Greetings I own a Maserati Ghibli GT from 1997. I had it for a few years and have been continously trying to improve it (not modify). One ongoing issue has been that it has been somewhat sluggish while cranking, mostly when hot. I have previously changed related parts such as: Starter motor (it completely fell apart) Generator (incorrect part installed) The cluster of relays on the RH rear part of the engine compartment. (due to it wouldnt start at all) I have meassured voltage during cranking at the junction to the starter next to the firewall with good results. Now to the latest problem I started it a few days ago and it was barely starting, cranking good but took a while to start. After that it ran fine. Yesterday when trying to start it it would crank fine but just cough a few times and after that it was very sluggish cranking. I figgured my battery was just dead (it was old) and invested in a new one. With the new battery installed it acts the same, the engine will just barely turn over and then stops. I am looking forward to any advice on where to start troubleshooting or what Maserati manual to search for, I havent been able to find one specifically for the GT. I suspect it might be the PDC I have heard about located somewhere behind the firewall. I hope someone can help Br Jens
Check all of your grounding locations and the cables/connectors. You might get more help from one of the many FB Biturbo pages and on Biturbozentrum. There ARE lots of people working on these cars again just not so many here.
Thanks for your advice I will test with a straight ground from battery to engine tonight to see if it makes any difference. Best Regards Jens
You may also want to check ignition timing. If the engine has too much advance it will have problems cranking (will feel sluggish). A quick test is to ground the coil wire so that there is no spark and crank the engine. If the engine now cranks freely then the ignition timing is causing a problem. Ivan
Ignition timing is not adjustable like it would be on a car with a distributor. This is a direct ignition setup with a pair of identical ECUs identical to those utilized on a F40 with a pair of crank triggers on the front. One of those is micro adjustable in order that you can make sure they are 90 degrees apart. If that's loose or completely out of adjustment I'm not sure what the effect would be as half of the engine would be improperly timed. I doubt that is what's going on here but a really good tuning shop would be able to determine that. In fact that's probably going to be the quickest way to find the problem. The OP is in Sweden so perhaps he can get in touch with the Maserati club to find someone who has the equipment to handle these engines. There's a lot of Cosworth in the design of these engines and that includes the ECU. That may widen the range of service shops. While this is not commonly known here in the USA it is common knowledge in Europe. One of the McLaren engineers is a member on Biturbo Zentrum and he's owned a Ghibli Cup car (street version) for many years and he's developed a version of the Cosworth engine analyzer that works on these cars and were I running one on the streets and wanted to keep it running I'd get one of those.
Hi guys Thanks for your advice I truly appreciate that you are taking an intrest. What I have done so far is to connect some jumper cables straight from the battery to the engine to exclude any bad ground. That didnt do any difference. I would like to do the same with the positive but the starter cables arent good enough for that so I have to make a special cable for it. I rotated the engine a bit and tried again, did this a few times with no sucess. While trying I noticed that the starter actually doesnt move att all after engaging. One of the first things that happened to the car when I bought it was that the starter failed, turned out that the inside of the starter actually fell apart thereby preventing it to move. Now I fear that my more or less new starter also has failed. Do you know if this is a common problem (it livs a hard life where its located), are there any approved starters? Best Regards Jens
Well my 84 still has the same starter from new when I bought the car and it has 60K miles. It still works great.
Not that I've ever heard. I have to say that these cars have quite a reputation for being worked on by morons who mess things up in some manner causing all sorts of symptoms. Here in the USA the early ones arrived with a horrid emissions system that caused unbelievable issues and people abandoned them early on. Once they started getting sold for cheap the subsequent owners couldn't afford to pay someone who knew what they were doing and that's why there were so many horror stories. The same thing happened to many of the Lamborghinis and even some Ferraris. But no car ever suffered that effect as much as the Biturbos. I suspect that the modern Biturbos will as well. It's happened to Jaguars too. Hopefully no one has done something like that to your car.
I have worked a bit on my car and I did find some odd bits. Fuel line and incorrect alternator are the only bigger things I have found though and they have been corrected. Besides that I am amazed with how it has been put together in the first place but that is also what makes it such an intresting car.
