YIPPEE! 30K service finally done...I'm drivin!

Well after 3 months and many hours of spare time I finally completed my 30K service on my GT4. This project started out with a timing belt change and ended up being full 30k service plus installation of an electromotive ignition system from Nick at Nick's Forza. It took so long because I was doing it in my spare time which is scarce (job, kids, wife, band etc..)

I took the car for my first road trip with it on the weekend. My band had a couple of gigs Saturday night about 100 miles from home base and we were also playing at a small camp sight music festival where we camped. For those of you who tend to think less of the little GT4 consider that I got two guitars, two pillows, two sleeping bags, three duffle bags, one wife, a small tool kit and small cooler packed into this car comfortably. Try that in a GTB!

She performed superbly (the car...though I had no problems with the wife either) and it was a very nice trip through beautiful winding mountain highways. The car is very comfortable over long periods of time.

Back to the servicing here are some of the things I learned which I hope might be of assistance to someone out there.

1) Nick ( Nick's Forza) Sciano (sp?) is just a fantastic guy. Always available. Top shelf.

2) My Tbelts had 11,000 miles on them and were 7 1/2 yrs old. Looked in good shape, though did look used, but no obvious damage or excessive wear. The back of the belts had a sheen to them but that was really the only sign of wear. My records indicate that the car was driven pretty regularly about 1,500 miles per year and my understanding is that the car was always in a garage. My feeling is that these belts probably would have gone many more miles but having gone through the belt change process I would not leave it any more than 5 yrs. I say this because changing the belts really is not that difficult if that's all you're doing. I expect it would take me no more than one sunday to re and re the timing belts.

3) This may be obvious to some of you but it turns out that cam cap position
is idiot proof...Having said that I did manage to screw it up (I know I know...idiot). My problem was not knowing that each cam cap is stamped with a number that matches a number stamped on the head. I did not mis mount the caps in relation to thier matching saddle because I labelled each one as it came off. My problem was installing some of the cam caps inverted. The source of this mistake was my assumption that the mount holes were not symetrical...they are. Anyway I reinstalled the caps so that the casting numbers on the caps all faced the same way using the four caps with the timing marks as a guide. THIS IS WRONG! Apparently the casting numbers and thier orientation relative to thier neighbors is not relevant. The numbers stamped on one end of the caps (1-20) should be next to the identical number stamped on the head.

So you ask....what happens if you do mount these caps backwards or upside down? I had 7 of the 20 which were "upside down". Before starting of course I hand turned the engine over numerous times tensioning the belt and triple checking all the valve clearances (including the 7 that required adjusting by increasing clearance). It didn't seem to take any more effort to turn over by hand than before I removed the old belts. Everything seemed smooth.

After a few non-starts...it fired right up sounded good, smooth. But when it warmed up it developed noise that sounded just like valve tappet noise. I shut her down right away but did think at that time that it was probably just the extra clearance in the valves that had been adjusted that way. Did some checking with Nick Sciano and Rocco at Rocks Auto in Toronto and learned the above about the correct cam cap position. Straightened out the offending seven caps, fired her up and voila the noise was gone. I think I was lucky..the experts tell me that mismounted cam caps can result in a seized cam shaft which is of course equivalent to pooched engine. I'm really hoping this information will result in someone avoiding the mistake that I made.

4) I had some caps fabricated to mount where the old distributors were. I had the "Dino" logo routed on these caps, bead blasted them then painted the logo red. They look great. I'll post pictures once I figure out how.

Well that's all for now. I'm just really delighted to have her back running. The only glitch I have is that my tach is not working so I have to consult with Nick and get that sorted out. Otherwise I'm enjoying the ride!

 

Actually I don't notice any improvement in smoothness but mine was running silky smooth all the way up even with the twin dizzies. Same thing with the electromotive. I figure in about eight years I'll have the electromotive paid off in distributor maintenance savings. One curious side effect was I had to have my webber guy reset/adjust the carbs and he says we now have to go to larger jets ...60s I think he said. Apparently come cooler weather the jets now in there will not be able to provide a rich enough mixture. We'll see. Did you have to adjust your carbs and/or replace jets?

 

OH sorry F1Ace..I don't notice any difference in sound...still sounds great! How did yours change?

 

I actually didn't replace any bearings..except for the t-belt tensioner bearings with original ferrari bearings and the bearings in the AC pump tensioner. I should say something about the replacement of the AC tensioner bearings. They are a common SKF bearing and I had no trouble finding them locally. There are two bearings in there and they are separated INSIDE by a snap ring. If these bearings were ever seized inside the wheel/pully housing you could not "push" them out because of the snap ring in the MIDDLE. You'd have to drill holes in the outer part of the bearing and pull them out like you do with the cam drive gear bearing with the sykes puller. Anyway mine sort of fell out and so had no problem. But now that I'm thinkin about it my accessory belts did make a clicking noise prior to the service that went away if I applied belt dressing. I think now that it was one of these ac tensioner bearings...one did not spin smoothly by hand once I removed it. That noise is gone so whatever it was replacement of the acc. belts and bearings solved that issue.