Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Rob's Timing Belt Parts Mystery

[Anthony Bauco (tbauco]

Rob,

As you are pretty close to my son, if you need an extra set of hands at any point, let me know and I will give you his number.  He is a sharp mechanical engineer who has built and rebuilt a few cars.  He also has quite the appreciation for the classics.

On Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 8:16 AM George <ygpz4re [at] hotmail.com> wrote:

Rob,

Not that it matters, as I'm sure you knew this long before you ever thought about emailing the list here, but the first thing I noticed in your photos was the "096" and "101".  <shrug>

But what I'm really curious about is if you've changed out those phenolic plastic timing gears with all metal ones?  When I had the ex-Steve Cook/ex-Joe Martz 308, I did timing belts and changed all four gears (two were already broken) - one of several smart upgrades that engine got.

gp

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From: Robert Garven <rgarven [at] gmail.com>
To: The FerrariList <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Subject: [Ferrari] Timing Belt Parts Mystery -  Calling Brian

Friends,

I am doing a long overdue major service on my 75 308 GT4, and I have a mystery I think only Brian can solve.

First off a caveat, I order almost all my parts from Brian because he's my friend and has been for many years, but I ordered a set of tensioner bearings and timing belts from Ricambi America, because 10 years ago when I did my timing belt service they sent me a set of  fancyHill tensioner bearings for free. I'm not sure if you remember that time, but me and Peter were going back-and-forth about tensioner bearings, because some of them seem to have be made in China and they were failing prematurely, and were very shoddily made. Hence Hill Engineering in England started producing some pretty amazing heavy duty bearing for the 308. I always try to do what's fair and honest, so when I needed to buy a new set of tensioner bearings I bought them from Ricambi plus a set of belts, to repay the favor.

Everything's been going pretty smoothly but when I went to examine the new belts compared to my old ones I noticed they seemed a bit smaller. I counted the teeth and the new belts have 96 teeth, and the ones I took off my car had 101 teeth!!! Since I have been only person that does maintenance on my car for the last 27 years, I hang all my used timing belts on the wall like trophies, and all of them had 101 teeth also.

My question for Brian is what Ferrari model uses this belt with 96 teeth. One of my Ferrari tech friends said maybe these are the new belts frm Ferrari, but that can't be, as it is hard to get the 101 teeth belts on as it is, so I cant imagine Ferrari changing a part that is so critical. I am hoping Brian knows what is going on here, to solve my problem and so I can speak intelligently to the parts guys at Ricambi.  Also is there any secret date stamp on these belts and how do you read them????

I am not an engineer or a scientist like some on the list, but you could not swap out an engine pulley with one with fewer teeth and have the car run, so likewise you can't replace a belt with 101 teeth  with one 96 and expect the engine to function.

Dazed and Confused,

Rob

I think I self solved this noticing the Ferrari parts number on the Ferrari stamped belts see my last photo?..If I put an F40 belt on my GT4 will it increase the performance! haaaa

Here are some pictures below:

New belts 096 R 254

Belts I removed 101 R 254

Previous belts 101 R 254

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