to Canada in 2002 and has been here since that time. I have spoken a few times with the previous owner of the past 15 years who is a wonderful resource in filling in the blanks about the car.

The history did show a significant engine service around 66k miles at Ferrari of Washington in Sterling Virginia in 2001 including head work all new valves guides, seals etc worth 14k. The car now has 81k miles.

My plan with this car is to hopefully spend some time with my 17 yr old son, the deal is if he helps me with the service and other odds and ends I will let him drive it this summer. I hope he learns to enjoy tinkering on cars as it has proven to be a wonderful hobby for me and many of my close friends. I will clean things up and give it a good service, will sort out the electrics and upgrade a few things while the engine is out. The valve stem seals need to be done, belts bearings and a bunch of gaskets, a quick check prior to disassembling the cams was pretty positive with the timing marks being spot on, a few valve clearances were out of spec so I will try to find some shims to bring things into spec. I will degree the cams after doing the valve stem seals.

I've reached out to a few enthusiasts & Fchat members up here in Canada and they have been very gracious with their suggestions. I will post some pictures as I go.


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beautiful color. congrats on the purchase

 

+1!
Do you know if it was it sold new in San Antonio? ...& what kind of lift is that?
Mine's 20757 (Jan '77), black. Done some bits of cam/belt/valve maintenance myself...
Cheers

 

Congrats! Will you use the rope-down-the-plug hole to change the stem seals with the heads on? I have viton seals for £1ea. I guess you know to change all the rubber bits while out— hoses, shift shaft seals, diff seals etc. I have a couple of X seals for the shift shaft if you want one (or buy 20 from McMaster.) I would check the cam drive bearings and change if any play (though one expert says that checking isn’t necessary.) If you know what shims you need I have them new for £5 but check Fiat and Volvo parts sites or workshops as they will have the 33mm shims. Good luck

 

Congratulations on the purchase, love the colour and the history.

A fantastic mission to work on the car with your son, I know you’ll get way more out of that than just a great sorted car. I hope to do that with my 14 year old sometime, though with something less precious at stake probably!!

 

Wow, that car was just 7 behind the first Ferrari I ever saw in my life back in 81

 

21291 originally "medium blue metallic/black and blue"

 

Congratulations!
Blu Sera is a great colour for a 308.

It is funny to see that the chassis number just before yours was assigned to the last European vetroresina (the US was delivered with the metal body for 6 months).
Do you know your body and engine number by chance to corroborate the data for this period.
thank you!

 

Hello Derek, I was hoping you would chime in as i have read your engine rebuild with interest. I believe the rope trick is probably what I will attempt as I don't really want to remove the heads if possible. I did happen on a posting by Tim Keseluk showing the difficulty one might have in removing the heads and I see no reason to do this given the history of work done on this car. I'm a bit perplexed as to how I'm going to compress the spring with then heads on the block and haven't had the time to really look at this so any suggestions from anyone would be appreciated. Thanks for your offer for the seals, I see there is a cross reference for a 85 M5 BMW so will try to get them locally if the price is right.

 

I'm not sure where it was originally sold as the earliest maintenance I have only goes back to 1982. The lift is jus a Danmar scissor lift that I have had for years, it has its pros and cons, I just recently poured a new slab in my garage and decided to recess it in the slab which allow for clearance that was an issue when it sat directly on the slab. Things worked out well and I'm happy with the result.

 

I will look for the engine and body numbers and post them.

 

Thanks, I've been trying to fill in a few history gaps for my car ...Ferrari Market Letter (Cathy Rousch) helped me with this to some extent.
Lift set up looks great too... like to get something similar but dealing with a 'conical' shaped garage floor!
See Euro front 'bumper', maybe rear also? ...front one on mine as well.
Good luck with the work!

 

Jeff, I suggest fabricating a lever which can attach to and pivot from one of the studs, have a piece of pipe pressing on the retainer (with a cutout to remove/replace the collets) and a longish handle. Give the valves a wiggle as worn guides and the resulting eccentric closing causes bending forces and fatigue at the weld of the sodium exhaust valve stems which is one of the main causes of failure.

 

Engine number

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Continuing with the tear down, nice to see the last service used the Hill Bearings, removed and labelled everything to get to the stem seals.

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Looking for any and all suggestions on the water pump and not really interested in spending 1k on the forza pump.

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Hi Jeff, watching with great interest. Bill in Wpg

 

Congratulations! I drove that car, almost bought it myself! Love the colour and would've made it a project but not as extensive as you're doing! I'm so happy for you and your son. I'm an old guy now, so it was more of a dream for me to get it and restore it. I do have one though, already restored, as you know. I'll stay tuned to this thread and once the virus is controlled, I'd love to visit! Ciao, Dennis

 

Hi Jeff, You used to be able to take a water pump to Autoline on Golspie St. and have them rebuild it. They could handle any weird pump that was presented to them. I haven't used their services for 10 years but it would be worth a phone call and see if they can service it. Bill

 

Thanks Bill! Just sent them an email will let you know what they say.

 

No gaskets! I think someone tried to glue this thing back together it will be correct once I’m done but so much work to clean this up!

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It looks like this is a big bearing water pump, although the impeller looks like the newer, plastic type.

 

Peter the bearing is 42mm. I’ve done some reading and will continue to read the old threads but I’m assuming this pump at some point was upgraded?

 

I took mine to an Industrial Rebiulder and gave them Algar Ferraris phone number..

It came back with all the right stuff, new bearings seals bushed axle and metal impeller.

It was some shop on the edge of town..

 

Yes.....later big bearing model is current