The work on the 330GTC continues and I wanted to address some oil lines on this car.

The previous owner replaced the original crimped oil lines with ones that were secured with hose clamps. This setup surprisingly worked despite the questionable ability for hose clamps to hold back this kind of pressure. I didn’t have much confidence in this setup especially as the rubber ages and hardens. The failure of one of these clamps could wipe out an engine, so I took the lines out to have new ones made with proper crimped lines designed to hold up to oil pressure.

While the oil lines are out, I’ll paint this unit (whatever it’s called) the correct hammertone silver it’s supposed to be.

As I worked under the car, I kept finding huge smears of black gunk on my arm and couldn’t figure out where it was coming from until I saw one of the sway bar bushings. This rubber bushing sat below the steering box that was leaking (now fixed), and the exposure to oil for years was dissolving the rubber. I’ll need to get new bushings.

The next issue was with the radiator. I installed the radiator to find a clearance issue with the lower hose and a frame member.

This frame member was a little rusty and replaced by the body guys. It was now an eighth to a quarter inch too close to the lower radiator pipe to allow the hose to slip onto the pipe. I looked at all my options to making this work without grinding out the frame member, and couldn’t find an easier way.

I marked out the area that was interfering with pipe, put on my ear plugs and goggles, and started grinding. I thought about heating this area up with a torch and denting the frame member to clear the pipe, but decided the amount of heat needed to bend the interfering area could bend the pipe to screw up the alignment of the radiator mount next to this section and was not worth the risk.

I made a template of the hole that was cut and fabricated a small piece of steel to patch the hole.

I welded the hole shut with my patch, with enough clearance to fit my lower radiator hose. With some black paint, no one will ever know except for you and me!

I wanted to test the mechanical fuel pump to make sure it was working before installing it on the car. These pumps barely in the best circumstances, so making sure it was working with its best efficiency was key. I have a test rig that I can measure the amount of movement that operates the pump to match it to the car.

Sure enough, the pump wasn’t working. I opened up the interior of the pump to find replacement check valves. These aluminum check valves that come in rebuild kits stink! I’ve never gotten them to work, and have stopped using them years ago. I’ve resorted to reusing the old check valves by replacing the seals. I’ll have to source some check valves for this pump before it’ll start working again.

TomYang.net Monterey Cocktail Party

This year’s Vintage Ferrari Party is being generously co-hosted with Larry and Kristy Hernandez in Pacific Grove, CA on August 15th at 6pm. Contact Tom for location details. I will provide some food and drinks, but feel free to bring something to drink to share at the party!

See you all in Monterey!