Fix it or Break it?

Okay Guys, I bought this 456M GTA with a plan of breaking it to build a project car, and to be honest I am not sure I can do it. I only paid $47k and I was thinking that I could get enough back for parts to make it a good way to get an engine and a title. I drove it across the country from Atlanta to Grand Junction, CO and it needs some love, but it is nice. I'm getting engine errors because they only replaced one of O2 sensors. There is a small leak from the water pump. The rear dampers are leaking. The front disks and pads are shot. The gearbox is leaking and has thrown a couple of errors. I have also seen a couple of suspension errors. The headlamps are winking at every girl that goes by. The interior trim need to be cleaned up. The colors don't match and the top dash trim around the airbag looks like it was fitted by a five-year-old. The wiper hits the hood and passenger mirror is hanging off.

The gearbox is not good by today's standards. I could possibly do a manual conversion, but I think that there is a lot of cost to that and I would just be better off buying a manual or a 599 for conversion. Is there a gearbox control unit and can it be tuned or some way to make it behave better?

The brakes suck, maybe I can fit bigger disks and space out the calipers.

I guess the real question is, should I fix it up and sell it or stick with plan A?

 

I guess that I should spill the beans on plan A. I am thinking of fitting the engine into a Mk5 Factory Five Roadster and modifying the body to be a 375MM tribute.
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As no one is jumping on this I decided to move the post over to the rebodied forum https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/thinking-of-building-a-456m-rebody-to-a-375mm-pf-tribute.712229/

 

I am with you and curious to see what you do. About to junk mine.
I bought a low mileage 2003 and am about $120k into the restoration and learned that I need a valve job.

 

Well, you need a good engine whatever you do.

 

Fixing.... just in what you listed potentially (easily) has a $10k+ investment, if you are doing most of the work. Throw in Labor, diagnostics, and any upgrades and it continues to swell. Unfortunately and despite just over 600 made, most 456M GTAs just dont bring strong money as an investment. You are in for nearly $50k, getting much north of $60k will take a really nice example. May be worth doing to restore the car, but manage cost expectations. Transmission conversions on this platform dont really exist, as its a true torque converter automatic vs a shifting difference in the F1 cars.

Your stated Plan A.... most of the problems (Brakes, suspension, lights, interior, etc) go away if you take the drive train and build it on a new car.
What Transmission will you adapt. Current layout being a torque tube and transaxle? The engine will certainly need a service either way. Will you try to use the stock ECU and software? Or can you adapt a Megasquirt or other tuner.

There have been a few projects mentioned over the years with this or a 550 motor, engine type 116 and 133. Including an F40 adaptation, but overall other than stock fitting are fairly rare. Good luck.

 

ouch! is that 120 include the cost of the car or in addition to? You can minimize the valve guide costs if you can do a lot of the work yourself. Can you or do you want to do that?

 

I"ve always thought a cool conversion for the gta would be corvette A6 paddle shift transmission to the gta torque tube.

 

Thanks Aerosurfer,

I counted about $10k just to get a grown-up to tidy up the interior and at least $5k on other parts. I have no problem putting in the labor for the mechanical work. That is what this is all about. Work for 45 year until I can retire and spend my time doing what I was doing at 17 but, on my own car The issue it I will be throwing money away as it will probably never be worth more than $65k, unless I do a manual conversion and as you said that will be braking new ground and at least another $10k in parts. I do believe that just driving it until I need the engine is the best way to go and then break it.

Sure I will service the engine myself, regularly. I was looking into an after market ECU as the 456M ECU's are more difficult to pay with than the earlier models. Do you have any recommendations?

I was thinking of using the same Termec 5 or 6 speed gearbox as they use in the FFR and everything back from there so it will be modern and easy to maintain. I have just got to figure out how to mate them. I may even make up a gate for fun.

 

In addition to

Admittedly, a lot of work had to be redone 2-3 times (or corrected) and that drove up the cost. I also redid a lot of the interior. I am just waiting on the labor estimate from FastCars on the head job. 80% leakdown on cylinder one due to BAD carbon on exhaust valve.

All other valves performed GREAT. Which makes a complete head job hurt that much more.

I do not have the talent to do a valve job. I wish I did as I am at the very end of my rope.

 

https://engineswapdepot.com/?p=118704

Engine porn!


Sadly most of the other faults you have are not uncommon or eventual routine maintenance