Engine Rebuild - worth doing?

Who's paying for the rebuild ? If its your labor that might work - if its a hundred pounds an hour plus vat then ........

 

I doubt you'd get one for that - and then the numbers would not match, which does matter in terms of the eventual value of the car. Suggest phone around some of the independents like QV or Autofficina & see what they have.

There are lots of people who could rebuild it for you, but the cost is only going to be known once they find out what's actually wrong with it & what parts it needs.

If you have the skills yourself then that's undoutedly the least cost route and would be a great project.

 

Get in touch with Colin at Superformance. I have spoken with their rebuilder a couple times and he is very knowledgable. Worth a try anyway.


Have a quality rebuild done, throw some high compression pistons in (they will be replacing those anyway), and maybe some cams and you have just raised your fun factor and the value of the car.

 

Better be quick though - Ron keeps threatening to retire!

 

Just something to keep in mind on the rebuild issue -- if they are not giving you a fixed price ("well, cost will depend on what we find once we open her up."), then you are effectively dealing with Pandora's box. What you will end up with is a series of constantly revised estimates, because "as long as we are in there" let's change the valves, let's put in new sleeves, oh best to do all the bearings, let's balance the crank, you should probably just rebuild the oil pump while you are at it, port the heads, and on and on and on and on. Before you know it, you will have spent more on the engine than you did on the whole car.

IMHO, if (and its a big if) you just want the car to be a driver and have some fun, and you are not worried about showing the car in judged concours, and you are not worried about resale value, consider the replacement engine, provided is comes with some history and doesn't need a rebuild itself. Otherwise, you need to have a very long talk with the mechanic before they start taking things apart. And consider getting more than one opinion and talking about the rebuild process, costs and what to anticipate. If you don't do your homework and have the discussions before hand, you are effectively handing them your checkbook and saying "have at it, boys!!"

Let us know what you decide to do.

 

Eurospares has several (2V & 4V engines) sitting on a shelf, or did not too long ago.

Have no idea as to price range.

 

Try Superformance


http://www.superformance.co.uk/engine_a.htm

 

I don't know what kind of shape your car is in, but changing the engine out is a bad move all the way around. Whatever value the car has now will be lost with a new engine particularly an injected engine over the original carbs. Superformance (UK) and Dino Parts (in Germany) both have set prices on engine rebuilds.
I have a '77 GTB I am having rebuilt as we speak. You bought your car cheap, you have room on the value for a rebuild.

 

Ron just wants to go fishing in the reservoir.......every day lol.

 

Superformance info

Over the past 26 years it’s also built itself a formidable reputation for engine rebuilds, particularly – but not solely – in the V6 and V8 ranges from Maranello. Renatto Lusardi (Ron to his friends) is probably one the most experienced engine builders in the world having rebuilt close to 100 Ferrari engines over the 25 years he’s worked for Superformance.


http://www.classiccarsalesusa.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8697%3Asuperformance&catid=95%3Afeatured-companies&Itemid=1

 

What kind of mileage is on the chasis??
How is the interiior/paint/other mechanicals.
Do you have any receipts to verify prior maintenance, eg, cv rebuild, bearing packs, belts, ect??? It would be nice to know that the car had been maintained/cared for.
How about coolant changes ? If not, it might be a corroded mess and a used engine could be a less expensive and quicker solution.

However, if you are going to wrench on it yourself and want to really go for it..... Check out some of the engine rebuild threads, like Luckydynes, Pizzaman's, Fastradio and a few others to see what is really possible and how far you might want to open your wallet to put some more power into the beauty

77's are a hoot to drive. Good sounds,simple to maintain, really, a straight forward car.

Good luck,
chris

 

I'm just stoked there is somebody else on this site named spencer that surfs and is into ferraris! What are the odds of that...

 

Uh...wouldn't that be a dry sump Euro engine you have? If this is the case, MUCH cooler and rarer engine than a 2Vi one, no offense to those owners.

 

With all the GT4's that have been parted out, could you not get a 308 engine from another cra, get your car on the road, and rebuild the engine later?

To me, these cars are getting so old that the " numbers matching" stuff really does not matter if the car drives well.

 

How does one determine whether the engine is numbers matching or not? Write to Ferrari?


Ace

 

Perhaps if you have a 'grease monkey' in your inner circle you might want to do the work together - learn and (hopefully) save some money in the process.

A seized engine may be difficult to repair indeed and I can imagine shops being unable to estimate it on the phone. If caused by oil starvation then especially aluminium blocks such as our Ferrari engines can melt in the bearing area, leading to expensive welding and line boring at best or the need for a new crankcase at worst. It all depends on what happened to the engine to bring it into its current condition.

 

Do you have any idea WHY it's siezed? A peek into the cylinders with a boroscope might help you make your decision

 

+1

There are two issues to deal with - fixing what broke, and fixing WHY it broke.

 

I am not sure the matching numbers make much difference on 308s. The numbers were not matched the same as other models. Others probably disagree.

Experience tells me it is expensive and can be very expensive depending upon what you do. Getting a used engine is no guarantee either. Used engines are used and may have problems of their own.

A full rebuild will exceed what you paid for your car! That does not mean you should not do it but know it will be expensive.

Doing the work yourself will reduce the cost but again, parts could add up to more than you paid for the car.

There are some advantages too! You will know the history of the motor and you can make some changes along the way (more money).

 

An owner should never consider the cost of a vehicle's purchase when it comes time to pay for the repairs and upkeep. I've seen this for many years in the auto parts business on all sorts of cars. The cost is the cost, that's it. If it takes a certain set of procedures & parts to return an assembly to serviceable condition, that's it. My now 12 year old Audi is now only worth about 5-6K, but if the engine went it'd cost me at least 10K to put it back on the road. It is what it is. Educate yourself as to why it costs what it does and it won't seem such an expensive outlay. A sleeved aluminum OHC 3.0L V8 is an odd duck to be sure, a long way off to an old fashioned iron V8 Chevy. Production numbers and the procedures involved in doing these engines correctly tell the story...