Ferrari Mailing List: A tiny bit of Mondial progress...

[Rick Lindsay (rolindsay]

Hello Friends,

   Just checking in to report a little progress. 
 
   My ex-Matt-ex-Rick-ex-Dave's Mondial is undergoing a bit of restoration 
work, both cosmetic and pseudo-mechanical.  I say 'pseudo-mechanical' because 
Dave has kept the car maintained quite nicely.  What needs attention is an oil 
leak and a couple of pesky electro-mechanical headaches.
   So here is the start of the engine bay story.  (The interior refurbishment 
has already begun.  More on that later.)  Dave gives a car the kind of exercise 
that it needs and that effort has kept the Mondial in good shape.  It has also 
exposed an oil leak on the rear bank in the distributor area.  I haven't yet 
gone deeper to find the leak.  That's coming.
   The first stage in any work that I do is cleaning.  I like to clean the work 
area because doing so helps me find the problems AND it makes for a much more 
enjoyable work experience.  

   I discovered that the engine bay lid struts are very weak, so weak in fact 
that they cannot support the lid in cool weather.  I therefore had to resort to 
primal technology - a stick, http://www.aubard.us/Mondial/HPIM1306.JPG .  Once 
the lid was safely secured open I discovered that the insulating material on 
the underside of the lid had turned to loosely bound dust.  Here's a look, 
http://www.aubard.us/Mondial/HPIM1300.JPG .  As you can see, I collected the 
debris with a tarp of newspaper and threw the stuff away in the trash.  
Although not pictured, I removed the old insulation from all three areas.

   Charles Perry had kindly sent me some left-over hood insulation to replace 
this old stuff, http://www.aubard.us/Mondial/HPIM1304.JPG .  You can see in the 
background, the engine cover louvers which I had removed earlier.  They're now 
safely resting on the workbench (under the hammers and next to the bench 
grinder), http://www.aubard.us/Mondial/HPIM1307.JPG !  The lid looks kinda cool 
with the louvers removed, http://www.aubard.us/Mondial/HPIM1302.JPG and 
http://www.aubard.us/Mondial/HPIM1308.JPG .  With the louvers removed the 
struts will support the weight of the lid, 
http://www.aubard.us/Mondial/HPIM1306.JPG .

   In that previous picture you can see the air filter box.  Connected to the 
lower side of that box is the hose from the oil vapor recirculation system.  
The port on the air box is on the filtered-air side of the box.  What you can't 
see in that picture is exposed in this shot, 
http://www.aubard.us/Mondial/HPIM1305.JPG .  The vapor hose is no longer 
connected to the air box but rather, hanging free in the engine bay below the 
box!  That also means that the vapor intake on the lower side of the box, on 
the filtered-air side of the filter, is open to the atmosphere in the engine 
bay.  The hose in this picture was positioned for the photo.  I did not 
discover its disconnected state until examining below the box for oil splatter 
- which I did not find.  That side of the engine is not oily.

   So part of the ongoing work is to now remove the air box, clean all that 
area, replace any weak hoses and replace all the hose clamps.  I may leave the 
louvers off until that work is done because its easer with the lid managed by 
the struts, but... there's no place safe to put the louvers than back on the 
car where they belong.  Yea, those suspended hammers are bothering me.

   Okay, that's it; A pretty much meaningless Sunday morning post. :-)

rick