Status update on GCK install

Wow! How far we have come from simply trying to help a guy fix his car. Shameful!

We got the "1 patent" guy now expert enough to give his expert opinion on intellectual property while
Talk of class action lawsuit by another.

Amazing!

Scott...Dave has given up on trying to change the minds of firmly made up. Success screams the loudest. Quietly, we are building the reliable Ferraris that Ferrari never built. Some will clue in and others will replace parts.

The real problem I see is the misapplication of SRI's products with resultant bad results.

 

Once you have been thru the process, you learn a lot about the requirements.

How many do you have FBB?

 

Ill bet FBB new ions ago as did most of us 355 owners that there were far more Bs made than spiders. Sometimes I think you just enjoy the bickering.

 

Just added you to my Ignore List GerryD - please add me to yours....

 

In your typical "make judgements without information", my wife is an engineer and a patent agent with the US government over 30 years. I do n't know much about patents but being around the art long enough to know your post on the subject is basically wrong like so many things you post.

 

Dave:

We've gone through this process one before, quite a while ago. I think you need to learn a little more about both Intellectual Property law, and law in general, before you and other's start shooting off your mouth about lawsuits. I just don't practice IP. Moreover, from all the time I've spent in litigation, the vindictive nature of your posts, and other's, makes me believe there is some ulterior motive behind your actions. But that is just my opinion. You were awarded one patent, so that makes you an IP Attorney who knowns the MPEP backward-and-forward and feels they can go head-to-head with someone who has been in the practice for over 20 years. Man what an ego. What's next, are you going to argue medicine and molecular biology with me? LOL

Several applications (both Utility and CIP) were filed. As you might not be aware, you can avoid the usual publication of the application (generally 18 months after filing in the USPTO) be averring that NO foreign patent will be filed. The current backlog at the USPTO, depending upon Art Unit, is now approximately 2.5-3 years prior to receiving the first substantive Office Action. This is unconscionable, as it is "burning" patent life (assuming no major Patent Term Adjustment by the USPTO).

Now, YOU explain to me how you KNOW that there is nothing novel or non-obvious about the GCK? Are you aware of the proprietary and trade secret processes used to fabricate the connectors, boots, and other components? If so, then you must have committed trade secret misappropriation. It makes me laugh when someone visually compares two "items" and concludes through their superior intelligence that they are equal.

One a completely different topic. Dave Helms is the ONLY Ferrari Tech that is actually solving problems and developing fixes. By way example:

(1) Many F40 owners were unable to drive their cars due to head gaskets that could not even seal under 0 psi pressure. Ferrari and Elring (the gasket manufacturer) did not and would not address the problem. Dave spend thousands of dollars of his own money and God knows how many hours diagnosing the problem and fixing it. He had Elring make a special run of gaskets, rather than just using the OEM gaskets and copious amounts of RTV. Please note this gasket fix has direct applications to the 348 also;

(2) The all-important chain tensioner for the 348 oil pump is NLA from Ferrari, Spa. Dave Helms was the only individual who spent the time, money, and energy to develop a new and MUCH improved version of said tensioner and is selling them through SRI and Ricambi;

(3) I could continue in this vein taking about his his developments in: fixing massive air leaks on the Weber carburetors used on Megabuck Ferraris, his work on the Velux (sp?) transmissions and flywheels on the Mondial, etc., but I think you catch my drift.

Lastly, I really need to give you my most sincere thanks and congratulations for being part of a completely unwarranted and unfounded "lynching party" that accused a man who has done nothing but give endlessly to the Ferrari community over many, many years. Regardless of what you "experts" believe, there is no possible way he is ever going to make a profit on all his developments, let alone recoup the money spent on their development. Even better still, you have managed to make him so disgusted, that he has all but curtailed the further development and implementation of these type of innovations; as well as no longer posting on FChat and sharing his incredible knowledge base.

So WELL DONE! BTW, do all you experts who have never contributed any substantive development to the Ferrari community plan to step-up and fill the gap left by Dave Helms? Me thinks not, as NO other Ferrari Tech in the country (or, to the best of my knowledge, the world) has ever done what Dave has done - that is, to develop actual fixes, not temporary band-aides, for problems.

I used to spend 90% of my time posting in this forum. Unfortunately, with the exception of the good, old knowledgeable crew (Erine, FBB, Plugzit, Vassalo, etc...), it's become a forum filled with quasi-experts; hence its' of little use.


_____________________________
Disclaimer: I have absolutely NO fiscal ties to SR or SRI. In fact, I volunteered my time pro bono as a way of trying to pay back Dave, in a very small way, for all his contributions.

 

So, do I understand that the GCK uses even more gold? I thought I read that too much is a really bad idea.

I also find it comical that AMP (the professional engineers that make millions of these connectors for the automotive industry) were also the ones that stated that this was a really bad idea too.

Even it the GCK is special, and has more clamping force......so do the 28cent connectors that johnk posted. You can compare the images for yourself.

Have you been watching too much Tommyboy? I remember a line about a butcher, and sticking your head up your ass....a box with a guarantee, or something like that....oh I cant remember, but it sure seems to fit here.

 

One my favorite movies and characters. They don't make dentists like Doc Holiday anymore.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfbAFgD2mLo[/ame]

 

Really? The only tech? I think you have missed quite a few.

It seems to me that you have some type of love affair here, which is fine....I even think CO is a social accepting state.....Just stating my opinion like you have stated yours.

And what is so bad about this forum? It seems that is where SRI gets alot of their business if I am not wrong......is that of little use, too?

 

Man, all this time I thought you were an M.D.

You're one smart MoFo Scott.

 

Scott, I am well aware of the election to allow the application to be public after 18 months, I always elect to NOT allow public disclosure.

I find it ironic that the several "patent pending" status items on the SRI website, for quite some time as documented by the way-back machine have not reached any further status.

And, as a business owner and product developer, the commercial gain for many of these is very suspect and really would not support the efforts and costs associated with Utility patents.

So, my comments as said prior our speculation and I speculate the status to be false or in the abandoned state.

My motivation is very simple in this regard:

Since I have spent time and money, I am sensitive to those that use "patent pending" in a false manner. If Dave has not, as I said prior, my apologies to him.

It is illegal to do and I've discussed this in detail with my patent attorney regarding a competitor of mine making false claims.

So don't be so sure that I don't do my homework be making statements.

You can deny and defend all you like but until these patents are awarded, I'm not convinced they are valid, active applications that will result in anything more..

So, go ahead and continue to attack my statements on a discussion board instead of presenting reasonable posts to support your position.

 

I think this thread has reached cat status. FWIW I'm putting my money on Dave Helms (and will do so more than figuratively when it's time for my next major).

 

+1 and +1

Time for Ketel to start another thread for his car.....

 

Like it or not kettle has followed a path encouraged by FChatters (with god intent) that has gotten him no where. Since the start of the original thread he has purchased and replaced good parts, as verified my testing one of his cat TCUs. By my rough estimate he has spend close to $3k (GCK, O2 sensors and cat TCUs). That same $3k would have bought him enough hours by a qualified Ferrari tech to probably sort this out. Instead after all the hoopla he is basically at ground zero but with a questionable wiring harness due to the GCK installation. If that's the way you believe a Ferrari should be maintained God Bless. The approach taken to sort this has be wrong form the start.

 

What a wonderful editorial and slight on the gold kit and great commentary by someone who has never seen Ketel's car. Armchair quarterbacking at it's finest.

Two threads ago those "many Fchaters" got involved after he already had gold kit in hand with a mangled connector when he had issues with pin retrieval. He started with codes never properly diagnosed and at this point there is no way to know whether it was the chicken or the egg. He started with a car that was never smog legal for california. The correct path to diagnosis well that horse had already left the barn. What a painful experience this has all been some 30+ pages of Fchat drivel over a couple of threads I could easily have completed the whole job in that period of time. Like so many owners he just underestimated how complicated things can get because hey he was smarter than the average bear and ended up with a Ferrari most could only dream about. It is pretty easy to look back and say he should have just paid a qualified mechanic but when you are in the thick of things even smart guys can get fooled. So now the poor guy comes to get schooled and instead he gets his threads BS'ed to death by you DaveRocks etc. Amazing! The only real help he got and real data this board got is when Mitchell spent his time to begin the early diagnosis of some of the issues. Mitchell's help was really important and if it wasn't for him the SoCal group could not have figured out the rest. Goth, plugzit, Socal Tim and I had our hands on this car. You did not. We figured it out and proved the solutions. He is far from ground zero because we know the solution. He has a questionable harness not because of the gold kit installation but because the gold kit was not properly installed. I proved that over half the codes were eliminated by simply replacing a handful of pins. I posted the picture of those failed crimps. Do you need more pictures? The end is in sight when Ketel chooses to do it either as a smarter wiser more practiced diy'er or hiring a pro if he doesn't have the time. The ball is in his court.

His car can easily be sorted and made into a great running 355. I know that because I worked on it. That is the bottom line.

 

Oh well, since someone mentioned cats...might as well et it started
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Nice cat I only have Guinea pigs.
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Please post back when the patents are actually awarded. One line is more than sufficient, just giving title and award number.

If those connectors are that good, then maybe a few here would like to licence their use.

Or are you only talking about the boot stretcher tool?

 

I don't get it FBB.

And by that I meant going back to the very first thread where kettle was asking for help on the install, before he started. That is where I said get it properly diagnosed. It is not a statement of 20/20 hindsight. And that is where your hero, DH, posted and basically told me to go pound sand, and that I needed to change my thinking and that we were dealing with ghosts. However, through out this endeavor of kettle's I have been steadfast in my recommendation to get the car properly diagnosed, while you and several other just touted the GCk and told kettle to march on and all his problems would go away once completed. Now you are claiming all types of heroic work by Chatters. I beg to differ. Yes, kettle F-up the install of the GCK. Looking at the crimps on the pins in the picture you posted, I have to wonder about the crimping tool used. With the correct tool with the correct jaws installed it actually hard to F-up a crimp. Check out chapters 5 and 6 of this doc to see how a crimping tool is supposed to be used. http://www.parker.com/literature/Electronic%20Controls%20Division/Literature%20files/mount_maint_uk_ed0907_instructionbook.pdf

I'll take your word that it was Mitchell that looked at the car, with all good intent. He did find bad connections. Great. However, the other recommendation that came out of that was to buy all new O2 sensors and the cat TCUs. I'm not disrepecting Mitchell. He jumped into a bad situation and did the best he could. Kudos to him. But, as I pointed out, neither the TCUs or the O2 sensors were tested as I recall. Maybe the O2 heaters were checked, maybe not, though I repeatedly encouraged kettle to do so. And as I have stated, kettle send me one of the TCUs which I tested (it took 5 minutes at best) and found to be if working order. I made no claims about what I didn't test. Now you are claiming the SO CAL boys figured it out and proved the solution, because half the post GCK install codes were due bad crimps. Oh goody, goody, gum drops. You figured out that half the codes were because of the bad install. Full credit given. But none of that did anything to help resolve the original issues. Kettle was sent home with instruction to redo all the crimps, and then what?

So let me sum it up. There are still codes that existed from the start, but in addition, there is what remains of a F-up GCK installation. And you are claiming now that he is far from ground zero; you know the solution because some of the coded that were not there originally went aways when you fix a few pins. Thus it follows that all the codes will go away when the rest of the pins are fixed? That seems a bold assumption. If you recall, this entire discussion started because you knew the solution and the solution was installed the GCK. Very funny. You are correct though. Kettle is far from ground zero. He is the the crater left by the GCK bomb. Even if fixing all the bad crimps does kit the remaining problems, kettle has waisted the entire summer and possibly spend up to $1500 on unnecessary parts. And you are claiming victory? You haven't even won a battle yet, less the war. The final caveat is that even if fixing the crimps resolves the remaining problems that $1500 worth of additional parts has been installed so you will have know idea where the original fault lied.

Yes, I'm sure it can kettle's car can be sorted. After all, it's a car.

 

You guys just cant stop. You havnt had hands on the car or even seen it but you can come to conclusions. WOW! Ferrari should hire you. Then they could diagnose all the cars in the world from Modena. On top of that, you could even patent this type of mechanical genius. You could call it "stooge meld" or "skittle marinkedink I think I know". But in the end it will all end the same way.....Hello hello hello.
The really sad part is that this used to be a site that you could come to and talk Ferrari 355 and get help when you needed it. But people like John, Ernie, Tim and Dave have set out to destroy one of the best contributors this site and the Ferrari world has ever seen. For some unknown reason the powers that be here somehow allow it...Hmmmm. I think there is an agenda here but many don't want to say it. The pilling on being performed by these stooges is hardly a coincidence. With many of the knowledgeable mechanics leaving this site, the void is only being filled by stooges thus making this site more and more of a soap opera than a show your car and help each other site.

 

Sorry Rob but your replies above skirt a lot of issues here. Issues that were not here years ago. Ive been reading this site for about 10 years now(long before I bought my car) and believe me it has changed a lot. You seemed to care more about the content then. Now it seems to have evolved into a money thing where page count and sponsors are the main objective. Sorry but that's the way I see it and when meeting other F-chat readers face to face, they say the same thing.

 

^^^^

Yuuup. we all went over it. piece of cake. Shes a good car for sure.