348 Engine out Major done

When I first bought this car, I was pretty keen to not work on it, but as I was a mechanic in a previous life, and still are active in certain aspects of automotive engineering, I thought it would be sensible to save some money, and give myself something to do during this Corona Lockdown.
I got most of the parts from Ricambi, they are fantastic to deal with, very efficient. I got other parts from Eurospares and Superformance....
Because of the lockdown some places weren't operating at full capacity and unable to get parts from Italy, but after shopping around I was able to get everything....
It all went very smoothly, and I strangely found it very satisfying....

I removed the EGR system, fitted some new fuel pumps as well as replacing all the goopy melting rubber parts in the swirl pots...
Did the usual cam belt, idler, tensioner, timing gear bearings, timing gear tensioner, oil pump drive tensioner.
I had the injectors serviced and had new pintels fitted, they all flowed well and came up very evenly. They are in remarkable condition for their age.
Changed the oil, new oil filter of course, changed the gear box oil as well......
I also replaced the phase sensor connector, it had gone quite brittle, I was able to get the same Bosch connector Ferrari used so that worked out well...
The cam timing came up well, I dial by centre-line, for my Euro spec its inlet=109.5˚ and exhaust 112.5˚. 1-4 bank inlet came up at 110˚ and the 5-8 bank inlet came up 110.5˚, the exhaust came up 112˚ and 112.5˚ respectively.
I got some nice anodised plugs to blank the EGR ports, I then removed the piping and valves etc etc.....cleans up the engine nicely...
The entire job took three weeks, there were periods where I was waiting for parts, but essentially it took a day and a half to get the engine out, then about a week to do the work, and two days to put it back in, I did a lot of cleaning, a lot of crap came off that engine and gearbox...
Here's a few pics of the journey...
I've done a preliminary test drive, there was a huge grid lock in my area today as lockdown restrictions ease, so I didn't go far, but tomorrow I'll do some extended testing.

The start up couldn't have gone better, I cranked it over with the coil packs disconnected to get our oil pressure, then I connected the coil packs up and on the very first crank, VROOOOOOOOM, that classic flat plane V8 sound, fantastic!! A bleed of the cooling system and we were good to go.....
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That lift is actually really good for doing the engine out in a low garage like mine, its branded by a local company here in New Zealand but its quite possibly the same one as you are talking about...

The tensioner, yes well it is spring loaded, but the spring loading is what sets the tension, then you lock it off. Then the spring doesn't do anything.
When you set the tension, you undo the locking bolt on the tensioner, then you actually need to get your power bar on the crank pulley and go to rotate it clockwise and you only want to put enough pressure to take up any slack between all the pulleys, then you lock it off. Its the same to adjust it after your 1500km or whenever it is they say it needs adjusting.
You can get to it from under the car no problem.

 

I just used these, I have a friend locally that sells the Aeroflow products, so it was a no brainer for me, not sure what you have local but I am sure it wont be difficult to find something.
I simply could not wait to get that stupid thing off my engine!! Of course in some places you might not pass emissions, but we get away with it here.
Thread is M16 x 1.5
https://www.aeroflowperformance.com/hoses-fittings/an-fittings/plugs-reducers/af814-m16blk-metric-port-plug-m16-x-1-5

 

Okay, maybe I am not explaining it very well, must be something to do with the southern hemisphere and being upside down!!
The spring in the tensioner is only used to set the tension, the tension is set by applying pressure to turn the crank (clockwise), when you do this, whatever minute slack in the belt between the cam pulleys and the idler is taken up, and you can see when you do this, the tensioner extends further out to take up the slack, when it does, you lock the tensioner idler bolt, and its set.
BUT, you should have everything lined up and cams dialed in, the amount of slack is very minimal.
You can do this with the engine in the car, you just can't see the idler move so you have to guess.....
I hope that makes more sense....I might draw a diagram, you'll see what I mean then.....

I left the AC compressor with the car because the AC system had actually only just been serviced and charged before I bought the car a couple of months ago. Its actually not too bad working under that area, a bit of patience and it saves the whole AC evacuation and recharging drama later.
I took the AC comp bracket off, which involves undoing three 8mm (13mm head) nuts, getting a very small hammer behind it and tapping it off, the crank angle sensor cable has a P clamp on the middle nut, and that can be a pain to get off and it gets in the way so you have to carefully wiggle the bracket out of there...
You also have to disconnect the P clamp which holds that oil line on the bracket, this is the line that goes from the block to the oil cooler. I removed that entire oil line, its actually pretty easy.
So once that bracket and the oil line are out of the way, you can unbolt the compressor and it will stay behind when you lift the car. There is plenty of room for it to gently come away from its area by the engine once that oil line and bracket are gone.
Once the car was raised I immediately tied it off to the car to take the weight off those AC lines....
Unfortunately you have to let it dangle when the car goes up and again when it comes down, its totally fine for a short period of time if you are careful and don't let it drop suddenly or get caught on something..
But yes, once the car was fully raised, the priority is to tie the compressor off.

All the fluids were drained, I used some small diameter pipe which I pushed over the brake and the clutch lines, then doubled it over and used a Zip Tie to clamp it, seemed to work really well....
Minimal coolant spill, drained into containers.....But don't be fooled, I am a stickler for keeping the work area tidy!! I use a fair bit of water soluble degreaser on the floor and when cleaning parts....
But I really didn't lose much clutch and brake fluid, the reservoir was still full when it cam to put the engine back in...

I did a lot of thinking about how I was going to attack the job, I lay under the car for a while assessing various options, and I am very pleased at how it went. I don't think I swore at it once, even when I hit my head on the rear bumper bracket!!

 

Its ugly isn't it, there's no good reason for it to be there.....

 

There's probably a diagram in the service manual, if you can actually see it then its obvious how it works, its actually a very simple system.
The spring actually sets the tension, you can't over tighten it unless you force the tension idler with a lever or something, and I would imagine that someone has actually done that for some unknown reason.
Once the bolt is nipped up on the tension idler, then the tension is set and the spring has no further part to play.

I was expecting the AC compressor to be more of a pain that it was, I highly recommend doing it that way, you just have to remember to put the belt on when you put the Alternator belt on!! The AC belt is behind the Alt on the front pulley....

 

Here's what it looks like with all that mess gone!!
Oh and you have to plug the holes in the intake system, I am trying to find some rubber caps or something similar to do that with...
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Yes you can, but you need a crows foot tool, mine are single Hex but a double Hex would be better, its quite tight, not a lot of room there and it doesn't take much to get fouled up on the head. I had to modify my crows foot with the grinder, but once I did that it was fairly straight forward..

 

@chopsui heres abetter view of the deleted EGR system, quite a bit more room in there now... Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I should have taken a picture of those!! Damn!!

But they do line up approximately, when I fitted the Cams, I put them as close as humanly possible to those marks, once I had the belt on, they were bang on those marks, and only one cam, the exhaust on the 5-8 bank was 6˚ retarded. The inlets were within 1˚ and the other exhaust was within half a degree.
If you were to assemble them on those marks, the engine will run but you could have cams up to about 6˚ advanced or retarded when it looks all good, you just can't rely on those marks, they are not accurate enough for timing, but accurate for assembly.

Just got back from a long drive in the 348 and I can say its running extremely sweet!!

 

Here I was out this morning, had a good hour and a half drive, I just love this car!!
The significance of this picture is that 35 years ago, I took a picture of my Fiat 124 Sport (1800) at this very spot, so I thought it would be fun to recreate the same picture, I think I'll go back at a different time to get a picture without the people and the ute in the background.....
See the Fiat picture below as well, I was so proud of my Fiat, it was considered an exotic among my friends, as European cars were somewhat rarer than what most people drove back in those days...
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Yes it sure is, looks more like an engine!! We like that..

 

Yeah they are crazy Native trees, once they mature they just stay the same, unless a branch or two get taken out by storms and so forth....
The Pier/Wharf is actually a new one, they demolished the one in the old picture about 5 years ago and built a new improved version....
I'm reasonable similar to what I was 35 years ago, same weight, still fit, still have all my hair, haven't gone grey yet, touch wood!! But sometimes I do feel old!!

 

I went out for an early morning blast through some local country roads this morning, one of the best drives I have had in this car!!
A good couple of hours, I am really dialed in to the way this car drives and gives feedback, its like a little Go Kart!! Such fun to drive....

I recreated, or tried to as much as possible, the photo of me in the first Ferrari I went for a ride in, which was a 365GT4/BB, I went to the same spot at the same beach, 36 years later, with my own Ferrari.
Unfortunately the area has been changed a bit, but I tried to capture the essence of the original shot....
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