Ferrari Mailing List: Looking for advice for 308 problem

[georgedodson (georgedodson]

I was driving my 81 308 GTSi on Saturday when disaster struck. I was coming 
down a long winding hill when I lost power. I was off the throttle at the time 
and the exhaust note changed completely. At the bottom of the hill I tried to 
restart, but no luck. While waiting for the tow I tried again and again. Ad the 
engine cooled it seemed like it was trying to start. Eventually, just as the 
truck arrived, the engine started but it was running rough, would not idle and 
seemed to have no power. I started the car again yesterday and again, the 
engine started but ran rough. There is no backfire but no power either. At 
constant throttle at ~2500 rpm it would surge up 1000 rpm or stall 1000 rpm. I 
warmed the engine up to ~140 degrees to see of it might be a problem with the 
startup system. It never did smooth out and it stalled as I was checked to see 
if it would idle. Again, it would not restart warm. I noted that the fuel pump 
relay was chattering some  when I tried to restart the engine warm, but 
swapping relays with another in the relay box of the same type did not help.  
Any ideas?  We are heading up to DC for a week so I won't be able to try 
anything out but I will be thinking about the problem. 

Regards,
George