[Spasso]

I own a us spec, 1978 carbureted 308. A fellow workmate owns a 1980 GTSi. Both are rated at about 205 HP at the flywheel. His car weighs more than my car by a couple hundred pounds. Mine is faster than his car.

The GTSi's get a bad rap because of an oil consumption problem they had when new due to bad rings or bad ring installation. The factory actually replaced engines and after a while had the dealer repair them.

They are known as the slower 308's but not the slowest. That honor goes to the Mondial 8 which weighs even more than the GTSi. If you find a clean well maintained GTSi you can get it for a very reasonable price with minimal issues. In today's market about 26k or less, anymore than that and it would have to be EXCEPTIONAL!

The 308 GTSi is a great car and fun to drive when it is well sorted. Recommendations I have read is to save a little more money and buy the 308 QV. A good one is faster and many of the design bugs have been sorted out. When it is time to move up it is easier to resell a QV than a GTSi and you will always get a better price.

Regardless of how many records a car has it can still end up being an abused car with many issues. A PREPURCHASE INSPECTION is a must. You should base your purchase on the merits of the car IN IT'S PRESENT CONDITION more than anything else!

My opinion? Sell off two or more 928's and buy the nicest 308 QV or 328 you can find.

Just my .02 peso's

 

[Spasso]

I own a us spec, 1978 carbureted 308. A fellow workmate owns a 1980 GTSi. Both are rated at about 205 HP at the flywheel. His car weighs more than my car by a couple hundred pounds. Mine is faster than his car.

The Carb 308s are rated at around 255 hp. Check here: http://www.ferrariforum.net/models/view/99

When they went to fuel injection the hp dropped to 205. The QV brought the horses back up.

I used to think the same thing until I found additional information on the US Spec cars.
Unfortunately, to meet emissions requirements starting in 1978 and extending half way through 1980 the US spec cars were fitted with thermal reactor mufflers, air pumps, air injection nozzles into the exhaust manifolds, exhaust cam profile and relative timing was changed, intake cam timing changed and lastly two extra sets of points installed for emissions at idle.

A terrible way to ruin a great and fun engine.

About the only advantage to a carbureted car is throttle response and the ability to recam and rejet the engine to European specs or better.

Out of the four (non-QV) 308's at dyno day a few weeks ago mine took top honors with a paltry 176.5 HP and 158 ft lbs torque at the rear wheels.

Another 100 rear wheel horse power would make this car perfect.

 

[Spasso]

Rust problems are a huge undertaking to correct. Somebody has already done a half-assed job correcting the problem once which makes it twice as hard the second time to do it right. The bondo was a quick patch job to get the car sold the last time.
If you find a one inch diameter bubble in the paint due to rust a good rule of thumb is to multply the size, time to fix it, and cost by two. Unless you are a body and paint guy then you can tack 5k to the purchase price of your car for the eventual body and paint repair.

I would try to scrape together some more cash now to get a better car with lower miles.

 

[Spasso]

Hi Pete,
I heard about the cam timing on another site discussing the reindexing the cams to European specs when doing a 30k to gain more horse power. From what I learned the intake cam has close to the same profile and duration and can be reindexed to the opening and closing points of the Euro spec. Unfortunately the profile of the exhaust cam is different, less lift and retarded timing if I remember correctly. The timing on the exhaust cam can be changed but the lift and duration still falls short of the Euro set up. There has been a marked improvement in horse power just the same and I will probably do this on my next 30k.

I understand that the Euro 308's only had a single, dual point distributor as opposed to the dual, dual point distributors on the US cars. Not sure what years these single distributor cars were though.

Mine has no points at all having been changed to the Crane XR700 solid state boxes with optical pickups. A VERY worthy modification!

 

[Spasso]

I stand corrected on the Euro dual point distributor. I think it was a magnetic pick-up type but I will have to disagree about needing two distributors to run points above 5k RPM.

I have run single point distributors on Chevrolet small block V8's up to 6500 RPM without any problem. I have also run Accel dual point distributors into the 7k range. The use of points with heavier springs are required though. Drag racing trick.

My understanding of the dual point set up in a 308 is the first set is retarded at an idle for emissions purposes and cease to function via micro switch above idle transfering duty to the other sets. I also understand that each remaining set of points only has to take care of 4 cylinders. This has been discussed at length in another forum. Most people find the first set of points disconnected in the early 308's.

You can find my dyno chart here;
http://www.ferrariforum.net/forum/download.php?id=1371

 

[Spasso]

I think so. You can find it here; http://www.ferrariforum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2202

 

[Spasso]

Hi Pete,
I mentioned the R1 points as being related to emissions at idle because of what I read about the detuning of the US spec 308's in '78. I wish I had the source handy but my feeble mind can't come up with it. It mentioned, as you did, the need for both sets to cover the wide range of timing required.

You are right about the points with heavy springs. Always regapping the things. Even the stock, single point distributor in my 240 was challenged because of the 7,000 RPM redline. Had to regap once a month. I run a Mallory Unilite on my 350 small block and it is the only way to go. maintainance free.

Enclosed is the engine specs page from my owners manual. I was bummed when I first read the SAE bhp rating. (Below my signature).

 

[Spasso]

You found a steering rack for 250??!!!!. New or rebuilt? Either way, 250 is a good price!
Try 650 to 1200 for one from various sources around the US.