For New Owners

I offer the following observations after owning my 1986 3.2QV Monidal five years and 15,000 miles. It now has about 58,000 miles on the clock. I have worn out three sets of tires up here in my North Georgia Mountains and have never been towed in! I do not pretend to be an expert but only offer to narrate what I have done and my own advice.

First and foremost there are two reasons to shift at 6,000 rpms and no higher. First, its measurably faster. I know this because I ran the local Wannagofast.com 1/2 mile drag race at four different shift points. I started at 7,500, then 7,000, then 6,500 and then 6,000. I only ran the 6,000 rpm run because each runswas faster then the previous run. That turned out to be true with the 6,000 rpm run as well. The 6,000 rpm run was 115 mph while each of the others was fractionaly slower by as much as 0.5 seconds.

The second reason to shift at 6,000 rpm is to avoid doing what I did at 7,500 rpm one hot 95F day. Scatter the clutch disc. Incidentally, my local hot rod mechanic enjoyed working on the clutch and had high praise for the engine/transaxle casting.

My first impressions on taking delivery was that it seemed slower then I expected and had some light throttle surging as if from a vacuum leak. I detected small vacuum leaks by spraying WD40 on the injectors and noticed the idle changed on several of them. A few drops of power steering stop leak fixed all of that.

Next, I noticed the cooling system would do a nuclear power plant proud! Something like24 or 32 hose clamps or some such! So I did what I have done in the past with some other cars. I depressurized the system using 60/40 glycol. I live at 2,200 ft elevation and have run hard at 90F and added one pint of coolant in 15,000 miles. The car only activates the fans at idle.

These cars have mechanical fuel injection and so I have always added oil to the gas at each fueling. Either 8oz of 2cyl oil or, more recently, Marvel Mystery oil. I have no idea if this helps matters at all but it certainly seems not to have hurt anything in the last five years.

In addition, I mentioned the car seemed slower then it should given the various road test reports from the era. This all corrected itself by the way I drive. Specifically, warm up with at least 2,000 rpm on the tach, run at about 3,000 rpm, and shift at full throttle at either 4,000 or 5,000 rpm. Or, in my case, 7,000 rpm prior to clutch disk scattering. It all cleaned out very nicel. Probably increased my 1/4 speed by 5-10 mph. It was rather dramatic on my local 1/4 mile drag strip suroget. Probably close to 100 mph given the 1/2 mile speed of 115 mph.

I also accessed the fuel regulator adjustment screw and increased the richness by 1/8 turn. This is a little bit rich and sometimes the check engine light comes on. However, after warm up and some vigorous driving it goes off.

Another thing to know is to never ever replace Ferrari hydraulic clutch cylinders with Alpha units. They will operate the clutch at rest, in parades, and cost 1/10th Ferrari units. Both of my Alpha units failed catastrophically. I do not remember the exact sequence in all this clutch clutch misadventure; I should have kept a diary.

Italian electric wiring makes Lucifer Lucas look like Arch Angel Gabriel by comparison. All my electric systems have been on death bed watch since I bought the car. The driver window works fine but slow. The passenger window is dead but knows it not. I only use it with the revs above 2,000 rpm for maximum voltage. It works just as well/bad as it did more then four years ago. The sunroof was apparently modified before I got the car. It works fine but many people say the sunroof should be welded shut. My windshield wipers work in the car wash and in the rain. Otherwise they show meager signs of life.

Then there is the starter. First the good news. These cars can be pop started by two grade school girls pushing from behind. The bad news is that hot soak will have you in near perpetual search of two grade school girls for such purposes. But there is, in addition, VERY good and VERY cheap good news. Bosch sells what is known as a WR1 intermediate solenoid. Or something like that. Flawless. Cost $25 or such. Easy to install but be careful with the connectors. They are not a perfect match.

In addition, twice I have experienced cam seal oil drip onto the passenger side front exhaust header. I don't think it is actually dangerous but smoke billowed out in prodigious amounts. The first time I added one of each and every stop-leak available and after about 50 miles it stopped. A couple of years latter it started again and one or two AT-205 stopped it. These products all to be some sort of "re-plimizer" and I now add a bottle to my older cars at oil change.

Finally, I would never use straight synthetic oil. The car came with a blend and I would either stick to that or go full mineral. My own experience (plus and rumors I have heard) speak ill of straight synthetics and the effectiveness of oil seals. I simply use four quarts of Mobile 1, and four quarts of a name brand of normal oil.

I will try to include photos of the WR-1 kit.

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Thanks. The car sits in my garage and every couple of weeks I just get in, start it and drive away. Vigorously! Maybe someday that might fail. Vigorously means 6,000 rpms! THAT IS THE PROPER SHIFT RPM FOR RACING! [Having tested it repeatedly in 1/2 mile speed only drag races.] Your mileage might vary!