Head gasket and oil leaks

Since the late 80′s or early 90′s we have been servicing the car that goes with this engine and it has always been one of the best running examples we know of. I remember riding in the truck with my father to get the car on a cold and foggy night, probably around this time of the year, no, it had to have been early November. It was a brutal trip through that pea soup thick fog as we went over some of the mountains in the Berkshires on route 22.

The current owner of the car drives the wheels off of it and we have overhauled a number of components like the brakes, transmission, and fuel pump but now it’s time to address the engine. It runs great, starts instantly and doesn’t smoke but there are so many oil leaks that we have to break it down to clean it off in order to remedy them. We were blown away because as well as it ran, the compression and leak down numbers were bad displaying 30% loss in some cylinders where there should be no more than 5-10%.

So, apart it goes – it’ll run through our “process” that includes getting the rear main bearing cap cut and grind the crankshaft for a conventional lip seal, new forged pistons and a needle bearing roller follower set among thousands of other things. The motor mounts are blown out and the water pipes will likely have holes in them and will need to be replaced so we will be busy this winter getting all these 250′s back together for the spring.

As much as I hate to mention it for superstitious reasons, we’ve had great success with Ferrari engine overhauls over the last half a dozen years. A few times a week other shops call me asking how to get head gaskets to seal and how to make water pumps turn without leaking or how to make mechanical fuel pumps to work as intended. Their shops are struggling to find the exact formula, and we seem to have it locked down lately. Nate has assembled so many of these engines, he seems to have a real formula on setting the clearances, knowing the tricks to seal them up and making sure every detail is nailed down too.

Clutch housing on 250 engine

If I were making a production run of something, this isn’t how I would do it. Ferrari made thousands of “250″ series cars all with these goofy water pipes for the cooling system which vary drastically throughout the 10 year production run.  They are so complex and hard to duplicate that re-making them nearly impossible. This “J” shaped pipe has a compound curve with barbs that have to be welded on in exactly the right location even though they appear to be stitched on at random locations. If they are off one millimeter, they will hit the oil filter or run into the fan.

These pipes are for the Lusso/GTE series of 250, but I can make a number of other styles from 166 up through the 275 cars utilizing my incredible and growing stockpile of bends and flared ends. Right now I am making a short run of the water pipe that connects the thermostat housing to the engine on a 275 GTB/GTS Two-Cam engine.

Water pipe for Ferrari

Water pipe copied for Ferrari

275 GTB’s look so great with the 15″ Borrani 4010 and 4011 wheels, the factory should have fitted all of the cars with these instead of the little 14″ wheels. While the rear fender vents are interesting, they look great when they resemble the vents behind the front wheels, more square and in keeping with the 250 GTO. We have learned lots about this car recently and enjoy having it around the shop.

GTB/4 Ferrari 275

rear vents Ferrari GT

I have seen this style final drive differential on later Ferraris like Lusso’s but didn’t realize that early cars like the 212 had this odd arrangement. Instead of spider gears and side gears, the car has these “chicklet” metal tabs that are forced between the axle drive hub and the outer case of the differential carrier. The inside “hub” has a different number of relief cuts in comparison to the outside case of the carrier so there is always pressure to make the car go forward while acting as a limited slip mechanism. You will have to study the photos carefully, we didn’t take great pictures of it all together so let your imagination do the work to understand the process

Ferrari attempt differential

Limited slip Differential

Ferrari 212 differential

Ferrari 330

The power of the internet and the reason I do these blog posts became apparent on this particular project.

Similar to almost all of the other Ferrari shops in the country, we were having a hard time getting the head gaskets to seal on the V-12 engines. The gaskets that come in the gasket kits are ELRING brand that are very fancy looking and fit nicely but are too hard and do not compress and seal like they should. I am sure they work well on a BMW with a cast iron block and head bolts that torque to probably 100 lb/ft, but on a Ferrari engine you only go to 65 lb/ft and are working with a very flexible cast aluminum block.

The leaks we had experienced was not water getting into the combustion chamber but it allowed water to leak between the block and head and often times leaked water into the oil. Considering that replacing the head gaskets on one of these engines is a $4-5000 job, we had to come up with a solution which we now have.

2 years ago a man called me to talk about head gasket leaks on his 330, I explained that we had the same problems and that he should get the car to me to be repaired. The car was tied up at another shop and I didn’t hear from him again. Fast forward to February 2010, the mystery man rings me again and asks me to help him sell the car! He told me that the shop fixed the leaking gaskets again and the car is sorted and ready to go.

I had 3-4 immediate buyers for the car but upon close inspection I found that the gaskets were still leaking! We could have been the shop to repair the gsakets, get them right, and get on with it, but it turned out fine when I sold the car to a local man who asked that we overhaul the engine and set things right.

The car was described as having an overhauled engine and in need of nothing, but we found that wasn’t the case. With the wrist pin bushings wiped out, the pistons worn and overall sloppiness in workmanship from the multiple attempts at remedying the head gasket leaks, we were disappointed in the prior repair, but will set things straight. These photos show the water mixed with oil inside the cam covers.

330 head gasket leak V-12 Ferrari

V-12 Ferrari head gasket and overhaul

We typically have to clean up and weld castings to make them serviceable but these 250 water pump parts are too far gone. The material around the 6mm stud has deteriorated so it just fell out, and the pitting at the impeller surface negatively effects the flow of water through the engine. The bearing support plate is trash, it must weigh 40% less than it did when new.

With corrosion this bad on these castings, imagine what the inside of the engine block looks like! We are pulling the sleeves right now in order to inspect the block and possibly replace the sleeves if the wall thickness has been compromised by the rust.

I ordered some brand new castings to replace these and am anxious to see how they look and fit.

Casting aluminum

Corroded aluminum

Not sure who owns these cars but they are the ones that were transported in the FIAT truck in the Ferrari team livery. The cars are in excellent condition mechanically but they are appropriately rough on the outside, a refreshing change to the glossy perfection that you typically see at the Cavallino. The Daytona that you see here was racing against a Michelotto 308 GTB on Friday for one of the best Vintage Ferrari races I have ever seen.

Ferrari Race cars

After doing all kinds of work on a 1967 Ferrari 330 GTC we are now going through the transmission. We overhauled the engine last fall and after our customer spent the spring and early summer driving the car he realized that the synchronizers were too worn for him to enjoy driving the car.

We are going to replace the bearings at the front of the transmission but all of the other bearings look great. All 5 synchronizer bands have been replaced even though the second and third gear synchros were the worst.

These transmissions are straightforward to work on provided you do not have to deal with the spacing on the pinion shaft.

I spent a day with a customer driving a number of Ferraris back-to-back last week, a gorgeous day about 55 degrees with slight wind. We got to compare a 365 GTC/4 with a 365 GTB/4 Daytona and 330 GTC with a 275 GTB/4. We also drive some other cars like a 246 GTS and a BBI.

What is amazing is how different the Pininfarina built cars are from there Scaglietti counterparts. The Scaglietti cars offered a much more thrilling driving experience in every regard. My customer described it best when he called the Daytona and the 275 GTB/4 as the more “athletic” cars.

The 365 GTC/4 is an excellent and civilized car with a firmly planted feeling as you travel at high speed. The overall build quality of the C/4 is amazing with perfect door fit and a Mercedes-Benz like solid feel. The visibility out of the car is tremendous and the car is a breeze to drive with power steering and great driving position. The engine noise and power is addictive especially when lugging the car through town or out of the door yard when you can take advantage of the low end torque.

However, the car does feel a bit like a German luxury car, a great drive that is not particularly thrilling because it does everything so well, even the power steering is direct and does not feel “numb” as other Ferraris with power assist steering. It is truly a car that needs to be driven for hundreds of miles to appreciate how wonderful the car really is.

The Daytona is a thrill. The car we drive was a converted to Spyder some time ago but was in excellent overall condition (like the C/4) and felt just as solid as a Daytona Coupe. I believe that Stramann did the conversion on the car and it has a few small reinforcements which disallow any “cowl shake” typically associated with convertibles.

The driving position is totally different, you sit further back in the chassis, and it feels that the driver is sitting in a deep soup bowl. The dash and steering wheel are much higher and you have to point your nose high to see over the hood! The build quality leaves alot to be desired, interior details are not as sturdy, doors feel lighter and overall the car feels rivited and glued together versus welded. The beautiful thing is that the car is still very heavy feeling similar to the C/4 and feels planted and stable going down the road.

The engine on the Daytona is amazing, instant throttle response, slick shifting trans-axle and immediate brakes. The non assisted steering is tolerable at slow, not as bad as all of the driving reports claim but at speed the steering is more direct and positive feeling than the C/4. The car has a reported 20 extra horsepower but feels like it has 100 extra HP! What a thrill, from the second you fire up the engine you know that the car is thrilling and you immediate satisfaction and is exactly the opposite the C/4 whereas the more you drive the Daytona the more you want to get out of the uncomfortable seats driving position and overall intensity.

The 330 GTC and 275 GTB/4 are very similar to the comparisons of the C/4 and Daytona except they share the same basic chassis and trans-axle layout. The GTB feels like a race car with tighter suspension and different driving position. They have totally different engines and the GTB engine is more tightly wound and the tachometer needs to be pointing nearer to red line to overtake another car. The GTC can pull from idle to red line in perfect linear progression where you can feel a definite power curve in the GTB’s engine.

The difference in overall build quality between these cars is obvious immediately. The GTB has light doors that close without a solid thud and body work feels shaky even though it is on that wonderful oval tube chassis. The GTC feels more like a car built by adults.

My customer was more moved by the Scaglietti cars, enjoying the thrill because after all, isn’t this why you buy a Ferrari in the first place? He enjoys the confidence of having that extra power on tap and feels the same way as the majority of Ferrari fans, the Daytona and 275 GTB/4 are some of the most beautiful and thrilling cars that have rolled out any production line.

I tend to enjoy the Pininfarina cars more, I like a car that you can get in and drive without feeling beat up and I am not interested in high speed driving. I like to enjoy the sensory element and listen to the noises without having that desire to test the more thrilling elements and get in trouble. I guess I am the boring guy!