Why service costs so much - epilogue

    Last May I wrote an article called “Why does service cost so much?”

    I had begun a major service on my 400 GT, S/N 27071, and thought I would chronicle the trials and tribulations of service.

    I originally thought this would become a ‘filler’ series when I had run out of other ideas to write about, but life isn’t that cooperative.

    The initial article discussed how I got started down the rabbit hole and safety tips while working on mechanical things.

    A quick recap on how the path to insanity began. The alternator light came on and there was no charge from the unit. A rebuild would be necessary.

    Of course, I might as well change the oil. You will begin to notice a theme all Ferrari owners go through.

    “Since I am here, we might as well do... (fill in the blank).”

    I have sold enough parts and worked with enough customers to recognize the mission creep that occurs when getting deeper and deeper into a project.

    I’ve seen customers decide to paint the nose to get rid of a few rock chips. Well, we cannot just paint the nose; we need to do the fenders also.

    If you go this far you need to paint the doors to match, but then the rear may not match. Let’s paint the whole car!

    But the engine compartment will look bad, that should be painted also, so let’s pull the engine. Since the engine is out it should be rebuilt.

    And what about those suspension arms? We can’t have the paint and engine perfect without doing them also!

    Mission Creep. The bane of all who work on cars.

    Back to the 1979 400 GT.

    Fuel lines are forty-plus years old; they should be replaced. One fuel pump is bad. Replace all of the above.

    Close inspection reveals the ignition needs attention. The valve covers do not appear to have ever been removed and the carburetors have not run smoothly since I got the car three years ago. Mission Creep.

    A line item on a work order would read ‘Adjust Valves’. On a 400 GT the air boxes, carburetors, linkage, distributors, and angle drives all need to be removed. All before you can begin to remove the valve covers to begin the ‘valve adjustment’.

    Methodically the engine gets disassembled, tagged and organized because this is going to take a while.

    Valve cover gaskets are original, so I know this is the first time in forty-plus years and 46,000 miles anyone has seen the inside of this engine.

    The gaskets are stuck to the head. Hours and hours of scraping, chiseling, and scraping those gaskets around every stud, being careful not to gouge any divots into the soft aluminum takes hours. Yes, I started and ended that sentence with hours. The number of razor blades and blood do not even begin to describe the time it took.

    Adjusting the valves was the easy part. At the end of that process, I ended up replacing only a few of the 24 shims. Most of the changes could be made by swapping a shim from one spot to another.

 

    While all this fun was going on I sent the distributors out to David North. David took my distributors, ones that have never been off the engine and worked his very special magic on them.

    Marelli distributors are very rugged devices but do require some care and feeding to perform correctly on a Ferrari.

    With two distributors, each controlling one-half of a V-12 engine they MUST be equally synchronized to provide ignition advance throughout the entire RPM range.

    David has the touch to make each distributor sing and dance in time. The old axiom, ‘most carburation problems are ignition’ is true. Never underestimate the ignition systems’ importance to making your Ferrari perform as designed.

    New wrinkle finish is applied to the four valve covers along with gaskets and O-rings and it is beginning to look like an engine again.

    Each carburetor is taken apart and carefully inspected and cleaned. Someone has been here before. Inside the are different jets and tubes.

    Gaskets are sourced from Pierce Manifolds along with some other small bits needed for rebuild.

    The jets and emulsion tube are going to be a larger problem.

    So far, I have sourced parts from California and England. Miscellaneous hoses, original type, have come from Wurth and obscure Mercedes sources.

    Much time has been spent scouring the internet to find exact replacements and boxes, large and small, come to the house weekly.

    The unobtanium carburetor parts are found in the Czech Republic.

    My Mastercard is getting scrutinized by Homeland Security. Not really, but why are these foreign charges coming from a small Georgia city in far north Atlanta?

    Parts arrive and the carburetors are soon back together, clean and ready for installation.

    But wait, there’s more! The throttle bearings are bad and need replacing. More parts, more time, and now I have all the throttle linkage apart which will require synchronization to start from scratch.

 

            Yes, there are distributors back under there.

    The distributors return from Dave North. They look new. Time to get them installed.

    A little side note. The distributors on a 400 GT sit under the cowl. Way under the cowl. They can hardly be seen, barely touched and every piece of hardware is an exercise in feel and creativity in tool placement.

    There is an angle drive they mount to. The angle drive mounts to the back of the cylinder head, way under the cowl. Did I say they are way under the cowl?

    Of course, the first time I mount them they are off by one spline. Remove and remount them again.

    Distributors are on and initial timing is set. Things are starting to really come together now.

    Six carburetors are mounted to the engine. Three on one side and three on the other. Linkage is assembled.

    Various little details get completed. Some water hoses, vacuum lines, brake booster hose and a myriad of other things that get the ‘since I’m there’ treatment. More Mission Creep.

    The BIG day arrives. Time to turn the key and see what I have accomplished. Key on, fuel pump runs, pump the gas twice, turn the key and the starter comes to life.

    Cough, sputter, cough again and she settled into a relatively smooth idle.

    Synchronizing six side-draft carburetors takes some time but soon each carb is doing its job. Setting the linkage is also another time consuming job, but soon, a touch of the throttle opens each carburetor at exactly the same time.

    Now I go back to the ignition distributors and set initial timing at the exact same point. Next is max advance.

    Timing is inspected on a 400 GT from the bottom of the engine.

    With the car on jack stands, the engine is only a few inches away. On my back with timing light in hand the engine is revved up to 5,000 RPM to inspect the max advance point.

    David North has done a masterful job as both distributors advance smoothly and to the exact same point. Perfection!

    With some minor touchup on the carbs and installation of the velocity stacks, it’s time for a drive. Air filter boxes will come later.

    The engine starts easily. It runs smoothly. It had never idled like this before so I can tell there have been improvements.

    We went down the road for the first time in eight months. After a few miles of warmup, the temps are stable, and oil temperature is starting to move. Time to see what this thing can do.

    OMG! Now I say that as a 400 GT. It is not a 296 GTB or an F8. Not Daytona or GTC quick, but the 400 GT is no slouch.

    There is a marked improvement in performance and drivability. Even with the automatic transmission this Ferrari can really get with the program and leave traffic far behind.

    I have driven many of the 400 series cars and this is how one should run.

    Ferraris are meant to be driven, and I have driven this one several times since completion of the service. It’s a car. It acts like a car. Pump the gas and turn the key like a car. It idles in traffic and will putter among the sheep without complaint.

    When an opening appears, the little pedal on the right, when pressed, will awaken the wolf inside and the cars in the rearview mirror get smaller in a hurry.

    Now that the air filter boxes are back on it is not as dramatic as open throat carburetors, but the power is still there.

    Must a Ferrari be taken to a specialist? Can the average Ferrari owner still work on his car? Probably not any of the newer Ferraris, but any analog Ferrari is able to be wrenched upon with a little bit of knowledge, the internet, and a charge card.

    There is great satisfaction in a job well done.

    I stopped counting hours about day two of scraping gaskets. I spent a little over $4,000 on parts.

    The time I spent after hours and on weekends was therapeutic. The 400 series cars are one of the most complicated and difficult Ferraris to work on. A Daytona is a breeze comparatively.

    Now that the band-aids are gone, and the skin has healed, the mind forgets the pain.  I think, would I do it again? Absolutely!