The radiator for the 330 was painted and installed on the 330 this week. The electric fans were installed and everything tested out great. The engine warmed up, the fans kicked in, and things cooled down nicely.

As I was putting some of the parts back on the car, I noticed the seal on the air cleaner was a little crusty. It wasn’t doing a good job sealing up the air box, so I scraped off the old stuff and put a new seal in.

I neatened up some of the details in this engine bay without destroying the “patina.” She’s now ready for warm weather and a season of driving pleasure!

The Alternator is back from my rebuilder. “Boy, it was cooked!” was the response from our electrical guy. All is well now, and after installing, I metered the charging system and saw everything was back to normal.

Unfortunately, the belt driving the alternator was making a little too much noise. Ferrari used a skinny plastic belt for this age of Vintage Ferrari, and they have a tendency to make snapping noises when they’re cold or when you first start the car. This noise usually goes away once things warm up, but this belt stayed noisy.

In true FIAT era design, changing this belt was not so easy. The drive pulley was so close to the engine block, and despite the skinny belt, there wasn’t enough room to squeeze the belt past to replace it. Even after removing the alternator, and loosening the power steering pump, I still had a hard time exchanging the belt! It’s times like these when I wish I could exchange a few choice words with the engineer or designer that drew these blue prints for this engine up at the Factory. I would grab him by the the collar and yell, “what were you thinking!?”

After taking four times longer to change a belt on this car, the job was done. Ugh.

Save the Date!

The Radcliffe/Tomyang.net Car Show!

May 7th 2016

I’m very excited to do this again, and look forward to see old and new friends at this annual event. Richard Garre and I have hosted this car show to celebrate all types of machinery, focusing on Italian Cars. There’s parking for about 100 cars and we will always try to accommodate late comers, but if you want a guaranteed  spot call Richard to preregister!

Radcliffe Motorcars

12340 Owings Mills Boulevard
Reisterstown, Maryland 21136
Phone: 410-517-1681