Project Stupid Ferrari (Formerly: Another Awesome V8 swap?)

[The Dark Side of Will]

The old hilljack attitude that Ferraris be fancy european cars and you can't get parts for them is totally un-true.

Google is your friend, there are a ton of suppliers and a lot of the parts even from Ferrari aren't as expensive as people would lead you to believe.

My dad and I keep talking about a 355 and we've been pricing parts out, parts are definitely pricey, but affordable if you care about the car.

I thought that about BMW's too, until I actually got into them and looked around. The older ones are very affordable. Even though individual repairs are more expensive than, say, an old Pontiac, BMW's *STAY FIXED* and don't require constant niggling bullshit.

[Emc209i]

This thread changed names and was moved while I was reading. You just moved up in my book Will. Very nice. I'll be watching.

Edit: And got your PM while I was typing this. Would be happy to help to give paint advice. It just so happens the color I painted the Fiero was Rosso Corsa.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Since this is now a Ferrari Thread, I moved it to 'Other Cars'.

This will be an interesting build. My only concern is where this will fall with your current builds. The Mule, the AMC, the BMW, and now a Ferrari. At your tedious, but thorough, pace, I might have grand-kids by the time this build is done.

I agree with Crzyone, sell some stuff off and make this one a priority! An Engine-swapper Ferrari is an awesome concept!

Thanks! I gave it a name. I named it that so that whenever I have to buy an expensive part or I'm broke because of the car, I can say "It's that Stupid Ferrari!"

What I have going for me this time around is that I am in the middle of refinancing (great time to buy a Ferrari, right?) one of my properties. I'm going to take a little cash out, finish up the rehab, kick the tenant out and live there. Then I'll have my own 2.5 car garage to work in instead of driving to my dad's place on the weekends.

The Mule's almost roadworthy. I should be able to DD it in another month or so.
Bad Idea BMW still has a lot of design and bench work to do in order to bolt the powertrain together, so I won't have a body for it for a while. The AMC inches along as I think about it, but it's not very important.

[The Dark Side of Will]

This thread changed names and was moved while I was reading. You just moved up in my book Will. Very nice. I'll be watching.

Edit: And got your PM while I was typing this. Would be happy to help to give paint advice. It just so happens the color I painted the Fiero was Rosso Corsa.

Thanks! I'm working on it

I had Corvette Electron Blue in mind... I think a 308 would look fantastic in that or a similar extremely bright extremely metallic blue.

You've obviously done your homework when it comes to paint work; and I did recall that you used an actual Ferrari red on your car.

[The Dark Side of Will]

That engine + that 308 + this widebody = Sex.

Still not going to to it, but that's a damned nice piece of work.

http://www.stancenation.com/2010/10/09/ ... i-308-gto/

[AkursedX]

Thanks! I'm working on it

I had Corvette Electron Blue in mind... I think a 308 would look fantastic in that or a similar extremely bright extremely metallic blue.

I'm in love with Nissan's Monterey Blue that is on the 370Z. I'd love to see a Ferrari in that color.

When I was a kid, I think I built 4 Testor's Brand Ferrari GTO models and 2 of them were blue. I wish I still had them to show you. They did look quite awesome.

Thanks! I gave it a name. I named it that so that whenever I have to buy an expensive part or I'm broke because of the car, I can say "It's that Stupid Ferrari!"

What I have going for me this time around is that I am in the middle of refinancing (great time to buy a Ferrari, right?) one of my properties. I'm going to take a little cash out, finish up the rehab, kick the tenant out and live there. Then I'll have my own 2.5 car garage to work in instead of driving to my dad's place on the weekends.

The Mule's almost roadworthy. I should be able to DD it in another month or so.
Bad Idea BMW still has a lot of design and bench work to do in order to bolt the powertrain together, so I won't have a body for it for a while. The AMC inches along as I think about it, but it's not very important.

Good to hear. I hope this build progresses along nicely. It will be interesting to see what kind of a project this is going to be in regards to how much work it will take to put the old and the new together.

[Emc209i]

You know, I just had a thought. Does that dropout come with the ECU? I imagine it costs $2k all by its lonesome.

[The Dark Side of Will]

It comes with the harnesses up the the ECU connectors, but does not come with the ECU's. There are two. It's run as a pair of four cylinder engines by twin Motronic 2.5 units.

I checked last week and there's a set of controllers on Ebay for ~$1000 each.

I'm speculating that I could run it as a V8 with a Motronic 3.3 from an E34 540i. I *may* also be able to run dual electronic throttles using the EML from an E32 750iL. We'll see. I'll figure something out.

Edit: $1K for the pair... interesting: http://www.ebay.com/itm/350479980381

[The Dark Side of Will]

Fuck yes. Nice Will!

Sell the mule and keep the Ferrari. Fiero who?

It remains to be seen whether I'll keep the car or flip it.

Right off the bat, The Mule's going to be a good bit faster. The Mule's about 3000# (maybe a bit more) with me in it and has ~330HP at the crank. With 300 at the crank, the Stupid Ferrari would have to be down around 2450 without me... which is getting toward what I'd call the unreasonable end of the weights I've heard (you know the people who always think the Fiero weighs 2000#?) for the 308. There's a LOT more performance headroom available in The Mule than there would be in the Stupid Ferrari, with a tunable computer, two different cam upgrades and a final drive gear upgrade available, but that's just me being practical.

Would I rather be seen just about anywhere in the Ferrari? Absolutely.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Links to random Ferrari stuffs:

http://www.ferrariservicebonini.com/Restauri_eng.html
http://montrealracing.com/forums/showth ... know-about!!
http://www.automobile-catalog.com/car/1 ... zione.html
http://histomobile.com/m2/l2/1984-ferra ... 236955.htm
http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/cla ... rrari-288/
http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/cla ... rrari-288/
http://forums.fourtitude.com/showthread ... 8L-engines
http://www.dobsonmotorsport.com/invento ... .php?id=33
http://chrisescars.com/ferrari-288-gto/

And finally--you knew it was coming--LSx into Ferrari 308:
http://ls1tech.com/forums/conversions-h ... t-car.html
(Broken link to shop's website, however)

[CincinnatiFiero]

My friend brought his GTSi out to the bar tonight, it may be time to sell my SL and upgrade. Even with 230HP or whatever, I want one.

[The Dark Side of Will]

They are pretty sexy.

The GTSi QV's have 270 or so.

[CincinnatiFiero]

It's not a QV its a mid year 308, it's an injected car but it's still a 2v it's an 83 I think.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Yeah, I think the QV's were '84/'85. They usually command a significant premium over the 2V cars.

[CincinnatiFiero]

They do, which is why he has a 2V lol.

[The Dark Side of Will]

Haha... I was wondering if that were the reason.
I'm not sure I could own a Ferrari with only 230 HP...

Of course right now my Ferrari has ZERO horsepower...

[The Dark Side of Will]

I should be getting the engine at the end of this week and making arrangement to ship the car.
The gears in my head are already turning.

Notice the transaxle mounting arms visible in these two pictures of a 355 gearbox:





The 348 gearbox has the mounting bosses for these arms cast into it, but one of the holes is not drilled. It doesn't look hard to drill and tap that hole in order to use the 355 mount arms.

Were these mount arms used on any other applications? Mondial?

I notice that this Mondial transaxle has studs to mount these arms: New Old Stock Complete Transaxle Ferrari Mondial T | eBay

Anyway, using these transmission mounting arms for 4 point driveline mounting looks like it will make mounting the driveline in the 308 a LOT easier than using the 3 point mounting with the high transmission mount that the 348 uses.

I found these on ebay, but $450 each strikes me as excessive. I can build parts to replace those for a lot less.
Ferrari F355 Gearbox Transmission Case Support #152246 | eBay

[The Dark Side of Will]

www.nicksforzaferrari.com

[The Dark Side of Will]

Engine pickup's going to have to wait until after my Navy duty (two weeks). Car delivery scheduled for the 23rd.

[CincinnatiFiero]

Was driving around in the smart end of town yesterday, saw a house where they were doing a serious remodel and they'd torn down the garage down a very long driveway. Drug out of the garage was a yellow 308 covered in grime. I ran home grabbed cash, jumped in my SL and went back over.










It was a fucking Mera.