Ferrari 308 Sodium Valve Survey

This is going to be just like all the timing belt surveys.

You haven't been here long have you?

And some of these cars are 48 years old. Just how do you expect the 9th owner to provide meaningful information?

 

Oh and that mileage thing. For several years the cars had an 85 MPH speedo to comply with federal law. Owners most often had them replaced with the standard speedo.

Also the speedos broke a lot in the old days and we replaced tons of them.

The result is a very large sampling of the cars real mileage is lost to history.

I almost forgot. Most of the model years 80-81-82 US versions got engine rebuilds under warranty. Who knows how many miles are on most of those?

 

Mine has one head with original sodium filled ex valves. Changed the others due to senior citizen moment where I bent all 8 valves in rear head. I've owned my 78 since 80 and put 65 k miles on it as daily driver until parked in 91. Not raced other than the occasional drag race (including some missed shifts) but lots of times to 7+K plus extended full throttle runs (10 miles or more) back in the day. I wouldn't change them unless you had it apart for some other reason or your really going to beat the crap out of it to the point of floating the valves at which point something will break.

Barry

 

I'm going to use a number that isn't really correct, but might be in the ballpark: let's say 3500-4500 such cars were made. How many owners of those cars do we actually have in this forum?

Unless you're able to get accurate data on a very large number of cars - let's say 25% (not even getting into statistical errors from comparing years vs carbs vs injection - if that's even a factor), the numbers will be of little use. At the very least - if this is just for the sake of curiosity, I'd expect you'd also want to know how many owners here do NOT have original valves.

In other words, it would be like going to a pizza place and polling, "how many people here like pizza?" That answer wouldn't give you much insight into how many people don't ever eat it.

 

^

Beat me to it. Word for word.

 

There may have been a lawsuit but it would of been before any of us was born. And I was born well over 60 years ago. How about you?

So what you are really saying here is we are going to extrapolate and make up a number from seriously incomplete data.....Sounds like fun.

 

Site a single one of my statements that would lead any reasonably intelligent person to conclude a single one of your assertions. Just like everything else you are ignoring what is said and redefining it to your needs.


You should study up on the parameters for a recall.

 

my 78 euro gts dropped a sodium valve in 1992 with 45000Km. that was with the previous owner, who has rebuilt the motor and used non sodium valves.

 

So as a European version does it have air injection? And if so when was it installed?

 

And by the way, 308 GT4, 308 GTB and GTS combined plus 308 GTBi and GTSi combined totals over 11000 units, not 4000.

I guess we are not counting all the 250, 275, 330, 365, 335, 375, 410, 512 etc motors. Those don't count I guess.

 

at the time, it did not have air injection. it did for a little while after the rebuild to pass emissions (barely), but i have since installed 4 TWM throttle bodies and the Holley HP EFI ECU. now it passes emissions with flying colors on a consistent basis. even without cats and air injection, but i do need the cats for a visual, so i have a set i can bolt in and out in place of the mufflers for emissions time (did i just say that out loud? - lol)

 

Thank you for that. I guess now we can put the wives tale of valves only breaking in US cars with air injection to bed where it belongs.

100% of our respondents show it to be untrue.

 

Some data > no data

I entered what I know about my 2V cars.

 

Pictures, or it never happened!

 

pics of what? the valve, air injetion, mufflers, cats, emissions report or twm install?

 

The throttle bodies, of course!

 

certainly. there is a thread on this site documenting the whole process since 2006. dont mean to step on anothers thread, here ya go. theres a youtube video out on the car too, by Zach mayne
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That would be out of scope for FMVSS.

You could argue that you'll have loss of propulsion, but you can coast to a safe stop after you drop a valve (or run out of fuel for that matter) - mitigating a crash.

 

You keep saying 100%. No one has claimed that. No one has claimed anything close to that. And no, there are clearly defined issues covered by recalls and that is not it.

 

I assume it is based on your very long period of experience in the Ferrari repair world?