Jalpa thread

was this your first or second, and did you do all the work?

 

The second one (ELA12095) is back in switzerland and the engine has to be overhouled completely because some american idiot mechanic produced nothing else than BS, instead of simply retorqueing the engine heads.

 

Not sure you guys discussed this very early Jalpa:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1983-LAMBORGHINI-JALPA-23K-MILES-IN-STORAGE-20-YEARS-COMPLETE-PROJECT-CAR-/221169742184?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item337ebe7168

 

That was Joe Frazars car. You can thank Evans Automotive for the the heads. George gave Joe a low reasonable quote for him to rebuild the heads and send them back to Joe. After they had the heads the bill was close $3500 or 4000. Maybe thats what it took, i don't know or care. Jeff in VA had 12095 and I bought it for $20k with full disclosure the trans-axle was screwed up. When we realized the heads and head gaskets were fried, Joe made me an offer on the car and i took the the money and ran!

Joe and his mechanic had that damn engine and trans out at least 6 times. There is a difference in the casting for the trans-axles, and 12095 is right at the overlap. The engine and gearbox damage that happened overseas caused them (overseas) to rebuild the engine and gearbox (that was the first time). they mixed up early and late parts and the car would not shift properly and had no reverse. turns out one part needed to be matched to the hole in the casting to slide properly, or something. Joe fixed it and drove the car for months all over the place, satisfied it was fixed and a great driver.

Sorry to hear the car has problems again, but after the car was sorted out and had the heads done by Evans it seemed to be a good car. i honestly do not think Jalpa engines and gearboxes are built nor designed well. Nobody has to take apart BMW, Porsche or Ferrari engines all the time from this era. The 3.2 911 engine and the 308 4v QV engines are damn near bulletproof, which is why I have owned 8 of each thus far.

Uraccos and Jalpas have their place as a fun weird cars, but every single running car I know of on the boards has had major surgery done to it, whereas other makes from the same years have never been opened up.



PS: for the record Gary and Dee Shaw had the red 12250. Someone did a crappy in the shed red paint job on it, the white paint still showing through. They only thing I did when i had it was to fight with the alternator burning the diodes out if you had the lights on while driving the car. Turns out the cooling fans were bad, with worn out brushes and were drawing 50 amps out of a 55 amp alternator. The cooling fan circuit had been bypassed and hardwired by someone in AZ. There is a VW alternator made by Bosch that has more power that can be used in the Jalpa and thats what i had put in. I think i burned up 4-6 alternator guts before I got the car to run and drive well. Hayden cooling fans would have been the way to go in retrospect. These cars were so many cars ago for me I am loosing track. i should start writing this down with all the bottom feeder cars i have had. The local alternator shop loved working on the alternators, and i got really good and yanking them out and re-timing the dizzy since the stupid car has the dizzy and the alternator on the same drive belt.


I never did anything else to the car nor did i "restore" it. The engine was rebuilt and it had also had trans-axle work done before I bought it. Car was sold new in Miami and was identical to the one Phil Collins drove in a Miami vice episode but its not the car that was used. White on white would be hard to get adjusted to.

 

I don’t think the Jalpa is a bad car at all.

In fact there are many aspects of the car that are quite the opposite. For example, the stoutness of the chain cam drives seem to blatantly mock the puny 308 rubber belt design. Other aspects of the car, like the suspension, is borderline truck-like. I have read just about everything on the internet and in print on the car, and the gearbox isn’t known for weakness, nor is the basic engine design.

Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty about the Jalpa that doesn’t make sense.

First and foremost, the US sealed carb airboxes are an engineering abortion, plain and simple. The fact that Lamborghini was still using carbs well into the 80’s speaks for itself. The box design not only precludes making easy adjustments (a real pain in the ass), but it also muffles the sound of the glorious 42 DCNF webers.

There are other nagging engineering anomalies, like the tapered radiator hoses that connect parts of two different diameters that don’t need to be different diameters…or the mix and match silent blocks…. or the inaccessible rear bank of cylinders on the early cars……or the fact that the distributor, AC compressor, water pump, alternator all sit in the cramped valley of the V8….or the rubber belt driven distributor that looses a few degrees of timing when the motor gets hot….or the special tool required to remove the cams as there are no cam caps….



But, the basic engineering of the engine and gearbox seems solid.

The real problem is this:

First, there aren’t any available. It’s not like buying a 308 when you can sift through the cars out there and find a great one. When I bought mine, there were two for sale in the US. I bought the one that sucked the least.

They suffer from the same fate as many other low value exotics - they aren’t worth anything, so not many people cared for them properly, or even worse they resorted to crappy shadetree mechanic techniques. So, low supply, and the supply out there is low grade at best. Second, this isn’t the 308 where parts are plentiful and cheap (yes, very cheap…), with reams of information on the internet. The 308 has procedures written on how to put on the valve stem cap for god sake. This is the Jalpa - parts are rare (and many times not available at all) and information isn’t available. It’s a bastard. Period.

I bought my 308 with a sound engine and gearbox, but got hammered sorting out all the other stuff (carbs, ignition, suspension, cooling system, on and on and on), and while it got expensive, it was fairly easy to sort out. I bought my Jalpa in about the same condition, and it’s trying my will and wallet to set the car straight, but I will do it because I am an idiot.

With all that said, I love my Jalpa and I would sell my 308 first if it ever came to it. It’s very rare, a piece of Lamborghini history, and sounds like the devil himself. Anyone wanting to own one however should either be extremely handy with a wrench, have tons of cash, and maybe even both.

 

The problem is not the heads but the mechanic who put them back onto the cars, he used that much of sealant that all oil channels through the head gasket were stuck and the engine pumped oil into the heads.
I looked at the heads last week and they look sound. But since the mechanic who put the engine back together made one BS after the other the cylinders are now completely shot and must be replaced as well as the pistons.

I know well the issues Jeff had in belgium with the gearbox, also that time a mechanic (in belgium) without proper experience tried to fix it and made it even worse.

The car ran perfectly when it left Switzerland, the only thing what had to be done was retighten the heads after 1000Km, which was not done obviously and resulted in fried gaskets...

My Jalpa was bullet proof, I drove it 6 years without any hazard and sold it with 73t km on the odo. The things I had to do was replacing the alternator and the broken engine mounts, plus I had the carbs overhouled, since then it was a real blast, the rest was normal maintenance.

 

I heard the last few Jalpa's to leave the assembly line had a different head/block design that put the chains more integral with the engine. This was in anticipation of the engine for the Jalpa successor. Anyone here have a late model Jalpa...

 

are you speaking of the late model vs the early jalpas without the block spacers? i believe yours would be the later model without the spacers..

 

which version is this? Its engine 12184
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Oh man that that looks good. What are block spacers?

 

That was a few years ago, that motor is toast now. I heard Evans bought it with a spun main bearing.

 

Early Jalpa used Urraco 3 liters blocks as there's a lot at the factory, they fitted a plate between the blocks and the heads to have 3,5 liters, for the late Jalpa they made new blocks.

 

Thank you , happy holidays. Ill pass the info along to those who need to know here.

 

ITS BACK! LOL this car gets sold so often http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1983-LAMBORGHINI-JALPA-23K-MILES-IN-STORAGE-20-YEARS-COMPLETE-PROJECT-CAR-/221172235138?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item337ee47b82

 

Is that really a factory wing? I have never seen one like that on a Lambo. The ones I have seen on a Jalpa have been similar to the ones off of a Countach. So what is the story with this car? Is there a different story other than in the description? Does anyone know the condition of the engine and trans? Just curious. Thanks

 

im not sure of the #12184 engine number... if memory serves most if not all of the fed "sealed box" cars are the later motors without the block spacer.

happy new years

hf

 

bingo !

 

There were several part changes to cylinder head components after cars 1-77. Perhaps this is related.

 

Lamborghini : Other Jalpa in Lamborghini | eBay Motors

i wonder what is lurking under the skin....

 

NO photos of Motors

 

But you can get the very rare JAPAL LOL

Lamborghini : Other Red/Tan in Lamborghini | eBay Motors

 

ELA12098, not the first time on Ebay...