FrankenFerrari - V12 Ferrari 308

Very small progress....I ordered a new higher voltage set point regulator that should change the new Li battery properly form this place for $26:

https://www.prancingmoose.com/AdjustableVoltage.html

They have lots of options.  I when with a fixed internal regulator with a 14.8V set point for $26 which should net about 14.5 system voltage but they also have an adjustable option and conversions for external regulators fix or adjustable.

I was asked for the 2nd time in as many months if I thought a 456/550 engine could be installed in a 308.

My 1st answer was sure!  Lets do it!

Now the question is WITHOUT cutting the 308 engine bay to bits. hmmmmm...I don't know. Years ago when I started my build that came out and I just assumed the newer engine was too long but I honestly have no idea how long a 456/550 engine is.

soooo...I need to find a 456 or 550 engine laying around and can take some measurements

I found a salvage yard with a 456 and a 599 engine and requested so info on both.  hopefully I can get them to respond because I would love to do this project.  The guy asking is a long time 308 buddy who can likely do most of it himself (he has an industrial  robot business) so it won't be a huge time suck but will bring in some much needed project budget and would be pretty interesting. 

I've also talked to him about dong something cool but short of TR heads on a 400 block....I'm certain I could get a reliable 500hp  so the same as a 550 and well over the 436hp a 456 puts out so not a bad option.  I'm not sure I ever posted this but I basically reinvented the 456/550 engines...my engine is 458cc/cyl where they are 456cc/cyl and after many hours with the TR heads on the flow bench I ended up with 34/28.5mm valves because I couldn't find 29mm exhaust blanks and the 456/550 have....yup, 34/29.   The bore centers on the 308 and 400 and really all the older ferrari engines is 94mm and I think the 456/550 is 100 or 104, something like that so I just assumed the are too long to fit but the rear flange and front stuff are more compact so maybe.......I need the measurements.

599 guy says:

The motor long block is roughly 33" length, 22" width, 20" height. 

The 400 is about 31.5 bellhousing to crank nose then the damper adds 2.5" for about 34" total and about 21.5 wide....I think a 599 fits but the drivers side fuel tank may need to come out or be loose to get it through the opening.  Now to see if Sean is foolish enough to buy the thing :)

After a little back and forth last night I suggest maybe put a pin in it until spring when my car should be running and pop out for a drive before building something stupid.  A 599 engine should feel similar up to about 5 or so....they make 620hp@ 7600, mine should hit 620 at about 6500 and then keeps goin up until 8800 -9000 but either would be a scary 308.

For anybody thinking of hotrodding a 308 the most popular setup now seems to be using a 360 crank shaft which bumps it to like 3.4L or add new cylinder liners and get 3.6L.  With cams and head work that makes about a 350hp 2V or 400hp 4V which is really the same as you get with a 3.0L build because the heads set the hp, just at a lower more useful rpm and more torque everywhere.  There are at least a dozen if not more of those at this point that I've seen.  There are a couple going together with 355&360 heads that flow stock about as good as you can get a 308QV head with lots of work and those should be 450hp engines.....and that is more than a stock 456 (5.4L) V12 which helps explains why so few V12 conversions are done.

I'm still wafting to hear about bearing for my engine. I did buy another 5/8" mastercylinder  last night when the seller knocked $10 off.  I settled on 5/8 front, 0.70" rear with the balance bar centered and it works very well......but if I go to 5/8 f/r and adjust the balance bar to give me the same ratio I should have 10% lower pedal force if my math it right.  Just tweaking stuff while its apart.

The battery came today....weirdly light to pick up, my brain sees a battery but nope, its not heavy.  It has a built in volt meter and talks about storing at x% charge or bring to 100% every 6 months and such abut nowhere does it tell me what voltage is what % so the instruction are basically worthless.  And  got a new charger and work with it and it tells me all kinds of stuff....that I have no idea what it means or why I care which just makes me feel old and ignorant.  But the battery is light.

This should be the end or corroded battery terminal so the plan is grab new terminal bolts and baking soda and wire brush everything clean before installing it.

At least the charger seems to know what full charge is

Kind of boring stuff.  Google helped me convert voltage to % charge

The clean the wire ends didn't go well

But all well in the end

This is kind of funny.  I've had this car for 25 years and a few months now and I've had the ground off the battery dozens of times for storage or working on whatever..... but today i realized there is a disconnect that works perfectly..... DOH!

And the driver's window that wouldn't go down was just a pin popped out of a connector,  easy

The new mastercylinder arrived Monday but I need to sort out the steering before I can install it...so I ordered the $160 dunebuggy rack I was eyeing:

Its everything you'd expect at that price and more!  There is quite a bit of lash and no way to adjust it but its about perfect travel wise and not the and about 1.62 turns lock to lock which I think is near prefect (they said 1.5 but that's a lie).  I took it apart:

On the plus side the rack teeth are induction hardened and the pinion is hard, the bellows seem fine.  

On the minus side no bushings in the housing and while it appears to be designed for a rear pinion bearing there isn't one.  The rod end are 3/8" which would be only marginally adequate.  And of course its mossing about 2 feet on the right side.

I stared at it for a bit trying to decide if its worth messing with...I have a plan.  
1) add a rear pinion bearing
2) add rack bushings to the housing and off-set then slightly to yield a high pre load on the pinion.  That will fix the lash and should it ever return replacing the bushings should again sort it but I can't imagine it will get that kind of use
3) Rethread the rack ends 12mm or maybe 1/2" 
4) thread the OD on the right side of the housing
5) Add a right side rack extension
6) add a right side housing extension

I'm guessing that's $50-$100 of material then I can worry about how to install it.