Strange happenings over my way. I took my 88 Testa out for a run in the hills about 8 days ago and all was well. Drove home, slipped the pyjamas on and tucked her in to bed. Weather is crap here at the moment, middle of WInter and heavy rains so I didn't expect to take her out for a few weeks. However, the Ferrari Sun Gods smiled today so I took her out for an hour or so. She seemed to warm up in her normal way. Started on 8, then ten kick in, and finally she settled to a reasonably smooth idle on all 12 cylinders. So far normal! I was about two kilometers from home before all temps were up and it was time to run with the traffic. It was about then that I noticed that the exhaust sounded all wrong. Not bad, just wrong, like I'd stepped into the wrong car and this one had a different exhaust note. Weird! The car seemed to be down on punch and the exhaust note was a deeper, more gutteral yet softer growl, rather than the normal punchy yet vicious note that it normally produces. When I got home I waited till dark and then went out to the shed and checked the engine bay in complete darkness with the car running. I expected to see dancing HT sparks from a damaged lead or something that would have dropped a cylinder off, but nothing. I then proceeded to remove every lead (one at a time) and run the car. I left the plug extensions in the leads and let the spark jump to the block. Every lead produced a perfectly timed, good stong blue spark that would leap 12 - 15mm accross to the block. That would lead me to think that the leads are okay, coils okay, and ditto for caps and rotors. I seem to have plenty of spark plug sockets, yet nothing fitted. What size are Testarossa plugs? I'll have to pull them all out tomorrow and check the plugs and make sure one hasn't burnt off a tip or something just as strange. Can anyone think of anything else to look for?
Just checked, for sure 18MM. Take those plugs out and check them! If its just that, it will be an easy fix! Good luck.
If it's not the spark plugs, then I would suggest checking your distributor caps next for MOISTURE and corroded contacts.
Well it was an interesting day. First up I pulled off the leads and checked the dizzy caps and rotors. The very first plug extender was showing signs of a lot of arcing and further inspection showed that it was actually cracked. Then I checked all of the leads and found the following: Drivers side coil 571 Pass side coil 662 Cylinders No 1 behind driver. No 12 behind passenger. 1- 1715 2- 1772 3- 1404 * 4- 1190 5- 1025 6- 1231 7- 900 8- 1170 9- 1177 10- 1420 * 11- 1531 12- 1877 Plug on 10 was very wet and black. Lead was jumping everywhere on test, so I snipped it 5mm and refitted it. Value above is after repair. Same thing for No. 3 but the plug looked better there. All extenders are 0.4 0.5 ohms, including the one sparking everywhere. Ill have to replace the one thats buggered though. See pics below of the extenders. I would like to know if they are genuine as I was told today that they weren't, yet both of my cars have the same part on them. Would be strange for both owners to replace with the same (unmarked / unbranded) component. Plugs are NGK D8EVX and most look okay, but Im going to put a new set in it anyway. Better to be sure. Rotor buttons were average. Pic below showing before and after cleanup. Very little evident wear once the carbon buildup was removed. Indicative of a car having travelled 21 000 miles. Apparently the rotor buttons are very expensive. Wonder if they are shared with anything else out there? Fiat, Alfa etc. Eurospares shows extenders at 7.50 GBP plus freight from the UK so that's not so bad. Looks like I'll be thieving bits from Peter to pay Paul for a while. Unless a local source can be found I'll get a new set for the other car, and at least keep the red one on the road. So in short: 1 rooted extender 2 ordinary leads (now repaired) 1 average plug 1 very wet and carboned plug 2 crusty rotor buttons Tomorrow the plugs will show up and I'll throw them in and kick her in the guts. Stay tuned for a report tomorrow evening to see if I found the glitch or if she still sounds like a Harley on heat. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
any chance of getting red extenders Rob ? it makes it easier to pick if you get a pinhole arcing point glad to see you found some problems with the dissies and extenders, bet this fixes your Harley problem
Well it was a highly successful day. With the new plugs installed and the leads repaired she's now her happy self again. Instant throttle responce, and very snappy off the accelerator. Really a day well spent. Apart from the cost of the new plugs, the only cost was time. But for the effort, the satisfaction smile is more than worth it. So if you have a spare day sometime, pull off your leads, ohms check them and repair if need be, clean the cap and rotors, re gap the plugs, and you will be rewarded.
The ohms varied quite a lot. But here's the list: Remember mine is a RHD car. Cylinder 1 is directly behind driver, cylinder 12 is directly behind passenger, okay. 1. 1715 2. 1772 3. 1404 4. 1190 5. 1025 6. 1231 Coil 571 12. 1877 11. 1531 10. 1420 9. 1177 8. 1170 7. 900 Coil 622 So standing at the arse of the car looking forward, cylinder 7 is closest to your left hand, and cylinder 6 is closest to your right hand. Unless leads have been tampered with, or changed, they should actually be numbered to the cylinder as well. Cylinders 3 (1404) and 10 (1420) were the ones that would not thwo a constant reading on the meter, especially when jiggling them in the cap. When I removed them from the cap, there were tiny little tears in the lead where the pointed pin screwed into the lead to make the contact. I snipped off about 6mm (1/4"), stuck them back into the cap and refitted the pointed screw to form a new point of contact. Wallah, perfect stable readings. Car is so much crisper to drive now. Amazing what a set of plugs and a few hours work can do.
Well it's been a couple of great weeks since the upgrades to the spark system and she's been a gem. Crisp throttle and glorious exhaust note. Till today! It was a beautiful winters day here in Melbourne. Clear blue skies and 17 deg centigrade temps. Might as well have been Spring. I rang the wife and told her she needed the arvo off and we took off out of town on some glorious twisting mountain roads. The car was running perfect, mostly second and third gear work around the 110 - 140 km/ph (70 - 90 mph) mark through the twisties, tearing through the hills with that fantastic note reverberating off the eucalyptus trees. Fanbloodytastic! We covered nearly 140 miles and then dropped past some friends place where we stopped for two hours. Night had settled and cold set in so as we were leaving I fired her up and let the temps come up before taking off. As we took off, RPM's were down and engine was sluggish. Pulled out onto the freeway and had trouble maintaining 110km/ph (65mph). As soon as a hill came along I was stirring the box just to keep at 100. Terrible. No power at all. Plenty of oil pressure, but very low engine temps which was strange, even though it was only 5 deg C outside. My initial thoughts were that I'd lost a fuel pump, and in the dark on the side of the road there wasn't much I could do about that so I proceeded to nurse her home. 140km and mostly freeway so not too bad. Just cruised along at light throttle 90 km/ph mostly. Car was smooth, no jerking at all and seemed to be running and idling fine, just completely dead on power. We covered about 65kms and it was really a struggle, then we crested a hill and wallah, all good again, full power and all the right noises coming out the back, nice crisp throttle and great note, just like earlier in the day. She ran fine all the rest of the way home, although at light throttle in 4th and 5th she continuously 'bunny hops' or gets this on and off jerking feeling. You can drive around it by putting on more throttle, but then naturally you go over the posted limit so have to slow down again. Then light throttle induced this hopping / jerking again. Anyone experienced similar issues with their Testa's or Boxer's?
I have found if a fouled plug doesn't clear quickly, it won't. I think your problem is electrical. Being intermittent, it may be difficult to solve until it happens again. Ken
It would rev out stationary, but not happily and certainly not normal. As soon as it had load on it, it simply died and struggled to even move off at a set of lights.
It sounds like one cylinder bank is dropping out, so your only running on 6 cylinders instead of 12. Try unplugging / plugging all the electrical connectors in the engine bay - every single one. Also check the white connectors at the fuse panel in the trunk, specifically the ones for the fuel pumps. Also check the large round connectors under the right rear fender area, and the left and right fuel E.C.U.s. Unplug, clean, and re-seat everything. Don't forget the connectors under the coolant expansion tank too.
Check your igntion modules and coils. Sounds like an ignition module going bad. I had the same issue. Found one module going bad.
Check your ignition modules and coils. Sounds like an ignition module and or coil could be going bad. I had the same issue. Found one module going bad. A module can be purchased separate from a coil.
Jeff was right. It happened again the other day when it was idling on warm up. I fiddled with leads and stuff and then accidentally knocked the coil lead on the RHS and vroom, perfect idle. Just crap in the connector to the top of the coil. Cleaned up and all going fine.
Nah, it died again. I borrowed another module and some of that techno heat paste and fitted it. Car runs 85% better now but it's not as sharp on the throttle and it's certainly a bit down on grunt, you can hear it in the exhaust note. Maybe when it dropped the module it may have fouled a plug or something. Hence, I'm back in the market searching for an 18mm spark plug socket. I heard that a Honda XR400 uses 18mm so I'll go down to the local bike shop in the morning and let you lot know the result.
