[bretm]

I haven't posted all that much in the past few years on here, or FChat for that matter, but with Mark coming over it looks like there's a good group of 308 guys around.

A quick recap... I've had my 308qv for almost ten years now, of which roughly half of them it's been apart. I pulled apart the engine because the destra bank cam drive pulley was leaking oil (prodigiously). I have the records back to 1990 and a previous owner had snapped a cam belt years ago, and the shop that rebuilt the engine must have spaced out a bit with the drive pulley - the snap ring was missing, hence the oil leak developing.

I seem to be inherently prone to project creep, so next thing you know I:
- replaced all hoses (heater system, engine coolant, fuel system, etc.)
- pulled the gas tanks and repainted them
- installed Hayden Fans on the coolant radiator
- installed a small Spal fan on the oil radiator
- had the coolant radiator boiled out and a leak fixed
- installed new rubber boots on the steering rack, cleaned the rack, and regreased
- installed new rubber boots on the half shafts and repacked with grease
- installed a SS test pipe in place of the cat
- had the cylinder heads port and polished, as well as port matching the tracts from throttle all the way to the headers
- ceramic coated the headers
- installed new valve springs
- had a machine shop bore the throttle body out to 70mm
- had the same machine shop make an aluminum intake box to go in place of the old K-jet
- installed 10.5:1 Wiseco pistons
- had Elgin cams weld and regrind the stock cams
- ordered an Electromotive Tec3

I'm sure there is a lot more, but you guys get the idea. I started to really bear down on the project seven or eight months ago; I'm lucky enough to work with a bunch of car guys so I've been taking a ton of pics and doing an email write up every week for them.

So, I thought it might be cool to do a recap on here and get everyone caught up - I'll post some of the pics from the past few months - then I can do updates here alongside those that I do with the guys at work. I'm at the point right now where I am machining the cam sensor mount so I can run full-sequential. I'd like to think that I'm 1-2 months away from turning the key, but we'll see as the summer is always busy with business trips, etc.

 

[wetpet]

please do. can't wait. the new tech talk section is blowing up. i'm gonna have to start a project!

 

[mk e]

- had the same machine shop make an aluminum intake box to go in place of the old K-jet

So...does that mean you have an CIS air filter box for sale?

 

[bretm]

I was thinking about your search for an airbox when I was writing that first post up.

The aluminum box sits in place of the K-Jet, and uses the stock air filter box. So, I stilll need it. If I happen to supercharge my car in the next year or so, I wouldn't need it anymore...

Did you get Bert's (from FChat) airbox? I thought you had two now.

So...does that mean you have an CIS air filter box for sale?

 

[mk e]

Did you get Bert's (from FChat) airbox? I thought you had two now.

I got Bert's so thatr is 1.....I sold all my CIS stuff maybe 8 years ago

 

[Granucci]

.............

I seem to be inherently prone to project creep, so ............, but we'll see as the summer is always busy with business trips, etc.

well, this sounds familiar> Can't wait... as you this is what started out to be a window replacement on my Mondial T 348 and now a full engine rebuild with 'other stuff, why of course while we are in there...'

Can't wait for your posts. AND pics.

 

[bretm]

I got Bert's so thatr is 1.....I sold all my CIS stuff maybe 8 years ago

Ahh, touche. Well, I'll sell you mine at the special V12 conversion price if you don't find one by the time you need it. I can always run a cone filter for a year or so in, if need be.

You're a lot better at selling stuff off than me... I still have the old K-Jet, flywheel, catalytic converter, sensors, etc. kicking around. I think I even have a new flywheel sensor, come to think of it. Yeah, I should probably get on that...

well, this sounds familiar> Can't wait... as you this is what started out to be a window replacement on my Mondial T 348 and now a full engine rebuild with 'other stuff, why of course while we are in there...'

Can't wait for your posts. AND pics.

Project creep is a dangerous, and awesome, thing. The link redirected to in invalid thread... I'll have to comb the Mondial section to see if I can find it. I'm gonna try to get a post up tonight after I get back from running a few errands.

 

[bretm]

Back in October of 2009... At this point I had the long block reassembled with the 10.5:1 Wiseco's. The sinistra head gasket sealed no problem (coolant), but the destra bank took three tries.

Before I installed the Wiseco's, I had used the dremel to take off any sharp edges from the piston face (mostly by the valve cut outs) and then used a polishing wheel to bring the face to an almost mirror finish.

The first job was to get the engine set on TDC and the timing wheel setup. Then I installed the cams and belts with rough timing based on the reference marks.

 

[bretm]

The previous engine builder seems to have lost one of the locating dowels for the cam cap that goes on the flywheel end of the exhaust cam of the sinistra bank... maybe Ferrari missed it back in 1984 when they built it. Who knows.

There wasn't any sign of damage, so the one dowel and the cam itself must have located the cap enough (prior to it being torqued down).

I had some stainless steel tube kicking around though with an ID sized to go over a 6mm stud, so a few minutes on the lathe was probably time well spent to make a new dowel.

 

[bretm]

Next up was to set all of the valve clearances.

 

[bretm]

And the last thing for that weekend was to set the #1 and #8 cylinders at .5mm and then time the cams. Elgin reground them to their most aggressive QV spec (that they had at the time - 4 or 5 years ago). It's .2mm more lift... not much... and 8 degrees more duration.

I used the base Euro spec timing as the starting point. I went back and forth between offsetting one way or another, but eventually just decided to split the difference.

The intakes are 20d / 52d (vs. 16 / 48 with stock cams).

The exhausts are 58d / 14d (vs. 54 / 10 with stock cams).

 

[ferraripilot]

Fabulous work there. Shimming the cams was my least favorite part of my project!

Did you remove your cylinders from the block? I did not pull mine because my cylinders measured with zero wear as did the rest of the bottom end for that matter.....

 

[Andrew]

Bret,

Thanks for sharing this project here as well. Looking forward to seeing the progress, great work.

PS: Love the Buy American sticker :thumbsup:

 

[bretm]

Fabulous work there. Shimming the cams was my least favorite part of my project!

Did you remove your cylinders from the block? I did not pull mine because my cylinders measured with zero wear as did the rest of the bottom end for that matter.....

I left the liners in as well. The whole bottom end was in great shape. I was a bit weary and paid close attention to the liners when I was pressure testing the coolant system, but they weren't leaking at all so the "If it ain't broke..." mantra applied here. It's a bit of work pulling them and reinstalling; I would have had to make a puller and heated the block. Then to reinstall you need to heat the block and cool the liners. Too many variables to deal with to fix something that's still working fine.

Bret,

Thanks for sharing this project here as well. Looking forward to seeing the progress, great work.

PS: Love the Buy American sticker :thumbsup:

Thanks. It'll be good when I catch up to where I am now... The past three weeks I haven't had a chance to touch the 308, so that might happen sooner than I'd like.

 

[bretm]

The next weekend - still the end of October 2009 - I pulled the diff apart. I had taken it apart and replaced the seals when I first pulled the engine/transaxle, but I couldn't remember if I had put the preload shims in on the correct sides.

It's not a big deal pulling it all apart on the bench; the most difficult part is cleaning off the RTV.

I had put the shims in correctly, but it was worth it just to know for sure.

 

[bretm]

After the diff was back together, I started cleaning up the valve covers. I had a body shop paint them rosso corsa. It's not the most original, I know, but the wrinkle paint always seems to get dirty looking after a few years. So, we'll see how this holds up. I had the plenum painted to match, so it should all look halfway decent together.

I used a fine file to clean the paint off of the "Ferrari" and the numbers. I could have also taken the paint off of the horizontal ribs, in hindsight. I kind of like this look though.

I also installed the end caps. I had a machine shop - the same one that made the airbox - make two end caps for where the cap and rotors used to mount for the digiplex.

 

[bretm]

The last project for that weekend was to make a plug for the crankcase vent on the oil pan. A 3/8" bolt and a few minutes on the lathe did the trick.

I'm running a set of crank vents that are basically one-way valves mounted on the valve covers. You can see them in the pics above - the polished aluminum cylinders running horizontally.

I don't think you really gain much from them performance wise, but it's nice to eliminate some of the hoses that are all over the stock engine compartment.

 

[Pizzaman]

The last project for that weekend was to make a plug for the crankcase vent on the oil pan. A 3/8" bolt and a few minutes on the lathe did the trick.

I'm running a set of crank vents that are basically one-way valves mounted on the valve covers. You can see them in the pics above - the polished aluminum cylinders running horizontally.

I don't think you really gain much from them performance wise, but it's nice to eliminate some of the hoses that are all over the stock engine compartment.

Nice work Bret.

On the crank case vents cylinders are you going to t them together and then connect them to the crankcase vent on the oil pan?

 

[mk e]

Nice work Bret.

On the crank case vents cylinders are you going to t them together and then connect them to the crankcase vent on the oil pan?

Chirs,
While you can bat a bat with a bat without any problem trying to vent the vent to a vent is not acceptable. The vent needs to be left open so it can vent. Make sense?




In English there needs to be a hose running an airfilter so the engine can actually breath. If you connect all the hoses together bad things happen.

 

[Pizzaman]

So those cylinder tubes will be left open then?

What about the crank case vent on the oil pan? What's connecting to that?