We dynoed this blue 512BB last summer, and I cannot remember the exact figures. But, I do remember the incredible torque curve and how it made the maximum HP and torque at 5000RPM then plateaued out. I think it made just under 300HP at the rear wheels. We are going to be overhauling and enhancing this engine soon and it will be cool to put it back on the dyno to see the new numbers.

Here’s a link to a similar 512BB on the dyno this winter – this time in red. http://www.ferraricraft.com/2010/01/video-1984-ferrari-512-bbi-at-the-dyno/

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.

We took the red 1984 Berlinetta Boxer to the dyno this week. The video has great sound, but turn it down if you’re at work.

People have accused me of being too technical on this blog, they think that I should make it more appealing by showing great photos of the cars and making it more slick but this is my effort and the technical stuff it what interests me. I was going to work with a marketing guy to get us a nice image, capitalize on the sex appeal of these cars but it just does not work for me and I do not have the time to stage scenarios and have posed photos. What I am documenting is the day to day of what happens at the shop and why working on machines whether it be tractors, air conditioning units or classic cars, this is what I am interested in and hope that my readers can appreciate it.

Here is a slightly staged photo of a spectacular casting that like so many castings by Ferrari is both beautiful and a marvel of engineering. The forethought that went into making this to work as a transmission casting, differential housing, oil sump  as well as the surface to carry the engine is remarkable. It also carries internal porting for the scavenge and pressure side of the dry-sump oiling system for the engine. Since the transmission has its own oil pump, there is porting for pressurized oil system to lubricate the gears and bearings.  Ferrari spent so much time engineering this sort of part while selling so few cars that it seems that they should have been even more expensive to purchase when new.

I hope you can enjoy these photo. By the way, this part is huge, you could fit about 5 cats inside it.

Transaxle housing for Ferrari 512BB

Transaxle Casting Ferrari

A few posts ago I reported on a 1984 Ferrari 512 Berlinetta Boxer that had a knocking sound in second gear. It sounded to me like a bad cluster or a bearing with some debris caught in the race. When I jokingly called my main man Geof at Partsource (http://www.ferrariparts.com/)  asking him what he could sell me to fix the problem without disassembling the transmission, he told me that I was the 3rd person in the last month asking for the second gear cluster!

He wanted me to get him the acid etched part numbers on the gears to determine if they were shaved or ground gears but I said, “who cares if they are shaved or ground, I want a matched set of ground”.  Leave it to Ferrari to have even thought shaved gears would hold up to the torque that these parts need to withstand. By the way, if the odometer and the condition of this car is correct, there are less than 10,000 miles on this transmission! Great stuff! I could not find any acid etch numbers to confirm that the gears were shaved but I am sure that they were and not the higher quality ground gears.

As you can see in the photos, the smaller gear has many pits from metal fatigue, not from abuse or lack of lubrication, just poor quality materials and process. What a bummer.   Geof just located gears from a Testarossa transmission that cost a prohibitave amount of money but at least this transmission will not be apart for months and months while we wait for gears to be re-made!

Ferrari Boxer transmission repair