DIY 348 Major | FerrariChat

DIY 348 Major

Discussion in '348/355' started by chopsui, Jan 6, 2020.

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  1. chopsui

    chopsui Karting
    Silver Subscribed

    Feb 27, 2019
    119
    Austin, Tx
    Welp, I decided to finally start my major over the holiday break. This wont be a detailed thread but I thought you might like to see how well the lift I'm using worked and I'll be using this thread to ask about any issues I run into.

    I bought my car back in April. It's a 1990 ts and was on ebay being sold out of Tulsa. I think a couple of the previous owners were regular Fchatters. Anyway the seller was a mechanic there in Tulsa and had just done the timing belts last February. Unfortunately for me, after I got the car back here in Austin, it soon developed what I believe is the dreaded cam seal leak. It was very slow at first but has progressively gotten worse over last few months. A couple months ago, I took off the caps on the timing cover because I wanted to make sure there was no oil getting on the belts. Lo and behold, both of the belt guides were installed backwards and were grinding the belt to smithereens. I was able to get the left side one re-positioned (thanks pnicholson for the how-to) but the allen bolt on the right side was torqued so tight that it stripped. Anyhow, long story short, after less than a year, the motor is out again. If you want something done right....

    The lift I'm using is the Auto Lift MRK-38 medium rise lift. It raises the car about 40 inches which is enough room to get the motor out without removing the rear bumper or cat-back. In addition, the engine dolly I built out of 2x4s looks to be just tall enough that I'll be able to get the oil pan out without having to hoist the motor onto a taller stand.

    I took my sweet time and worked for a few hours a day over the course of 3 days with the 3rd day essentially just unbolting the frame and raising the lift. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. The worst part for me was really just dealing with the gas and brake fluids. I mostly used Ernie's how-to thread and pnicholson's videos for reference.

    Here's a timelapse I made showing (most of) the process. Apologies for the music. :)

     
    JasonS, A348W, GSF355 and 6 others like this.
  2. Ferrarium

    Ferrarium F1 Veteran
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    Jul 28, 2018
    5,624
    Central NJ
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    Eric
  3. brent Lachelt

    brent Lachelt Formula 3
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    Dec 6, 2003
    1,828
    Brownsburg, INDIANA
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    Brent R.Lachelt
  4. chopsui

    chopsui Karting
    Silver Subscribed

    Feb 27, 2019
    119
    Austin, Tx
    Thanks guys. Here's a pic with the timing cover off. A few initial observations:

    Lots of belt debris caked everywhere.
    For some reason, the cam gears are switched on one side. All of the pictures I've seen show one side with the fence on the intake cam and the other side with it on the exhaust cam. Not sure if it makes a difference.
    The lower drive gear fence is loose. Yet another reason why I'm glad I'm doing this now.

    Any advice or observations are appreciated.

    Image Unavailable, Please Login
     
  5. AceMaster

    AceMaster Three Time F1 World Champ

    Feb 6, 2009
    34,548
    Ontario, Canada
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    Mike
    The good news is that you caught this before a catastrophic failure...and saved your engine.

    Lord knows I would never pull the engine after 1 year, trusting that it was done correctly.
     
    ernie likes this.
  6. brent Lachelt

    brent Lachelt Formula 3
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    Dec 6, 2003
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    Brent R.Lachelt
    Are you talking about the “lower drive gear” directly below the water pump? If so has yours ever been tac welded?
     
  7. steved033

    steved033 F1 Veteran
    Owner Silver Subscribed

    Apr 12, 2017
    7,676
    Atlanta, GA
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    Steve D.
    How many miles on the TS? being a 1990, has TSB10-34 been done? You'll need to check your engine number vs. ricambi cross reference, to get the correct bearing that lives in the block. (note that the ernie thread put it in backward, the cage goes to the outside.)

    The idler and tensioners have been done once with hill bearings, that's good.

    sjd
     
    ernie likes this.
  8. flash32

    flash32 F1 Veteran

    Aug 22, 2008
    5,561
    Central NJ
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    Dominick
    If you total up hours ..how much from beginning to end ..16 ?

    Sent from my moto g(7) using Tapatalk
     
  9. chopsui

    chopsui Karting
    Silver Subscribed

    Feb 27, 2019
    119
    Austin, Tx
    No kidding! Well I was mentally prepared to do it since before I even bought the car as having a project was part of the reason I got it. I only found out the belts had been done once I started talking to the seller. The biggest gripe I have is that I ended up paying too much because of that. But no use worrying about it now.

    Yeah that's the one. None of the fences have been welded as I suspected so that'll go on the todo list.

    Car has low miles. I watched it tick over 25k about a month or so ago. I don't know if the TSB had been done but the engine number is 24564 so I think that falls in the range of the TSB.

    Yeah I'd say that's pretty close. Honestly, now that I've done it once, I'm pretty confident I could do it in well less than half that time if I was in a hurry. Even better with a second pair of hands.
     
    brent Lachelt and steved033 like this.
  10. Wade

    Wade Three Time F1 World Champ
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    Mar 31, 2006
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    Wade O.
    Yes, awesome. Rockabilly, which I didn't expect from Thomas Dolby.
     
  11. ernie

    ernie Two Time F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa Owner

    Nov 19, 2001
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    The Brickyard
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    The Bad Guy
    Well done!

    Thanks for sharing the video. Looking forward to seeing your progress.
     
    Bertil and chopsui like this.

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