[Newman]

Last December I decided to take the engine out of my boxer to go through it entirely. The main reason is I cant leave well enough alone which was a good enough reason for me to start such a project. As I got into it I found more reasons to be doing what I was doing mostly due to the last guy that serviced the car 4+ years ago.

So basically what I have in mind is to remove the powertrain and take everything apart to upgrade internally and restore cosmetically making it correct for judged events but to perform better than stock. Im always interested in more power but my limitations on a BBi are the CIS which must remain in tact at all costs.

Ill be replacing the valves with stainless steel Ferrea valves
Custom high compression pistons
Custom cams that are CIS friendly
Rework the 365BB (sport headers) specifically the 6 and 7 primaries
Rebuild the CIS distributors and WUR's
Recurve the distributor
Follow up with a chassis dyno run to compare with my baseline readings I got from a dynojet 4 years ago as I bought it.

Software simulation puts the engine at around 400HP which is determined by the CIS restriction. Fiddling with the flow numbers through the heads, compression and cams Ive found ferrari left plenty on the table without the CIS being the number one issue, the cams are the culprit and dont have to be as tame as they are to work with the CIS. The CIS is the bottle neck above 400HP though so i wont bother performing a race port job on the heads nor will I rework the intake plenums to accept larger throttle bodies. Its a waste of time unless I went EFI then the sky is the limit!

To remove the rear clamshell you must first remove the rear bumper. Its easy on a car that has never been DOT converted like mine. This 82 boxer is right out of Zurich, I was the first owner in north america, 3rd overall and coming to Canada it only had to be 20 years old to slip through with no conversion or emission testing, its great to be Canadian!

With the bumper off next unplug the harness for the tail lamps which is accessed though the left tail light cover. I wanted to slip the hinge pins out to remove the rear lid but one side wouldnt budge so I unbolted it adding extra work to align it later.

I removed the muffler cans next, my car is fitted with the Ansa sport exhaust system which is a dealer installed option including the 365BB headers. This was done when new by the selling dealer. The axle shafts are easy too, a long extension for the inners and a short one from under the car for the outers. They slip out over the rear hubs once unbolted. The headers were easy too, mainly thanks to my 1/4 drive snap-on extension and a flex 13mm socket. Every nut was accessed with the socket, no wrenches required here and out they came.

You can see the tight bend required of the number 6 and 7 cylinder primary tubes to clear the axles. They joined sections of pipe together in a sloppy fashion like patch-work hurting flow of those two cylinders. There is enough room for me to remove that section on each header and run a smoother single pipe in a more "swoopy" dirrection to get much better flow and still give the axle breathing room.

[Newman]

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[Newman]

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[Newman]

The oil stain on the top of the header collectors is from my right side head gasket leak where the engine oil pressure is fed to the cams. I had the sane problem on the left head a couple years ago and a retorque fixed it. So it sprung a leak on the right side and I just couldnt be bothered messing around with it in chassis when I wanted to pull the engine this year anyway.

[Newman]

To me this car was typical ferrari, oil leaks here and there. From above and the garage floor say it was pretty clean and no puddles. But man when you get the headers off and have a look up at the heads I was floored. I almost didnt post those shots it looks terrible and Im pretty anal. I keep telling myself it will be perfect when im done and this was the right thing to do.

Check out the cheesy headers, specifically the two tightly bent pipes, the rest is great.

[wetpet]

Competizione, a sponsor here, is doing a killer motor job on a boxer right now. high comp pistons if i remember. I'll get some more info and pics if you are interested.

[Pizzaman]

Wow!

What's the time line you think with this project?

[Boxer]

Are you planning on expanding this to a full restoration?

[ferraripilot]

Hurry up and get going on this Paul......gosh.

[Granucci]

Can you tell me the nuances of the dual lid covers, one I'm seeing recently has a single over black cover on the lid.

BTW, how's the distributor cap other than you wanting to recurve it? Hopefully no cracks...very expensive.

[Newman]

Originally Posted by Granucci

Can you tell me the nuances of the dual lid covers, one I'm seeing recently has a single over black cover on the lid.

BTW, how's the distributor cap other than you wanting to recurve it? Hopefully no cracks...very expensive.

The dual lids are stock, all boxers come that way but the location/position and style changes depending on the model. The injected cars lids are closer together than the carbed cars to allow for intake plenum clearance vs carb clearance. The 365 boxers have slotted covers for heat to escape. If you see one with one big cover its not stock.

The workshop manual has a plotted chart for the ignition advance curve. Ill have mine checked on a distributor machine by a friend of mine that happens to have one and boxer distributor advance adjustment experience. Its a matter of trial and error after you get a base line of what the distributor is actually doing as it was in my engine. I doubt its correct after all these years so I can only see an improvement if I do something with it. I do need a new cap, mine has a 81 date code on it so its the original, it'll make a great pen holder on my desk.

[Newman]

Pretty straight forward engine to remove really. Straps make the best choice for lifting I think, no damage or scratches this way and its easy to position them as required to get the right lifting angle. The engine must be rear up slightly to clear the rear crossmember and swaybar then slide it back once over that to clear the a/c compressor that tucks under the rear window. Its a one person job just like a 308. In fact I would take a boxer engine out twice before doing a 308, its just easier in my opinion. Its a one man job once you have a friend help you lift the rear clamshell off .

I took things like the distributor out, injection and bellhousing. The distributor is too precious to prang off the tube structure and the bellhousing in place makes the unit too long to clear the rear structure that the exhaust mounts too. With all that off, the rear engine mount adapter just clears the BBi air box inlet mounts. The individual that removed the engine before me for the last service decided to simply bend the mounts up on a 90 degree angle to provide clearance. You can see the band of rust on the four forward mount brackets where the paint flaked off after being bent up then bent back down. I have photos of the engine out prior to my ownership and the pic clearly shows they were the dummies that bent the brackets. I didnt bend them and yet the engine still came out!! I have to make them look unbent by heating the hammering them flat to get the kink out of them then refinish the engine bay so she all looks new again.

[Newman]

Engine's out! If it wasnt a $30K assembly I would buy an extra one and use it for a coffee table! Just imagine that in the basement with an oval glass top resting on the plenums!

Pretty easy to get out, pretty big too.

[JazzyO]

Cool Paul, I'll be following with interest. Good luck with it!


Onno

[Jimmy Chen Shiba DDS]

Fabulous project, Paul. Looking forward to the progress reports. w/ smiles Jimmy

[mk e]

I just hope mine looks that good going IN

[SBDaytona]

Very cool set of photos Paul. Thanks for sharing them with us. I am paying special attention as I am planning to do an engine out later this year. All the best with the project. S

[Newman]

More progress people. Getting in deep and plan to replate every fastener while its apart. Ill duplicate the light silver paint to the castings as ferrari did when new prior to machining so it looks correct. I found tha the greenish sealant ferrari applied to the inside of the gearbox was also applied to the outside then painted silver over top of that but only on the outside.

Basically just stripping it down to the long block. Removing the manifolds and wiring was a little time consuming. Found some things I didnt like that were done at the last engine out service. Leaking water pump, pump drain hose routed funny, belt tensioners reused and one was noisey, loose clamps and missing hardware.

My car has mostly ABA clamps on the hoses, should it have serflex? Anyone have pics of a low kms boxer or a correct boxer engine so I can see the type of clamp used?

Thanks.

[wetpet]

thanks for the update. great project

[mk e]

Paul,
What drives the water pump?