Maybe since the cylinder head porting in a 365 GTC/4 engine is so convoluted, Ferrari had to grind convoluted camshafts for the engine to make decent power. These camshafts do not allow the engine to make much vacuum so this slide vane vacuum pump was installed. This is a heavy duty unit especially compared to the tiny pumps that Ferrari 512 Berlinetta Boxers and Testarossa has.

For some reason, the bushing surface of the shaft was severely worn so we slightly undercut the shaft to clean it up and installed a new tight fitting bushing. All this vacuum pump does is operate the brake booster but I wonder is using the vacuum port on the back of the intake manifold and a large vacuum tank would have done the trick.

Vacuum Pump Slide Vane

Here is the water pump detail on the Ferrari 365 GTC/4 engine. The 400/412 has the same set up in this area where the water pump housing outlet is less than 1/4″ from the inlet on the timing chest. A rubber coolant hose connects the two pipes but you cannot replace it in the car! A factory trained mechanic told me that he can get a hose in between the small gap “in chassis” but I have no idea how. Problem is that you cannot remove the water pump housing in the car because of the risk of screwing up the chain tension in the lower timing chest! Goofy… yes! Since the engine is out and all apart now is a good time to replace the hose, probably a good ideal.

Ferrari water pump

Since Peter grew up on a dairy farm he has a soft spot in his heart for tractors. He likes Oliver tractors the most, but on occasion, a Allis-Chalmers or Case appear. I do not know anything about this Case 900 but I like the style of it.  You can see the influence of the late 50’s style from the subtle use of chrome to the instrument cluster that is deep under a piece of glass. I can imagine a Maytag oven from this same time period having the logo in a housing similar to  this instrument cluster.

A huge amount of time was spent in the styling of household appliances and industrial machines like this but it is far fetched for me to imagine that the aesthetic of a tractor will influence sales. Would a farmer really choose a Case 900 over the competitor because of how it looks?

Art Deco Industrial Machine

Instrument cluster Case 900

This is the reason some of classic Ferraris and Lamborghinis are hard to work on is because they stuff big enignes into small cars with small engine compartments. Both Ferrari and Lamborghini use this type of Magnetti Marelli distributor with 4 sets of points stuffed inside.

By the time we disassemble the distributor body and clean it up, replace the points and bearings and clean and adjust the advance mechanism we have about$700 in overhauling the thing. The advance mechanism on 365 GTC/4’s and 400I seem to get rusted up the most of any car we work on because they are right at the rear opening of the hood and lots of water gets dumped onto them allowing the advance pins to seize up. The photo of the distributor cap shows the corrosion in the towers.

4 sets of points in a Ferrari Distributor

Corrosion in Ferrari distributor cap

It is hard to say that any classic car is ever finished but the blue boxer is essentialy done. It needs one more polish job on the paint and a few minor things (one of the fuel pumps just started to “squeal”) but the car drives so well and looks amazing. When I sent the shocks of to be overhauled I had the rears fitted with adjustable ride height threads and nuts but I am not happy with the fender to tire clearance in the front. When we first got the car it sat high in the front and I have to correct this.

Every time I see this color of blue sera metallic I get excited, I think it’s my favorite color. The other day I was clearing out some old paint from the cabinet and found Glasurit Glossomax called Blu Dino Metallic which was blue sera metallic in color. I thought that blue dino was lighter blue…. anyone..

If anyone want an exellent 1979 Ferrari 512 BB, let me know, this car is for sale!

Ferrari 512 BB for sale

I did a blog post on this Austin Healy awhile back talking about how wonderful the car is. It is not glossy, not fancy but is such an easy going car. It has that factory feel where everything seems perfectly broken in from being well serviced and thoroughly oiled. It starts instantly, rides nicely, not like so many other Healy’s that I have driven and starts no mater how long it has been sitting.

I am interested in finding out a few things about this car. First off, is it as original as I think it is? What is it worth? Does anyone out there want to buy the car?

100-6 Austin Healy for sale

Here is Peter taking his Grandson Roman, almost 2 years old, on his little logging crawler. Roman is addicted to tractors and Bulldozers so he has the ideal grandfather to satisfy these needs.

This crawler is an Oliver OC-3 with a 3 cylinder gas engine and has a Wico Magnito for the ignition. It starts in -10 degrees or in 95 degrees and operates so easily that Roman will be able to drive it soon!

Oliver OC-3 Crawler

The Forged aluminum Pistons are here and the block is bored to the correct tolerance. We cut the rings, installed new wrist pin bushings and are moving along. The plugs in the crank are factory style so we drilled them out, brushed and soaked the crank and flushed it one more time with a cleaner until she ran clear. With the crank in and the bearings measured, it is time to stuff the pistons and get the bottom end together.

The valves in this engine had 1000 miles on them but were all dimpled in where the lash screw came in contact with the stem. We have never had this problem with our valve supplier so we did a Rockwell hardness check on these damaged valves and the valves from our supplier. There was a huge difference in alloy and hardness.

Now, if only we could feel like we are getting somewhere with scraping gaskets and stripping that crappy paint from the rest of the castings.

I am overhauling the fuel pump right now. There is a hardened 6mm pin that the rocker shaft rides on that is often severely grooved and on this car, the groove is almost half way through. No problem though as I have 3 other pumps to overhaul at the same time. With new bushings, check valves and diaphragm it will be working as new and looking new with freshly plated hardware and top cover.

Engine block

JE Pistons and Forged Connecting rods

15 years ago we were heavy into Vintage Sports Car racing and campained a bunch of cars like Alfa Romeo Guiletta, Maserati 3500, Ferrari 340 Vignale Coupe, and a 1960 TVR Grantura. The TVR had a MGB engine, full tube frame and independent front and rear suspension. I remember it having a VW/Porsche style front torsion spring set up with the link pins and king pins but I cannot remember what it had for rear suspension. What I do remember was a very simple center section for the differential cast in aluminum.

The car had way more suspension and braking ability than power so we wanted to make it a better balanced car and installed a cross flow cylinder head and Weber side drought DCOE carburetors. The performance difference was negligible but once we spoke to an expert with this type cylinder head we changed the jetting around drastically and the car was a rocket.

These SU “H” type carbs came from this TVR and are in excellent condition other than needing cleaning and overhauling. They are currently on ebay (item number 320346836130) but if they don’t sell I will let them collect more dust upstairs unless you want them!

MGB SU carburetors and intake manifold

I sent these gauges off to our trusted re-build shop to be inspected and disassembled and they promptly sent back all of the metal parts for me to send to our trusted chrome plating shop. The Chrome shop but a dull nickel flash on the housings and did a spectacular job re-plating the chrome bezels. The bezels are made out of very thin aluminum and there was a deep scratch in one of them but the shop worked it out and only a trained eye can see the minor imperfection.

The instrument specialist re-painted the faces and needles as well as re-screen printed the “SMITHS” logo and Ferrari logo on the combination gauge. They did quite a service on these, making sure the temperature sensor capilary tube had the correct steel flex housing over the end and everything.  They also calibrated the fuel level sending unit to the gauge. These should work as new when installed into the 166 Berlinetta.

When I look through Hot Rodding magazines, none of the cars photographed have gauges as interesting and beautiful as these, shame on them for not looking at these old european cars for influence on what is cool!

Hand Made Gauges restored

Here is a spectacular restoration on a ‘47 Willies Jeep. Every component was restored, replaced or overhauled with great care and attention to detail. The engine runs perfectly, transmission and transfer case are as new and there is not a shake or vibration present when you drive at speed. The brakes pull strong and to not launch the car off the road when applied which means that they are adjusted properly, do not leak and the hub seals are not leaking into the brake linings(as most probably are).

Restored Jeep

It rolls on what looks like huge dirt bike tires, a knobby tread that I am sure are super grippy but I cannot imagine taking something so clean and detailed off road. This is such a fun car being so simple and so easy to drive.