It always seems the plastic covers that hold the spark leads break in 3 or 4 places - due to shrinkage I assume. Are these parts still available. Has anyone come up with a solution/fix/replacement. Would seem a good candidate for 3D printing.
I believe John Cribb has a coil on plug solution that pretty much eliminates spark plug wire/connector problems.
I thought a few years ago that these ignition wire covers and the front timing covers would be good candidates for high quality, aftermarket carbon fiber replacements (as fitted on the Prodrive 550's). I made the rounds of all the custom carbon fiber guys here on the board and elsewhere, and no one was interested. Usual hurdle: minimum order was 25-50 pieces of each. RE: the COP system: I've had a setback with my COP setup as my harness builder developed health issues and cannot build them anymore. I've located a new builder, but he needs exact dimensions, or a template harness to go by, neither of which I had. However, I've just repurchased the very first COP setup I sold to/from a fellow Houston 550 owner whose car was recently totaled, so I expect to be able to provide these systems again soon.
Cool. How does the trigger work? Off the existing coils? My plastic parts are broken. Was thing of fabbing something.
Ken, the trigger comes from the ECU. The coilpacks have a constant +12 on them, and the ECU pulls the other side of the coil to earth for the dwell period, then opens to fire the coil. My system works exactly the same way. FWIW, both systems (OEM & mine) are waste spark; for the 575M Ferrari decided to go with true sequential spark.
Yes, the stock coilpacks & HT wires are removed from the car (which frees up a surprising amount of space and cleans up the engine bay). Then my system's harnesses plug right into the car harnesses that were formerly connected to the coilpacks. It's completely PnP. If you're familiar with ignition systems, the ignitors (power transistors that handle the heavy charging current of the coils) are built into the main ECU motherboards on the 5.2 Motronic. It's a poor design which has been superceded several times, and most contemporary ECU's simply send a logic level trigger out to the coils where the ignitors are built into the coils themselves. This type of setup is called a "smart COP". The older type that we have is a "dumb COP"
There was a noticeable improvement in the idle after installing John's COP system and it's been flawless for five years now.
Sorry Ken, I misremembered and thought you had an M car. For the 2.7 Motronics, Bosch had the wisdom to put the ignitors outboard of the main ECU's, so you have a few more options than those of us with 5.2 Motronics: I'd really like to discuss building you a system, as other 456GT guys are interested in going COP, but I need to do one for a local car first, and make sure any/all issues are ironed out before I sell one to Australia
Lol. Service call to Sydney might be rough. Let’s talk in a month or two. Need to get through the gas tank, radiator, suspension and motor mounts first.
Hi Angus, As far as I'm aware the individual plastic cover is not available, it seems Ferrari want you to purchase the entire wiring loom c/w cover at considerable cost (£420). I'm right in the middle of changing the bronze valve guides on my 456M which has done a lowly 18,500 miles. The wear is embarrassing! During the strip I noticed one of my ignition lead covers is cracked, albeit in just one place. If you or anyone else wants to club together to get some manufactured using 3D printing then I'm all ears. I'll be dammed if I'm going to spend 400 quid on a piece of plastic. Regards Mark UK Mobile: 0791 250 7700
Raising this post from the dead! So what ever happened wtih a 3d printing of these covers? I just replaced airbox covers (went with red powdercoating)... and found that both loom covers are cracked in a few places... so looking for options to replace!
