F456M - Very nice car - Congratulations - and welcome to the asylum!! (just kidding)... Bundas - Can you give us more details on the bumper fix? As for me, when the time comes, I plan on NOT using any of the emissions stuff... As CharlieA says: Colortune, balancing and adjust the distributor should be all you need to get the engine running as it should. Mike
I have a DeLorean (also designed by Giugiaro). Parts are cheap and easy to come by for sure. Just thought I'd throw that out there for a chuckle or two... Tony
A QP3 shop is a fab idea. Anyone know how many are actually left? Registry, anyone done anything yet?
An online QP3 Registry with all chassisnumbers and a presentasjon of each car with photos etc would be cool! By the way, does anyone here know of a stretched Qap3? That would be fun to travel in four persons.. I believe I have read somewhere that there were build 53 Royales and another two Royales that were long versions..? The Panini museum in Modena has a very good Royale with rear mid console and electric back seats. These cars become even greater with custom features
Thank you. Both the cars are great. The blue one was originally Avorio DS (doppio strato / duble layers), but was professionally re-painted blue. I don't know exactly which color but it looks just like the other dark blue QPs. Also same blue as a 430 4v. I saw the other day. I think Jarle and I should have a drag race soon! QUOTE=Mexico074;142905024]F456M - Very nice car - Congratulations - and welcome to the asylum!! (just kidding)... Bundas - Can you give us more details on the bumper fix? As for me, when the time comes, I plan on NOT using any of the emissions stuff... As CharlieA says: Colortune, balancing and adjust the distributor should be all you need to get the engine running as it should. Mike[/QUOTE]
Has anyone any idea where I can get the chromed tips for the exhausts? These are simple, but in the same time very special and I have not seen similar on any other car. They are welded right next to the rear muffler, and have insulation between the inner pipe... It looks damn good!
MIE has some exhaust tips for sale.. check Maserati Club, Maserati Parts, MIE Corp. MaseratiNet Store...
use mobile dent and scratch shops to come on sight. I use a body show here3 as well. send me your bumper and I will get u an quote
Hi Jarle, good to hear that your car is pulling strong and smooth. Can I ask what mileage you're getting on average? I spoke with the seller of the brown one earlier in the thread, who claimed an unbelievably low figure. Curious what a well-tuned example drinks in real-world use. Thanks.
Except that the Colortune doesn't seem to work, at least in my case. Thinking it over lately, I wonder if my timing may actually be off. Wouldn't that result in the Colortune not showing any combustion going on at idle (or intermittently), but picking up when revved? I plan on checking my vacuum advance to see if it actually works. That may explain the rough idling but smooth acceleration. My bumper was repaired with some sort of thick black goo (glue?) to fasten the chunk back in, then several layers applied to the seam and sanded until flush. Completely invisible when finished. I can ask the shop what the goo was and let you know.
I have yet to have any success with Colortune. This weekend I borrowed a timing lamp with a digital tachometer and I've tried the technique where the best idle mixture gives the fastest idle. This means you just adjust each idle screw in turn and watch the tachometer on each in turn. The revs will drop off when the mixture is too weak or too rich so just adjust until its as high as you can set it. It is a simple effective technique and I'm happy with the results. Also did not take forever either. Julian
Well, I have covered almost 7000kmtrs now, so know pretty well how much it consumes. I use between 50-60litres as week, and I drive a bit more than 400kmtrs during that time. So between 1.25 and 1.5 depending on how slow the traffic is. The more crowded the roads are the closer to 1.5 I get. We have a Range Rover 4.6 HSE as well, uses about the same amount of fuel. I'm actually pretty happy about this.
The colortune is a very good tool, but you need to see pretty directly on the sparkplug. I have several times found ignition or carb problems with the colortune. If you see no combustion, I'm guessing there is not combustion. On my Merak I would see flashes of combustion, and the reason is that the idle circuit is partly blocked. If you give it a little throttle and you get a bright yellow flash, that is probably the problem on your end as well.
I can see straight into the combustion chamber with the Colortune, no problems at all. I get combustion about once every second or two on average, increasing rpms to 2000 or so shows a steady blue-white flame. Idle does not, it's intermittent. The idle circuit may be blocked, but on every carburetor/cylinder? I just cleaned them a few weeks ago, with both carb cleaner and an ultrasonic bath. It would be weird if all the idle circuits were blocked, which is why I suspected a timing issue. I've found a guy who has a lot more experience, we'll be looking closer at the mixture in the next week or two. 15-20mpg? That would really be acceptable if I could get numbers like that. That actually sounds pretty good!
It sounds very weird that you have intermittent combustion on all cylinders. When you say no combustion, you see the sparkplug going off, but no color on the flame? Have you tried looking at the plug from different angles, sometimes they can trick you. It's really very simple this thing, you see straight into the cylinder, if there is no flame, there is no combustion, simple as that. But, if the spark itself is intermittant, then you need to look elsewhere. Can you do another test while the car is idling? Spray some start gas down the hole, if combustion occurs immediately after that there is no doubt at all, all of your carbs then spitting fuel instead of a smooth flow.
Yes, I can see the spark firing clearly in the Colortune, but no flame. That would seem to indicate that the mixture isn't actually igniting, meaning no combustion. I have looked from the angles I'm able to, and can clearly see a flame when it does ignite. The spark is consistent, combustion is not. I'm not sure I understood your last suggestion beyond spraying start gas down the carbs to check. I can do that. What does "all of your carbs then spitting fuel instead of a smooth flow" mean? Thanks.
If you clearly see spark but no flame, that does mean you do not have combusiton in those cases. My point is that when you have intermittent combustion but a steady spark, that usually means that the fuel flow from the idle circuit is not smooth, the best description I can come up with is spitting. Instead of a continous flow, at times it will stop then it will spit a bit of fuel. This way your engine will run, even if it does this on all cylinders. But it will not run nice, it will shake, shudder and sometimes pop. My suggestion was that you try to spray start gas down the carb you have the colortune mounted. If you get combustion immeadiately afterwards, that means there was no(or not sufficient) fuel present in the chamber before you added start gas. If you still get no combustion afterwards, that could possibly mean you are pouring way to much gas into the chamber, hence your mixture is too rich to actually ignite. I had one cylinder with intermittant spark on my Merak, and did this exact test.
If you get a flash of combustion when you spray start gas down the throat, I would try to screw the mixture adjustment out as far as you can without it dropping out. If you still don't get steady combustion, stop the car, remove the adjustment screw completely. Use compressed air and blow in the hole on the carb, might be something lodged in there. If you still don't get a steady combustion I think you need to consult someone who knows colortune and\or carbs well. you might have to use an ultrasonic cleaner to get them working properly.
Well that's the funny part. The carbs were completely disassembled a month ago, cleaned in carb cleaner and with an ultrasonic bath, dried, put back together and re-installed in the car. I'll get to the bottom of this, eventually. Thanks for your suggestions.
I seem to remember that you had rebuilt them. It does sound very weird, but the fact is that we are talking about a glass "plug", it's as simple as that. If there is no visible flame, it's not burning I'm afraid. Did anything change since your carb rebuild?
I am not sure, but it sounds like there is a leak in the screw that holds the idle jets. The big fixed gold screws far up on each side of each carb. If air is coming in from the outside, there will be no vacuum pulling the fuel through the nozzle, and there will not be a MIXTURE of gas and air. On Jarles car, there was a problem with one carb. EVERYTHING was ok but when I replaced the complete carb, the car started to run on 8 sylinders at idle, while it had run on only 7 under 1400 rpm. from when I bought the car. I suspect the aluminium itself had been too long time in my citrus bath cleaning, and corroded slightly on the surface that the idle jet attach to the aluminium. This is where the air and fuel mixes before it enters the bottom screw that you adjust to lean/richen ratio between the already vapourized fuel/air idle mixture relative to the air passing through the venturi an butterfly flap. The bottom screw (45 degree angle) adjust the amount of already pre-mixed air/fuel in a very rich ratio. When the car ran on only 7 cylinders, I used a colortune for the first time. There were no action exept for the little spark. When the throttle was depressed, the burning could be seen. When I replaced the carb, there was a steady fire there. It has also very much with carb adjusting to do, because to make a cylinder engine idle, there is almost no fuel needed in each cylinder. So the car runs almost perfect even if it does not get fuel on one cylinder or one of the butterflys are completely closed. The carbs need to have proper rubber o-ring seals on the fixed idle screw and free flow of fuel to the idle jets. If there is not enough vacuum there, no fuel will be brought to the jet because the jet is above the fuel level in the float chamber. It is true what Jarle says about the consumption. This is much less than what is written in the user manual. It states that the car "consums 18-20 litres every 100km" and nothing more. So fun.... You can drive pretty fast to get that number. I have not ajusted his distributor really, I just put it where it worked the best. The plugs will be very hot and look like new with too much spark advance, and wet full of carbon with too much retarded advance. I "think" the perfect setting for this car is to have a pretty early advance because it will make the plugs dry and clean and let it run proper ignition) with a slightly rich idle mixture. If the idle mixture is too lean, the revs will start to rise when you put fro D or R into N or P. If you then re-adjust the idle stop screws, it will not make anouth power when you put it back in R or D....... So the mixture must be a bit richer than the very minimum that the engine CAN run on. I have seen a few QPIIIs in the US with what seem to be a US or factory added option. Cruise control!! Has anyone any experience with the cruise control?
