Quattroporte III catch-all thread

Here ya go: Starter motor | Quattroporte3

With links to the 3 I considered.

 

If you didn't bother to read my blog entry on replacement starters, note that all of them assume that they will be mounted on the driver's side and have the connector posts on the top.

Since yours will be mounted on the passenger side, the electrical connection posts will be on the bottom, facing the pavement.

The Robb MC starter allows the solenoid to be rotated around the motor, which may be an advantage. I went with one of the less expensive offerings and so far it's been very reliable.

Hope this helps.

 

Good to hear you found someone you can trust and who actually finds and fixes the problems.

Looking forward to hearing how she runs and drives when you get her back.

 

Glad to hear progress is being made, and I hear you're cancer is in remission, good news all around.

Now to get out and drive some of your collection and enjoy them!

 

1 owner since new, very low mileage. Looks like they bought it and never used it.

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it looks to be in excellent condition, and must have been kept in a dry garage all these years. Lovely color too.

I would hope that they've at least used it regularly, if sparingly, and kept up on all maintenance. If so it's a great car for anyone so inclined.

 

VIN?

(inside front windshield on the driver's side)

Thanks.

 

I wonder if Ivan or anyone else might happen to have the model-year specific addendum for the QP3 for each year it was produced.

The manual I downloaded from Ivan's site is identical to the hard copy I have (probably from MIE) and contains no addendum at all, but refers to it in several places.

We could possibly scan and host the addendum for other owners to reference, if there's interest. I would certainly like to see them.

Thanks.

 

So I'm slowly getting back to my tuning and timing. It was nice being back in LA, I managed to meet up with a few Maseratisti, and also got a few insider tips as to proper tuning of the QP3 V8.

My car has stock US carb jetting & setup, emissions systems are in place but partially disabled - the vacuum retard is disconnected and the microswitch fell apart, so I removed it. Does anyone know if the solenoids controlling the vacuum can be rebuilt/repaired? Mine is stuck "halfway" between open and closed and won't switch.

The timing has been set by the shop to 6 deg BTDC at idle. The engine runs ok, but not great. Mileage is poor. When I rebuilt the carbs, I adjusted the throttle linkage a little bit so that when the pedal is floored the butterfly valves are perpendicular to the carb throats, and when the accelerator is at idle the butterflies are closed (minus the adjustment made later via the idle speed set screw on the carb body).

I have a few additional tools (toys) this time around, will be trying a new run through on Thursday. Besides the Colortune, I've borrowed an exhaust gas analyzer (lambda sensor) from a shop that hooks up to the exhaust tips, and bought a timing light that shows RPMs as well as advance.

First, I plan on raising the rpms to 5000 in order to check the centrifugal advance relative to the starting point. There should be 37 degrees total advance at that rpm for a US car. The advice I was given was that when this is confirmed, to leave the idle advance where ever it falls, which may be as much as 10 degrees. The vacuum retard is there both to smooth out the idle and decrease idle emissions, but is removed the instant you touch the accelerator pedal. Apparently it can be difficult getting a smooth idle with 7-10 degrees of advance at 900 rpm, which is why the vacuum retard is required.

Since the Colortune method didn't seem to give me ideal results, this time I was thinking of checking both the rpms (tweaking each idle mixture screw to result in the highest rpms) as well as the lamnda (aiming for somewhere around 13:1 - 14:1 ratio with low CO at idle, low HC at all speeds, highest CO2 value possible at all speeds). I suppose with 8 cylinders it's going to take forever going back and forth over and over again to dial everything in.

Does this sound like a reasonable approach? Will the exhaust analyzer work ok with catalytic converters installed?

 

Note to self - those anti-tamper caps covering the idle mixture adjustment screws need to go. They are such a major PITA and make it really difficult to tweak and adjust the carbs.

I wasn't able to do everything I had planned tonight, but checked and confirmed that the timing is correct.

At idle - 7 degrees BTDC
At 3000 rpm - 32 degrees BTDC
At 5000 rpm - 36 degrees BTDC
No increase in advance beyond 36 degrees at higher rpms. This was with both the vacuum retard and air pump disconnected.

On the gas analyzer, the numbers showed slightly rich running, so I (as far as I could tell, which is really difficult with the anti-tamper caps in place) dialed each idle mixture screw in by 1/8th of a turn. While we got almost perfect numbers on the analyzer, the idle speed had fallen to around 600 rpms. I adjusted the idle speed screw to increase the idle, and was surprised to find that it increased for a few seconds, only to fall back to where it was around 600! Very weird. So I put everything back where it was, or as close as I could, and made a few small adjustments to the linkage mounting to even out the airflow, which was a bit uneven. It's now flowing between 5.5-6kg/m per carb throat.

The engine runs a bit smoother now than before, and seems to have a bit more pep, but still does unusual things, like the idle rpm issue above. When I drove away to leave, I stopped at the side of the road to check my phone, and the idle dropped to 5-600, almost to the point where I wondered if it might stall. I also noted that the ammeter showed under 12v. Cautious coaxing seemed to bring the idle back up to where it belongs and the alternator output also climbed to 13v where it should be a minute or so later.

I'll drive around for a week or two and see if anything else has changed, and what the MPG looks like after the latest tweaks. Most probably I'm going back to the very start and might even pull the carbs to check and make sure one of them isn't leaking or defective somehow, and will set up everything from linkage to butterflies to mixture step by step.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Me too Mike, me too...

 

Great read, Tony.

It's nice to see these old beasts starting to get a little attention here and there.

Haven't had time myself to do much of anything except go for a short drive (to keep things working ;-)) every now and then.

Also, winter here doesn't invite to working on the car unless you are blessed with that rare accessory known as the "garage" (even then you'd need a good heater to keep things livable while working).

I do have a long "to do" list though, as soon as the weather eases up.