488 Cali T and 488 same engine makes me chuckle as I....

Posting this in both the 488 and Cali T thread as I thought you'd get a kick out of it. I sold my 458 a little while back and (unlike many other "experts") am excited to get a 488 soon - as I thinking the car is awesome after driving it a few times. Just waiting for the prices to drop a bit more as I know the F8 will push that car a down over the next 6-7 months and then I will strike. Meanwhile I am enjoying our Cali T and I had to smile and remind myself that they SHARE THE SAME ENGINE but these bastards stinged me out of 100hp hahaha. I can't believe that engine is that good that for the Cali T they detuned it and then also used for the 488. Me, for one, absolutely love these new turbo engines - and I say this as 458 owner, who of course also loved the 458 NA engine. I even like the deeper sound of these newer engines, not ashamed to say it. Matter of fact, one of my car biddies wouldn't believe my T was turbo...what does that tell you!!!!

 

Most changes were made only because of relocation of where the 488 engine sits in the car otherwise the 488 is a slight mod to the Cali T engine-way different than non-Cali T and 458 lol As you can see, the mods were done more with respect to how the engine is fed. Otherwise same 3.9 liter chamber.

1. The California T engine has smaller Helmholtz pressure stabilizing chambers (the two red chambers on top of the cylinder head), while the stabilizing chamber on the 488 GTB engine is much larger.

2. The two Helmholtz chambers on the California T engine, are connected by a fixed tube. This means it is NOT a variable system; on the contrary, the stabilizing chamber in the 488 GTB engine is a variable resonance type (the connecting tube has a electronically-controlled valve).

3. To utilize the benefit from the larger Helmholtz chamber, the slide tubes (those vertical pipes that connect the stabilizing chamber to the cylinder head) on the 488 GTB engine are longer with larger diameter. The reason why 488 GTB can use a longer slide tube is because the engine is placed behind the passenger cabin, which has more room to fit. The California T places its engine in front of the cabin, so the height of the engine is limited to clear the engine hood cover.

4. The turbocharger in California T is at traditional position, which is tucked underside the V banks, and close to the exhaust manifolds. The advantages are its compactness, which saves spaces (since the engine need to share spaces with the front suspension, steering, braking systems); and it also reduces heat loss, which benefits emission control during cold startup. On the other hand, the 488 GTB engine places the turbochargers more outwards and sits higher than the cylinder head. This leads to a longer and more straight exhaust manifold, which is a typical example of optimizing high RPM exhaust air stream resonance. Such design also indicates: the 488 GTB turbocharger is more relying on the exhaust airflow’s kinetic energy, not just the pressure. The high position of the turbocharger also makes a very short intake path possible, which greatly reduces turbo lag and enhances throttle response.

5. Placing the engine behind the cabin can not only optimize 488 GTB’s front/rear weight distribution, but also allows more optimized engine packaging and design flexibility.

6. Thanks to advanced light-weight materials in the engine block construction, the 488 GTB has very hight HP output/powertrain weight ratio, which any current pure EV cannot match. Take the Tesla Model S P85 as example (it is not a sports car but we can use this to illustrate the weight of a EV powertrain with similar output and range), the battery pack alone has already taken up 1,323 lbs, putting the electric motor, differential together makes the total powertrain weight close to 1,900lbs, more than 2 times of the weight of a gasoline counterpart with similar output.