3/1/14
365GT Fuel and Spark, 400GT

I’ve been steadily sorting out the 365GT 2+2 at the shop, and it was time to turn my attention to the ignition wires. The wires that were on the car had resistor ends on the plug wires. These help lower the RF interference for the radio reception but often wear out, so checking their values was a good place to start. I soon found several wires without any continuity. Looking closer at the way the plug ends screwed into the wires, I could see some burned connections. The best solution was to replace the wires and start fresh.

I am trying not do spend too much time on this car because the owner is on a budget, but after removing the old wires, a lot of the wrinkle paint flaked off the spark plug tubes. Now was the time to strip these tubes and paint them with new wrinkle paint because once the wires are installed, there’s no chance of painting these correctly.

Getting everything routed correctly takes patience and an understanding of what needs clearance when routing the wires.

Grommets are installed on the spark plug tubes, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen cars without these grommets (looking like the one on the right) because the previous shop took a short cut.

I’m trying to sort out some of the incorrect details on this car so the new owner can be proud of his 365GT, and one problem was a broken ball on the valve cover. There are four plastic balls mounted to the valve covers on each end, and this one had a stud that was too long. When someone tried to screw the ball down all the way, the long stud broke the ball. Shortening this stud would prevent someone from breaking the replacement!

While sorting out the fuel pump I found another issue with the fuel system. This car has a replacement engine installed from a later 365. Although it is the same engine found in other 365GT 2+2s, it came out of a later car which was slightly different than the earlier 365s. Early cars had both mechanical and electric fuel pumps installed, while later cars went with only an electric fuel pump, deleting the mechanical fuel pump. This car still had the fuel lines for both pumps as it was originally equipped, but the engine was missing the mechanical pump.

The fuel rail has a small return line like most 365s, but…

The front of the fuel rail shows it’s from a later car where the main fuel line feeds directly to the return. On earlier cars, there would have been another line at this connection that would have been fed from the mechanical pump. Where am I going with all this?

Looking back at our fuel line, the old yellow hose that was no longer needed to run to the mechanical pump was still in place, but not feeding anywhere. We decided to remove this yellow line to avoid future leaks and run only one line from the solitary electric fuel pump. eliminating an old cracked hose saved us from potential future leaks.

The carbs were serviced, and reinstalled. I should be ready to fire up the car soon!

The 400GT that was at the shop several weeks ago is back from the upholsterer’s shop.

We had the seats redyed, along with the dash and contrasting insert pieces, and it’s looking pretty good. 

Save the Date! The 7th Annual Radcliffe/Tomyang.net Spring Car Show Saturday May 3rd 2014 celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Introduction of the 330GT!
Spectators are free, but Registration of show cars are limited for a small fee. Details can be found on the Radcliffe Website.
You can also Richard Garre at:
Radcliffe Motorcars
12340 Owings Mills Boulevard
Reisterstown, Maryland 21136
Phone: 410-517-1681

Reminder: If you have a Ferrari related project, car, or idea you’d like to explore, I’d love to talk to you. I can also help if you’re thinking of buying or selling. This website represents what I love to do, and now it’s how I make a living, so if you’d like to do something together, let me know. It all begins with an e-mail!

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