Well you’ve ticked all the boxes Peter, 1980s prime of your life and you drove a Ferrari F40 I’d love to know what music you were listening to at the time, my mate had a black 911 turbo in the late 80s all we played on the tape was Duran Duran and a bit of David Sylvian we thought we were rock stars all dolled up in dinner suits and cravats Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat.com mobile app
Anyway, instead of calling you dumb I thought I better elaborate. If one of my friends had made a comment like your post, I'd have called him a ****ing idiot. Why? Because my friends know this stuff. I shouldn't expect that everyone, just because they're on fchat, actually understands the intricacies of carby/non carby you've brought up. A properly maintained carby car runs perfectly ok. No plug fouling. No overheating. No problems. Once properly set up, carbies don't generally change, but they get the blame when anything stops the car running right. IME, the trouble with the old cars is not the carbies, but the distributors/points/springs etc. They are the culprit for a carby car not running right. When I had the engine rebuild done on my old GT4, Tim took a lot of time to show and explain to me what the downside of sticking to the original dizzy set up was. At some points, there was up to 8deg difference in timing between one dizzy and the other. He showed me how the springs used to advance/retard the timing will vary in performance from one day to the next and with heat etc. I installed the BSM electronic ignition, which is still on the car today, and the car never missed a beat for the 17000km that I put on it. However, that still left the spluttering around corners and at the transition from idle jets to mains. So, hence the FI conversion to my GTB. I get all the good bits of a carby car, which are things like noise, throttle response, and get rid of all the bad. Just so you know, if I'd lost ANYTHING of the 'personality' that a carby car has I wouldn't have done the conversion, or if the engine bay had to be visually changed, I also wouldn't have done it. So, it looks pretty much the same, sounds exactly the same, but goes better. Did I need to do it? No. I just like tinkering. If you converted a 328 to MoTec, you'd also get much better throttle response (those old FI units are the laziest things of all time) AND if you used throttle bodies like I did, it would even sound good, instead of the sewing machine they sound like now. That's the bit you overlooked. It would improve your car just as much as it did mine, so it wasn't a carby v FI thing. In summary, if what you're saying is that your old GT4 had fouling plugs or overheating issues, then you needed a new mechanic, not a new car. I've had 3 x 308s and to use your words, none of them have 'given me any problems whatsoever' Why did I call you dumb? Only because I expected you to know all that and that was wrong of me, but now that you do, you're enlightened!
Really? I've seen hideously complicated and expensive repairs required for cars with k-jetronic. At least with a carby car nothing is expensive to fix. As far as emissions go, 100% right there. However, compared to a modern FI system, they're rubbish. Correct.
I still stick to this list. For the precious ones, remember this is all relative. No. 6 is only number 6 relative to the cars above it, not compared to a 1956 VW beetle.
Here is some homework for you: Your top 6 F cars you have owned. Your top 6 F cars you have driven. Your top 6 non-F cars you have owned. Your top 6 non-F cars you have driven. Please list and we shall discuss (argue some more). Cheers
When I got my GT4,it was running rough but the body,interior and everything else were in top shape,the main problem mechanically was that the valve guides were worn (the car had 97000km on it at the time) and it would blow smoke on start up..l did the belts,had the carbys looked over and the car ran fine,but still had the smokey start up issue..The distributors were overhauled at the same time.. I was quoted approx.$7k to rebuild the heads which included stainless valves and hardened valve seats so it could safely run on unleaded.. l ummed and arred about what l wanted to do and in the end l was quoted $15k for a complete rebuild which included high comp pistons,new second gear synchro and a new clutch.. It seemed the way to go with the only major downside was that it took 11months to complete,,it would have taken longer if l didn’t step in and help with the dismantling and putting things back together,, Anyway l got the car back and it ran fantastic,,but it would occasionally foul a plug randomly..l got so good at replacing plugs that l could have joined the F1 team!! Hotter plugs helped though.. The problem l had was always trying to mask up the idle to mains transition,,Tst stuttering and stumbling especially on up hills was a real pain to live with,, l experimented with various jet set ups and l did get it to run as best that l could but that resulted in it running rich,l lived with that until l sold it.. In the end l was offered good money for it at the time and it was time to move on,,l really wanted a 328GTB after seeing one at the FCA concours which belonged to Miles Sandy’s dad at the time,, but the ones that were available at the time were out of my price range,although your’s was the cheapest of the 3 GTB’s that were for sale at the time,l was too cheap to buy it So l got a GTS and have loved it ever since,,as l’ve mentioned it’s virtually been trouble free,, l did have a few thoughts a few years back to sell and trade for Testarossa but after reading up on it and listening to the advice on a few people on this forum l decided to stay with my car,, There are things l do miss about the GT4,being able to take my family for a drive was one of them but overall l love the open top experience that the GTS gives me especially on beautiful Sydney days..
Did yours have that type of window set up or the later wind down window? Did you ever drive 360C F50 and how much was the difference compared the the F40? Driven the 288GTO as well?
Like I said, you needed a different mechanic. My rebuild cost the same, Took a month and ran like clockwork Incidentally, my 308GTB is an ex miles sandy dad's car, restored by miles.
Well after the GT4 experience l decided it was time to learn how to work on these cars,another reason why l went for the 328 instead of a 360 which were close in price at the time,,l prefer the simplicity of the 328 which didn’t require any special computer to be able to work on it..
The GT4 was even more simple, and you couldn't even get that right. Good luck fixing the 328 when something goes wrong..... And it will, of course.
if you go for manual, 360 is pretty easy to work on. Finding a good one for sale for less than $200k could be a challenge though...
I said nothing about cost of repairs, I said "308 QV / 328 with K-jetronic and electronic ignition is much less likley to run poorly than a carby equiped 308 with standard points iginition" Let me elaborate. On a K-Jetronic system there is only one throttle and one metering plate for the kjetronic fuel distributor that controls fuel mixture. Because it feeds a a single plenum, each cylinder gets the same amount of air and fuel (unless an injector is clogged). Compared to a carb car, on a kjetronic 3xx car there are none of the linkages that need to be carefully setup (and that have ball ends that wear out ) which keep the 4 carbs opening at the same time and rate and ( hopefully) balance the airflow to all 8 cylinders. Apart from having to sync the linkage between the front and rear 2 carbs, each Weber also has an air bleed screw to fine tune airflow, plus a mixture screw for the idle mixture for each carby bore ( 8 in total). If the idle mixture isn't correct, then the car will run like crap. There are also a multitude of jets and air bleeds in each carb that could clog or partially clog. So on a carby car there are a heap of things that need to be set up correctly ( or that people can fiddle with) that simply don't exist on a kjetronic car and hence a lot of the time carby cars simply don't run as well as they could ( should). Also, the kjetronic cars have electronic ignition and advance which eliminates all the potential problems with mechancial distributors. The downside of Kjetronic is that the throttle response is comparatively poor, that's because the fuel flow is determined by the vacumm acting on the fuel distributor and that takes a while to build. On a carb car pressing the throttle immediately dumps some fuel from the accelerator pumps and off you go. With electronic inection ( ie Motec) there is a throttle position sensor and when the throttle is moved quickly the system commands the injectors to dump fuel in to the engine, same effect as the carby accelerator pump. I don't think kjetronic systems are particulary expensive to fix, the most expensive single item on a Kjetronic is the fuel head, that's about $650 usd reco, or the WUR which is around $400 usd reco. They rarely fail or wear out, most common problem would be gummed up with old fuel.
