Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Disaster Averted, though I still have a problem!

Jim - what fails on sodium valves?  Not disagreeing with Ferrari history, 

but Porsche has used sodium exhaust valves for, um, since the early 50's and 

that isn't known to be one of their weak links.

DOUG

----- Original Message ----- 

From: "jim" <jimshadow [at] verizon.net>

To: "DOUG" <dnt [at] dock.net>
Cc: "The FerrariList" <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2008 8:40 AM
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] Disaster Averted, though I still have a problem!

Rick,

I want to GET RID of the NA filled exhaust valves that are currently in my
motor...they are prone to fail.  My thinking is that if I'm going to pull

the motor I may as well take that preventive step....its something that 

I'm

kicking around in my head.    I spoke to a very well known mechanic who
currently has a motor on his bench that threw a sodium valve at low speed.

The motor had been out recently but the owner decided not to do them at 

that

time....   Its just something that's always in the back of my mind,
especially given how much I drive the car.

JIM

-----Original Message-----
From: rolindsay [at] yahoo.com [mailto:rolindsay [at] yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2008 11:18 AM
To: jim; ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] Disaster Averted, though I still have a problem!

May I just say;  DAMN!

So glad you caught that!  In fact, the nut on the front of the 

crankshaft -

holding the harmonic balancer in place - did the same thing on my E30M3. 

The

balancer wobbled and chewed up the end of the crankshaft - and 

replacements

aren't available. Estimate to repair IF a USED crank could be found was
$25,000!  That ended my love afair with M3s.

As for your car; yes you are very lucky. That's where belts fail, not at 

the

larger diameter cam gear/pulley. I still have my failed belt as a
"maintenance reminder." It has about 8 teeth sheared off the belt.  Just
enough to allow the drive gear to spin freely.

Jim, why the push to install fancy Na-filled exhaust valves?  Do you track

it at all? Stock valves should cool adequately in any normal use.  That 

car

is easily as quick, if not quicker than my 308GTB.  I wouldn't mess with
success. :-)

Better quit typing. Thumbs tired. :-P

Rick

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

-----Original Message-----
From: "jim" <jimshadow [at] verizon.net>

Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 10:59:10
To: rolindsay<rolindsay [at] yahoo.com>
Cc: The FerrariList<ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Subject: [Ferrari] Disaster Averted, though I still have a problem!

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later....

Lets back track just a bit. Back in July I parked the GT4 to address a 

noise

that I had tracked to my front bank tensioner bearing. They were last

replaced 3yrs ago and I've put about 10-12,000 miles on her in the last 

1.5

yrs. (I DRIVE this little GT4!!!) Not wanting to have a belt failure, I

decided to do the belts, bearings and give her a valve adjustment. All 

went

well and I got it back together just in time to road test and drive it 

1200

miles r/t to Mississippi for the '308's in '08' Event. The car performed

like a champ and the noise had all but disappeared, that is until I got 

down

to the Memphis area. At the event I had Rick Lindsay and Ric Rainbolt give 

a

listen. Both agreed that it sounded strange and that it was likely a 

bearing

somewhere.

Fast forward home and I'm out with a buddy grabbing coffee and going to 

see

a '63 Vette with '96 internals and 700ish HP. (Keep in mind that i've not
driven it since returning from the '308 Event but once). Well, that damn

noise was back, but this time getting louder and sounding worse, much 

worse.

Upon pulling into the 'Vette owners driveway I looked under the car and

noticed black oil on my alternator and on the frame near the balancer 

which

is not one of my usual leaks. So I limp the car home at 25mph and park it.

Today I started taking things apart and found that my front bank lower 

drive

gear was COMING OFF the shaft! I could spin the nut with my fingers. The
only thing keeping it on was the belt cover. You can see in the pics where
the gear was bumping into the cover and scoring it.

The ironic thing is that I was just checking prices this past week on what

it would cost to finally do the sodium valves as preventive maintenance, 

now

this!

I was convinced that the noise was my water pump bearing and I was going 

to

be torqued that I didn't do a 'while i was in there' and rebuild it when I
was doing the valve adjustment/belts. I was all ready to fire the car up

today and get out my mechanics stethoscope to figure this out when that 

nut

caught my eye. THANK GOODNESS that the gear did not let loose and throw my

belt off!!! I'm grateful for that for sure. I'm confident that I can do 

the

bearing job myself, however, I'm debating just pulling the motor and 

sending

it off to get the head work done as well as the bearings and a couple 

other

things....stay tuned and wish me luck!

JIM

(PS, my marks all line up, so no jumped belt teeth or anything like that. 

I

could not feel any play in the gear other than the slightest in/out 

movement

from that loose nut.....)

_________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe or modify your subscription options, please visit:
http://lists.ferrarilist.com/mailman/options/ferrari/dnt%40dock.net

Sponsored by BooyahMedia.com
and F1 Headlines
http://www.F1Headlines.com/

Re: Disaster Averted, though I still have a problem!	<– Date –> <– Thread –>
From: Doug and Terri Anderson (dntdock.net)
Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 10:10:24 -0800 (PST)