[USADino]

Straight from Don Weber's Ferrari collection where he owned 08492 since 1987, only his passing would separate him from this very late 1974 Dino 246 GTS sporting only 15,621 miles. Now it arrives in my garage.

This is a very rare original car with many nicely preserved pieces such as the mousehair dash but everything rubber has aged too far and needs new.

 

[efg2014]

Nice, What are your plans?

 

[USADino]

Get it roadworthy !

Nice, What are your plans?

Dino 08492 with 15,621 miles has only had 3 prior owners and the last owner impounded 08492 in a large Ferrari collection since 1987.
The registration plate shows it was last valid in 2001 and the tires were dated 2005/2006.

First off, let's simply flush the cooling system - a prudent place to start !

After draining the radiator and filling with distilled water then driving 20 mins, and then cooling/draining I noticed it was muddy.
I repeated four times to run 10 gallons total of distilled water and it still was not clear water - no bueno.

Then, as if there ws any question the cooling system had deferred needs, the header tank sprung a leak near the neck, so a new replacement was sourced. This also seems a good indication it is time to refresh the rest of the cooling system with new hoses, new coolant pipes and restoring the radiator.


Thankfully new FIM Header tanks are available, but are dearly expensive; totalling over $800 when you include the required overseas overnight secure DHL shipping as it is pricey. But hey, I am a Dino owner and I tell myself "once every 47 years isn't that bad..."

Parts alone:

Header Tank 246 Original FIM #104523 24610165 £345.95

Cooling System Parts for Ferrari 206 & 246 - Superformance

www.superformance.co.uk

HEADER TANK ORIGINAL FIM 30474 €548.13

Header tank Original FIM

FPN: 104523 - old DinoParts ID: 14-6/Fim

www.dinoparts.com

 

[USADino]

The engine hoses are old, soft and not OEM period correct as they should be diagonally wrapped cloth sheath.
I am guessing these hoses are from the 1990s as I saw Dino hose kits contain this style back then..
Too old for comfort or safety, they must go!

 

[USADino]

Upon removing the wheels to work on the cooling system the tires show their age of rubber, each dated 2005/2006 and although still very flexible, each sporting deep treads, I decide to chuck them and order four new ones from Longstone UK. They arrived within a week and mounted within a day.

Having safe tires is a basic need on any vintage car.
Many thanks to Longstone for such fast service

 

[USADino]

Back to refreshing the coolant system as parts arrive.
Removing coolant hoses shows they are past due and the coolant pipes have accumulated slag,
so new stainless steel coolant pipes were sourced

 

[USADino]

Removing all the hoses in tight spaces reveals the engine number stamping on the facia ledge. Only when the coolant hoses are aside can one see the engine type and production number stampings. All appear deep and full, so confirms the engine/heads original and have never been "decked".

There is so much originality to like about this car!

 

[USADino]

Replacing the FIM Header Tank with new reveals the Scaglietti body number 3059 on the cross bar mounting tab.
Note the correct Serflex clamp on the adjacent hose

 

[efg2014]

Wow, very insightful, and alot of work

 

[USADino]

Nah, you do this once at the begnning of ownership, get it all tidy and clean and then you simply need to change the coolant using only water from distillation (rather than tap) for the coolant mix.

The service receipts say the Radiator was re-cored in 2010 but after 11 years sitting, now it is time for a good rod cleaning.
Removed the front hood, then the A/C condensor and finally the radiator which gets pulled and taken to a professional.

Afterwards I will only use water from Distillation in the cooling system.
No matter whether it is simply a quick flush or water used for setting the final coolant mix, only distilled water is to be used in Dinos as I believe it prolongs the system life.

 

[USADino]

$300 later and the radiator is returned clean.
I mount all new installs of the petcock, bleed screw and thermal fan cutoff switch with new copper crush washers

 

[USADino]

All the old rubber is out and replaced by new!
Sorry for the delay in posting but this was a slippery slope that ended up being everything hanging off the engine downstream.

After attempting to back flush the heater circuit by attaching a hose adapter to the heater hose at the header tank "T" and opening the hot tunnel hose, I saw an iron milky water flow for a good 2 minutes before it halted and was plugged. I guess 48 year old hoses do not last forever.

I bought 35 feet of heater hose, two coolant tunnel hoses, new engine hoses and the coolant hoses plus breather hose to header tank.

Every piece of coolant hose has been replaced and the old ones were expectedly crusty, hard and inflexible to the point where I had to cut the long heater run of the old hose in three spots just to remove the whole length.

It sure feels better to have it done!

 

[USADino]

So what do you change out in a major coolant refresh in a 1974 Ferrari Dino 246 GTS?

Here's a list of the items I replaced in 08492, many OEM are tough to find but I had on my old timer's shelf. Since this car spent 34 years in a collection and only 15k miles then it truly needed every part here and is probably an extreme case:

• New Engine hoses with Concours correct OEM diagonal wrap (Superformance)
• New heater hoses (I bought 35 feet of Gates 3270 but did have some trim)
• 2 New Tunnel hoses (I used a ratchet for the hard pulls)
• 3 New Stainless Steel coolant pipes (correct for A/C cars, prior had 4 makeshift)
• New Thermostat and outer sealing annulus ring
• New Waterpump (MaseratiSource)
• New heater valve and seals
• 2 New "T" heater circuit coolant pipes
• New Concours correct FIM header tank
• New header tank pressure release cap
• New header tank rubber shock mounts
• FIM Radiator and 2 heater boxes were cleaned, rodded and pressure tested
• New radiator petcock
• New radiator stopcock
• New radiator fan thermo switch
• 2 rebuilt/plated radiator fan motors
• 2 Concours Correct 3 blade OEM radiator fan blades (very tough to find)
• New correct Gates Polyflex 7Mx875 fan belt (BTW, arrived with a tall US A/C belt installed ...smh )
• 8 gallons of distilled water ( I do two flushes after final install to both wash out the engine and flush any lubricants used to slip hoses)

Old next to new