'85 QV back on the road after engine-out major

Took a bit longer than hoped for due to extra work (mostly cosmetic) and a nice price, but took my '85 QV home last friday. Had a few great drives over the weekend until a noisy, loose accesory belt put a hold on things on Sunday.

I'm lucky that the shop lets me help out - I spent a bunch of evenings and saturdays there cleaning the motor and engine bay, checking valve clearances, running parts to the self-blasting place or alternator shop etc. Had great fun learning about the car and getting my hands dirty.

Jeez it sounds like a ton of work when I type it all out like this... but now she's ready for Road America this summer!

work done:
- cam end seals and cam cover, sump and trans gasket (several leaks)
- Unobtainium shift shaft seals
- clutch/PP/TB (ring nut was loose and digging a trench in the cover, had this welded up)
- fuel filter, accumulator, and hoses (x-over and tank-to-pump) http://www.****************.com/ Pricey buggers, but damn it's nice stuff.
- cam belts, misc coolant, air and oil lines
- axles checked, one rebuilt with new internals and boots
- Summit Racing poly engine mounts, modified by mad 308 genius Sean. The only indication of increased NVH is the sun visors buzz a bit at idle. Can fix by flipping down or I may stick a bit of felt on them. F-Chat thread: http://tinyurl.com/32vbjnv
- 'hard rubber' rear suspension bushings (http://www.superformance.com/), blasted and painted susp. arms and sway bar
- replaced rear brake lines (old ones a bit dented up)
- media blasted coolant tank, had some pinhole leaks patched, inside sealed, and power coated (total about $125).
- Had a local guy cut out the crumbled cat (shook chunks out of muffler) and weld in a straight pipe with O2 bung. Sounds a bit meaner!
- removed and plugged the pulse-air ports on the heads and manifold. 4 of the pipes were broken off anyway and this cleaned up the engine bay nicely.
- new (brass) fuel injectors http://tinyurl.com/37d7r3s
- new distr. caps and rotors, plugs, oil, gear lube, brakes fluid, coolant
- tested alternator (good) and starter (replaced solenoid)
- cleaned motor, blasted and powder coated showy parts ($100 for 12 pieces, 2 colors http://www.raphaelindustries.com/ )
- cleaned and painted engine bay
- sheepskin seat covers. $70 off Ebay (slightly used) intended for this season until I get the seats recovered next winter, but really liking them so far so might just keep them on.
- rear parcel shelf panels recovered in black vinyl
- front end respray (shaved corner markers)
- blasted and re-painted muffler cover, but liking the raw look without this so probably won't re-install.

Wish I had stripped the bulky insulation off the exhaust manifolds and had them Jet-Hot coated while they were out, oh well.

So nice to have her back on the road where she belongs.

salud!

PS: I used this fantastic forum frequenty for searches, molto Graci!!!
Also big thanks of course to Lorenzo Reina.
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thanks!
Feels really good bringing a classic back into tip-top mechanical shape.
cheers

 

thanks T!

This morning at the shop a recently-sold Testarossa was in after throwing it's alt bet over the weekend. The guy saw the alt light go on but kept driving, running out of juice shortly after with both rad fans going full tilt here in balmy WI...

Those dinky acc. belts do see rather stiff and undersized to me!

Anyway it was the alt belt on mine slapping around at idle, tightened her up and drove her home tonight.
We took pains to make sure the alternator washers/bushings were in the correct order so the pulleys lined up, just needed adjusting after about 50 miles.

If you're ever in Milwaukee (for the Masterpiece in August?) or know of a cool place mid-wayish shoot me a PM! I'm always on the hunt for good drives, haven't found too many around me so far but at least there are a few choice cloverleafs and one ~1/3 mile tunnel downtown that spice up the ride home from work.
Last summer we took several drives through the Kettle Morain area but didn't really find much to keep my interest, must be missing the great roads by one turn.

cheers!
Kurt

 

thanks 2!

graci - sounds like our cars are opposites lol

When I bought the car last year the engine bay looked ok, from the top side.... underneath it was a mess of oil leaks (at least it prevented rust!), CV joint grease, chipped frame coating and general road grime.

The motor really needs to come out to do a proper tidying up back there, but let me tell you once you do it it's amazing. I can't stop staring at it


cheers!

 

thanks Al!
I went over the intake tube with some steel wool to knock down the mirror finish a bit. Really happy with the way it fits in with the rest of the motor, soooo much nicer than the clothes-dryer tube

cheers!

 

no, but I wish I had. There was plenty of time, I think it would have cost <$400 to do inside and out, but I was occupied with so many other things just plain forgot to do this.
The OEM insulation cleaned up fairly well, but after seeing pics here of how nice the bare tubes underneath the bulky covers look (almost Tubi-like) it would have been the icing on the cake... and supposedly the insulative properties of the Jet Hot is even better than the OEM covers (probably stuffed with asbestos!).

Might still do the rear manifold, front/rear connection pipe and cat-replacing straight pipe next winter since they're easy to remove, but the front manifold will have to wait until her next engine-out major in hopefully 20 years+

cheers

 

thanks!
she is a tall, proud motor aint't she