83 Boxer engine and gearbox rebuild

I recently had a boxer dropped off that has an engine thats getting tired and a gearbox thats clearly in need of repair which is essentially forced the need to address it now. The short drive down my laneway to the shop was enough to establish it sounds like pinion bearings, hopefully its limited to bearing replacement only. When I run the car stationary I dont hear anything. Rather than drive it and cause any more metal contamination or damage I parked it and gave the car a look over. I know there's a CIS issue causing a drivability concern which Ill also address.

Because this car is a multi-platinum award winning car (with the owners permission), Ill point out several details that are incorrect and show how easily they are corrected to take it to a higher level at the next event!

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Okay so here are my observations as far as the incorrect parts go.

Things that say this was a DOT converted then undone but not completely. The spinners are incorrect, should have a raised horse not engraved so they were probably sourced to replace the octagon nuts all converted cars got. Couldn't have a sharp spinning part on the wheel like thats a pedestrians biggest concern if he's that close to a moving car.

Second pic is the indication of a crash bar. What I do in this case is keep the bar but weld it to the inside structure rather than take it out and plug weld the bolt holes so its invisible. Gotta be better than nothing but the bolts shouldn't be there. Not sure who converted it but Amerispec didn't unless they used a variety of different crash bars. Out of all the crash bars Ive seen, Amerispec is the one to have except it has a massive mount plate with a cutout to clear the door edge light. Pretty ugly but effective.


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There's a few things wrong in this third pic. Rad mount fasteners are usually blacked out with a paint brush, hose clamp is oriented incorrectly (Should also have a hex head not whats called a cheese head screw (I didn't make up the name). Wiring for signal and repeater should come out through a hole in the aluminum filler panel with a grommet around it. The original panel was trimmed off to make room for the DOT reinforcements then a hand made replacement sheet was put there to fill the gap once the reinforcements were removed. Close but no cigar. Wires shouldn't be pinched under the plastic panel. You can see the original aluminum panel has tin sheer marks on it from where it was trimmed off. There's usually a steel wire retainer clipped to the edge of the plastic panel to hold the harness as well.


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Hazard warning light on dash is a DOT oversight, too bad when the dash was redone they didn't just fill the hole in the fibreglass dash and make it disappear. Hard to fix that now and not worth the trouble.

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Ive never seen rubber caps on the wiper pivot nuts. Im not saying its impossible and my 400i has something similar in plastic because its a french market car originally. I haven't pulled them off to see whats under them but Ive only ever seen painted acorn nuts on boxers until now. If they were missing and there's now regular nuts under them Ill understand why the caps are there.



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A bunch of details wrong in this pic. Repeater wiring should go under the corner of the main signal light not over it. Light socket is a DOT converted socket, wiring looks messy, white wire retainer on front tube should be green, P-clips for repeaters should be painted black with a brush as should the upper light retaining tab and the hinge hardware should be black. Body panels were aligned during initial mockup then the hinge pins were pulled and the car painted. This way the car went back together easy and everything lined up.

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Hood grill should have 4 silver phillips head screws on outer mounts (in silver) and 4 black screws on the central mounts that are black. This car has silver and black rivets. The problem with undoing this is the 1/8" rivet is larger than the original screw hole so using the correct screws at this point becomes a big undertaking involving plug welding all the holes and re-drilling. Another one of those things some might want to skip correcting.
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Black sealant around the windshield is correct but its missing on the drip rails. Should have black sealant over the anodized trim sealing it to the roof then another one between the anodized trim and painted trim.


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Screw clips for the plate light covers should be black not gold
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Left bank plug wires should go over the air intake pipe flowing nicely over it not pushed down under it.

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Hardware should be blacked out on safety latch.

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RF calliper is leaking on the tire, I think its the bleeder leaking but haven't investigated further yet.

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Most details are correct except for it lacking all paint inspection marks and condition surprises me for a platinum car, clearly my understanding of the requirements is off.

I would like to see the details of where the 3 point deduction came from. What mattered to them and what didn't. Im sweating the most minute of details on the 84 restoration so seeing this car was a relief (no offense), it just gave me a better idea of how fussy (or not) the judges are.


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Engine is out and Ill be posting my findings as far as incorrect details go, leak down results and pics of what some of the details should look like! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Here's some details with the paint that are usually done wrong in a repaint. Ferrari never carried the black around on the entire seam, they just made it come around the radius and stop. First 4 are of this boxer then the others are examples of what it should be like. You can see on the channel that ferrari carried the black onto the underside rather than stop at the vertical part. It makes sense because when you stand back from the car you'll see body colour unless it carries up into the overhang about a 1/4 of an inch like the orange example at the bottom.





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Rear heat shield on BBi has to come out after header removal, 82 especially since it has 4 welded air box mount brackets. This being an 83 has 2 removable mounts which helps engine removal but its not to get the shield out. The only way to get it out the top is to bend the mounts out of the way (2 or 4 depending on year) and bend them back. To remove it without bending things you remove the headers and it tips back at the bottom then you can rotate it slightly as you lift it up then drop it out the bottom or just keep lifting it straight up but cover the drop gear case to prevent damage like you see on this shield. I haven't seen one yet that isn't scratched other than the new ones I put in here. Carb'd they come out the top easily. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Engine has blow by and its filling the sensor plate housings with oil as well as throttle bodies Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Exhaust currently and the last pic is what it will (and should) look like. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Another common problem, spray painted silver as an assembly covering all the zinc plated hardware. The yellow zinc spark plug tubes have silver paint on them as well.

Last pic is how it should look.


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These engines can look great up top but they look like this underneath.

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Headers are scuffed which is common and THE REASON boxers sit high in the back is to minimize this (my opinion of course). Ill pop the dent out and fix the scuffs then ceramic coat them black.

Depending on where you live you can get away with a lowered car (like mine) but other places they hit at stock ride height.

 

Incorrect wiring and then correct


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One axle is missing the 3 load spreading plates, been that way for a long time and it wouldn't
cause a problem but Ill put plates on it as it should have.



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Lower muffler mounts have remains of DOT reinforcements which Ill cut off completely.


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In the first pic you can see in the cone leading to the sensor plate theres a 1mm wide surface that the sensor plate is supposed to line up directly with. This position is adjustable and is clearly set too low as you can see by the air gap.

The second pic has the opposite problem, the plate is set too high above the 1mm wide surface so fuel delivery to each bank would be different.



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Number 2 exhaust port is dripping oil. A leakdown test shows 3-7% on all cylinders including number 2 but number 7 has a 26% leak.


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