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

Here are some more photos of the GTE transmission that I am overhauling. Everything else looks fine inside, we are replacing all of the bearings and synchroinzer bands. The main shaft and lay shaft gears are all in excellent condition.

Transmission

Gears for mainshaft and layshaft

but the gears and spacers are all good.

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

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

Flat fin radiator

Here is a brand new correct type flat fin radiator core all assembled with tanks and side brackets for a Ferrari 250 GTE. These cores are so nice and we will cover the core in cardboard to prevent bending the delicate fins. This radiator has the bottom tank that was all hammered and beat up and corrected and documented in an earlier post.

Clean brake fluid is a must for proper operation of a brake system, proper operation of brakes, reliable brakes? Ferraris 250’s with the Bendix/Bonaldi booster had a reservoir cap with a steel mesh under an aluminum disc to allow the bottle to vent. Under the mesh is a small hole directly into the brake fluid reservoir. As you can see, there is lots of opportunity for crud to get into the fluid from this rusty build up in the mesh. I took the aluminum disc off, made a new spacer ring and welded it onto the cap. I sent the part of to be cad plated and made a new aluminum disc, installed stainless steel wool under the and wrinkle finish painted it. Voila!

FIAT Reservoir lid

Wrinkle finish reservoir

Here is what amounts to about $5000 in labor, the front suspension on a Ferrari 250 completely overhauled and detailed.

New pins and bushings, proper finishes and hopefully it will look this good for more than a few years!

90,000 miles on a Ferrari

Cleaned up, overhauled and detailed

Here are photos of our jig to re-make a common sized water pipe on a Ferrari 250. We have been making flanges at the water jet shop and have a bunch of the large bell flanges that adapt the 1″ tubing to the larger thermostat housing.

This 304 stainless steel is great stuff, very workable, machinable, weldable.

To see the ones that came off the car click http://www.ferraricraft.com/2009/12/corroded-ferrari-water-pipes/

Fixture to reproduce water pipe

Reproduction water pipe in stainless steel

Early Ferrari cars used steel tubing for the cooling system which corrodes seriously over time. Since replacement parts have never been available, these pipes were often patched together, soldered up, welded, epoxied- whatever to make them hold water. Typical of the Italians, the pipes are beautiful with gentle bends and are very difficult to recreate but we have a system to make them out of stainless steel 304 series tubing. See http://www.ferraricraft.com/2009/12/reproducing-ferrari-water-pipes-in-stainless-steel/

Water Pipes for Ferrari engine

Water pipe elbow

Alright, all puns aside, the number of different variations of wheel nuts at RPM is astounding. Here are some examples and some more interesting facts about them. Firstly, Ferrari wheels employ singular nuts to fasten each wheel to each axle or hub. So, in your road car, you have generally 4 or 5 lug bolts or lug nuts that hold each wheel on – trucks have more. Ferraris more than any other make, use large racing style wheel nuts, quite similar to those in use on racetracks all over the world, even here in the US in Nascar. Many other Italian cars and some English cars used this method of fastening as well.

The big difference between the wheel nuts on current race cars and on vintage Ferraris? The method of removal. The current race cars use a large diameter socket, while the vintage cars have 2 or 3 ears extending off the nut. The method of removal is repeated smashing of these tabs by the standard equipment lead hammer found in every Ferrari – it isn’t just for fending off would-be attackers. The lead hammer packs a punch, and the softness of the lead won’t mar the finish of the nuts, just watch out for your fenders on the back swing. At RPM wheels are removed frequenly enough to destroy these hammers, so we have a mold to recast the hammer head.

On to the nuts themselves. The word “smontare” seems to be on nearly every nut. » Continue reading “KNOCK IT OFF – WHEEL GOING NUTS”