1998 550 Maranello "sorting" thread--DIY

I have found them to be less steady than the articulated arm type but then I have not tried Mitutoyos.

 

Long Island Indicator sells all manner of dial indicators, bore gauges, and very cool accessories, and one of their handy gadgets is a chuck for the indicator, similar to a drill chuck. They call it a pin vise: 133 : MTC Contact Points for Dial Indicators.

This little device, coupled with some of McMaster's miniature precision shafts like this one: McMaster-Carr can get your dial indicator body up above the cams, but with only the shaft passing by the cam lobes and contacting the tappet. I bought the 3/64" x 3" shafts then cut them to fit my needs.

Plus because everything is in the same plane, it's a little easier to line up with the tappet angles, assuming you have one of the magnetic bases and an articulating/rotating arm.

This is the rig I used when taking the data for that valve timing chart.
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But John, both you are Carl are showing a dial gauge that is pretty much vertical and doesn't actually follow the tappet's axis of travel, sort of like what I originally had done. Stay tuned...

 

Pete-I noted this as well.

 

Sorry.


By my Mark 1 eyeball Carls is a significant way off from vertical and is probably quite close to being in line with the valve.


John on the other hand measures for max lift (which in my opinion is a bad method but he knows that) so parallelism with the valve is unimportant.

 

I'll but out now.

Feel free to pursue whatever poor methods and witchcraft appeals to you.

 

But don't butt out yet... I'm just about to do it again correctly!

 

I plead parallax error & astigmatism.

I do recall very well trying to get the dial indicator inline with the tappet axis, because I did want to get an accurate measure of maximum lift in order to construct that valve timing chart, and I didn't want the trig errors tripping me up.

 

You guys are making me want to pour sand in my motor...

 

I think my odds for achieving greater precision are improving.....
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So this weekend I RETIMED the 550 this time using my "new" new setup
I made EVERY effort to get this dial gauge shaft exactly in plane with tappet travel; it is a difficult task because my eyeball is what it is.

However, after doing everything I could to be as precise as possible I ended up here (Photo 1).

My "old" new timing that I had previously labeled as "correctly timed" was indeed OFF, and outside of the error range in the WSM. So as Rifledriver said, the angle makes a difference. Looking at the assembly marks, it doesn't jump out at you as being significantly off, but using a dial gauge it is way out. Thank you Brian for pointing this out!!!!

I guess this again illustrates the importance of actually degreeing every time you change the cam seals.
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So I think I did the math right:

How the 0.70mm +/- .05mm spec changes with angles not parallel to the valve:
5* off = 0.003mm
10* off =0.011mm
15* off= 0.020mm
20* off= 0.0422mm
30* off = 0.094mm

So if you can get the spec perfect you can be off 20* from vertical and still be in spec.

I always take the cams out some time during my major. What we need to do is put a 90 right on the lifter top so that we can build a rig to hold the dial gauge perpendicular to the lifter top. It could be that the cam cover deck is very close to parallel with the lifter top or could be made so with some shims. Then it would be easy to ensure parallelism to the valve. When I did this a few months ago I just eyeballed it.

 

I had read a thread on a broken secondary air pump and decided to clean mine up. I had to replace one of these bastards on my 360 and it was mongo expensive.

SAP filter removed for cleaning (Photo 1)

SAP internals. All vanes on the pump intact with no debris noted (Photo 2)

SAP reassembled (Photo 3)
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My radiator shroud had lost its paint around the screw holes, which makes the engine bay look a little sloppy.

This piece is bare aluminum with paint on it. I didn't see any primer when I stripped it (Photo 1)

After lightly scuffing the entire cover with 400 grit sandpaper for adhesion, VHT crinkle plus was used to recoat the piece. The end result is very close to OEM (Photo 2)
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Cam covers repainted (Photo 1)

Here is a shot of where to apply sealant on the cam covers to augment the gasket. (Photo 2)

I don't think the WSM recommends the spark plug wells, but mine had leaked a little bit since the last major. The periphery of the cover remained dry. I would think it a major PITA if you coat the entire cover with sealant in addition to the gasket. This will require LOTS of removal work later.
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what cam cover paint did you use? I used VHT red which is a bit too orange. I guess that would be a point deduct in a concourse.

 

Carl, I used the VHT wrinkle paint there also, but overlayed it with a brighter color red to more approximate OEM.

I purchased a couple of supply fuel lines from FerrParts a while back cheaply, because I was curious as to whether or not our lines would degrade over time like some of our other fuel system parts. (Photo 1)

This is the old line cut off, so that braiding could be stripped (Photo 2)

This is the construction of the line. There is a second layer of braiding IN the rubber and the internal lining on my 20k mile car looks fine and was nice and supple. (Photo 3)
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Timely thread, as I just an hour ago painted some of my TR4's interior parts with VHT wrinkle finish. It been about an hour and I still see no wrinkle. How long did yours take?

 

I have had that happen too on occasion and never got a wrinkle. I'm not sure why.

 

Sometimes the crinkle paint needs some encouragement with a hair dryer or heat gun.

 

As GS said, I have always used a heat gun.
Spray the part down, and after you have thoroughly coated it and the paint has settled begin diffusely heating with the heat gun. Don't get it so close that you boil up the paint, just heat the piece uniformly. At some point (usually after 5-10 minutes of heat gunning), the wrinkling begins to "flash over".

 

Thanks guys. Mine eventually did wrinkle up, but it took a few hours and the finish was inconsistent. Looks like my method needs some work. I'll try the heat gun next time.

 

I decided to solve my radiator leak issue by purchasing a used radiator from my buddy John Cribb. John is an honest and ethical guy and was kind enough to submerge his OEM radiator in his pool, while pressurized with a scuba tank to prove it wasn't leaking. That's the kind of guy he is.

I decided to take apart my cooling fans partially out of curiosity and partially to see if anything needed work. To do this, you start by removing all 8 screws on the back (four black and four gold screws) (Photo 1)

Once the back cap is off you can get a look at the internals, including the four brushes and the solder joints. All looked good, aside from my brush wear debris (Photo 2)

The brush wear debris gets deep down there, so I took apart the whole thing and sprayed it all with LectraMotive. (Photo 3)
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I also replaced the worn brake cooling ducts with CEET 3.25 inch aircraft ducting, of which you require about 24 inches per side. This is the old stuff (Photo 2)
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Next up was to replace the intake plenum and install the NEW Maranello Skunk Works COP ignition system!

Intake plenum had been previously reassembled and fully sealed up. Its just a simple matter of dropping it on the engine, right? (Photo 1)

New intake plenum gaskets were used (Photo 2)

New intake plenum nylocks were used also, and a magnetic socket is pretty close to mandatory! (Photo 3)
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