400GT V12 rebuild

Hi guys!

Thought I'd share my rebuild with you all. I have been working on it for a few months now. The engine has been apart for about 10 years and I bought it last year as a project. Het car has been restored in the past, but the engine shredded 2 pistons just after the first few hundred miles. The previous owner had recorded the engine strip so I had some idea of what happened. Now I am almost done, but small stuff remains, like ignition timing, testing and other loose ends. My goal is to have it running this spring

Want to see pics? I threw it all in a youtube-clip => http://www.youtube.com/user/zwedenhuizen#p/u/7/l3Jd5uVQpsk

 

Peter.. Thank you sooo much for sharing your labor of love with us all. I'm quite certain that you are going to be receiving many compliments on your fine work. Jacques.

 

its going to be a great spring time for someone!!! THXS FOR SHARING,

 

Love the carbs.. and the Tail-lights.
Nice Video, great song.

Grazzi,
Edwardo

 

Superb. All the best. Great video and music.
Regards
Alastair 400GT
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Thanks great video.

 

Great pictures, thanks for sharing!

 

That piston and rod were a mess. How did that happen? Any idea?

 

I think too many cold starts and high revving while cold, without leaving a showroom! The excessive gasoline desolved the oil between the piston and liner. One piston seized up, an other one cracked at the side and in total 4 liners had vertical groves. No to other damages where found, so I guess that should be the only reason.

 

Without leaving a showroom? That is an incredible amount of damage with no load on the engine even with a cold start, thick oil and a rich fuel mixture washing down the walls of the piston bores! They must have revved the piss out of that engine while cold over numerous cold starts. I would not have thought that could happen, but then again, I never would treat a cold engine that way either. That borders on criminal abuse of an engine!

The good thing is that you will have a fully rebuilt engine and can treat it right from the beginning. You must be pretty excited at the thought of being on the road in only a few short months!

 

Defective part or machined incorrectly, cant do that running up a cold engine in a showroom and the fact it was just rebuilt says someone most likely screwed up. We have an idiot lotboy here at the dealer that mats brand new cars right off the truck and ive never had to replace an engine in one of them yet.

 

Agreed. I'd perhaps attribute spun bearings to cold revving but a bent rod?
Regardless of cause glad you saved it.
Did I see a '66 Barracuda in your garage also?

 

Yup, l own some fun cars. Love the '66!

About the con rod : The piston cracked and got stuck in the liner at an about 20 degree angle . The conrod was still pushing upwards and ripped the pin and what was left of the piston (thankfully the piston stayed in the liner and did not get smashed into the head)
Other liners had serious grooves showing a lack of lubrication. All other parts (cams, bearings, heads and crank were okay. I have seen this before in racing engines with low weight pistons, but I can not call the 400 pistons lightweight. Oh well, **** happened and the engine has a new career ahead. And I will treat it nice ;-)

 

Flinch, Thanks for sharing, please keep us up to date on your progress.
On the con. rod with a carb. engine I can imagine people pumping the pedal to start it and washing the oil off the cyl. walls easily, and I wonder if enough gas can be pumped in by a over zelous/naive operator to hydrostate, enough to bend rod? or maybe a stuck/gummy float?

 

nice video...all the best with the project.

i found it very interesting that you installed the motor with the tranny bolted on...wow.
i've only ever seen that done on domestics before.
i noticed you had a cool boom to help... but i still can't imagine it's easier that way...
that tranny is so easy to remove and install from underneath...very interesting though.
i'm sure you had your reasons and i would be interested to here them.

as for the bent rod, it could have been a few different things, or a combination of things.
we fired a 365 motor yesterday that we just rebuilt...and it came to us with a bent rod.
it had also had other similar damage as your motor...tough to tell what happened first.

brett

 

The bent con rod will be a mystery for me as I did not take the V12 apart myself. I just had to put up with the story the previous owner told me. He owns a landrover workshop, so he has some experience fixing cars But is still remains a story. My first thought too was that the piston ran into a large volume of somekind of fluid. But that still does not explain the cracked sleeve on anoter piston and some deep groves in some liners

We scooped the engine and tranny in because of logistic and time issues. My buddy owns a very busy restoration shop and we just had one weekend to get the drivetrain in before his project arrived. And as he makes his money that way... We pushed the 400 to the neighbor becaus of the kinda large crane he has. We put the body on 20inch blocks and the complete drivetrain went in very smoothly. I think 30/35 minutes, with a 3 man crew (two always carring a beer, so they were not very busy). You will need some hours to get them in separately, so we went for our option

btw : here is pic of the ruined piston
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That is sure a beautiful car you have, because of this misfortune, it really looks in great condition!

Enjoy!!!!

 

And it still is a perfect car, really like new! Here is a pic of my 400 from about 10 years ago when it featured in a dutch high-end car magazine
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Never had seen it side by side to the Boxer before, to note the front glass, it
could be the same part!

That's a huge piece of glass, by the standards of the day.......

 

Great video of fine work! Wish I could do that.