Gold Pin Connector Kit: 456GT

I ordered the SRI gold pin connector kit in an attempt to banish electronic ghosts from my 1995 456GT.

Recurring CEL and Slow Down idiot lights have really started to tick me off, and I can see no happy ending without employing dratick measures.

Heck, I just want this wonderful car sorted out once and for all, so I can use it the way it should be used: hard, often, and for long distance jaunts.

The posts on this board persuaded me to take a chance on this, and I am optimistic that it will be money well spent.

I'll update this thread periodically as the situation warrants.

Thank god for people like Dave, who take it upon themselves to try and make ours a better Ferrari-world.

 

Good luck with your install; I have had nothing short of incredible success with Dave's kit on my car. It turned a somewhat frustrating ownership experience into a delight - my 348 felt and performed like a different car afterwards. Follow Dave's installation instructions to the letter and I'm sure you will be rewarded as well!

 

Great, please take pictures of the install!

What connectors are you replacing?

 

Will take pics and post as I go.

Plan to replace all the connectors that I can.

Bought the upgraded kit, with the ECU connector.

Initially I will only replace the three under the intake manifold, as I have removed it to replace what seems to be a leaking manifold gasket.

I finally think I figured out how to keep the car up in the air: jacked it up at the jack points, and put jackstands (with a bit of wood for padding) on the hard points at the suspension hard points.

Hope it holds.

 

Be careful with the jackstands, the 456 is very heavy.

Have you kept the wheel on the car?

How many connectors come with the kit? Could you show me a picture of all the parts that come with it?

Be sure to also check the connectors that go into the fuel injectors, remember that the "final" outcome of all the sensors and all the ECUs, is to open/close the injectors and produce a spark at the plugs.

 

I will be shipping my 456GT to SRI for Dave to "sort out" my CEL and SLOW DOWN 7-12 issues, plus to optimize it for what I hope will be many years of trouble-free (ha!) use.

OK, I will settle for being able to drive long distances without fearing it will catch on fire.

I am convinced, based on what I have read and on my interaction with him, that his gold connector kit, properly installed, will be money well spent.

I tried installing the SRI Supremo gold connector kit myself but found it a bit intimidating and frustrating: I am too ham-fisted, I guess: couldn't figure how to get a good crimp, and there is little margin for error.

Others report being able to do it, so maybe I am just psyching myself out; regardless, when I begin to feel out of my depth I turn to a pro.

I raised the subject of belt service (mine is due), and Dave mentioned something I hadn't heard, which is, like most of what he comes up with, nearly mind-boggling: he's working on cad-coated gears to turn the timing belts.

The cadmium coating will resist rust, and Dave says rust causes belt wear (abrasive).

Worn belts can contribute to timing going off, which can contribute to premature belt wear and CEL issues (bah, CEL issues!).

I am glad I discovered SRI.

 

How often do you drive you car?
I bought mine, a 2000 MGT last year with 27.000 kilometers and have driven 14.000 in one year without any single glitch.
I just come from a 4.300 km trip to France and Spain.
I work too close from home now to use a daily driver, but use it every weekend and week night when I need to drive, and use every excuse I can for travel (jazz concert in Cologne on a Wednesday, weekend trip to the UK, couple of days with the kid in Eurodisney, etc.)
The only thing I had to do was new tires and gas.
I am sending it now for the 40k maintenance.
Drive it often. Any car that is not driven regularly will develop gremlins. That's bot a Ferrari problem. Just a fact.
Use it, use it, and use it. That's what they're built for.
Cheers


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I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=50.846430,4.416021

 

Hello Isgv , where are you going for maintenance in Belgium ?

 

That implies 'in the process of'..... 'Have worked out' is a more accurate statement. With the last of 6 versions of this process now 6 years into Beta testing we are finally able to get test results. A long time to wait for answers.....
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Oh...oh my. Those are sexy. What will Commendatore Helms think of next?

 

I plan to go to the importer, Garage Francorchamps.
It is the first time the car goes for maintenance. I bought it from the F garage in Lyon, France, and they did a full job including belt change.
I do not expect anything big because the car is just doing fine.
If you're interested, I'll net you know my impressions.

Do you also live in Belgium? Do you recommend a garage?

 

Hello , yes i am living in Belgium , near Namur
I am by Waterloo Ferrari , Wednesday , for my 550 air conditioning

 

It really is not a matter of "needing" many of these things we are developing at SRI.... I am just at a point where I find myself asking "Why". What looks simple to do such as plating the gears turned out to be anything but that. That little project took some doing to get right but once we did.... the results are quite impressive based on early data collection and that data is only from the first generation of our method. I have to wait another 5 years to see how much we improved upon the first efforts but as long as we are headed in the right direction, all is good.

Why are the belts needing to be replaced at the intervals we have been speaking of? When we talk about the newest Kevlar belts, in many instances the belts themselves are aging quite gracefully when not wear influenced by the rust factor. We went through a rough time on the tensioner bearings but quite honestly, Paul Hill raised the bar and in doing so forced everyone else in the game to follow.

With the tensioner bearings dealt with thanks to Hill's efforts in that area it was simply a matter of asking what is the next factor that can be improved on. Eliminate the rust and the single biggest contributor to belt wear is eliminated. Identify a method to do this in a cost effective manner and then look for the next weak link. Belts riding against a gear fence has taken many a 348 owner directly to Church when the fences break off and become entangled in the belts. Find a manner to weld those fences in place without distorting the gear or fence and not making them brittle as Ferrari learned was required on the 360's......

When all of the small, easily overlooked issues are dealt with in a manner that has both longevity and is cost effective, then and only then, can we look at extending service intervals between changes. There is method to my madness and an end goal in mind. Many think it is fluff and it surely is not required on a normal car..... its just one step in a bigger picture. Deal with all the problem areas properly and then it needs only be done once with the end result being an older model that is easy to maintain, has reliability and performance to match. If you have not learned it by now, its the small details that matter and make the difference, details that most have never taken the time to even glance at.

What does one have when all of the models issues are dealt with, the car is daily driver reliable and has performance to match expectations? The value of each model will come back and it will be a sought commodity, bringing back those that left this market due to frustration. Yes, I am a selfish SOB and I want those friends back, I miss them.

 

You ain't gonna catch me, no.

Seriously, thanks for your efforts.

Dale

 

Betcha.......... Your one of the target's of my efforts.

Honestly, I really don't blame those that have left the folds given the marques history over the last few decades. That discussion has far more relevance in the 348/355 section but when improvements engineered, tested and proven on those models can be implemented on the forward 12's.......... It begs the question, "Why not"? Brian once brilliantly stated "If we were left to make a living on the late front 12's only, we would be out of business", a statement I completely agree with. That stated, we have found ways to make them vastly better yet, rarely a bad thing given its a passion driven market. Many look to blame Ferrari for these problems, in a few cases that might have some merit but in the majority of cases it is more a fact of aging and changing environmental conditions.

The days where a nose high attitude toward how these cars are maintained is now long gone. As they age they will all fall into one of two categories, sorted or problem cars and with the values diminishing due to over production and age, that's a tough sell. Tolerance and a blind eye is no longer a fitting description of the situation as decisions were made to make many thousands of a given model and that has a direct effect on values, unlike the Vintage cars.

Give me just a little more time Dale, we are right on the edge of announcing major breakthroughs that will change how these cars are looked at...... you will once again find yourself helpless to the urge to have a Red Sled taking up a space in the garage. I hope the rest of your trip went well, I sure enjoyed out short time together, next time we will have to make it longer.

 

Impessive Dave.

Are you currently offering the gold wire kit for the 456?

Thank you.

 

Impressive.... that is debateable. Boring.... Without a doubt. A requirement when viewed as a package with an end goal.... In my opinion, based on my research, yes. There will be many that disagree and frankly, that is what makes the world go around and keeps it interesting, I have no problem with that. When one works hard enough toward developing long term solutions to problems that plague these cars, solutions can be found.

Yup.

 

hi bernard

You here?? Funny

 

Update:

I posted 3 1/2 months ago that I was going to ship the 456 to SRI for Dave to install the gold pin connector kit; I also want him to sort out the car.

Thus far: I haven't gotten the green light from him to ship the car to Boulder, so it sits idle, with the intake manifold off, inoperable (I tried to install the kit and gave up in exasperation).

I understand and appreciate that I must wait for a slot to open, which is fine.

But few things in life are as frustrating as having an exotic car that cannot be driven.

Heck, the weather in Stumptown has been clear, good for tooling around in my Ferrari.

If only I could.

Hopefully soon ...

 

If I understand you right, you are making a kit that "eliminate" the need for replacing the timing belts so often as Ferrari reccomend? Sounds great to me! Tell us more!

 

Update: my car is at Scuderia Rampante, at last!

I have a feeling it will be worth waiting for.

Had an "interesting" thing happen while enroute in the enclosed semi-trailer: it would appear that the fuel line which I'd disconnected (I had removed intake manifold when trying to install the gold pin connector kit, and left it off) somehow dropped low enough to allow the gas in the full fuel tank to siphon out onto the trailer floor.

Not a propitious start.

Hopefully Dave and daughter will successfully install the kit and sort out the electrical gremlins, and sort out the car overall.

Be nice to have a reliable car ...

 

Good luck! It's probably in the best place possible to sort out gremlins. I think we all consider Dave to be the master Ghostbuster.

You're very fortunate it didn't ignite. Besides losing your car, the transport company probably would have taken a really dim view of losing their trailer, or worse.

Buy a Toyota (j/k)