Dino 246 GTS ventilating system?

RayWong - there are four finger screws at each corner of the instrument panel. Remove these four screws and the entire instrument cluster will come out. I suggest that you first remove the steering wheel as it will make the task much easier. To remove the steering wheel, use a 3mm Allen wrench to remove the 6 screws holding the wheel to the hub. DO NOT REMOVE THE LARGE NUT BELOW THE HORN BUTTON. A major pain in the ass.

With the instrument cluster out, you can see how the gauges are held with "tower" clamps to the panel. Oh, by the way, you will have to remove the speedometer cable FIRST, by accessing it underneath the panel near the steering column. You will have to lie on your back with your head near the pedals, and looking up, you will see the speedometer cable. It unscrews from the speedometer.

With the clock out, you must be very careful to gently bend the chrome ring circumferentially to ease the grip on the plastic. Eventually it will slide off, and you will be able to replace it with minimal unsightly bending of the front aspect. This will become clear when you have the clock in your hand.

First check all of the connections before disassembling the clock. It may be a simple connector issue. Does the light work in the clock?

Have fun.

Jim S.

 

RayWong - I have had similar difficulty with the tachometer bouncing around. It has always proven to be a symptom of the electronic discharge ignition system, from which the tachometer gets its pulsed signal. Don't know what to suggest, other than checking the ground and power source of the MSD.

Again a reminder - first remove the speedometer cable from the back of speedometer, else the instrument cluster will not come out. All of the instruments are electrically connected via plugs that can only be reassembled in one unique way - thus should not be difficult getting it back together. Suggest a pencil and paper while you disassemble to make notes of anything that you think may cause concern later. DISCONNECT YOUR BATTERY before diving in.

Second - be very careful while removing the chrome ring around any instrument. It is easy to bend them such that they will not be usable later. I suggest using a wooden dowel (size of pencil lead) or popsicle stick to gently pry the lip up and over the plastic.

I ruined a clock chrome bezel, but used a strip of black electrical tape to carefully tape around the bezel. Now, when looking at the instrument panel, unless you looked specfically for it, one would not notice the non-chrome finish.

As you get into the clock I can walk you through the process.

Jim S.
Jim S.

 

Which side?

My recollection is that the front bank runs hotter. The temp sensors are there as a result.

But blue smoke is oil. Slipping past the rings into the compression area of the cylinder and burning off. Is it worse when the car is warmed up, or cold?

I'd at least have a mechanic run a compression test on the car to see if there's an obvious problem.

Have you located a local guy who knows anything about Dinos? Ask the previous owner where he had it serviced. At least that way you can find out some of the history of the car.

 

Ray, there is a second manual. A service manual. Black and white, notebook sized pages, that has a lot of information in it that helps with diagnosis. It's not the same as the owners/operators manual available from Ferrari Owners site.

Again, I have provided copies to several members here. IF you're interested, PM me. I charge $10 US plus postage for it, and can certainly get a copy to you.

 

Just noticed this.

Your car has brass valve guides and seats along with valves that were designed for leaded gas.

Running unleaded is absolutely ok, but make sure the octane is at least 92, higher is better. These cars are prone to valve adjustment issues, and it would probably pay you to get the whole motor checked carefully.

Do you have the old service records? When was the last time the engine had a major service?

On the additives, read the instructions carefully. Unless you use a lot, you're probably not getting much benefit. As long as the car isn't knocking or pinging, you're ok without it. I have high compression pistins in my car, and run 94 octane gas without a problem.

Does your car have the original ignition system in it? Or has it been replaced with a more modern electronic unit?

 

Take a picture of the parts and post it here.

On the manual, check your PMs.

Dave

 

When I bought my Lancia Montecarlo, it had barely been driven in 7 years. I fixed the brakes on the sellers driveway and drove home, with my brother following me, he had a towing rope just in case. When home my brother commented "What have you bought, it smokes like hell!". But after some initial driving and then some highway high speed driving all the smoke disappeared. Maybe the piston rings were stuck or combustion cambers full of carbonoxide and the italian tune up solved the problem.

 

My concern here is that the valves could be out of adjustment, and the shimming process is expensive, and if they are way out, can cause serious damage to parts that are hard to replace.

I'd rather see a mechanic take a good look, heads off, re-shim as necessary, check the timing chain, (yup, no belts here) and then take her out for a spin. You really don't want to toss a valve in this car.

 

Be careful, dont break the black buttons, they are not available, though the 308 ones are similar. If it were mine I would leave well enough alone.

 

Raymond.

best as I can tell, here's what you have.

Dinoplex and coil are part of the ignition system. Probably in trunk because someone has replaced it with electronic ignition.

Overflow may be new. Do you have a water leak anywhere?

Oil/water temp sender is a guess, it's hard to tell without a part #, which should be on the piece itself. POst it and you can look it up.

Did you get registered yet at the ferrari owners site. They have a parts book online which can help in your quest.

Alternator looks used. Does the one on the car look new?

Can always get that one checked at a shop.
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0-60 in my car is about 7 seconds. I don't misfire, but it does do a lot of burbling on deceleration. Some of this is due to timing issues, some is the carb jets, both of which will get changed during the winter work we're planning.

clutch slippage is easy to check. Start from zero in 3rd or 4th gear. IF the clutch is slipping, it will rev up without the car moving off the line. If the clutch is ok, it will buck a little or die. That's kind of a seat of the pants measurement, but it will give you a good indication.

I think your car needs a major service, the sooner the better. You don't want to make it worse if you can possible avoid it.

 

Wow.

First off, you need to decide if you want to have a driver car, or a correct original car. If the former, just let the mechanic go towork ,and fix what needs fixing. If you've decided to try and stay as original as possible, make sur to tell the mechanic that before you start, and check back to make sure he's using/re-using correct original or OEM parts.

On to what to check.

That would be quite a list. However, if it is a Ferrari guy, he'll have his own list of things to check on a car that hasn't been driven much in the last few years, and should not need much guidance. JUST MAKE SURE TO SET A SPENDING LIMIT AND GET A GOOD ESTIMATE BEFORE YOU START. These are very expensive to repair.

I'd recommend a front to back inspection. These cars, at least according to my mechanic, need to be driven, and yours has not over the last couple of years. All the seals, brake lines, fuel lines, etc may be in need of replacement, and certainly need inspecting. A tune up is a must, and if you don't know how long it's been, the valves should be checked to make sure they are shimmed properly and the guides are not worn. Letting this go can make for a very expensive repair. (I know, mine needed a complete top end overhaul when I bought it, cost over $10K US when done.)

Compression and leak down test on all cylinders. Cooling system should be flushed and bled, which can be a little tricky. These cars can trap air in the system because of the long run from radiator to engine, and can also trap a big bubble at the water pump intake hose. Check to make sure the cooling fans come on when the engine gets to temperature too.

Get the oil pressure gauge working, have him install that sender and see if that fixes the problem. Important to know that you have oil pressure.

There's really an awful lot to list. Here in Pennsylvania, a car gets an annual inspection for safety and drivability. Your car need that type of checking.

You're bound to find some surprises during the inspection, but it's just the cost of having what I consider to be the most beautiful Ferrari ever built to drive. (Of course, I am biased.)

PM me if you'd like to see a list of what was done to my car after I bought it. (It had been sitting for 3 years, and the previous owner fired it up with 3 year old gas in it, drove it, killed it, sold it to me.)

 

Could easily be a compression issue, and you could have real oil pressure issues too. Water should run at about 190-195 and oil about 10 degrees higher.

Want to make sure the water is circulating. Warm the car up 10-15 minutes of driving should do it, if it hasn't overheated, there's water moving about. The oil does take longer to come up to temp, and will probably not move until the water is at 190.

Check the rear tank to make sure it's full, too. YOu can bleed the system if you want to make sure there are no air bubbles in the system, there are bleeders on the radiator.

It is possible that you have low oil pressure. You should get that new sender installed right away. Also, have that compression test done.

Ray. THis car needs a visit to a good mechanic. They are very expensive to fix, and a catastrophic engine failure could cost you in excess of $20,000 USD to fix.

 

Mu oil pressure at idle is about halfway up the scale between zero and 85, at hard acceletarion to gets to about 85. Don't know how yours compares to this.

Sounds like you need, at the very least, a major tune up. If the Ferrari mechanic only spect two hours, he didn't do enough checking.

MY PPI, pre purchase inspection, cost about $1000 and took the mechanic about 11 hours. Of course, we knew the car had motor issues, and took the heads off.

And no, didn't blow up does not equal ok, it just equals didn't blow up.

When all else fails, call the mechanic. Explain the issues, and get it looked at. Tell him you need reasonable assurnace that the car "won't blow up."

Go get 'em.

 

Perhaps if very catastrophic (like you need to find a 'new' crank or a 'new' block or something or feel like paying dealer prices for parts instead of Dennis McCann or Superformance in UK).

But don't be afraid of a regular rebuild. I did my own removal and tear down, spent $1200 at the machine shop for valve seats and guides and balancing of everything, spent about $2-3k on parts (high comp pistons, bigger valves, all new bearings, gasket sets, etc.), and reassembled in another day with a following day to put it back in the car (which may take a bit longer on the 206/246 - it wasn't too painful on my front engined fiat dino). I proceeded to drive the car 15,000 miles over the next year, at quite exciting speeds and with wonderful sounds!

Even if I'd paid full labor for engine removal, tear down, reassembly and installation, no competant mechanic should charge for more than 24 hours on this job, so say $2500 for labor. Total of about $7k for the rebuild. It's just nuts and bolts...Don't get over charged.