Re: Rick's l_o_n_g Testarossa story... | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: LS (lashdeep![]() |
|
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:39:27 -0700 (PDT) |
Fantastic story...so glad to see this sled on the road and being used!
We need some video next...standing start, drive by, onboard through 1-2-3 gears and a LONG clip of it idling with no mufflers or cats!!
LS
central
wines-spirits est 1934
625 e street
nw
washington, dc 20004
202-737-2800
From: Rick Lindsay <rolindsay [at] yahoo.com>
To: LS <lashdeep [at] yahoo.com>
Cc: The FerrariList <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 8:40 PM
Subject: [Ferrari] Rick's l_o_n_g Testarossa story...
Hi Fiends,
Deep asked that I post an update on the Testarossa that I bought from Ric Rainbolt, who bought it from Deep, who bought it from, well, I don't know who. Anyway, I now own the car. It keeps my 308GTB company. Here's the story. Its long and full of pictures. Delete now if you're bored or get a fresh cup of coffee, or two, and read on...
A few months ago I decided to change my employment to part-time in preparation for retirement next spring. Call it easing in to full retirement. And with that in mind, I contacted Phil Tegtmeier in search of a project.
I had been eying a Series II E-Type Phil had on his site. Unfortunately, before we could come to an agreement on price, the owner fell back in love with his car. It went off the market. I don't know if its still unavailable. I like E-Types. After that we found a really cool Lancia but it sold before I could even make an offer. Those of you who know me will know that like Phil, I have a soft spot in my heart (read:head) for Lancias. Anyway, the Lancia was gone. The quest went cold.
A little later I was chatting with Ric Rainbolt about a friend's Mondial T, and casually asked if he still had the Testarossa that he and Deep and traded back and forth. Ric answered yes and I asked for a price, as is, but delivered to Houston. Ric went into a dissertation about the history of the car. Rather than discussing the ownership trail, he described the problems the car had presented.
The car had suffered a damaged cylinder but I don't know why. I only know that the piston and sleeve was replaced. Ric shared a few pictures of the repairs he did. Here's how it started with the drive line being removed from the car. (Pictures by-lines: Ric Rainbolt, Rui Gigante, Rick Lindsay)
http://www.aubard.us/TR/P0000281.JPG
http://www.aubard.us/TR/P0000282.JPG
http://www.aubard.us/TR/P0000284.JPG
http://www.aubard.us/TR/P0000285.JPG
http://www.aubard.us/TR/P0000293.JPG
http://www.aubard.us/TR/P0000294.JPG
Ric soon had the car apart.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/p0000302.jpg
Ric then rebuilt the engine and did a FANTASTIC job - as expected.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/mvc-648x.jpg
http://www.aubard.us/TR/mvc-670x.jpg
Unfortunately, something in the twin Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection was hinky and the car did not run right. Specifically, the idle speed was uneven (searching) and often died upon coming to a stop. Nothing they did could resolve the problem. Eventually Ric replaced the Bosch units and installed an aftermarket electronic fuel injection. That transplant made the car run reliably but Ric never got around to tuning the EFI to the car. I suspect that frustration intervened and the car set untouched for years.
After I contacted Ric again and after we agreed upon a price, Ric decided to make the car run again on the EFI. Unfortunately, that didn't go well. Ferraris do NOT like to sit unused. I agreed to buy the car 'as is' and with the EFI removed. The Bosch parts were in a box in the boot. That's where the deal stood. I paid Ric, he delivered the car.
As luck would have it, the car arrived on a rainy Saturday afternoon. The driver maneuvered the trailer with precision most of us could only imagine.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0734.JPG
With the trailer beautifully in place, a stoop-backed, gray haired old man watched the progress.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0735.JPG
My driveway dips away from the garage, which is good for drainage but a bit of a challenge for for unloading Ferraris. The driver had a winch and pulled the car back to the rear of the trailer. The rear floor of the trailer tilts down making for easier unloading.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0737.JPG
A honkin-big neighbor and the driver pushed the car out of the truck while I managed the brakes.
There's a gap in the photo record here but the work continued. One of my first hurtles to overcome was to install new fuel injectors. Ric had modified the inlet runners to accept electric injectors. I had to retrofit the assembly to use Bosch mechanical injectors. Here's the assembly that did the trick.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0742.JPG
Here's a look at a used but cleaned up injector trial fitted into the inlet runner. The new injectors were on order but had not yet arrived.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0749.JPG
Viewed from the under-side you can see the tip of the test injector is properly aligned.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0750.JPG
With the car in the garage and the fuel injector retrofit problem solved, I moved back to the engine room - camera in hand.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0751.JPG
Ric removed the internal working components from the Bosch air metering assemblies, using them only as 'ducts'.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0752.JPG
Fortunately, none of the linkage was modified.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0753.JPG
Here's another look.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0754.JPG
The cold start injectors were not used in Ric EFI system so the ports on the plenums were blanked off. For my retrofit, Ric included a hand-full of cold start injectors, some from this car and some left over from his 308GTSi turbo modification.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0755.JPG
My next quest was to clean and rebuild the the Bosch air metering system. Once reinstalled and aligned the air gap around the air dam was checked (and photographed).
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0756.JPG
I then stored all the rebuilt FI parts back in a cardboard box while working on other things.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0758.JPG
I moved back to the workbench and rebuilt the fuel distributors. This is where I started.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0759.JPG
I then moved back to the engine room and reinstalled the air chambers.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0760.JPG
Things went back together with new gaskets (thanks Ric!).
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0761.JPG
Here's a look at the engine with the air metering mechanisms reinstalled.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0762.JPG
And a little closer look.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0763.JPG
The weekend was over. Later in the work-week, I moved back to the bench to build the new harness for the cold start injectors.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0764.JPG
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0765.JPG
And installed, just for the camera.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0767.JPG
The next step was to install the newly rebuilt fuel distributors, along with the injector lines.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0769.JPG
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0770.JPG
Here's a look with the inlet runners and plumbing installed.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0771.JPG
Vacuum throttle bypass units installed.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0773.JPG
And control pressure regulators installed.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0774.JPG
Here's a look down the 1-6 bank, now with the injectors installed.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0775.JPG
The new injectors arrived!
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0777.JPG
Close-up views of a new injector installed and ready for connection.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0776.JPG
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0779.JPG
And here's a look at the 1-6 bank with the injectors installed and connected.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0780.JPG
Close-up.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0782.JPG
Here's a look with both banks plumbed.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0783.JPG
I then installed the plenums.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0784.JPG
With all the plumbing together, I installed bypass jumpers in place of the relays, only to discover a leak. I then tighten the banjo bolt - and twisted it off. Only after driving all over town, I finally found a replacement banjo bolt at a local exotic car repair shop.
http://www.aubard.us/TR/HPIM0785.JPG
Once I replaced the bolt, I realized that the leak was coming from the control pressure port where some PO (before Ric) had installed a fiber washer in place of a copper crush washer. Once replaced, everything sealed up nicely.
Jump forward a week or two of other business. My first road test was about 2 miles. At one point on that massive journey, the car began smoking badly - black smoke - then the smoke quit. I was thinking fuel pressure problems. If the pressure is running low on one or both banks, caused by a bad pump (or two) or a bad pressure regulator (or two) in a fuel distributor, the adjustments
I've made would have partially compensated. Then if the pressure returned momentarily, the car would running WAY rich until the pressure dropped again. That could be the source of the 'black smoke episode'. ...and NONE of this was true. It turned out to be just old fuel.
>From what little I drove, I noticed a few things: Clutch is fine. Gearbox is smooth as silk, even into 2nd gear. Suspension felt great
but I have little reference as to what defines 'bad'. Brakes took a lot of foot pressure, almost as if the booster was failing. Stopped
okay. It just took more effort than I was expecting. Perhaps it was just new pads not fully bedded in - which turned out to be the case. The car now stops perfectly.
Back to the engine: When I put the car back together it started okay but had terrible trouble accelerating off of idle. That test was done before resetting any of the linkage other than a quick static eye-ball set-up. At 800 rpm the idle speed oscillated, just as Ric described and as I had the whole air cleaning system off, I could watch the 7-12 air dam oscillate up and down about 1-2mm. The 1-6 dam didn't move. My first thought was a vacuum leak but then I realized that I was seeing instability in METERED air, not
leaking air. Still, I rechecked every joint for leaks, and found none. By the way, while idling in this condition, it also did one of
those black smoke puffing sessions then cleared up. At the time, I put it down to settled oils and such after setting for years. I believe that to be true.
A week or so later I pulled the plenums again and reset all of the linkage. The 7-12 bank's linkage was off by a lot. The butterfly was
opened even when the idle screw was backed away from the stop! That's when I realized that the workshop manual made the assumption that the off-idle throttle position screws were preset. They were not and that was what was holding the throttle open AND what was causing the lower plenum depression and the greater air flow on the 7-12 bank.
I started the static adjustment procedure all over again after finding that problem. I first made sure the linkage links were the same, as per manual. Then backed the idle screws all the way off, allowing the throttles to close completely - except of course, they didn't. I then adjusted the off-idle throttle position screws such that each butterfly completely closed but didn't press into the throttle body hard enough to cause wear. I then adjusted the idle screws until they just touched the stops, detected by both feeling the butterflies as I rocked the screws and observing light between the screw and the stop. I then ran each idle screw in one-half turn. This became the minimum throttle or safety setting. I then closed the brass needle valves on to their stops and reassembled everything.
The car started right up and idled at about 800 rpm. It wouldn't accelerate off of idle while cold without dying. Again, I suspect
that it is leaning out as soon as the air flushed in, with the fuel not keeping up. Of course, I didn't know that then. I used the brass needle valves to increase the idle speed to 1000 rpm, rotating both valves by the same amount. The idle settled in at 1000 rpm, as per the manual and was stable - but still wouldn't advance off of idle without a fight.
While I had the plenums off I also removed the AAVs and tested them. They performed perfectly. They started open by a couple of mm and closed completely after 10 minutes of power applied to the heaters. 13.8v at 300mA, for what its worth. A bench power supply is a wonderful thing.
I let the car warm up at idle to operating temperature. Well, to a normal indication on the coolant temp. The oil temp did not move. I
suspected a bad gauge/sender until I remembered that it is a dry-sump system. Later after the 2 mile drive, the gauge registered a little heat. When warm, the car is almost drivable, except for that black smoke episode. I don't have the equipment to set the CO level and balance it from bank to bank, but a local shop does and they're excited to see the car.
Earlier that week, Monday it was, I ordered a K-Jetronic pressure test set up kit. I figured I was not in a very big hurry so I used 'Free'
shipping via Amazon. Anyway, it came from Dallas in ONE day! That weekend I will connected the gauge to the system and started making some measurements for hard data. The instrument connects between the fuel distributor and the control pressure regulator, on the input side of the regulator. It has a gauge and a shut-off valve allowing the gauge to read system pressure with the valve closed and control pressure with it open. I'll measured both banks and compared the results. The full regulated system
pressure tells me that the pumps and regulators in the distributors are working properly and the open system tells me that there are
o problems in the CPRs. Not a trivial slug of hard data for $115.
In between the engine episodes, which couldn't be too often because of that old-fuel-stink you may know too well, I worked on the interior. I have applied a coat of Rejuvenator Oil to all of the leather but have been concentrating on the dash, so far. The dash
leather has had three coats of R-Oil with brisk toweling in between. Lots of dirt has come out and the leather is beautiful, if I do say so myself. I also repaired the hinge on the left side of the radio door. It was broken. The whole assembly was just fiberglass so its no wonder that it broke. I put everything back together with J-BWeld and layered a build-up outside of the repair. I also drilled a tiny hole through the repair and inserted a little carter pin - all cemented in place. After it cured I filed away the epoxy where the door impeded upon the repair, or perhaps I should have said that visa-versa. Anyway, the door works smoothly and the hinge is not noticeably ugly. The whole area under the radio door was scuffed up a little bit so I have cleaned it and have given it a
little respray.
The radio I bought is not expensive but is nice. It is radio and CD with inputs for iPOD and USB drives. I own no Apple products, but I do have a few thumb drives - not that any contain music. :-P The radio is also a bluetooth radio with a microphone which I mounted out of sight under the instrument binnacle lip. The radio display also has a variable color illumination with profiles for day and night, keyed to a sense lead connected to the dash lights. I can match the color of the TR's dash lighting for a 'original' impression, but haven't done so yet.
I've also put the brake and clutch rubber pads back on and have vacuumed out the whole driver's side floor area. I've also removed
the dead-pedal and have refinished the rubber pad which covers it. That's all went back in after the speaker forms got
reinstalled.
And other than that, I have just cleaned. Oh, I have verified that now after a little exercise, all of the lighting works, including all
the dash illumination. The turn signals and hazard lights all lit up but they did not flash. I suspected a very lazy or paralyzed flasher. Given a few tries, it now works just fine.
Last Thursday I drove the car to work (13 miles, one way) and it performed beautifully. 99% of the problems were caused by ages-old fuel!!! With a fresh tank of fuel, well, a half tank of fresh fuel added to the old stuff, the car now runs great. Its down to a half tank again now and when it gets below one quarter, I'll fill it again, further diluting the old junk.
On the way home from work Thursday, I felt a vibration and smelled burning phenolic (e.g. clutch or brakes). I was very near my independent shop so I rolled in and parked. A quick examination (feel) I verified that the left rear brake was dragging. I left the car with the shop for repairs. The next day, the guys replaced a perished brake flex hose. It had failed internally (as they almost always do) and was functioning as a one-way valve, keeping the pads against the disk. Fortunately, the rotor had not warped. The dragging began just as I came to a stop before the shop!!! The car now has a fresh new hose, sourced from O'Reilly Auto parts, of all places. We all agreed that we're going to replace all four hoses with steel jacketed flex lines next time the car has to go on the lift.
Well, it will have to be time-after-next because the next time will be to install the A/C belt and charge the system. In the mean time, I'll order new hoses.
Its now Monday and tomorrow promises to be a pretty day with a high of 79F. I think I'll drive my pretty little redhead to work again tomorrow. Woohoo.
-rick
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-
Rick's l_o_n_g Testarossa story... Rick Lindsay, April 23 2012
- Re: Rick's l_o_n_g Testarossa story... LS, April 23 2012
- Re: Rick's l_o_n_g Testarossa story... Ken Veary, April 23 2012
-
Re: Rick's l_o_n_g Testarossa story... Rick Lindsay, April 24 2012
- Re: Rick's l_o_n_g Testarossa story... Rui Gigante, April 24 2012
- Re: Rick's l_o_n_g Testarossa story... LS, April 24 2012
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