Ferrari Engine Work



I’ve been trying for weeks to get back down to Francois’ shop to do some engine work. This Daytona engine needs to have timing chain bearing replaced, but with the snow, Francois’ schedule, COVID, and my personal life, it’s been a challenge. Even after loading my truck up with the engine, there were delays that caused me to drive around a couple of days with this lump in the back of my truck. I finally got it down to CT!

Before I could tear into the timing chest of the 365 engine, I needed to finish the assembly of a 250 engine nearing completion at Francois’ shop. The last time I was working on this engine, we were waiting on an upper oil pan gasket. Incorrect parts have magnified time delays because of the time I scheduled down at Francois’ shop, but I’m glad to be making progress again.

With the oil pan installed, it was time to move onto the the valve covers. These had been powder coated by the owner.

I found an area that was masked incorrectly and would cause some pretty bad oil leaks if I didn’t address this before installing the valve cover. There are machined flat faces on each side of the valve cover that seals against an o-ring, and with the wrinkle paint on this surface, oil would probably find its way past the surface finish.

Powder coating has it pluses and minuses. It’s good because it’s durable, and it’s not because it’s durable and hard to remove! Because the powder coated wrinkle finish was more fine grained than what I normally do, it was easier to scrape off with a razor blade to get to a flat surface. Since the coating was so well stuck to the aluminum, I didn’t think I needed to remove all of it from the surface for the o-ring to seal.

With the engine sealed, the next step was to install the carburetors and linkages. Steady on!