Quattroporte III catch-all thread

Thanks Tony.

I have to admit I was a little bit proud of my self for that one .

 

Hi Nick,

I don't have the space or knowledge to do the valves on my own, and no one I know locally would be able to help, so I'm taking the car to a specialist in a few days time to have them done.

I was planning on setting the cam timing to the Euro specifications, it hasn't been checked as long as I've had the car, but I expect it's close to correct based on the US spec. As far as I can tell from the manual, the cams are the same, just slightly different settings between the US and Euro spec.

Thanks for the tips about the smog stuff. Removing the air pump seems straightforward enough, but I wasn't sure how to deal with things like the air intake flaps (indeed, to close off cold air from the outside until the engine is warm), the two solenoid switches by the fuse box and firewall, charcoal canisters or the air hoses that go to the headers. It sounds like all of it can just be pulled off and plug any openings that are left over.

My distributor shows advance as per the manual, max 37 or 38 degrees (from memory), I've rebuilt the carbs as well, compression is good, so all that's really left as far as the engine goes is the valves and cams.

9-10MPG? Hmm. I've seen those numbers in comments on car forums, especially in the US, although there have been a few that claim 15-18mpg. Three other owners I've spoken with, in Norway, The Netherlands and the UK all say they routinely get 12-15l/100km, which is 15-18mpg. I could live with that. Even at my most light-footed, on longer drives, I've rarely gotten better than 20l/100km (about 12mpg).

So who knows how or even if having the valves and cam timing adjusted will help, but I do hope it does. I guess we'll find out soon enough. I haven't asked, but wonder what Khamsin owners get, as I suppose that would be the closest of the V8s to the QP3. The Bora and Ghibli both seem to be slightly different variations of the same design, with dry sump on the Ghibli and different carbs and cams on the Bora (from memory, maybe I'm wrong).

It will certainly be fun, and a good excuse for a trip!

 

Hi all,

the Quattroporte III registry is back up again after a hiatus.

Now at it's new home, www.tipo330.com

I'll be (very slowly) adding info, updating links, etc. and would love to have suggestions, articles, pictures, etc from anyone interested in contributing. You will of course be credited for your contributions.

Let me know how things look and any suggestions to improve things.

Thanks!

 

Valves done. The worst one was one of the intake valves, at only 0.07!

Checked the cam timing, it's all spot on. The timing chain was getting really loose though, and is now tightened up and running smoothly. The mechanic said everything looked to be in excellent shape, and just needed adjustment. Apparently my car has the latest version/spec cams, even though it's built in 1980.

Long distance (highway) mileage is now a consistent 20l/100km, at both lower speeds (60-80km/h) and higher (100-130km/h). The carbs were tuned quickly and by ear after the cam covers were put back, took all of 15 minutes (old school mechanic) and the car runs well, but does need fine tuning to smooth things out. He suggested some changes to the carb jetting that I've heard before (another Maserati mechanic I know in LA), so I might order some extra jets and try it out. Ideal would be to mount a Lambda sensor and display to see what's going on in real time, which might be an option at a later date.

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Yeah, we had to hang the car upside down from the roof to get easier access to the engine

 

Before I got the QP3, I was a long time member of the Jaguar club.

Afaik, on most classic Jags, both the engine, body as well as front suspension and rear suspension cage are isolated from each other car by rubber bushings, which many owners replace with polyurethane ones. Better performance and longevity are the most often cited reasons, although I've heard that polyurethane transmits vibration and noise more than rubber does.

I was wondering, now that the valves are done and my list of things to fix is getting shorter, does the QP3 have a similar system of insulating/isolating rubber bushings? I expect these would need to be replaced at regular intervals?

The reason I ask is that now that the engine is running smoothly (and quieter), I notice a lot of squeaks and noises from the body and suspension, especially under load, and at higher speeds.

 

I recently bought a cigarette lighter to USB adapter in order to power/charge my phone while taking longer drives, especially when using the phone as a GPS.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work. The lighter does work, I've tested it several times and the heating coils get red hot.

The one I bought looks pretty much like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-2-Pack-Dual-USB-Charger/dp/B00MH3USBE/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1477221577&sr=8-5&keywords=cigarette%2Blighter%2Busb%2Badapter&th=1

but only has one USB port and is rated 5v DC 1A. Looking at the dimensions compared to the lighter, it should reach the bottom of the plug, but for whatever reason doesn't seem to work.

Does anyone know of one that actually works? Double USB ports would be a bonus. 2A or more would be even better (assuming the QP3 wiring will support it).

Thanks.

 

You could do like some of the BMW/Merc people do and remove all badges altogether, leaving people to wonder what in the world was that that just rolled by?!?

;-)

Hope you find the part though. I had a quick look and didn't see anything available at the usual places.

 

Hi Andreas,

thanks for the tip, it never occurred to me that it might have the opposite polarity.

I'll check it and see.

 

Nope. Polarity is modern (positive center pin, negative shell/ground).

The USB adapter works in my booster battery emergency starter (it has a 12vDC port/lighter). Tried my portable work light charger, it has a lighter adapter as well, and worked perfectly. Tested the cigarette lighter one last time, it too works as expected (guess I'll have to pick up a few cigars to test it out with, lol).

Looking closer at the USB adapter I have and the lighter that came with the car, it appears that the adapter is between 3-5mm too short to reach the center pin at the bottom of the socket. Since there's a collar on the top, it won't go in any further.

The solution here is a new USB adapter, one either without the collar, or with a longer body shell/pin to actually reach the bottom of the lighter socket.