As awful as this engine looks from the outside, it was in relatively good condition on the inside. The cylinder walls were a little bit rusty and the piston rings fatigued, but the major engine components are in good shape. Typically the crank case is bullet proof on these engines; however, we had to split this one since it was leaking so much. Since we’re in there, we will replace the bearings and inspect everything else.

Typical of German engines, the cylinder heads are a weak point because the valve guides are so short. When the guides exhibit a tiny amount of play, the rocking accelerates the wear rapidly.  We will do a full valve job on these heads. More pics inside the engine here.

911.T

'71 T 911

The new castings arrived and they look perfect. I wish we could get new parts like this for every component on Ferrari engines.

We also inquired about getting a new engine block for this project since the original may be compromised from all of the corrosion, but after hearing the price, I think we can fix the old block!

Water pump casting new and old

We have made jigs for re-producing the often rusted and leaking water pipes for Ferrari 250’s. These are not  perfect reproductions but now that we have the tooling we can easily make an exact copy if anyone is interested. We are using Stainless Steel so they won’t rust away like the originals.

Ferrari tubing

250 water pipe

With all of the recent interest in Ferrari’s manufacturing practices, it seems only appropriate to post this video. It is quite pleasant to watch, and you might learn. Plus the soundtrack isn’t bad either, a few famous guys made it.

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

This engine had low miles on an complete overhaul. It came in for us to check out, but after finding that the compression was low and the leak down numbers were terrible, we pulled it apart.

The cylinders were polished like a mirror and piston rings had lost their temper. The main and rod bearings are wiped out, and due to major detonation, the rod bearings were hammered to the point that they fell right out of the cap when they should be held in firmly with spring tension.

What a mess. I am doubting that it was actually overhauled because the whole engine was “buzz-bomb” painted right over dirt and all of the hardware.

Ferrari 209

Main bearing

This SC engine is super healthy, great running and has outstanding compression but it also has many little leaks it is filthy. We have done a huge amount of work on the body which constituted completely restoring the car so we are getting the mechanical work done while the car is being block sanded and painted. I have said it before and will say it again, these are the best engines, light, powerful, simple and parts are available anywhere.

I just ordered ever  body rubber seal, full front suspension overhaul kit, assorted specialized trim screws… boxes and boxes of stuff to make this car as new and the order was under $3000.  Incredible what you can buy and how inexpensive the parts are compared to Ferraris and other cars that we typically work on.

The flywheel was sent off to be under-cut and the carburetors are getting the royal treatment from Karl.

SC Porsche Coupe

We received some questions after posting the video below about calling the 512BBi motor a flat V-12. Mainly, if it is flat, then how can it be a v format?

The answer lies in a technicality. The moniker “boxer” refers to the piston timing of an engine, rather than the direction the cylinders point. On the Ferrari 512, the crankshaft isn’t a true boxer crankshaft – it is a V-12 crankshaft with the cylinders laid flat. Here’s why:

True boxers have one crankpin controlling only one piston/cylinder, and 180° engines share crankpins.

A true “boxer” (horizontally opposed engine) has corresponding pistons reaching top dead center simultaneously.

A 180° V-12 engine has piston pairs sharing a crank pin on the crankshaft and reaching top dead center half a crankshaft revolution apart. Most flat 12s are actually 180° V engines, including the Ferrari discussed here and the famous Porsche 917 racecar.

Interestingly, phase has always been of great concern to the motorcycle industry (think big bang configuration) as it directly effects vibration and riders sit right on top of it. Read more here.

Here is what thousands of hours of detailing a Ferrari Lusso engine looks like. It is dusty and not totally finished but getting close. If I had a driveshaft I would take her for a spin! Really looking forward to driving the car because we did some enhancements to the engine and installed a overdrive transmission to make the car that much better and faster.

Engine to the Lusso