Hello out there, I'm excited to have taken delivery of a beautiful 1975 Dino GT4 tonight and I wanted to say hello to Ferrarichat so that I can introduce myself and my new car to the board. I'm going to give it a loving new home and enjoy it for a long time to come. Here are a couple photos: A little about myself: I have a business in Los Angeles where I work on vintage Alfa Romeo/Porsche restoration and repair so I plan on doing all the work on this little Ferrari myself, I do not have any experience with Ferrari but I am looking forward to learning as much as I can about these v8 cars. The car received a timing belt service last year with only a two hundred miles driven since. At the same time the tensioner, water pump, belts, etc were changed so I am set to go on that end. I will however be needing some help from to forum in order to get this little car running better. Previous owner took the distributors off last year for a new set of points/plugs/wires/caps and rotors and never put it back together so now I have a bit of a puzzle to assemble and could use some guidance to get it back together. I noticed distributors currently only have one set of points in them, PO explained that it is common to delete the second set of points and he purchased that car that way in 1992. I went ahead and ordered a Pertronix 9M-183 setup for the car, but those will not arrive for a couple of weeks and I'd like to try and get the car running in the meantime to maybe get a A vs B comparison.
Though I do not have any workshop manuals, I was able to pull some basic information from the internet such as Flywheel marking chart, firing order, etc but would appreciate any input and advice to help me get this car running. I already have a few questions that I haven't been able to answer via web searches. So I am going to shoot away, once again any input is appreciated: I'm setting up the rearmost bank distributor and wires, the "PM 1-4" marking is TDC for the rearmost (1-4 bank) cylinder #1 correct? At this mark my rear bank distributor should be pointing at cylinder #1? For the forward bank distributor and wires, the "PM 5-8" marking is TDC for the forward (5-8 bank) cylinder #1 correct? At this mark the forward distributor should be pointing at #5? Also need help with distributor wire orientation, I have the rear bank wires set up for clockwise rotation of the rotor in the following order 1-3-4-2 and the front bank as 5-7-8-6, is this correct?
Assuming I have this ignition system assembled correctly, I gave the car a crank and after a little starting fluid in the carbs, she fired up and though she was a little hesitant to run at first, she did eventually warm up to a decent idle. After letting the car warm up for a couple minutes, I put my timing light on the #1 and the timing seems to be correct for 1-4 but something really confused me, when I went to put my light on the #5 lead, I was still seeing the "PM 1-4" mark through the timing window, in fact no matter which cylinder I put my light on, the "PM-1-4" appears. I was expecting to see "PM5-8" when my timing light pickup was on lead #5. Any input much appreciated.
Congrats on your purchase and I hope you enjoy the car! It seems like you are light years ahead of most when they buy something like this. There are a lot of owners around that can probably help. As I tell everybody on here - use the search function on the 308 page and search for key terms to find your answers - chances are someone has already had the same issue or question. If not - make the post! Way to go getting it started. Given your love for Alfa's you are in the right place!
Congratulations from another 308 GT4 owner! I have a copy of the workshop manual, and you can google- there are several online. In fact, I just googled for you and here is a link: http://www.cannell.co.uk/Ferrari_Workshop_Manuals/308GT4_workshop%20service%20manual.pdf Good luck with the car. I am in Orange County, so hopefully we will run into each other at some events.
I too have a 75 in LA! Is your shop in Culver by any chance? Anyhow, we should get together for a drive sometime.
Hey guys, thanks for the warm welcome! I have a shop servicing mostly Alfas and air cooled Porsches in LA. This Gt4 was actually a customer's car which I did a timing belt service on a couple of years ago and he recently decided to let it go. I'm still getting acquainted with the car trying to figure a few things out, seems like it's not quite a series 2 car since it has many series 1 features......
If it's 1975 wouldn't it be a series 1 anyway? Although it's missing the Dino badging and correct wheels. Two distributors is series 1 isn't it? Do the 2 distributor cars have two sets of points in each? It was my understanding that each distributor is takes a 'standard' 4 cylinder approach, and the series 2 cars with a single distributor have both mechanisms built into the single distributor using two sets of points.
I noticed that too. I'm thinking to go from Dino badge to Ferrari badge on the nose means body filler and new paint, right?
My car is a dual distributor, dual points car. Previous owner purchased it in 1992 exactly the way it sits with the exception of the TRX wheels, but he included the original Cromodoras (and I plan on putting them back on). Previous owner believes this car was originally a Dino badged car, but he is not sure. Perhaps I've received my information from too many sources, but I thought the big bumpers came in on the series 2 cars. VIN is 1041X, March 75 build date.
Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Here are a few more pictures.
apparently we have a time limit of 10 minutes to ad an edit now.... The big bumpers were on the early cars that came to the US. Somewhere between 74-75 the switch to the tucked bumpers with the side covers occurred. You can feel underneath where the badge is and there would still be the stamping indentation for the dino badge that is more horizontal. The switch to S2 cars came around June of '75 but there were gradual changes. There is a GT4 registry on here - It would be cool if you would fill it out as we have a good list going - no need though.... http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/how-many-gt4s-here.200472/page-14
I gave the front nose a thorough inspection and there are no signs of badge repair, so if it was done, they did an excellent job..... this car seems to have been originally Ferrari badged.
March 75 is series 1. According to Birdman series 1 ended around 10776 in June of 75. These are the original big bumpers from the earliest US cars. As I understand it, when the new smaller style came out Ferrari would replace your big bumpers for no charge, so most people did. Thats why you dont see too many. I think in 5 years Ive seen less than 15 of them online.
Welcome! You're going to love driving the GT4. It's one of the great driver's cars of all time. (Which reminds me...I haven't driven mine in like a year! Time to get it out and run it.) Fchat is a godsend for us DYIers. There are a ton of knowledgeable people here and you'll make great friends who will show up to help you just for the fun of it.
Yep. Early Dino badged for sure, regardless of how good a job they did to hide it. Embrace the Dino and shoot the horse!
