Dino Saga 050904 | FerrariChat

Dino Saga 050904

Discussion in 'Corbani's Corner' started by John Corbani, Sep 4, 2005.

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  1. John Corbani

    John Corbani Formula 3
    Honorary Owner

    May 5, 2005
    1,153
    Santa Barbara, CA
    Full Name:
    John Corbani
    #1 John Corbani, Sep 4, 2005
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    Dino Saga 050904

    The car came with all of the big pieces of smog equipment in place and the air conditioner working. Turns out the smog stuff had been pretty well killed. The air pump clutch had been disconnected from the alternator and the wire to the clutch was nowhere to be found. All the little vacuum hoses were gone. No valves (intake air or oil separator) went into the air plenum. Had been like that for years and came with a clean bill of health. Turns out that the car could pass smog tests in the early days by very carefully setting the carbs and the timing.

    When we had to pull the engine to get at the broken stud, I pulled all of the piping to the air injectors and the injectors themselves. Made access to everything much easier. Just plugged the injector holes in the exhaust extenders. Car ran like that until I got a cracked valve and could not smog it no matter what I did. Had to do the valves (Smogged just fine afterwards until exempt.) Pulled the heads myself.

    Really glad that plumbing and injectors were gone and cursed the air conditioning compressor for still being in the way. Had never used the air so decided to just leave it out when things went back together. Lost 29 lbs. in bracket, clutch and compressor. Bought and installed a used cam cap and had two big tapped holes left in the head. Perfect to support the oil heat exchanger that used to be bolted to the compressor. Took a lot of measurements and came up with a weldment made out of 1/8” stainless plate. 3 pieces sheared to size, 4 holes drilled, clamped all to an angle plate and TIG welded. Trivial project, worked like a charm. Now access is great; water pump, alternator, oil filter and heat exchanger are right in the open. I pulled the Freon hoses leading forward but left the AC radiator in for another 10 years. Had a lady back over me (said I was too small, said she never saw me). Both radiators came out during reconstruction and the AC one stayed out. On her nickel. Cooling is better and fans have a lot more room.

    The first picture shows things now. Note the two types of oil hoses. Have had 3 hose failures over the years. All were caught at a small weep. Outer braid is supposed to stop catastrophic failure. So far, so good. One original hose had swaged ends. Had to buy a new one. The replacement had the ends shown but the wrong hose. Leaked after a few years and I discovered that these fittings are screw-on. I went to a CAT (as in Caterpillar tractor) repair shop and got the steel braided hose and an education on how to clean fittings and install the hose. Been good for the past 12 years. The other hose left about 8 years ago. A local race car builder had a foot of nylon braided jacket oil hose in his goody box. I cleaned fittings and put that one together myself. It wanted to collapse when bent so I installed a long compression spring that fit snugly inside. Been fine ever since.

    The second picture shows a replacement fan motor that is about 10 years old. The original burned up and there was no possibility of rebuilding. A Ferrari replacement seemed pricey so I went down to Pep Boys. Found a fan motor same length, 1/8” smaller in diameter and almost the right dia. shaft. 35 dollars later I bent some 1/8” aluminum sheet into a shallow U, taped it to the bottom of the motor and now the clamp fit just fine. Filed a flat on the shaft and bored the fan. I pulled the other fan and cut 3/8” off the end of each blade on both fans. Rebalanced the fans and put everything back together. The fans work fine and do not hit the chin metal when it pops up after bottoming the nose. Used to make a terrible noise after hitting the street at the bottom of a steep driveway. Had to instantly stop and pop the chin back down. Now there is not such a rush. And my passenger does not go into full panic mode thinking that the car is blowing up.

    You learn the darndest things!

    John
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