pre 1985 Maserati V8 engines

About the Maserati street engines used in cars such as the QPIII (Tipo 107 ?), were these ever mated to manual transmissions or were they strictly automatics? If so, who produced the manual transmissions?

What differences might there be between these and the engines used in the other cars such as the Bora, Mexico, Indy? Did any use a dry sump?

As far as I can find out, most of these engines use a moderate compression ratio of around 8.5:1. Were there any similar engines used in race cars with higher compression ratios?

I seem to recall a QPIII that someone had supercharged (Northern California?) and I wonder if that car is still around and how the engine faired with the additional stress. Is the lower end capable of sustained increases in power without forfeiting reliability?

Thank you !

 

Hi

The QP III was available with a manual, 5 speed gearbox. The gearbox was made by ZF. If you search trough some of the QP III threads in this section, you will find some information and pictures of the gearbox, clutch, and flywheel. I think that it is in William Abraham's thread.

I don't have any solid, first hand knowledge of your other questions, although I do remember a conversation with a Maserati parts supplier several years ago about the futility of trying to use a QP III engine or parts as replacement in a Ghibli. My memory is that the block and crank were so different that it was not practically possible.

Aloha
Larry

 

i road in the supercharged car. owner did not rev the motor while i was in the car. other than a 'yes' this is supercharged i can tell u nothing

 

It's blown up a couple of times but at extreme load. The car in question (he actually had 2 of them, 1 nitrous and one SC) were owned by Jay Witham.

I suggest you have a read of the Bora thread as there are discussions about the late V8's issues on that thread.

 

To mate the 727 Torqflight tranny DeTomaso cut about 3 inches off the rear of the 4.2/4.9L engine and then drilled new mounting holes. The 5-speed ZF QIIIs have the same rear end as the early V8s, however the sump is different, front is different, and different casting marks are on the engine, specifically in the V where the water passage is, motor mounts, as well as the inner combustion chambers. The drysump engines have a much different lower timing area to accept the equipment there. Your basic casting and internal dimensions are the same as the other V8s, however the exterior is modified to fit.

So to answer your question, there is no chance a QIII V8 is gonna drop into a pre-DeTomaso car without modifications. As far as mounting any manual to it there is someone who has an Audi transmission bolted to one, and there is another thread here that has a tremec on his. Even the stock option ZF tranny wont bold up to it without an adapter plate!!