the lvferraripilot engine rebuild thread

You can do it man!

 

Thanks for the encouragement! She will be out this weekend

 

Lifting a la factor spec? There's a video floating around where the engine is installed...and presumably removed by slinging the front head. I've been doing this way for nearly 30 years and it works perfectly. There no need to pull the bell housing either.

For perspective, I pulled a QV engine a month ago. After all the "stuff" was disconnected, it was a mere 18 minutes to sling her and have the engine sitting on a cart. No vehicle damage and no drama...

David

 

Yeah that's the factory video I am referring to. I thought it had the rearmost head (nearest the back of the car) raised?

I will go with whatever is recommend as 'the best' way as I also do not want any drama. I thought removing the bellhousing would be an easy way to free up some more space. If not necessary then I won't mess with it yet.

many thanks

 

John,
To minimize confusion, regarding front or rear...I sling the head closest to the back window (5-8 bank). You do have to disconnectthe 5-8 header and leave her in the chassis, though...

David

 

I just put mine back in... Front bank up, bell housing on. But I did pull the cam belt covers. The steeper the angle the better the fit so I'd assume the same coming out. In the end, we had the front bank of cylinders near vertical.

Rick

 

gotcha. ok 5-8 bank out first it is. For some reason I thought the 1-4 bank was the way the factory did it. Can't argue with what works best though.

 

To be honest I saw that video and wanted to do it that way too. But I talked to several of the pros here and they recommended 5-8 up. I figured, what the heck, I can try 5-8 up and if it doesn't work, we'll do 1-4 up.... it worked the first way so I never got to the other. But looking at it, as long as you get it tilted it should work either way just fine.

Rick

 

Here is a picture of my headers after ceramic coat.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

yeah, those look great. thanks for posting the pics. The insulation is coming off mine and I will probably have them coated. Should be much easier to reinstall like this as well.


Had about an hour and a half to wrench on stuff last night. Unbolting the 5-8 exh manifold was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Removed a/c compressor and a couple cooling pipes.

Does anyone know what bolt/assembly grants the most trouble-free method of disconnecting the clutch? I am hoping there is just one big bolt or nut or the like.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I guess what I'll do with the clutch disconnect is loosen the adjustment bolt and the two nuts sinching it down, and with the slack this allows I can remove the pin which attaches the cable to the the arm. Sounds easy enough.

 

Not bad looking under all that insulation (asbestos?). If you've got close-ups of the welds and bends I'd thank you to share them also.

Any noticable increase in engine bay temps after going bare OEM/ceramic?

The headers are now out of my '85 GTS along with the motor for a major/minor service: heads aren't coming off just multiple seal R+R, valve clearance check (all good), fuel/coolant line R+R, new OEM clutch, axle rebuild, general clean-up (blasted and powder coated the cam and belt covers, intake and coolant tank), and poly motor mount installation.

Cleaned the headers up as much as I could, and will weld up the EGR ports (2 were broken off anyway). Ditching the crumbled cat (had to shake the muffler around for a couple minutes to get all the liberated cat material out).

$500 for stripping the heavy covers and ceramic coating is a bit more than I'd like to pay for just an appearance upgrade - plus the few lbs of lightness of course.

Any regrets/benefits you have?
cheers
Kurt

 

I am a "checkbook mechanic" as the saying goes, so this is all being done at a local shop. I was told the ceramic coat will marginally drop the engine bay temps, but not much. It is mainly a cosmetic thing. I will attach a pic of what my new motor will look like, see below. I do not have close ups of the welds.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

that's too funny.

Right now my QV's cam and belt covers are being powdercoated textured-red (not exactly a wrinkle), and I plan to sand off the ribs to bare al.
Didn't think of taping the plug wells, but may stop by the shop tomorrow and have them do this.
Tonight on the glass-beaded intake I painted the "Ferrari" and "Quatrovalve" red (Testor's Italian" red) with a fine brush, then will clear coat the whole thing with ultra hi-temp engine enamel (tested on the tensioner bracket and looks great).

That sure does look tasty with the bare, coated OEM headers... can see the diff housing so much better. very tempting.

Thanks for posting the new pics.
cheers!

 

engine is ready to come out. will happen tomorrow (hopefully if my buddy keeps his schedule).

prep time removing all parts was 8-9 hours. all that is needed now is to unbolt the big engine mount bolts (4 total) and pull the thing out.


as a side note, I weighed the a/c compressor which weighs in at 23lbs.

 

Engine came out. My buddy who was supposed to come out to help was a no show, no biggie I took my time and handled it myself. Took about 1.5 hours. I made sure to proceed *very* slowly with the cherry picker. Literally half an inch at a time. Worked well.

Another issue came up from the drop gear oil plug. As seen in the pics below, there are a couple good size pieces of debris on the drain magnet. Anyone care to guess what it might be? I assume it is part of the roller bearing in there as nothing else is really in there.

The engine is quite filthy. That being said, under the cam covers is nice and clean and all the valve shims are within spec. I measured the cam lobes on the intake side and am getting .352 intake and .332 exhaust. Zero wear. Ready for phase 2
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

It looks like a decently sized chunk of a bearing to me too.

I apologize if I missed this elsewhere, but I am unaware of the back-story here. Did you have some issues with the motor that necessitated the rebuild or are you just doing it strictly to put in some new 'goodies'?

 

Keep up the good work. Nothin better than doing it yourself.

 

Ditto that - do it yourself and do it right. And, take the opportunity to clean up the engine bay and restore/replace corroded or worn parts. No need to go overboard and restore everything to an as-new state, just make her a really nice and clean driver. You'll have her back on the road and enjoying things behind the wheel again before you know it. Hang in there!

 

new goodies time. This engine just pulled 200bhp at the wheels a couple weeks ago so it is indeed very healthy, but it was burning a little more oil then I would like. Plus it was leaking and utterly filthy. I figured it's time.

 

I saw the dyno run (one of, if not the most impressive stock pull I believe I have come across btw). I wasn't sure if something happened to go south afterwards or not.

 

Shooting for 220 at the wheels. I think I can get 'er dun. Heads will be off by tomorrow.

 

I'm assuming what you call "drop gear" is what I know as twill shaft and twill gears. This appears to be part of a snap ring behind the lower gear bearing and spacer. It should be there to locate the bearing on the primary input shaft.

If you need more.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/moseley_ferrari/sets/72157602899523865/

Rick
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

fabulous info. thank you very much.

some pics of the intake manifold to the ports on the head. some ports are definitely better than others as far as matching is concerned. The intake valves themselves looked very clean.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Oh man, these pictures are bringing back memories of long ago.

Good work John.