My 60k-Mile Track Rental BAT Scud Project!

Alright, few more updates to add to the high mileage track scud experiment diary. About a year ago I got a one-time coolant temp related CEL and code: P0128. From research this indicates a potentially stuck thermostat that makes the car take much longer to get up to temperature. I decided to monitor but it neve came back, until another one-time event showing the same code a few weeks ago. Oh well, it was time to change the coolant anyway so I figured I'd replace the t-stat and while at it replace a weeping coolant line (see picture). Coolant never hit the ground but there was always a drop or two on the undertray when I would remove for maintenance/inspection. Upon inspection of the little hose it was clear that the standard worm-drive hose clamp cut into the rubber over time. Need to source a proper otiker clamp so I can complete this repair properly but for now its no longer leaking.

Replacing the thermostat was pretty straightforward, with one annoying little exception. As you can see in the pic below, there are a number of mounting holes for the bolts that secure it to the thermostat. Well, one of those holes (the one I needed) was not drilled all the way through during the manufacturing process, and the hole right next to it that was "complete" did not line up with any water pump holes on my car and was superfluous. So, I covered the tstat body with a rubber glove to keep any metal shavings away and drilled out that hole in about 1 second flat (it was super thin, so thin I probably could have punched through it with a pick). Problem solved, and everything bolted up great with no leaks. Topped off the coolant, took it for a few drives, topped up the reservoir until the level stopped dropping, and thereby eliminated a potential future failure point on the car! After replacing the thermostat I fully expected that the car would now warm up a little quicker in cold temps, but nope..still takes forever. I guess its just a feature of these cars that they take a LOOOOOONG time to get to operating temperature.
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After this repair was done I was feeling good and really enjoying the car. Then, a bummer thing happened. Limp mode with the same dang throttle body/throttle pedal related codes! I thought I could avoid having to buy two new matching tb's but I guess I was wrong. So I sprung for two new tb's and installed them. Reset the ecu, did a tb re-learn, and so far so good (put about 80 trouble free miles on the car so I hope that's the end of the throttle body related issues. Could be placebo effect but it seems the car is much more responsive with the new throttle bodies so I am happy!
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From a different thread I noticed some discussion about "stretched" airbox rubber "dampeners." So I checked mine, expecting them to be hammered from years of track use and thousands of heat cycles, and in fact they were. Check out the pictures. So I bought four new ones, removed the side panels and airbox since I was tackling the throttle bodies anyway, and installed the new ones. I can understand why the old rubber would degrade but it was odd that the airbox was "stretched" towards the rear of the car. I think the rubber in the dampeners just gets pulled that direction as they wear out and lose their shape/firmness. Plus, on my airbox I noticed that the integrated metal mounts that attach the box to the vibration dampeners were both slight bent and an upward angle (perhaps from folks leaning on the airbox over time, since the metal is very, very thin and cheap). When I went to re-install I noticed that this upward angle pulled or stretched the dampener backward a bit, and thought that might be contributing to the stretch (see picture). So I carefully bent the airbox tabs back to straight, and the airbox fit much better with now unnatural tension or stress on the rubber mounts. Something to check if you are replacing yours. All good now!
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Finally one little cosmetic project. My car had long since lost the oem engine side panels, which were replaced with aftermarket carbon fiber units (my records indicated they were badly yellowed from engine bay heat and replaced with aftermarket panels). They actually look good but it always bugged me that they didn't have the same "mesh" or grate material as the oem carbon side panels. So I sourced some galvanized mesh material and jb-welded them to the underside of the panels to replicate the oem look. Kind of a tedious process since I had to bend all the mesh into shape carefully to ensure a "flush" look, but it made me feel good that it now looks a little more oem-ish. I'd love to source some oem carbon panels in the future but the cost-to-benefit analysis for that change puts it well behind some other projects that I want to tackle first (complete suspension bushing/ball joint refresh, prophylactic variator solenoid replacement, re-spray front bumper for chips, etc...).

Finally, I noticed last night when I removed the undertray to inspect for any leaks that there is definitely some coolant weeping from the water pump seals. Dang. I was hoping it was just that hose that was leaking. But it seems the seals are also leaking, as is common with these cars. The cheapskate in me wants to simply order the o-ring/rebuild kit, but the ocd owner in me knows there are many hard miles on my car and I that I'd me mentally more at peace with a new unit, so I'm probably going to order a new water pump/oil pump assembly here in the next couple weeks and tackle that as my next project. Oh well, with every little repair the peace of mind and appreciation for this machine increases!
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Yup, every single scud engine bay picture I have ever seen has the mesh...but now I'm thinking I screwed up the color. Appears it is black...thought it was silver! Guess mine are coming out for a spray job next time the panels are off!

Also forgot to mention I finally upgraded the shoes. Michelin Pilot Sport 4s in factory sizes. Really improved the ride over the 6-year old (but still plenty of tread) Bridgestones that were on the car. While the wheels were off I spent HOURS cleaning and polishing them up. Not perfect, but at least no curb marks or other damage (just some paint blemishes here and there...they were clearly painted in the past, but painted well at least.
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Ok, couple more updates. As most of you can probably tell, I'm very "value-oriented" (i.e., cheap). I don't have a problem dropping a couple grand on a water/oil pump that is obviously a complicated and mechanically-critical part, but I have a much harder time dropping 50 bucks for some stupid plastic clip or piece of rubber trim. With respect to the latter, I'll go to great lengths to find an alternative that works just as well provided its not visible/obvious and is just as effective at doing the job. Which brings me to my latest project.

My wife would sometimes complain that the floorboards were "slippery" when she wears heeled shoes, and frankly, there were times where I too would prefer a little carpet down there when wearing dress shoes for example. I don't love blingy aftermarket floormats, and although a like the "utilitarian" look of the standard oem mats that really suits the stripped down ethos of the scud, I couldn't bring myself to drop 700 on floormats that I might not even like/use. So, when I saw a pair of red mats on ebay (complete with torn out carpet retaining rings and a cut-out for the fire extinguisher), I bought them for 60 bucks and decided to try to dye them black as an experiment. Ala a few youtube videos, I first tried some standard rit dye in a spray bottle. This completely failed. Seems the carpet material is a type of synthetic fiber that does not respond well to standard dyes. So I got some "dye more" RIT dye that is marketed for use on synthetic fibers, doubled the amount indicated on the bottle, and added the dye to a couple of gallons of hot water (from my bathroom LOL!) into a large rubbermaid bin, and soaked the mats in the dye solution for about an hour. This was pretty effective, but still not "jet black," so I repeated the treatment and was pretty dang pleased with the results. I also hot-glued some generic plastic caps over the holes, backed by strips of velcro (also hot glued) on the back, since I was pretty sure the oem rings would no longer fit the torn out holes, and I am pleased with the results. A couple strategically placed pieces of velcro on the floorboards and they are locked in place. They still have a slight "hint" of red-tone, but you wouldn't notice if you didn't know they were originally red. Also, the color is very well locked in and doesn't transfer to skin or other materials at all. However, I left the under side of the piping un-dyed as I didn't want to risk any color transfer to the floorboards (I had to manually dye this "piping" material around the edges with leather dye as it did not take the RIT dye at all). Slowly but surely coming along!
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That's probably what I should have done. Would have been cheaper/easier in the long run. But I like the rubber pads and what not with the oem look. Might go your route eventually however.

 

Got the car out on some twisty roads with some friends and neighbors last weekend. Mostly Porsche guys but even they had to admit there is nothing that sounds as good as a mid-engine V8 Ferrari!
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Thank you @gabf1 ! Got a couple grand in parts coming so I’ll have some additional updates soon!

 

Nice! Another giallo brother! I don’t think there are many giallo scuds rolling around! In any event, no, I didn’t use any loctite, and I wouldn’t. You want to be able to make fine adjustments in the future if necessary. They are designed to be repositioned and then retightened once you are good with the positioning. And I didn’t use a torque spec. Just got them “fairly snug” without going too crazy. These are a structural part and necessary for safety so I think they can take a fair bit of torque. So I would err on the side of overdoing it rather than under. You also don’t want them moving around and requiring later door adjustments.

 

It's been a while since I've updated this thread so I thought I'd report on the latest progress. As reported a few pages earlier I replaced both TB's and the throttle pedal sensor chasing a few throttle-related code. This worked for a while but the codes always came back and after some research determined that new TB's need to be programmed with a factory-like computer so I bit the bullet and took it to a shop for the first time. But for some reason the factory re-learn/synchronization procedure for the TB's wouldn't complete. This lead us to realize (as reported in a separate thread) that one ecu had a fault/damage from the failing step motor in one of my old tb's (a known issue if you don't address a "lagging" tb soon enough). So I sourced some replacement ecu's, had them coded for my car, and the car has been perfect ever since. With new 02 sensors, two new mafs, and two new tb's, the car feels very sorted. While it was in the shop I also had them swap out the ac compressor with a new one I bought last year and never got around to installing (ac now blows cold!). While the car was there I also had them tighten up the nut on the steering column (and re-set the steering angle sensor) to tighten up the steering (worked great). Interestingly, the shop also reported that the "new" motor mounts I had installed two years ago were already starting to "squish." The tech speculated that the mounts I bought were either not oem or "old stock" with old rubber, so I had them install new ones for good measure. Oh yeah, they also flushed the f1 fluid, set the PIS, and checked clutch wear (got 40% left, so I'll be due for a clutch in the next couple years).

So, all in all the car is feeling and driving great. As I mentioned (I think) above I'm doing a 3.9l build on my 2004 gt3, and that is almost done. When the gt3 gets back I'm going to be driving it a ton to break it in so that will give me a chance to put the scud on my lift and tackle a few "bigger" projects:

1) replace water/oil pump (purchased from Eurospares with all new o-rings, etc....). It is leaking a bit and I'm sure its not working at peak efficiency with all the track miles so its time.
2) remove bumper and hood for respray to correct rock chips (huge problem on our gravel-flanked Arizona freeways).
3) remove dash to address a few rattles, correct some leather stretching, and install new metal dash vents.
4) steam clean undercarriage (with my new vx5000 steam cleaner!)
5) refinish all four calipers with high temp paint and proper Ferrari decals
6) replace "sticking" driver's side door handle cable
7) replace ambient air temp sensor (mine often shows a temperature that is not remotely plausible)
8) misc. odds and ends "while I'm in there."

Will report back and update as the work is done!

 

Of course!: https://rennlist.com/forums/996-gt2-gt3-forum/1288923-evolution-of-my-39k-gt3-3-9-build-underway.html