Engine Rebuild

The previous owner had removed the engine to have it rebuilt, but the shop had never started working on it.  So I was able to get the engine and transmission back from them totally assembled.  As it did need rebuilding it went from

I do remember one major disassembly problem.  There's a water pipe (#12 below) that runs through the aluminum oil filter assembly (#3).  Naturally the pipe is steel and was effectively welded in place due to the corrosion.  There's a nut on the end of the pipe, but that's buried about an inch deep in the filter assembly.  A six point socket on it with an impact wrench simply rounded out the nut.  I eventually got it out by grinding and chiseling off the remains of the nut, soaking everything in WD-40 and then using oak wedges to drive the filter assembly away from the front cover.  Oh, I forgot to mention that the other end of the pipe is screwed into the front cover.  Once it was away from the front cover a little ways, I was able to unscrew the oil filter assembly and pipe from the front cover in one piece.  Then I had to hacksaw a slot in the pipe for its length.  After putting more WD-40 in the new slot, the pipe finally broke free of the filter assembly.  When I put it back together, I liberally greased the outside of the new steel pipe, hopefully to slow down the corrosion in case I ever have to take it apart again.

The rod bearings were down to copper.  However, the crank is so hard, that it simply needed a little polishing.  The cylinders were worn to .025 oversize, so I put in .030 oversize pistons.  Getting oversize pistons at that time meant waiting for parts from Italy, so I ordered a set from Arias Industries.  They do a lot of race car pistons.  One thing of interest is that they had a price break after 8 pistons.  So someone rebuilding a V-8 didn't get the break, but the V-12 qualified!  So instead of $110/piston and waiting for a shipment from Italy, I paid $75/piston and got them in three weeks.

With the help of a Ferrari knowledgeable machine shop, I replaced everything that was worn.  This included reboring the cylinders, new rod and crank bearings,  new valve guides and seals, new rod bushings, surfacing the heads and flywheel and of course, the new pistons and rings.  Reassembling the engine was pretty straight forward, just paying attention to things like the timing marks. 

 

After getting it re-installed, I started it with just the 4 headers attached.  Ferrari music to my ears though the neighbors probably didn't care for the volume.  Click here to hear it.

However, all was not right yet.  I checked the compression and the whole right bank was low.  

I rechecked the valve clearances and they were all wrong.  After re-adjusting, the compression still wasn't right.  So I removed the cylinder head and re-installed it with a new gasket.  I still had low compression on all cylinders on that head.  After talking to the machine shop, they wanted to see the head and gasket.  On the way over there, I stopped by the Ferrari dealer to get a new gasket.  The parts guy had me bring in the head.  Then he brought out both 330 and 365 head gaskets.  It turns out that the head had been replaced at some point earlier and a 365 one was installed.  The metal fire ring that surrounds the cylinder in the gasket was too small as the 365 cylinder is larger in diameter.  So the valves were pushing past the ring and then it was getting trapped between the valve and seat, thus preventing the valves from seating properly.  Of course, as the ring was squished by the valve, the clearances would change.  All very explainable in the end and I did get so good that I could remove that head in less than an hour, including all manifolds, timing chain, etc.  After installing it with the right head gasket, everything sealed up properly and I got good compression readings.

At 600 miles after rebuild

Now I could drive it to the auto body classes.

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