hi, Just got my car jacked up on stands with all wheels off. Plans for the winter include;, 1. Gold connector kit. 2. All Bushings replaced. 3. Schumacher sway bars. 4. New front shocks, rear rebuild. 5. Install challenge wheels and spacers. 6. Brembo big Brake Kit. Most parts bought used right here on F-Chat from Bruce.
Hmmm, that question has the potential to start WWIII around here, but I'll try to answer it before you get a reply from one of the more... we'll say opinionated... members here chimes in. Basically some 348's (and I presume 355's) have a tendency to have electrical gremlins that cause Check Engine Lights and Slow Down Lights on the dash to come on and engine performance to suffer. It is felt by some to be caused by contact problems inside the many connector plugs in the engine wiring harness. A company in CO called SRI brought out a kit where mainly the female clamping pins in the connector plugs are replaced by new ones with a tighter grip and gold plating to theoretically improve the transfer of electrons across the connection and resolve those issues. It can be done by the owner, but it takes very precise installation (check You Tube for a video series on Ferrari 348 gold kit installation). There is a faction who believe it's a bunch of hooey, and that putting gold plating over a tin base is sure to cause problems down the line... thus the WWIII-like hostile banter which has ensued, but we won't go there. So check out the video series or just Google "Ferrari gold kit" for more info. Hope that helps.
Ooops, sorry, just realized you're from the UK, CO is short hand for Colorado. Also should have stated SRI stands for Scuderia Rampante Inc.
P.s. here was my first project of the winter, now on Ebay: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Very cool! Really ugly bumper, but otherwise very cool. Don't know if that car helped Triumph to stick around a few more years, or killed them off. It was very radical compared with all their previous offerings. I love the British stuff. On the gold connectors, I'm undecided. I do know from redoing a lot of the wiring on my 355 (that a previous owner messed up), there is a fair bit of corrosion on many of the electrical connectors, so it certainly needs to be addressed. Nice to have a winter project like this. You get to enjoy the car over the winter, making it better, then enjoy it all summer. Rick
Had to do a double take. A TR wedge on the 355 forum. Very cool... That a TR7 or TR8? Hey, the bumper is fine if you have the proper camera angle... Image Unavailable, Please Login
Well, not to get into the same old argument again but there is one thing for sure. Your car is 13 -15 years old. If it suffers corrosion of the contacts it needs to be addressed. But the underlying fact is that even if you replace all the female terminals with gold, the tin male counter parts are still tin and all the gold in the world isn't going to stop the tin male pins from corroding in the future. Whether gold mated with tin accelerates the corrosion of the tin or not becomes moot. The tin will do what tin does, regardless.
It's a lowly TR7. Been watching too much "Wheeler Dealers"... decided to try it myself since I ran out of projects to do on my poor Ferrari.
I have Triumph his and hers motorcycles. When I was a little boy my cousin had a brand new TR7 and used to take me for rides in it often. Fantastic car when it was running good Good summary on the GCK.
I thought the problem with Ferrari connectors was purely mechanical - e.g. clamping/fit on female contacts getting loose? I observed that first hand in another application while charging LiPo batteries. Timaya and Molex connectors would start to become unreliable (intermittent loss of contact) after several connects/disconnects. Pin and sleeve connectors are the worse. I think Ferrari uses AMP superseal? I had to reconnect one loose connector and that's what it looked liked to me. If so, they are not as bad as Timaya and Molex. For oxidation - there is deoxit contact cleaner that I heard good things about, I know previous owner's mechanic used it on my car a few years back before putting SRI kit. Also on exposed connectors silicone grease would help to seal out any air/moisture that causes oxidation. I've used silicone grease on connectors for remotely-controlled subs and it seemed to work pretty good and unlike petrolum jelly, did not cause rubber to swell.
Just got the car earlier in the fall. Always loved this model. Though there is faster stuff, this car is still relevant and can run with the new Hi-Po cars with un matched looks. I think it is rare in this regard. At the moment, this car has Challenge Grills/ Tubi/Hyperflows/aftermarket headers/GruppeM intakes and the ECU has been mapped for this set-up. Car is fast and stock looking. Which with the exception of the Challenge wheels I picked up (which are at least period correct) it will remain. I intend to have the challenge wheels painted the stock silver. To answer the question, during a spirited drive on a back road for an extended period, I noticed serious brake fade and also the wooden feeling as though they were overheated. I am not a professional race driver nor do I want to be so my technique will be buffered by this upgrade. Also, they give the car an updated look and are big time bling. ESPECIALLY with the Yellow Calipers which are kind of the latest look. Now that I have the car off the ground and the wheels off, the stock set-up even looks very under spec'd for such a powerful car. Will post pics once I sign up. What's the difference between Silver and Rossa? What do you recommend? I have a front set of Stop Tech big brake for sale and would like to advertise them here.
I've never had fade on the street, but they faded pretty badly on the track. I'm thinking a pad change to a track oriented pad should fix that, though. Rossa gives access to the Rossa forum, larger avatar and allows for more ads and a few other minor things.
Well if you don't sell it Paul we may have to have a Triumph meet somewhere Love the color to BTW Image Unavailable, Please Login
It's super tossable and fun to drive, but certainly doesn't have the collectability of your beautiful TR6. You can't beat those Michelotti lines, plus you get a few more horsepower. The color is called Carmine Red... one of 3 different reds Triumph offered at the time. I guess this should be on Triumphchat....
Time to get this thread back on topic...lol Jeff Has installed the rear Brembo BBK....he is working on the fronts which will be a hybrid, He can share all the goodies when he gets everything back from the machine shop....how do you say "really big" in pig Latin????? Maybe we can encourage him to put some TLC on that black paint...haha Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
It just got warm enough to install the rear Brembo Big brake Kit That I bought from Bruce earlier this year (great transaction and great guy) Bruce will be posting the pics so far of the progress since I cant get them to load.
Good morning Nice to see some progress here. Bruce is a terrific guy! I also recently purchased a few of his tasty 355 spares.
Initially, I had planned to install this kit completely but the Rotors from my StopTech Front Kit are MASSIVE so I thought I would Drill them the same way as these rear Discs. I'm waiting to get them back from the machine shop. In the picture, the snow up here is melting and the car is covered in condensation. Not to worry, this car is loved and cared for.
Jeff, what part of the country are you in? I'm from Ottawa, Canada and the Snow is also melting here but it won't melt enough to take a Ferrari out for a drive. Probably another 2 or 2.5 months before that will happen.
