512 BBI Boxer Engine Out Major Service S/N 40565

It's been 10 years since 1982 512bbi SN 40565 received it's last engine out major service. Last done in the winter of 2007-2008 in my home garage, it was posted and detailed on F-Chat http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/boxer-major-in-a-not-so-mega-garage.173325/

I don't recommend a 10 year duration for an engine out service. This was at my risk. Do this all over again, I would have elected a 7 maybe 8 year duration.
40565 was driven 6,168 km within the last 10 years. While many may feel that's a low figure, that's more than it was driven for the first 20 years of it's life.

A Summary of 10 years of what I call "Fun Factor"
Purchased in 2004, I bought the car with the main purpose of "increased fun factor". That to me means driving, showing the car, and turning wrenches to maintain it.

In 2006 I drove the car from Chicago to Washington DC for the FCA International Meet. The car won a Platinum class award. After the event I drove the car back to Chicago straight for 17 hours. I'd never do that again regardless what car I drive. That's to long to be safe.

In 2007, I drove the car from Chicago to Corning, NY for the FCA 2007 Meet. While in upstate western NY, we got off the Interstate for some back road driving. On the apex of a curve a horse drawn Amish carriage was there while I took the curve at high speed. I still remember how that horse looked a me in the mirrors. If it could have thrown me a middle hoof it would have. After the Concours, the car returned to Chicago with a Platinum class award and a Coppa Bella Macchina award. This completion is a judged dynamic competition of the car with a 100+ point checklist. All check points must pass, otherwise the entrant is disqualified.

Later in 2007, the car was entered in local Barrington's Concours D' Elegance and won a Best in class award. While waiting in line to pull into winners circle, the car was hit by an old lady's head when she fell out of a wheelchair. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/boxer-punched-by-an-old-lady-in-a-wheelchair.180149/#post-137343882 Un-fun at the time, but it all worked out.

In 2008 I drove the car from Chicago to Toronto again for the FCA meet. Meet F-Chat's Paul Newman while there. While being judged for the Coppa Bella Macchina competition, the pop up lights gave me a problem. Only one raised. Strange, since they were fine during the concours. In this competition you get 1 hour to correct a problem. If not, you are disqualified. I found that a 6mm nut worked lose that retains the light bucket linkage. Once cleared up the car secured a Coppa award, a concours Platinum and a major award, best Flat 12 (Forte award).

In 2009 it was off to FCA Road America at Elkhart Lake. While sporting around the track early on a Sunday morning, just after the straight, and approaching the braking zone, I glanced in the mirrors to see Jim Fuch's BBLM waxing my tail. The hair on the back of my neck still hasn't returned to normal. 406565 came home with a Platinum, and Coppa Bella Macchina awards.

2013 it was again off to FCA Road America again bringing home a Platinum , and the Ed Gilbertson "Ferraris are Meant to be Driven" award.

Preparing for Future Fun Factor with a 2017-2018 Engine Out Major Service:

I started this project mid-November. All fluids drained, headers, fuel distributors, alternators, bell housing, etc, removed. Lifted the engine onto a dollied hand truck using the Bend-Pak 4 post lift rear cross beam. The rear clamshell was suspended in the ceiling as done before. Photos of the timing belts and tensioners show no signs of delamination, teeth missing, wear, or damage. That's a good thing.

Plans are to do the major as done previously, but add replacement axle boots, shift rod seals, and possibly a clutch. Once out, I'll measure the clutch components and go from there.
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George,
Original valves are in the engine that I know of. No MSD ignition. Original Marelli unit with Rev limiter installed. Original 415mm wheels with replacement TRX tires installed.

I've had discussions with a Ferrari Master Tech regarding the valves. Going by what he said, I'm not touching the valves until they need to be serviced. He really didn't see the problem on a flat 12. So I'm not going there. Before I started this service I did a compression check. All cylinders were within tolerance.

Regarding original Marelli ignition: Makes a high pitch capacitor sound that the MSD units don't. Noted by Concours judges when the key is turned on. I haven't had any issues with it. I've heard these can fail due to voltage spikes. Maybe from jumping, or a battery that has been severely discharged.

TRX Tires: Yes, 80's technology and there are better tires on the market for newer cars, but they do the job. To me they aren't a big deal and I'd rather have the original fitted to the car.

 

Correct. The red material is Permatex High Tack Sealant. It worked great for this application, and I will use it again for the new hose.

 

Did the preliminary valve clearance check today. Removed the ignition distributor and seal retainer

Ferrari spec's the following valve clearance/tolerance:
Intake: .008" - .010"
Exhaust: .012" - .014"
Using a feeler gage I measured:


512BBI Ser 40565 All Readings- Cold Engine

Cyl 1-6 (Right Bank)
Intake Exhaust
1 .010" .013"
2 .009" .013"
3 .010" .013"
4 .010" .013"
5 .010" .014"
6 .010" .012"

Cyl 7-12 (Left Bank)
Intake Exhaust
7 .009" .013"
8 .010" .013"
9 .009" .013"
10 .009" .013"
11 .010" .013"
12 .009" .014"

My thoughts are to leave the above valve clearances as is and move on. Next will be to reset the flywheel pointer to PM 1-6 and begin removing the timing belts, tensioner bearings and camshafts.

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Removal and Inspection of the Clutch Assembly
Both clutch discs and the central pressure plate shows near wear limit, so it looks like I will be sourcing a clutch.
Thickness measurements taken are:

Disk with spring hub: .266" (6.75mm) Original: 7.5-7.6 mm, 1 mm wear limit
Disk with rigid hub: .258" (6.55 mm) Original: 7.2-7.3 mm, 1 mm wear limit
Central pressure plate: .330" (8.35 mm) Original: 8.8 mm, 1 mm wear limit
Combined total: 21.65 mm
The combined total justifies replacement. Replacement will require adding the spacer washers (workshop manual states 22.0mm) back in position. I saved the originals from the last engine out. The flywheel is free of scoring but I will need to check flatness.
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Thanks Peter.
Inspection and Removal of the Timing Belts, Tensioner Bearings, and Water Pump Housing
No evidence of timing belt or bearing damage which is a great thing. The water pump housing is now removed.
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Clutch Assembly Sourced
Just ordered the Super Performance uprated clutch kit. See http://www.superformance.co.uk/flat12/clutch.html Its a Hill Engineering or an AP unit. According to Super Performance, the pressure plate is beefier than the OE unit. The kit includes the release (throw-out bearing). I'll source the SKF pilot bearing locally. I'm not looking for a street race, but more robust might be a good thing. The current stock unit carried the car for 24,000 KM. Not bad, but not that great either.

 

To remove the Timing Case Assembly, the 20+ locknuts retaining the engine casing to the transaxle must be removed. Some nuts are hidden behind the flywheel so the flywheel is removed for access. One is even hidden above the left differential hub, which means the hub needs to be removed.

Timing Case Removal/ T-Belt Drive Bearings & Seal Removal
The crank balancer nut is removed, and a 2 jaw puller is used to remove the balancer. After marking the drive pulleys with the flywheel on PM 1/6. The ring nuts (spanners) are removed with a spanner socket I made using a 24mm , 1/2" drive socket. The nuts are tight, so after allot of grunting & swearing, I was able to break them free. The pulleys are removed and identified for reinstallation. All 8mm locknuts & washers are removed from the front of the cover and all 10mm locknuts & washers are removed from the engine/trans casing. Using a nylon strap under the heads, the lift cross beam came in handy to hoist the engine from the trans case. Just enough to remove the timing case assembly from the front of the engine. After replacement of the bearings, and oil seals in the timing case, the engine will need to be lifted again. Casing mating faces cleaned, and resealed with a high grade white silicone sealer for reassembly.

Once off the engine, the timing case is brought to the bench. The woodruff keys are removed from the shafts along with the outer snap rings. After removing the outer bearing seals, a pencil torch is used to heat the inner race of the bearing applying just enough heat to tap the shaft out if the bearing's inner race with a copper mallet. The shaft, with it's attached gear is removed from the back of the casing. The gear & shaft must be individually identified so each can be reinstalled as it came out. The oil seals are easily removed using a flat blade screwdriver. The bearings with the spring washer can be removed through the front of the casing.

The casing can now be cleaned and inspected pending replacement parts.

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To access the Removal of the Shift Rod and Seal from the Gearbox Housing, the side cover 8mm nuts are removed. There is one hidden behind the front engine mount bracket, so that requires removal as well. Like the engine/trans. housing, there is no paper gasket used by the factory for the mating surfaces. A white silicone sealant is used instead.
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All the O-rings including the oil pickup tubes were replaced the last engine out maintenance 10 years ago.. They are still pliable, but are all being replaced for this service as well.

Richard is a great guy! If you bump into him again, say hello to him for me.

 

Is this the post you are speaking of? https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/tr-transaxle-rebuild.564813/#post-145734066
If not, can you point me in the correct direction? I'm not going any deeper than replacing the shift rod seal on this project. I plan to place index marks on the shift shaft position prior to removal for alignment on assembly. The gearbox shifted fine so I'm not clear why further linkage adjustment would be necessary.

The white RTV Silicone Sealant that I will be using was recommended by our local Ferrari dealership. It's available from my local WW Grainger branch, and is what I used for this service 10 years ago. No leaks as well. The shift rod seal wept a drop or two during shut down starting a year or two ago. But that's about it.