thats same as mine. what do the vents on the roof do? do they exhaust air from the passenger compartment or the engine bay. when my car did the exxon valdez and spilled LHM on the header which smoke came out of those vents as well as the vents at the rear of the decklid and the shark gills.
IMHO not very much. Not nearly enough at speed. There was an early Bora that had fabricated intake scoups attached to the, I've had no reports on their effectiveness or whether there were also modifications to route the air internally towhere??? Remember, the engine cover assembly is essentially trying to get airflow that enters the compartment from below to exit out those rear most quarter vents. It doesn't work very well and so the heat builds up, no fresh cool air enters this assembly and the entire rear structure (engine, sub-frame, hatch and body frame becomes a gigantic heat-sink. In my experience running WO the cover made no difference and allowed road debris to deposit over the entire assembly.
Heres an issue I could use some help with. Only happens when the car is hot. When I turn the key off, the car keeps running! I put a new ignition switch in from MIE this morning and it did NOT resolve the issue. The wiring at the switch looks intact. The first time it happened, I giggled the key a bit and got it to turn off. But subsequent times it would not turn off, thats why I changed out the ignition switch. I had to pull the fuel pump fuse to stop it once and I had to toggle the switch by the coil for the ignition systems, holding it in the middle to stall out the engine. If this isn't an ignition switch problem, what could it be? It only recently started happening. Past couple weeks. Interesting, even though the engine was off, the fans were still turning with the key out, but when I slammed the drivers door shut they turned off. Is there an actual ignition relay under the dash somwhere? I thought the ignition coil was wired diretly to the ignition switch. Thanks.
too late to edit the above but... the wiring diagram in the owners manual doesnt show an ignition relay but the MIE wiring diagram does show one for American cars. Just no idea where its located. Maybe it needs replacing or can be opened and the contacts cleaned.
If there is an ignition relay you should hear it click when you turn on the key. Perhaps one of the unswitched circuits is bleeding to a switched circuit. This can happen when a device is not properly grounded and it finds ground through some other device, usually a light bulb. Switched circuits should only have power when the ignition switch is on. Try removing one unswitched fuse at the time (for example: the interior light switch) and see if you can pinpoint the problem area. Ivan
Thanks Ivan, thats a good idea. Since its intermittent I will have to wait until it happens again and start pulling fuses, except the fuel pump one. I drove it today and it didn't happen, it turned off like normal but its only in the 80's today. The problem seems worse when its super hot out. Dean
In a state now far, far away ... and ... long, long ago I actually added relays to my starter/ignition switch circuits. I don't remember the specific reasons for that other than I was concerned about potentially burning it out from the starter motor load over time? I also don't ever remember having to replace my starter switch. I do remember the the starter not disengaging once and I was fortunate enough to have the total system disconnect inside the trunck. That was followed by a flatbed tow less than two blocks back to my home garage. I don't know about any MIE USA electrical schematic. I have the very last USA spec Bora manufactured and my car didn't have a relay... it has two now though! LOL. Not helpful I know. Disconnect the fuel pump and any buzzers then listen for a click. I did have what you describe happen on my 71 Espada why working on it once and I forget exactly why but it turned out to be something stupid Like Ivan described. That car also had an intermittent starter key at one time which turned out to be a $25 Bosch part. That's the only $25 part EVER on that car! All vintage Lamborghini parts went ballistic over 15 years ago. I'm guessing that from Lamborghini it's probably over $250 now whereas the Bosch direct part is probably now $50. Ah ... vintage exotic Italian cars.
I’ll listen for a relay and see. the lightbulb circuit bleeding current is interesting because when I closed the door the engine stopped. I thought the vibration reset a relay. But may have been the bleeding current hypothesis.
follow up/problem solved. Just back from my local monthly car show. When I go to the show the car turned off fine. it was 80F out. No problem with vapor lock and came back home. It was now almost 90 out. Pulled into the garage and the motor wouldn't stop, even with the key out. Began pulling stuff. First I disconnected the main connector to the (new) ignition switch, car kept running. Pulled each fuse in the passenter compartment fuse panel one at a time (except fuel pump) and nothing happened kept running. Opened the frunk and pulled fuse 5 for the fans and the car turned off. I have two permacool fans on their own circuits, each with its own relay and fuse wired directly to the battery but they are triggered by the power going to the factory fuses. I assume because they are wired directly to the battery, current was feeding back to the switch circuit on the ignition. With fuse 5 pulled, I turned the key on and the fans came back on. Now I have to wait until its cooled off again to properly test fan function. Off until temperature reached, or until the a/c switch is turned. on. But I think this is the problem, the original fan circuit and I think just pulling that fuse is the solution.
Hello all. The AC on my car 990 won’t blow cold or hold a charge. Thought I would start with changing to all new hoses since they appear old. Any advice on how difficult a job that is to do yourself. Thanks in advance. Jim
Finally all "issues" resolved. Car running great and fans working correctly. Now just need to have fun driving to local car shows and enjoy.
These cars originally came with flared "metal to metal" fittings. These type of fittings are known to leak, especially if converting to R134a. Best to use the newer O ring type fittings. On a Pantera I replaced all components (condenser, dryer, hoses, compressor) with O ring fittings. New parallel flow condensers are more efficient than the fin type that was used on the Bora. You can pick a generic one on ebay or Amazon. The only component that was not replaced was the evaporator inside the car. I had hoses made with one end O ring fitting and the other flared for the evaporator. All other hoses were O ring type. Highly recommend using reduced barrier hoses as they have a smaller external diameter. They are easier to work with and similar in diameter to the original hoses on the Bora. For the compressor I used a Sandem which puts much less stress on the engine. R134a was used as refrigerant. The Pantera was ice cold when done. Not a trivial job but it can be done by a DYI. Ivan
Ivan, any way to increase airflow through the a/c system? I actually think the main issue is too small an air intake especially in the recirc mode, but switching to fresh mode just introduces 95F air into the system. I've also read that some Merak fans are a direct replacement and blow much more air but those are rare and expensive and again if the small recirc air intake is the issues then more CFM from the fan won't help. Theres a definite sound difference with the switch set to recirc, like the fan is cavitating a bit and making a whining noise. Edit. Ive also read someone made a bigger air inlet in the fan housing to let more air in from the cockpit. This is a decent solution because even if you want fresh air theres no harm done if theres some minor recirc going on. But not vice versa ie: you want recirc but hot or smelly air is coming in.
Finally started doing some disassembly on the Bora. Ferraripilot convinced me the best way to remove the cylinder heads is to drop the engine; excellent advice. Disconnecting the chains and getting things re-aligned would be a bear with the engine installed. Up to now the two most difficult things have been the exhaust and the intake manifold. The intake manifold was a big surprised since I've removed many V8 intake manifolds in the past and none have been stuck like this one. Someone must have used some compound around the O-rings. It took a lot of PB Blaster and a 10 ton hydraulic tool normally used for body work to break it loose. Ivan Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Do love that colour on your Bora, and no horrid US bumpers or exhaust. perfect!! Hope the rebuild is straightforward. Best regards. M
Oil and coolant are mixing. Hopefully all it needs are new head gaskets. Otherwise engine runs great. Ivan
Two things I have done in the past that improve airflow by perhaps 20% 1. Temporarily remove the cover of the enclosure where the fan is located and see if airflow improves. One of the problems is there is not enough air in that small enclosure to suck into the fan. As a more permanent setup I've placed spacers around the fan enclosure cover to allow air to come into the enclosure from the trunk. 2. Run 12V directly from the battery by adding a relay. The battery is located very close to the fan motor making it an easy add on. Use the high fan setting wire to trigger the relay. Ivan
10 ton tool to remove the intake manifold?! incredible! I'm around if you need help dropping that rig
In my opinion a very original and well-maintained Bora https://www.goodingco.com/lot/1977-maserati-bora-49/?filtersInput%5BauctionType%5D%5B0%5D=Live%20Auction&filtersInput%5BauctionYear%5D%5B0%5D=2025&filtersInput%5BliveAuctionVenue%5D%5B0%5D=Pebble%20Beach&sortBy=ENDING_SOONEST&pageNumber=0
Yeah I could never get mine to stay sealed on the York compressor. I always attributed that to not insignificant bobbing up and down of the engine at the front due to those spring front engine mounts. If you've ever run WO the engine cover on and watch the engine the rear view mirror its a bit scary to watch. It moves too much IMHO. Ancient engine mount technology.
Increase the size of the internal opening under the dash for re-circulation. It's a well known for 20 years already issue which I covered much earlier on here.
