Adventures of a 95 Verde Mugello GT

While I wait for my fuel pump parts, found a deal on a cabin air filter.... Continental Autosports had them significantly cheaper than anywhere else i have seen..

Anyways, mine was clearly long overdue. This is a 2 minute swap..... its the small (relatively) cheap victories that get me through winter.
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Today, after a nice drive across town, I decided to flush out my Transaxle fluid.

As other have said on here, this car is enjoyable to work on myself. I dont have any history of the rear end being serviced, so i figured as i sort thru i would start the clock over again. This is an easy (with basic tools... oh and a lift) job.

Gear oil certainly has a very distinctive stink to it. Old stuff came out dark and smelly. Drain plug has some metallic sludge on it. Pulled the screen too. Im not sure how little debris is considered acceptable, it wasnt none, but im not concerned with what came out. Fill dipstick was low however, only about 3.5 liters of Old fluid out....I did push 1/4L or so to flush through new fluid and redrain.

New Redline 75w90ns went in.... put a little over 5L in, went for a drive and pumped just a bit more in to top the dipstick mark. Screen has a build date of 1994, nice to see old, but quality parts onboard. Before and after, box was dry on the outside. Didnt notice any difference in shifting quality, at least with cold oil. Will hopefully get out and up to temp more this week.
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Sludgy drain plug and cleaned screen

 

Aside from rags, pump and gloves; this is all it took to flush the transaxle.

I didn't pull the banjo bolts to the cooler
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So begins (and nearly finishes) my Fuel pump overhaul...

Had a local car show i was invited to cancel due to expected weather, of course the day after i had just put 10Gal of gas in... had intentionally been keeping it low, in anticipation of this fuel pump project...

So began with section a hose off the left side schrader valve into tubing to my gas can. I did end up just making a jumper and pulling the fuel pump relay on that side. With fire extinguishers around the car at the ready and my garage open, i contred the fuel pump flow right at the battery cutoff switch. I had really overthought the process, this was incredibly easy to drwin the tanks. Fuel came out clear so it just got dumped between my M3 and my truck. With the 10 i had juat put in and whatever turns the low fuel light on, i pulled about 13 gallons out of the car before the fuel pump started to wine.....

Step 1
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Now it was time to open the covers. I modified a universal fuel pump removal tool for our cars. This worked perfect to remove the ring nut...

Lots of pads in the trunk and some plastic liner to protect from gas and dirty tools.

Once the ring nut was off, a steady but light pull on the stud bith removed the fuel lines and made the cover give up its secrets!

Fortunately neither has any visual cracks, nor was there any fuel odor. 27 year old gasket was pliable, but well sealed to the tank, had to use a pic to get it started out.

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Now the million dollar question was what the pumps would look like. Well as you can see the carnage from deteriorated rubber was everywhere!
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Moral of the story.... if they havent been opened up yet, its likely time!
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As for the inside of the tank... the pad that sits under the pump assembly was completely gone. Only a few large chunks left and some smaller bits. I did what i could getting the pieces out, but since there was still a small volume of gasoline in the tank it made grabbing the tiny pieces tough. Even my siphon couldn't pull any more out. Had to work carefully! I figure if the rest of the pads had already gone thru the pump and to the filter a few stray bits arent going to matter in the future. I used a different material recommended to me from anotherbuser on here as the anti chafe pad.
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As for the pumps themselves, Fabios fuel pump supports fit like a charm!

I was very torn what to do with the assembly, ultimately i left the original fuel hoses after inspecting what i could. The connections on each end didnt seem worth the risk opening or doing improperly not taking the chance of damaging the cover. I washed out all the rubber bits and debris and buttoned it all back up. Then swapped out the fuel filters. What a messy job that was (nearly). Very tight space on those banjo bolts.

Thats where the story ends at the moment... ran into our evening plans. Wife lets me play Ferrari Mechanic... I take her out! Today is even colder and full of plans. I leave for my next trip tomorrow evening, so i may be aome time before i get to finish this out...

Plan to fill 10 gallons or so and check for leaks at the cover, then pressurized system and check for leaks at the filters... then hopefully the magic happens and i notice a difference. I will also eventually cut open my old filters and hopefully see them full of choked off debris as conclusive evidence to my performance degradation
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Thanks for reading, it was a fun day.... cold and somewhat stressfull (being cognizant of working with open gasoline).

I had no gas smell prior to starting this. I read about the rollover valves, but not sure what i need to do or should at this point with them. I did see the plumbing tucked in the far left side of the tank.. seems near imposible to reach effectively. Dont plan to pull the tank if i dont have to.

What else was done to yours? If this doesnt fix my issue, im not sure what to proceed next. Injector service and/or possibly pull the center pipe to get a look at the condition of the Cats ‍

Im all for hitting deferred and overdue maintenance, but dont necessarily want to simply shotgun parts at it.

 

Car starts and idles beautifly. Could nearly balance a coin on its side. Hot or cold. No smoke on startup. It simply feels anemic below 4000 RPM. Not stumbling, just feels like there is low power or slow acceleration. At speed it feels, sounds, and cruises fine.

Major done in 2019 (only 500 miles ago)
Compression and leakdown done at PPI in January
Accelerator cable checked and TBs opening fully

Rambling thoughts or WAG on what else and assuming i can trust my records and ppi...

Cats blocked..
injectors leaking or not flowing properly
O2 sensors need work or other component issues.
Clutch/Throwout bearing isnt fully disengaging.

None of the above i would expect as smooth as it already runs. I do look forward to hopefully seeing some return of performance from the fuel pump overhaul

For a car that on paper should be nearly as fast as my M3, it just isnt and noticeably so. I dont expect a raw sports car, but seems like there should be more ooomph

I wish i could drive another to compare my expectations. Youtube videos seem to show faster acceleration and RPM movement than i think i presently have

 

So opening up the fuel filter didnt really tell me much, at least not with a naked eye. No idea when these were last changed, but was kind of hoping to see some rubber bits in here. I guess the tank and pump screens are working in the sense of not letting anything large through. Either way I start fresh from here out

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Its alive again! And Holey Googily-Moogily do I have a fast car now!

So I got the fuel pumps back together without issues, no leaks, new filters. Pressurized the system with a jumper at the relays and she fired right up and idles smooth and without any fuel smell (that was never an issue)

But as of yesterday, still had the anemic performance unchanged...

Now lets move to today, after reading the Workshop Manual a little more indepth, I remembered there was a broken plastic arm under the right side Throttle body. I had looked at it before but dismissed it as a support piece. Turns out it moves the valve for the hall sensor on the TB!

According to the part lists, its not available by itself, however its only held on by a few Circlips. Not wanting to take it apart before testing, i reglued it together and fabricated a bit of a splint around it with some coat hanger type wire and secured it with both safety wire and a zip tie. After also cleaning all electrical connectors, swapping out both Fuel pump and Injector relays with new Bosch parts Aaaaaaannnd checking and shining up the metal tangs on all the fuses. It was time for a startup yet again.

Its amazing and instant the throttle reaponse now. The car finally pulls like a 440hp V12! All gears will accelerate now. Low end power is what was missing, that is Criminally abundant now! I'm still grinning ear to ear! I knew i wasnt crazy when i thought the car was missing something.

Apparently the last few months and beyond, its essentially been a 6 Cylinder, dragging along another 6 cylinder.

I do have a 1-6 CEL thats become semi intermittent now. That started yesterday when i began removing and cleaning all connectors. I rechecked everything today, except the O2 sensors, but the light persists. What kind of condition could the motor be in with one side running/one side idling, yet the TB being pulled open by the cable?

I ordered a pair of new O2 sensors (Motronic 2.7 only 2 sensors) and will have those at the ready.

 

As far as the repair... this seems like a candidate for 3D printing (however very hot environment) or to CNC the piece.

First pic is what it should look like...

Then is what mine did

Lastly, my semipermanent fix for now
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It has been fun indeed! In my 25 years or so of tinkering and building automobiles, todays victory was about as exhilarating as my first engine start after a rebuild. Rare that a fix makes such a conclusive and total result changing everything about the car! Still smiling as I write this. I have awakened the beast!

I know not everyone works on their cars for whatever reason, and this is in no way meant to sound condescending, but as amazing as a Ferrari is (or Porsche, or VW or even a barely running Honda) it’s still just mechanical pieces and parts. The wealth of knowledge is certainly out there, and easier than ever to attain. I have come to believe most things are more intuitive or easier to learn than one would believe, just use common sense and proper tools. The addiction snowballs quick.

I’ll revisit a more permanent solution to my TB potentiometer arm after I get back from Vacation.