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Maybe they improved things on later cars, but I have none of those gaps you mention on my very late carb car. The only thing which remained after I had improved things for best A/C working conditions is heat radiation from the tunnel -caused by the coolant pipes- but no direct hot air flow.
Having all the front compartment foam complete also helps.
Otherwise I would upgrade the build and close all existing gaps.


Best from Germany
Martin

 

I had an 85 Quatrovalvole and an 86 328. Both had large gaps in the front bulkhead. Specifically in the 328 behind the floor board on the passengers side, and also under the dash by your right knee, you could feel hot air feeding through when on the highway. filling the gap on the passenger side was easy - not easy at all on the drivers side.

In the Quartrovalvole .... it was much more difficult to access gaps from the top of the car, from under the car it was much easier after removing the plate that protects the porportion valve, you could literally see light coming through where the holes were.

 

At least this seems to be that spot I mentioned in regard of the evaporator housing duct.

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Be glad, that your '83 has the upgraded clutch mechanism, which they introduced in 1980 for the last few carb cars (some sources say 1979; parts manuals only refer to the VIN). You can identify owners of the pre-modification cars by looking at their legs with the left thigh being significantly thicker

Best from Germany
Martin

 

I don't think the early cars have a necessarily heavy clutch action. My 77 car had a somewhat heavy clutch pedal until I replaced the fraying cable and pulley bearing and adjusted the mechanism per the manual. Now I find it about the same as my 981 Cayman in effort, i.e. not heavy at all.

 

Is it possible to install the upgraded mechanism on pre-modification cars?

 

I believe, that there was also a different clutch housing. It would sum up to big $$$$$ with all the parts to replace.

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Best Regards
Martin

 

Did you ever compare early vs. later design? I have my car with the post-modification design and a friend's GT4 with the original early layout. I find it a tremendous difference.
What's still hard on the knee is the long pedal travel compared with modern cars or even with the hydraulic clutch on my '72 Alfa Romeo.

Best Regards
Martin

 

No, I've not had the opportunity to drive a later design car. But I have 9 cars (1949 to 2018) all with manual gearboxes, and with hydraulic, mechanical linkage, and cable operation clutches, and my "early design" 308 falls mid pack in that group in terms of clutch effort, with none of them having what I would call a high clutch effort. And I'm a skinny 5' 10", so not a burly guy. I would say an early 308 with high clutch effort has something wrong with it. As I said above, my own car's clutch effort was greatly reduced by replacing the worn clutch cable and pulley bearing, and then properly adjusting the release mechanism. Also note that mechanism has a spring loaded over center type of action, and the spring load is adjustable, as is the link rod length, the resting position of the release lever, and the slack in the clutch cable, so lots to get wrong there if you don't know what you are doing.

My conjecture is that Ferrari changed the release mechanism not so much to make the clutch effort lower, but rather to make it easier to get it right.

 

Please find attached the official Service Bulletin about the modification and please read the very first sentence.
But as opposed to my message above, the pre-modification clutch housing can be used for the modification.

Best from Germany
Martin

 

Okay.