1984 400i Sold on Ebay for $14K

Little problem with the odometer reading:

Below are the historical events for this vehicle listed in chronological order. Any discrepancies will be in bold text.

Report Run Date 2010-09-20 17:59:30.727 EDT

Vehicle: Ferrari (ZFFEB06B000049167)

Event date Location Odometer reading Data Source Details
12/19/1995 FL 67,000 State Agency FAILED EMISSION INSPECTION
EMISSION INSPECTION
12/20/1995 FL State Agency PASSED EMISSION INSPECTION
06/13/2002 CA State Agency PASSED EMISSION INSPECTION
12/03/2009 BEDFORD, NY Motor Vehicle Dept. REGISTRATION EVENT/RENEWAL
01/22/2010 BEDFORD, NY Motor Vehicle Dept. TITLE

Between the issue with the "fuel injection bank", the electrics and the mileage discrepancy, there might be some big repair bills lurking with this car.

Why do people paint the Ferrari name on the cam covers red?

 

"I don't have the time or finances to deal with it......."

Maybe you guys can remember to cut that on my tombstone????

j/k....no knowledge of this car...jus' sayin'......

 

There fixed it...

TIA-truth in advertising

 

My brother redesigned his k jetronic fuel system in his delorean for a few 100 bucks.. Runs perfect now..

I told him he should of made a kit and sell it.

Is this really a big expensive problem?

 

Almost would have been worth it to buy and part out.

 

Man that guy overpaid!

 

Crazy question.

Can an engine like that be converted to Webers?

 

Absolutely! The exact same engine configuration in the 400 series from 1975-1979 had 6 side draft Webers.

I would want to know why someone decided (and needed) to go to the expense of a bottom end rebuild but apparently did not do the top end and also why it is the fuel injection on the right side that is not working.

The mileage on the car was 67,000 back in 1995. Who knows what the true mileage on this car is now.

 

I guess the rub is 6 Webers, manifolds and installation would prob be about the price of the car.

 

You betcha!

 

Since the 400i was never officially imported, what's the chance the odo is still in KM? If so, the mileage could be accurate. Most DMV's report the odo on the car, never checking to see if it's in KM or miles. 67KM is 41630 miles.

 

Chance it is still in km is zero. Here is the photo of the speedo from the eBay listing:
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

It's also a good bet that the car had its original European speedo/odo (in km) replaced at some point with a US unit ---- happened a lot with "pseudo-imported" Ferraris of that era.

This could explain why it was reported with 67,000 (probably km) on it in '95, but now shows 52,628 (definitely miles) on it today.

So, the question would be was the replacement odometer (the US spec unit) properly set in a "DOT official manner" to begin at 41,630 [miles] (or whatever the original read at the time of the replacement) ----- or did it start at "0" ??? If so, that car could have as many as 94,258 (miles) on her ! And, that would be somewhat impressive to have a 365/400/412 go that far !

 

My guess would be that with the high mileage, it was beginning to suffer from low oil pressure due to excessive wear on the main bearings / journals (pretty common on the older V12 engines) ......hence the need to rebuild just the lower end.

 

How about a couple of Holley 4 barrels, then?

 

You'd need a pretty good sized hood bump for those unless they can be mounted on the sides of the engine somehow!

 

Doesn't that look like a stickered speedo to you John? See the white lines around the idiot lights?

 

What is unusual is that on these cars,365GT4 2+2/400/412 the valve guides and the timing chain seem to be the weak link of the engine. Lower end is tough and pretty standard fare.
For example the factory repair manual suggest replacing valves and timing chain at 50k Kilometers and mentions no inspection or maintenance of the lower end at that service.
So lower in work sounds like abuse or neglect damage repair.

 

Dave,

I agree.


Uro,

Just buy one with Webbers, why bother converting?

Regards,

Art S.

 

Mechanical suspicions aside..... the car is quite beautiful, though I always love Ferraris in shades of blue

 

I agree

 

Agreed.

 

Could be. If so, the mileage rollback is even greater (assuming the 67,000 was really in miles as stated on the emissions report).

I've only ever heard of one 400i that needed a lower end rebuild and that was because a shop had somehow screwed up a top end service and there was something like valve/piston interference and things got ugly after that.

The shop that had to deal with the So. Cal owner's problem from his local shop was Intrepid Motors in Reno and they had to use a short block from a 412. I have the detailed invoices from the work as it was for a beautiful car that I looked at but did not buy because of price. In 1998, the bill, including $6K for the short block, for the engine rebuild was about $26K. It ran like a champ!

 

I don't often discuss, and never share photos of what I do because there are very opinionated members of the community who take exception to using Ferrari components for project cars. If your reason for wanting webers is the sound of 12 throttles, try using throttle body efi. The Spica throttle bodies used on the 70's era Alfa's are the right size and bore spread for the 400 engine. They are also very light weight and can be added to a modified 400i exhaust cam cover/intake manifold. The webers are far to heavy to do so. As someone else posted, the carb manifold is hard to find, if at all. And very costly. I might add that I obtain my parts from salvage yards and for all this particular cars faults. I do not feel it should be parted.