Quattroporte III catch-all thread

Apparently the manufacturing has changed.

I had the body shop adjust the length of the US shocks to result in EU bumper placement, it looks like they just took an angle grinder or hacksaw to the end post that sticks out from the gas chamber.

Since a recent minor fender bender discharged the gas on the one side, I ordered a replacement from MIE, which arrived the other day. Went over to a friends house, he has an entire workshop in his garage, so we first measured then cut down the bumper post before continuing on to drill a hole for the mounting bolt.

After the cut was made, we both counted ourselves lucky, as the position of the sealing cap looks to have changed. Our cut was right on the edge of it. It wasn't visible initially because the shock had a sealing cap on the end as well, to keep out dirt and dust.

Not much to do with it now except throw it away. We ended up putting a few small tack welds on my old one to keep it in place, it should buckle on impact, but obviously won't provide the cushioning effect that a charged gas shock would.

It looks like I'll need to order an OEM EU version shock in order to get one the correct length.

Just wanted to share, as the car's been in the shop all summer, and I finally got it back.

Hope everyone's enjoying their summer!
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Hi AutoArt,

manuals are pretty rare. Not as rare as the Royale version, but still rare. I believe there were 331 manual cars built, of a total 2145 built all told. There were 10 manual Royales. Those would be the most valuable from a collector standpoint, in my view.

As far as I know, no manuals were originally imported for sale in the US, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any there today.

I'm pretty certain the QP3 was LHD only.

Market price is, as with anything else, whatever the market is willing to pay. You can buy one for anywhere from $2000 to €50000, with most of them between these two extremes.

IMHO a manual car should be more valuable than an automatic, although due to the nature of the car and it's weight, I'd venture to guess that the automatic is probably better suited to the car. It's not a sports car, but it is sporty.

As with anything of this nature, you want to get as good an example as you can find.

Good luck and let us know what you end up getting!

 

The shocks are brilliant, the problem is that we still haven't found the correct spring rate and length to bring the car to the proper ride height and allow adequate spring & damper travel.

We've been through 3 different springs so far, all of them leave the front end dragging on the ground, or close to it, even with max preload on the spring.

They've sent me a new one that should be right on the money, but I haven't had the time to fit it, as regular garden variety spring clamps won't work.

When I get it put on and tested, I will definitely let everyone know about it!

 

You might try Jacques at Maseratiresource (maseratisource.com), and there's the other guy who's name starts with J and has a lot of Maserati used parts, but I hesitate to recommend him.

There were also people, including Mitchell (user name bundas here) on this forum and some on the "other" forum (which I can't link to from here, as it will be removed) who have from time to time advertised parts cars.

Best of luck. The brown looks really good on that QP3.

 

3 quick questions for today.

First, I seem to have drain holes at the bottom of each of the side compartments in the trunk (boot). The left one is blocked, I'm not sure how or with what, the right side is open.

I know that none of us would ever dream of driving our cars in the rain, but would like to know how these holes were configured from the factory. Was there some plug or membrane, or a flap to let moisture escape while preventing water ingress, or what?

I removed some surface rust I found in there and am working at putting it all back like it belongs.

Second, one of the bolts holding the side bumper bit on is stuck. Any thoughts/advice on how to get it loose? I put a lot of power on my ratchet and it moved a little, but now I'm worried that I may have torn the threaded insert out of the rubber bumper where it's molded in. I've sprayed it with penetrating oil and will have another go, but would like to remove it and reuse it if at all possible. If not, I suppose I could cut the bolt off or drill it out.

Lastly, has anyone removed the fiberglass inner wall of the trunk liner? Is it trivial/simple? You can see where it mounts on each side in the attached picture, right above the side bumper mounting bolts. I'm considering removing it and refreshing the carpets and having a look at the condition of the metal behind it, as well as fabricating a new hinge support for the side panel lids, which is pretty corroded.

Thanks.
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By now I've done this so many times I'm beginning to know the drill, but there are still things going on that perplex me.

In our last installment, the car was at the shop to have the intake manifold refitted, along with the cam covers, half moon seals, etc.

Well, when I got the car back naturally I started by tuning the carbs, since that was where I left off last - airflow first (barrel to barrel, then carb to carb), then idle mixture.

This time (and the exasperating bit is that every time is different - I would prefer it if the problems were consistent and repeatable!) the carb on cylinder no 1 is making a hissing sound. Not constant, but pulsing in time with the engine, somewhat similar to a pressure cooker. I rolled up a makeshift tube from a few pieces of paper in order to listen closer, and the hissing is coming from the carb throat/venturi itself, it isn't audible anywhere around the baseplate or carb body as far as I can ascertain. Only by opening the air bypass screw very many turns was I able to get it to flow the same as the other barrel (all barrels are flowing around 5.5kg/h @ 950rpm, for reference).

Any ideas what it might be? Last night I wondered if perhaps it could be the throttle plate shaft, as many people have reported that these leak unless upgraded to sealed bearings. I only repacked mine with heavy duty marine grease when I rebuilt them, but it's not much more than a year, the car hasn't been on the road for all that long, and if that was the cause, shouldn't I hear hissing outside the carb body where the shaft is connected to the throttle control cam?

Here's a quick vid of the issue: https://youtu.be/T00tNkUbj0c

I've gotten the airflow pretty much nailed, and was pleased to discover through all my tweaking a setting where the engine really settles down and runs very smoothly, once all cylinders are flowing nearly identically (or as close as is practicable on this car). Obviously the hissing (and huge amount of air bypass) indicates that something is wrong with the carb on cylinder 1, and I'll still have to find and fix the issue.

The other thing I was wondering, is how much variation in RPM is normal for an idling V8 engine. The reason I ask is that many carb tuning manuals say to aim for highest RPM
(or highest vacuum). I've kept an eye on RPM while tuning with the help of a timing light, as well as listening for the smoothest and quickest running, but notice that despite seeing changes here and there, the overall RPM seems to waver more than the small changes my adjustments make.

This weekend it was pretty close to 950, one cylinder that was a bit rich increased overall RPM to 1000 when I leaned it out a half a turn. When I moved on to the next cylinder, the car was idling at 925 or so, not the 1000 it was just at. The same thing happened throughout the process, and I noted idle speeds of anywhere between 900 - 980 or so in the course of tuning.

So I'm unsure how good an indicator RPM is as far as carb tuning goes. Other than that I've been using the Colortune, aiming for a blue closer to the point where it turns to orange than white, as consensus here indicates it should be left a touch towards the rich side.

Hope I'm not boring people with my questions, it has been a very educational journey thus far, and I feel I'm closing in on really getting carb tuning nailed!

 

Ok, thanks. I'm in Europe, but far far away from any other car of this type or resource that can help, unfortunately.

Last night I did a tad more tweaking, as Bart indicated sometimes it isn't even 1/8th of a turn that brings everything into focus and you can hear the engine settle down and run very smoothly. And as Bob mentioned, the linkage isn't a precision instrument by any means, and does seem to drift with temperature, phase of the moon, etc. Still, it seems close enough now.

Aside from the hissing on no 1, (or despite it, as it runs fine), the engine is now running very well. I haven't (yet) checked for power or mileage, but will get to it. One Maserati specialist I spoke with said that the stock jetting wasn't an especially good fit for the car, and was done to pass emissions. He recommended changing them, which I'll consider after doing some more testing now that everything seems pretty optimal as it is.

I've also noticed that the "consumption" gauge is back where it started when I first got the car - straight up and down on idle, right on the border of green and yellow. It hasn't been that way for a while, and indicates increased vacuum at idle. I also see that I can now cruise on the freeway without the feeling that I'm continually having to accelerate, and can keep the needle in the yellow zone much of the time.

While I try and figure out what's causing the hiss on no 1, I'll pop in brand new plugs and have a look at them after a few spirited drives (is there any other kind with a car like this? ), and fill up and track mileage for a while to see if it's improved at all since last time.

My mechanic said that the valves need to be adjusted, so sometime this fall I'm going to have to have that done. It's a bigger job than I can tackle on my own.

So for now, I guess it's back to the trunk and getting the rear bumper fixed up and put back on the car.