My (Bob) Norwood Experience

You are at the limits of my technical knowledge but I believe the check valve and the warning light valve are two separate items. The check valve is there to keep the fluid from flowing back to the master cyl ie to keep the pads up against the rotors. If it fails then the first time you pump you just move the pads with no braking. I think. The warning light valve tells you if there is an imbalance in the hydraulic pressure between the two circuits (front/back), ie if one half fails you still have the other half but you also get a warning light. I think.

Even if the check valve is fixed, we still have at least two problems with the brakes: 1. the (new) booster doesn't work predictably because sometimes there just isn't enough vacuum to draw on, so when you brake you don't know what you are going to get; and 2. even if that were not a problem, the (big) rear brakes overwhelm the (relatively small) front brakes causing "excessive rear bias" which is a very dangerous thing. If your rear brakes lock up first, the back of the car wants to swing around; on a corner, or in the wet, this is a wipeout waiting to happen.

All of this would not be surprising if an amateur did the work. But Bob is supposed to be THE expert on these cars. When I first met him, this was well before we started this project, he told me he was on first name terms with Enzo, Enzo wanted Bob to come and work for him; Enzo told him Ferrari would not sue him for making reproductions as the cars were so well done; Carpenter, on the other hand, was sued by Ferrari for making tribute cars. If Bob were not local, I would not have taken this project on. I wanted a car with the "Norwood touch", and I figured I should get it before Bob got much older. I thought a Norwood car would fetch a premium if I ever decided to sell it ....

 

The brake boost problem, I think, is that my car has the earlier motor (without the mechanical pump) but the later rear brakes (which require a pump). And the other problem is the (replacement) front brakes are too small. I don't mind paying to add the vacuum pump if that works as this is progress not rework, but I don't think I should have to pay for a new brake booster that did not solve the problem when it came up on the first test drive (Bob refuses to give me the booster he removed stating he threw it out ... Bob throws nothing out as best I can tell, and in any case I told him to keep all takeoff parts). Before the relationship broke down, I did offer to pay the additional $2750 for the Wilwood front brake upgrade as a separate project, but I think the charges for the botched stock front brake job should be credited against that. I don't see why I should pay for what appears to be a rookie mistake. Bob supplied the replacement front brakes as well as the booster from his stock of used parts, and of course he can have his 308 brake rotors and calipers back if he fesses up and goes with the correct solution .. but this is only one aspect of the dispute and there appears to be zero willingness to solve any aspect of the dispute.

Regarding the interaction between the aux vacuum circuits and the ECU, it seems to me that anytime a vacuum is used to induce mechanical motion via an actuator, there has to be a spurt of relief air to release the actuator, ie a brief vacuum leak. This pressure pulse will then be felt throughout the vacuum circuits. This can't be good for the Motec that is constantly monitoring the inlet vacuum level and adjusting the fuel mix as well as the spark advance. But I do appreciate Aaron's constructive attitude in this regard.

 

Chapter 8: Motec Madness

Bob continued to work on the map issues into October. He had gotten rid of the "lump" in the map by retrofitting the exhaust flap valve on the third muffler prior to my test drive. This apparently also reduced the exhaust wail until you needed it. I cannot confirm that as I was not able to get the motor warm on my very short test drive. But the idling problem persisted despite throwing about a thousand of my dollars at the spark plug leads. He got to a point where he decided that the problem was related to valve timing. He emailed me stating that some prior mechanic had advanced the inlet timing a few degrees to improve the "top end", and the resultant increase in overlap messed with the vacuum signal to the motec. He said the motec was seeing max 55 kpa vacuum and that was low, and later added that he called Black Horse in LA, where the car originated, and they confirmed that this was the probable cause. Well by now I was just a little bit skeptical so I sent Carl Steuer an email to see whether the story checked out. My theory was that the leakdown problem in the right bank was not carbon buildup, as Bob opined, but the dreaded 355 valve problem. If the latter, then I had a bone to pick with Bob as I specifically asked him to check for this problem before he even thought of putting the motor in the car. He pronounced the motor good and buried it in the car. Later, after things fell apart, I asked Bob why, if the problem was indeed valve timing, he had not checked that when he went through the motor. He had the valve covers off while he was doing the leakdown and he had to cycle the motor to TDC for each cyl to do the leakdown. I said it would have been a simple matter to check the timing marks. He said the timing marks on the motor were not accurate and he would have had to use a degree wheel and "that's a big job". Well not compared to pulling the motor out again, I replied. But then Bob changed his opinion, stating that the problem was inlet manifold leaks, a "common problem on these motors". He said he had done nothing to the inlet manifold so that presumably exculpated him. If it was a common problem, I replied that he should then have checked for leaks before diving into the motor install. Again, he changed his explanation, offering a new theory on the same day I showed up with the cashier's check: he had been doing some digging and now he realized that the problem was the design of the 355 motor itself. Due to the individual throttle bodies ie no plenum, the vacuum signal had to be taken from each throttle body below the butterfly valve. This was a very weak signal with a limited range, so the resultant map was a "small map". In other words, there were not many steps in the vacuum signal and the Motec was unable to make fine adjustments especially at idle when the signal was weakest. He and Joe offered, with a shrug, that I would have to go back to mass air flow sensors as the primary driver of the map. This struck me as rather rich, as in the first days of the project, Bob had told me to take the stock MAF-driven ECUs and related wiring harnesses and plumbing home as they would not work due to the security interfaces. (I later learned this early 355 setup had no security interface). The bottom line was this massive technical blunder on Bob's part was being dumped in my lap. And when Joe pointed out that this is an earlier two MAF motor and that presented another problem: the Motec was only wired for input from a single MAF, Bob's response was another shrug. Bring cash and sign this release if you want the car, running or not.

An Fchat member later contacted me on this subject. He had done a Motec conversion in his 355 and had no issues getting the motor to idle and run, using a throttle position sensor as the primary input. So further digging will be necessary to get to the bottom of the problem. I am pretty sure that Bob's setup reads the throttle position as well as I recall him calibrating that when I was in his shop one day. I also learned, from Bob on the same day he told me to go back to MAFs, that my motor is fouling plugs, so perhaps that is another symptom of a poor setup. Or worse.

The bottom line is I went with Bob's expert opinion that a Motec would be the best technical solution vs. keeping the motor stock. At the time he offered this opinion, which was partially based on the false assertion that the stock ECU could not be made to work in a car without the associated security circuitry, he did not disclose that he was a Motec dealer, and probably the only person within a thousand miles who had put a Motec in a Ferrari. As a consequence, I have a car that will not idle, would probably not pass an emissions test, and is fouling plugs. And the only guy who can fix it is not willing to do so.

Carl never did get back to me. Strange fellow that Carl. He was all talk before I bought the car, but he turned into a clam afterward.

Next up: A/C woes.

 

You are reinforcing my fear that the idle problem has to do with the motor's mechanical condition, something Bob was supposed to check as Step 0. And perhaps another reason why he wants me to sign a release before he will allow me anywhere near the car.

 

For the benefit of Smiles and others who missed the beginning of the story (which was posted under another thread), I already tried to pay Norwood what he demanded so that I could retrieve the car, get it evaluated and fixed, and then pursue the matter through the courts. I drove 400 miles with cashier's check in hand, having advised Norwood in advance that I was coming, only to be rebuffed when I got there. The car was not there, it was in a secret location, and it was not in running condition. Further, he wanted me to sign a full legal release before even setting eyes on the car. And then he decided a cashier's check was not acceptable and demanded cash. Nobody in their right mind would accept those terms.

As far as Carl (Black Horse) finishing the car, before I bought the car I asked him if he would finish it and he said no, he no longer does custom work, he just buys and sells cars. This car did not belong to Carl, it was merely stored (for more than a decade apparently) in his shop by none other than the infamous ExcelsiorZ. Besides, Carl is in LA and I am in TX.

As far as legal action, it seems that is indeed my only avenue and I currently looking for a good lawyer. I already hired one lawyer who turned out to be a head case who had no idea what she was doing.

As far as getting the car evaluated, I have already made those arrangements. I have even lined up someone to flatbed the car. But I don't know where to send the tow truck.