Rob's Great Dino 308 GT4 Adventure Continues!

Friends,

I have been so busy with the band, (new album in April etc.) I have not had much time to service my cars and hang out here, like I once did. I missed everyone and hope some of my old pals are still here! I was going to do a fluid service on my US GT4, but noticed a large pool of coolant under the Euro GT4. It turns out it was the water pump, it has almost been 10 years since I got this car from Al, so I decided to do a major service. If anyone has any advice or suggestions I would be appreciative of any help.

This car's engine that is quite different from my US car, and I already have some questions. I always take the heat shields off the US car, they are attached together covering protecting the fuel cross over etc. I was stoked to see the Euro car's front bank heat shield is in two separate pieces until I tried to take them off, to no avail. I thought once I had the alternator loose and accessory belts off it would slide out but I cannot get it out. I think if I remove the alternator and mount it might come out, but really did not want to do that. Does anyone have any experience with the Euro heat shields?


I take my time and it takes me forever sometimes to get this done. I spent all day draining the coolant and getting everything ready to take out the AC unit. The AC worked on both cars but because of the design it never cooled the car at all, even though the air coming out of the vents was very cold, I decided a long time ago that it was not worth the hassle to keep it working for no reason. I only leave it on for originality. The US one had R12, and Al converted the Euro one to R134. There are many discussions about this, the major problem being the poor design and massive greenhouse etc. I have a friend who's Mondial AC is amazing, but even when fully serviced and maintained these systems never worked for me. The weather is pretty mild where I live, so just live without it working.

Anyway I will post some updates, questions and observances as I proceed, join me as my adventure continues!

Rob

Here are the twins 409 & 410
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Here is the alternator shield there is another one around the corner, both are attached but bolts to the headers... At least this car has the alternator bolt swapped around, when it is put in the "correct way" you have to remove the dip stick to take the bolt out!!
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Friends,

Thank you! I have another question: I ramble on so much, I will put my real questions in bold! ha

I have to lift the AC unit out the top of the US model, will the AC compressor wiggle out from the bottom on the Euro one? I am going out to do that now!

I try to keep the cars clean but this car was the nut and bolt restoration by the famous Al! It never rains here and I drive at least a couple of times a month but usually in
nice weather. Our roads are not that great here like in Germany but decent, so the car stay relatively clean. I always wipe ff everything when I am working. Here is an unrelated pic from
my US major. I found a restore Alternator from Dinoparts. It was not cheap but looks good!

You guys Rock!!

I think I am going to put on a new thermostat cover with the bleed screw, and I also have a few SS pipes I got from Dinoparts. The restoration on this car was first class but the
cooling pipes were in bad shape I guess and they, fixed and painted them. On my US car they were pretty nice so I just scotchbrited them.

Oh here is a video from our latest album “Live at the Roxy”, for anyone who likes old school hard rock/heavy metal



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Portofino,

That is the US car pictured. I have never been able to get it out from below as the AC pulley won't get around the studs on the timing belt cover and the fuel tank, I am hoping the euro
one is different.

 

Friends,

Well, that was traumatic, but I finally got the AC out more pictures and some observations a little bit later. The rear timing belt cover came straight off but the front timing belt cover even though I have all the attachments off, including the dipstick tube is not coming off! My other car like the rear timing belt cover is really loose and comes right off. This one seems stuck over some of the long studs that hold the AC on. I was tapping on it with a rubber hammer, but I didn't wanna mess with any of the timing belts or pulleys, etc.. Does anyone have any ideas or has anyone seen this before?

Rob

 

Dockboy,

I was thinking of that, and I have a Snap-On and stud puller. I tapped around the edges with a rubber mallet a piece of wood. I tried to pry right next to the water pump to no avail. I sprayed a little bit of penetrating oil into the stud holes, but nothing. I'm not an expert and it's the first time I've worked on this engine on this side at least, but I've never seen this before. This engine also too is an early engine and it has all of the original bolts holding a timing cover and a lot on the water pump on, which freaks me out because I've had so many stripped threads before on my other Dino. The guy who built this engine, put some timeserts in and a previous one failed in the bell housing. I wonder if some of the studs got bent. I guess if it comes out, I can replace it. Trying to get timeserts in perfectly straight is hard maybe that's what happened here. My brother-in-law who used to be a drag racer made me a aluminum block that helps me drill the hole straight for the sert, but I've done quite a few over the years, and half of them were perfect and the other half were a little bit crooked.

Thanks for your suggestion should I heat the stud up first?

Rob

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Friends,

FrisianDino, That other stud was a bolt on this engine. (?)

Dockboy, Of course you're right I never thought of that. If I did heat it, it might loosen a timesert that's maybe in there. Over the years people have said, if you're trying to remove something, add a little bit of heat, which will maybe break some corrosion, someone also said tap lightly with a hammer, but I'm not gonna do any of those. I'll just try to pull the stud in the middle. it seems to be the one that's hung up. It is so tight. I'm worried it might mess with the threads, but I guess they will be below where I'm tightening it up later. I normally do a double nut process, but since I have room here, I'll use my fancy stud puller. Would like to double process you can actually put a line across the head of the stud and see when it's turning. I know the double nut process probably puts extra stress on the threads.

A a Ferrari mechanic friend of mine suggested tap it from the back. I did that at the top till it came even with the timing belt pully and I didn't wanna go any farther there, and I couldn't find any other way from the sides or the bottom where I could tap it from because the engines in the way.

Once again, thanks for all your replies. I have the day off working with the band. One of the pleasures of having the Ferrari and working on it is having all of you as friends I want you to know how much I treasure all of you. We are all brothers in the greater Ferrari community.


Rob

 

Steve,

I don't ever plan to use the AC again, but the only reason I always put it on is to make it look original, but I'm seriously thinking about leaving it off. It is main reason I dred the timing belt service! Of course I'll keep all the parts, and maybe look for another front timing belt cover so I can remove all of the studs that are mounted in the cover. I'm going out to try to remove one of those studs. Wish me luck.

 

Friends,

Some crazy stuff. I got all of the studs out with my Snapon stud remover and it worked good, the top left one was the hardest and had some aluminum residue on the threads as it came out. It doesn't look like it totally destroyed them but it was definitely in there hard.

The water pump is very weird and I have never seen this before, have any of you? It looks like the builder "hot rodded" the pump or it is a later model, I have never seen. It has similar marking on the casting but the support arms larger and it has enlarged weep holes on the bottom and one on the top! No wonder it leaked so much coolant so fast! Is this an aftermarket one?

The water pump has some bolts on it also, and I may try to use all studs like on my US car to attach it back on. The housing is wobbling around a bit. My US car never did this and maybe the studs gave it more support. Anyway I was curious what you all thought of this.

Rob

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