Oh, No! Not me Again...!!!

355's have been known to benefit from it, at least in the USA. I think it has to do with the fact that they do get a little oil in the induction side of things from the breather system and the valve guides and at the slower driving pace a lot of the cars see here things don't get or stay as hot to keep it burned off. But it will be a factor (lesser or greater) in most if not all cars that are designed to be operated at sustained high speeds the way most of the big fast European cars are.

 

This is not as much of an issue with modern cars with electronic ign. and FI as those systems are much less prone to improper Fuel/Air ratio at low speeds or idle. That said ALL cars need to be fully warmed up and used.

 

Yes and (mostly) no. Yes, but only if something is broken. Modern cars have a few featrures that all but eliminate that type of problem. Any modern car has at least one catalytic convert that burns any fuel or oil before it can get to the muffler to collect of out the tail pipe so the smoking can't happend unless something is very wrong with the engine (...which will then overheat the cat and set the car on fire...speaking from experience...). The other and main thing an "italian tune -up" fixes is carbon build up inside the engine. The carbon is the result of a very rich mixture, like from mis adjusted webers or running with the choke on. Modern EFI controles the mixture much better over the whole engine rpm and temperature range than a weber can at it's perfect rpm and temperature. Right mixture=no carbon. Now, if the car is never allowed to get even close to operating temperature, some carbon will probably form, but normally it is not a problem.

 

btw, I think I've seen you post in this section twice now, don't you think this is getting a bit out of control?

 

Brian is right on the money again! In reviewing the records on my 355 spider before purchase, I noticed that it initially did not pass the FNA inspection for compression to be "certified". The dealers shop suspected carbon build up (as they knew the owner was not driving the car hard) and added some GM additive and Techron, and advised him to drive it hard for a few hundred miles. Sure enough, when he returned the car, the compression and leakdown numbers were fine.

 

Thanks Dave but there is also a lot of truth in what Napolis and Mark say too. We had in the old days a Daytona owner who used his car to commute to work. It went about 10 miles each way without ever getting on the freeway. He needed an Italian tune up and a set of plugs every few weeks. Modern cars on the other hand are the beneficiaries of a lot of great moden technology that allows us a lot more flexibility in the way we use our cars. But they still are designed to go tank full after tank full down the autobahn with our leg in it and that means (among other things) large cooling systems for the oil and large oil capacities that under American driving conditions do not always allow us to properly heat every thing up. Rings will stick, the oil that gets past the guides coats the valves and pistons and never completely burns off, happens a lot. I've seen quite a few late model Ferrari motors with the heads off and I can tell what kind of driver you are just from looking at the piston domes.

A while back I went on a run with a bunch of Ferrari's and I decided to drive the LM 002. It had not been out in a while and I had a few bucks in my pocket so I decided I could afford the gas. We went about 150 miles and since I was with a bunch of Ferrari's the LM got run harder than it had been in a long time (it's not geared for that kind of run). But by the time we got back home I realized that thing has not run that good in a long time (and the 45 gallon gas tank was pretty low again).

 

mk e,

Been there, done that! I'm glad I had purchased a fire extinguisher just prior to the event. In your case do you know what the cause of the converter overheating was? In my case it was the K-Jetronic injection on one bank running really really rich! The problem was related to changes to the injection to make it DOT/EPA certified. Sitting on the side of the Interstate with a converter huffing and puffing and glowing cherry red was not much fun!

 

1/2 the engine shut down and I didn't know enough to pull right over, it was only 10 mile up the highway to home....very stupid. It ran fine again after the fire, but I went ahead and tore it apart and rebuilt it, fitted EFI, direct fire ignition and a supercharger just to be safe

 

mk e,

Yea, not pulling over is a big problem. I was on a stretch of interstate under construction and they had concrete 'Jersey' barriers right up to the edge of the road on the white line, there was no way to pull over for a couple of miles.

Your solution was great, especially the supercharger!

 

I am far from adverse to giving the car an italian tune up, I just need a place to do it without loosing my license.

On a related note, what do you think about installing an oil thermostat to bring up the oil temp up quickly, (I know The Oil Guru, Messieur Haas would be behind it)? We could then install a bit bigger cooler to help with those max temp days at the track and thus not fry the engine.

Moving up to breakerless ignition, (old carbed 308s), would surely help. Iridium plugs would help a bit.

Now back to the Italian Tune Up, where do you guys find a place to do it??

???
chris

 

I get on the freeway around here. The speed limit is 70. In this area some of the on ramps are fairly long and gently curved.
I start at the beginning of the on ramp and punch it, winding it up to 7k on each shift. When I get onto the freeway I am usually doing 70 (or so). Go to the next overpass and repeat. I have never been harrassed for accelerating onto the freeway, that is what you are supposed to do, so I do it!

It is not neccessary to run the car at 180 MPH for 20 minutes to blow the carbon out of the engine. It can be done by getting it completely warmed up and "rap it out" in the lower gears over and over until there is no more smoke, blue or black.

In a 308 the act of acceleration isn't an event that a Trooper would take notice of. Still, in a faster car you can still get away with accelerating onto the freeway via numerous on ramps out in the sticks at 7:00 am on a Sunday morning without raising the ire of the law.

Take a drive up a mountain pass on an early Sunday morning. Plenty of opportunity to warm everything up and make the engine WORK!.

How far from Arcata do you have to drive to hit some hills?

Heat and RPM's are your friend. High speed does not have to enter the equation.

Time and location is the key.

DJ

 

Yes oil thermostats help, but still a motor that is designed to thrive on hard use, survive cruising speeds at 7000 RPM etc. has a hard time working up a sweat driving around suburban America. The car is really no different than you and you know what you have to do to your body for a good work out.

As for a place, Spasso's advice is pretty good or how far are you from highway 5?