BBi Major +

Well, after two years just sitting and a year after removing the drivetrain I finally have the time to continue the service on my BBi, the car has under 1000 kms so this project started on advise given by some of the members on this site, I feel the car is deteriorating fron lack of use so It was high time.

Initially I wasn’t going to change the cam drive bearings and seals because they have so little use but as I will also be installing a Modena Eng. Diff. I decided on splitting trans from the engine to change orings etc. And I guess the drive bearings too then.

I am going to do some cleaning and refinishing, anybody have some feedback on the type of finish on the hardware? Is it yellow dich or gray zinc? Also where the engines painted from the factory or just natural? Thinking about ceramic coating for the headers, anybody has done this on a boxer?

Two of the exhaust valves are a little bit tight on the clearance .011”, having such low mileage makes me wonder if this is the way they were set at the factory, will clearance increase or decrease with use, leave it as it is or correct?

I’m not going to start a documented thread on this as others have already done this (thank you, I will be leaning on your experiences), But I will be sharing any things I find could be of interest to others and also going to be asking for your opinion on any issues I think other might know more about, your feedback will be appreciatted.

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Interesting, why would the engine builders set the lash too tight if it would only get worse? The car has very little use (under 1k kms).

Another thing, should I buy new nuts for the timing cover and engine to transaxle? I know they are nylock so one use only? I’m a bit worried the replacements could be of inferior quality.

 

Very well I will adjust valve lash then, I asumed nobody adjusted valve lash before with so litle use, but I might be wrong as I don’t have any maintenance history.
Today I will go to the hose and fittings shop to see if I can find the correct coolant & air hoses, I have low expectations on finding metric stuff but I have to ask. The heat molded hoses with bends will be new oem or similar, the straight ones I will try to source outside and cut to length, it doesn’t make sense paying for every 5cm piece separate.

 

Okay, advancing slowly, spent a lot of time making a parts list to complement my first order, back then I wasn’t changing the cam drive bearings/seals nor the differential so I had to order a bunch of extras, while I’m there I’ll also change the shift shaft oring, boot and bushing and the drive flange seals.

I’m rebuilding the water pump and I got a new impeller seal, problem is I only received the front spring loaded carbon part and not the ceramic plate/rubber cup, on the parts catalog both parts share the same number so did my supplier make a mistake or is there another number for the plate/cup? Anybody been here?

I made a couple of decisions:
-Nylock nuts: I will order new if available and compare to original, if they are the same I will install new, if not the same or not available I will use medium or low strength locktite.
-Valve adjustment: I will not adjust the valves, even if two exhaust valves are a bit tight. I think the engine builders at Ferrari must have done it so for a reason. With only 750 kms the cam lobes are still not fully broken in, as you can see in the pictures the cam base circle area is completely black and the lobe ram still has machining marks.
-Hoses: I will buy original water hoses for the pump outlet as the size is too far away from what I can get locally, the rest is VERY close in fitment. I will also buy original hoses for the intake J-tube as I don’t think I will find this here and the rubber is starting to crack.

I need advise on what type of sealant is best for the transmission? W as planning on using motorcycle engine case silicone but I am afraid it will make disassembly at a later time too difficult. The stock stuff is falling off on its own after I cleaned the engine with Sikkens Antistatik Degreaser so I guess it is rather weak?

I removed the intake to clean/paint, the intake to head gaskets are incredibly tough to remove and I can’t use anything metal for fear of damaging the aluminum, I will try 3M/Scotchbrite roloc bristle brush on my die grinder, I’ve read it is designed specially for this.

I will send my headers to be ceramic coated at Jethot today, I will try to get a dark bronze hue to match the silencers. I won’t coat the silencers as I think these usually rust from the inside and this area can’t be coated anyway.
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Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Still waiting for the parts I ordered to continue, in the meantime:
-Retouched a section of the frame and the battery box where the coating had flaked off (heat from the muffler and acid from the battery I suppose) with Colad M80.
-Changed the brake fluid.
-Removed the radiator and sent to repair shop to change the core which had several tubes canceled from previous “repairs”
-Changed the position lights on the bumper and had to fabricate one of the brackets that was missing. The replacements are nice but do not have the correct connectors.

The car was repainted because it sat in the sun for years, the guys did a good job on the paint but a terrible job reassembling the car and lost hardware which they replaced with whatever they had at hand. So far I’m missing:
-One of the strut pins was replaced with a bolt, solved thru my local machine shop, they copied my existing one for $ 8
-Left side heater diverter is broken where the metal bracket attaches, not repairable.
-The cable guide for the electric fan wiring harness is gone, will try to find one or else fabricate one maybe from fiberglass?
-Screws/bolts for the plastic covers under the headlights/gas struts (anybody have a picture?
-Battery hold down bracket, will fabricate my own.

Today I will recarpet the trunk, someone had done a terrible job before and it was also very dirty because a rat lived there for a while, found a nest food rests and depositions, smells awful. Will also have to repair some of the cables it chewed on.

 

It’s been a while since I last posted, as I had my attention on other cars (gtbi, 240z, SCJ mustang) fixing some smaller stuff On the mostly finished cars to keep them running.
So now back to the boxer, I finished recarpeting the trunk, replaced heater ducts and one diverter valve, had the radiator core Renewed, also repaired front bumper damage and fitted new grille mesh (used generic aluminum mesh), I took the opportunity to paint the boxer trim and repaired the bumper grille. On the interior I recovered the rear window frame leather because a rat (I had left the windows 5cm open) ate it trying to get out, put in a stereo and equalizer I got on ebay of the same type but not original, I really don’t care for the sound, just want it to look period correct (no ferrari logo on the stereo though). The ashtray recesses where rusty so I cleaned and painted.
Now I’m ready to restart the engine and transmission work, I’m replacing the diff with a modena engineering I got on ebay for a good price, changing all o-rings and oil seals in the process; also going to change engine seals and the cam drive bearings, and of course I’ll try to check everything I touch during this process.
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Proceeded to remove clutch/flywheel and found a broken guide pin, 109465 I hope the part is still available, also some blueing on the parts, opinions?
On the cam drive bearings I’m thinking if I should remove these with the bearing puller, will there be space to change the oil seal? Or should I remove the whole cover?
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Decided to try changing the timing gear bearings and seals while the cover is in place, it started ok but when I installed the new seals the circlip groove shaved a bit of the seal material off, these seals are different (Plastic) than the original steel seals I removed. Does anybody have a source for the steel type seal?
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Well, I’ve been shy to share personal info as I don’t live in what you could consider a safe location. I know this is not proper fchat etiquette, and I’m sorry. I wish things were different

 

Today I split the engine and transmission, I was trying to avoid it to keep things more simple but several things made me change my mind:A) installing the timing drive seals from the outside ended up damaging the seals, B) I read here some have changed the orings on the pump and case because these are hard and brittle and C) I think I will have better access to the diff (changing to a Modena Engineering)
Other stuff:
The new case orings are a little bigger than the grooves where they fit in. The originals where ok by the way, although there is not much mileage on the car, I thought they might have aged, they are still pliable.
The new rear seal (black plastic) I got is much harder than the original (red silicone), it doesn’t slide over the crankshaft and sustained damage during the installation.

 

The orings have to be pushed into the grooves, and if I don’t use some adhesive they pop out on their own. I’m curious how You employed an electric screwdriver to get the seal on.

 

Some pics

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Yesterday: removed differential and shift shaft.

Shsh:
-the o ring on the shaft is the only one that was very hard and broke while pulling out, there must be a reason why this piece ages so easily, quality? I read some of you have installed other type of seal here? The shaft slid as though there was no seal, so I’m guessing it would have leaked if left unattended.
-I see the selector on the shaft Indent for a fixed position, am I correct to think the alignment hole on the shaft is to hold the position to align the gear selector forks? So no adjustment needed on the selector before tightening?
-took me about an hour to get the shaft silentblock out, the shop press was too risky so I removed the rubber and used a hacksaw to Cut two grooves at 90degrees to weaken the shell, then used a punch to break it, not easy because I had to be very careful not to cut all the way thru, as I did when I did the same job on my GTBi .

Diff:
-I will be reusing the diff bearings, so I’ll have to see if my dana bearing puller works on these, if not I’ll have to have an adapter machined.
-I remember reading something about having to change the ring gear bolts on some models, anybody has any info on this?
-planning on some sort of inspection on the welds sometime later (if not too expensive) just to see if a part with this low mileage has cracks that indicate a quality issue vs the “Underdesigned” theory.

general observations:
-removing seals from aluminum using sharp objects is risky, the surface is easily scratched
-the white sealant used on the transaxle mating surfaces is surprisingly easy to remove, is the Loctite stuff everybody reccommends here also as good as this?
-many of the transaxle to engine nuts and bolts are only accesible with a wrench, did ferrari torque these using a special tool, or just didn’t measure torque on these?

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Shift shaft is in place again, today I focused on obtaining data on the original diff fitment: Backlash, pattern and preload. I want to know what to shoot for when I install the new Modena diff.
Backlash using dial indicator is .006 inches so .15 mm I found a note scribed on the crown with the same information.
Mesh pattern pretty well centered, attaching pics.
Preload: I decided to only measure the current preload by checking the gap on the RH cover, for this I tightened the LH cover and tilted the transmission so the weight of the diff rested on that, then placed the RH cover without shim Or nuts and measured the gap, then deducted the existing shim thickness, preload is .018 to .022 inches or .45 to .55 mm, seems a bit too much to me but then again this car has very little mileage.
Disassembled the diff to take off crown gear and bearings, (thank raysur), tomorrow I will install bearings and look for new grade bolts for the crown gear.
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