We overhauled this 1958 Ferrari 250 engine 12 years ago and it has run a bunch of tours with Rich and Jean Taylor at Vintage Rallies as well as the Ferrari Challenge Rally a few years ago. When we overhauled the engine we converted it to coil valve springs from the hair pin style – making a strong engine even stronger. It must have higher lift cams and a bump in compression because it made some killer power on the dyno years ago. I promise to put it on the chassis dynomometer when we fix it.

What failed is what typically fails on 308’s and Berlinetta Boxers – the small caged ball bearings in the timing chest. The inner generator drive bearing came undone, and the cage got into the main bearing scouring the cap and the bearing. We are having the journal built up to standard and are going to check the line bore to make sure the cap is still square to the crank pins.

While the block is set up on the line hone machine, the rear cap will be cut to accept a 100mm oil seal. Normally these engines rely on the “slinger” arrangement. With the rest of the engine in such good condition, we will clean and inspect everything but probably not have to replace too many expensive parts such pistons or perform a valve job.

Bearing failure

Damaged main bearing

Bearings messed up

We just finished another 330 engine, 330 cubic centimeters per cylinder multiplied by 12 cylinders equals 4000 C.C.’s or 4.0 liters. Actually, Nate did most of the work and this one runs so well without the requisite head gasket leaks!!

Here is a YouTube clip of it running:

Crank in 330

Here is a totally stripped down 250 engine block known as basimento, or base to which the rest of the engine is attached. Looks kind of skeletal.

Ferrari 250 GTE

Ferrari 212 throttle steers out of a hairpin at Virginia International Raceway test

We tested the Ferrari 212 at Virginia International Raceway about a month ago to prepare for the 83rd running of the Mille Miglia in Italy this May. The Osca came along to the track as a benchmark of performance as it was accepted to run the Mille just a few years ago. The testing went very well, with the 212 making enough power to warrant upgrading the tires to Avon vintage racing tires like the Osca. It is amazing the difference a few years makes, the OSCA is 5 years newer than the Ferrari and handles so much better. It is deserving of the Ferraris V-12 engine rather than the 1500cc 4 cylinder mill.

Casey and Peter remove the hood of the 212 while a pack of track marshals look on like wolves

An often missed detail when shops overhaul engines is drilling the plugs on the crankshaft to clean out the oil passages. When the crankshaft is being fabricated it is drilled to allow pressurized oil to be directed at the bearings but because of the shape of the shaft, many of the holes have to be plugged after the drilling process so the oil only comes out where you want it to.

When the crank comes out of the engine and sits on a shelf while waiting for re-assembly, the residual oil in these passages dries out and gets crusty which could plug the passages and starve the bearing of oil. Also, when if you have to grind or polish the crank, the grit will get into the passages and quickly wipe out those brand new bearings.  One more thing, if you are going through the process of overhauling an engine, it makes sense to clean it and inspect as thoroughly as possible.

Repairing a crankshaft

330 Crankshaft billet

everything

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