Testing out the "Slow Down" system

After having been on a dozen or so drives, it's clear to me that I need to get to the bottom of this "slow down" light issue. A month or so ago when I installed functional catalytic converters, I started getting an intermittent slow down light on the 1-4 cylinder bank. This means that the 1-4 cat was getting hot enough to trigger the alert system.

First I needed to know where was the problem. The first thing to check was the actual alert system itself because I didn't know if the light was a false alert or an actual overheating situation. The alert system consists of a K-type thermocouple in the outlet of each catalytic converter. A thermocouple measures temperature by generating a very small amount of electricity as it heats up. The thermocouple is attached to an ECU, which monitors the voltage and turns on the light when the voltage reaches a set point. My goal was to test the ECUs and test the thermocouples themselves. To do this, my buddy SL brought over an instrument meant for testing thermocouples.



The thermocouple ECUs are mounted to the end plate in the passenger's side footwell. I unscrewed this plate to expose the ECUs and the wiring. First, we tested the ECU operation. My putting the instrument into output mode, we could simulate the microvoltage as output by an actual thermocouple. After the first round of testing, we could see that the ECUs were good and behaved within 10 degrees F of each other. Using the instrument, we piped in a test signal of 36.05mV, which corresponds to a temperature of 1630 F. At this temperature, the slow down light begins to flash at an interval of about 13 seconds. As we cranked up the test temperature, the slow down light flashed faster and faster until it goes solid at 1710 F or 37.84mV. Wow, 1710 degrees. That's hot!

The next test was to check the output from the real thermocouples. We touched tester leads to the thermocouple wires and read 59 degrees F from each side with the engine not running. So far so good. The ambient temperature output was the same from both thermocouples at ambient temperature. Next, we started the engine and let it come up to temperature. Switching from side to side, we could see each thermocouple output increase at roughly the same rate. After a few minutes, we brought the engine up to 3000 RPM and held it there. As the temperature increased past 1000 F, it was clear that the rear bank was reading about 150-200 F higher than the front.

All in all, we spent probably 2-3 hours in testing. Our conclusion is that the slow down system is indeed working as intended and the rear bank is actually running hotter than the front. The next question is, what to do about it?

Another Italian Superstar

My father passed away not too long ago and as our family was looking though some old photographs, I saw a few from "the early days" of my folks on my Dad's old Vespa scooter. I started thinking about how cool those images were and that it would be nice to have a scooter just like the one he had. I posted an old photo online and found out what model it was and started my search. In the end, a local Vespa club member found one for me -- a 1959 Vespa 150 VBA.



It was imported from Italy probably 10 years ago and has been in storage ever since. Surprisingly, it runs (although not well) and I've ridden it around the block a few times. Even though it's only 150cc with a three-speed manual transmission and in need of restoration, it's a blast to ride. The body is pretty straight and the only major bodywork is the floor needs to be replaced. At some point I'll strip it down and have someone do the body and paintwork while I redo the engine. It'll be nice to work on a vehicle where the engine and transmission together only weigh about 80 pounds.

Tech Session

After an entire month of cancelled E@RTC sessions, one was finally scheduled for the first Saturday in July. Unfortunately, this was the same day our local chapter of Ferrari Club of America had a tech session set up at the local Ferrari dealership. I absolutely love geeking out on car tech so I opted to skip E@RTC this week. The tech session topic was maintenance on the F355 and 360 (neither of which I own, btw).

We started off with the F355. There was one in the shop for a major service. The F355 is an "engine out" car, which means that a major service involves removing the engine. What's cool is that on this car, the entire drivetrain (engine, transmission, rear suspension, etc) is mounted on a cradle that is removed as a single unit. To remove it, you drain the coolant, disconnect all the wiring connectors and hoses, unbolt the cradle the lift the car up.



Seeing the drivetrain cradle on a dolly is a pretty impressive sight. It was sitting a comfortable working height and you could wheel the thing around. Here the techs have replaced the belts and tensioners and the engine is set up with a degree wheel and dial indicators for final adjustment of the cams. The techs in this shop are required to be within 1 degree of the factory spec. After this is done and the motor buttoned back up, it'll go back in the car and have the 8 throttle bodies synchronized.



Next we moved on to a 360 Modena in the shop for the same major service. In the case of the 360, the engine does not have to be removed to do the work. Instead, they remove a bunch of stuff from the engine bay and pull the seats out of the interior and remove an access panel to get to the front of the engine. Nice to not have to pull the engine, but it must be tough working in this position.



I'm sure you've heard people talk about the importance of changing your fluids. In cars equipped with an F-1 transmission, it's apparently critical to stick to the recommended fluid change schedule. Here are some fluid samples with new on the right and used on the left.



What about brake fluid? Brake fluid is hydrophilic, which means it absorbs water. That water then separates out in a milky goo. How do would you like to have that fluid on the left in your brake system?

Center court at RTC

Early in the morning, SL and I headed out to E@RTC. This was my first drive with working catalytic converters and I was anxious to know if they worked to reduce the exhaust smell. I'm happy to report that they do seem to work. SL drove behind me in his 360 and he said that the stinky smell was gone. Hurray -- just what I was after.

However, having operational cats brought on another problem. Every now and again under acceleration, the 1-4 bank slow down light comes on. When I back off the throttle, the light goes out. I seems like some unburnt fuel is passing through one of the cats and it's getting too hot. I'll need to do some work to figure out what's happening here.

Today was a special event at E@RTC. We were expecting a Bugatti Veyron and a Lexus LFA. Sunny Saturday and center court at RTC means lots of cars and people. We were at one end of the road with Ferraris on one side and Lamborghinis on the other. As VT said, "boys on one side, girls on the other." I'll let you decide which is which. We set a record too at over 250 cars.



Here it is, the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport



Here's something most people have never seen before -- a Lexus LF-A. I must say, I was not terribly impressed. I mean, it looks like any other Japanese sports car. And really, who would pay $378K for a Japanese sports car? For that money, you could get two Ferrari 458s.



This is unusual. It's a replica vintage Ferrari race car. I don't know what's under the hood, but if the clear hood bubble covering the 8 Weber carburetor throats were any indication, I'd say it was a Ferrari 250 V12. I heard a rumor that it was for sale for about $200K.



Here's something truly rare. A 1957 Aston Martin DBR2, chassis number 2. Only 2 of these were ever made and this one belongs to Greg Whitten.



There were lots of other cool and unusual cars including a 1960s Ford GT40 and other old race cars. Here is something that caught my eye. I actually have no idea what it is, but it's very cool. It's got an air suspension and when parked, it sits right on the ground and you can't even see the wheels. I wandered over just as the owner was about to leave and saw the car rise up a few inches, then float away.

Catalytic converters -- part 2

I thought that I was done with one catalytic converter. I was wrong. When I fitted it to the car, I realized that the threaded nipple for the thermocouple was in the wrong place. Because space is really tight at the back of the car, the cat had to be installed at a very specific orientation. Turns out I welded in the fitting 120 degrees from where it needed to be. Oops. I wish I would have realized this before welding it in place. I well, out with the grinder to make a small modification. I cut the fitting back out and put in the correct place. I then had to weld a patch to fill in the old hole. My welds are no stacks of dimes, but I think they'll do.



Here's how the new cat looks compared with the old. Because the new cats are oval, and the old one offset, the main challenge is how to orient the new ones so nothing touches anything else.



Here's the dry fit that I should have done earlier. It fits pretty well so on to cat #2.



Doing the work on the other converter was pretty straightforward. However, I had to be much more careful with the orientation to make sure everything fits.



After a bit of final welding, new exhaust donuts and tightening bolts 1/8th turn at a time, everything was back together. I started the car and the first thing I notice is that the exhaust note is different. The car used to have a really deep rumble at idle and now it's not quite as deep. Just as I'm about to head out for a test drive, it started to rain. Guess my drive down to E@RTC will be the test drive.

Mission: Eliminate the Stink

My mission, whether I choose to accept it or not, is to try and reduce the rich exhaust smell. I realized that while I love driving this car, I don't really love the smell from the tailpipe. That rich exhaust smell wafts up from the back and just gets into everything. After a drive, my clothes and hair smell like exhaust. I think this is part of the reason TK doesn't really like to ride in the 308.

So, how to get rid of the smell? I figured I can start with the catalytic converters. Rather, my lack of cats. That's not entirely true -- my cats are still there but they just don't work. Somewhere in the past, they've been hollowed out rendering them useless as a catalyst device. Putting in some cats that actually work should help.

The OEM cats are NLA so I have two remaining choices. There's a company called Hyperflow that makes high performance direct replacements. However, these are REALLY expensive ($800 EACH!) The other option is to get some universal cats that are about the same size as the originals (less than $100 each). I can't justify spending almost $2000 on cats so needless to say, I chose door #2.

Here's my starting point. I got two Magnaflow 94103 stainless steel universal cats. These are pretty close to the same size as the originals, although they are oval vs the original offset egg-shape.



I started by building a jig out of wood and bolting the original cat to it. This would ensure proper alignment of the flanges on the new cat.



My plan was to cut off the original flanges and weld them on to the Magnaflow. I also had to cut out and weld in the threaded nipple where the "slow down" thermocouple attaches.



Next came the chop saw to cut off the original flanges.



Lots of grinding was needed to remove the excess metal around the thermocouple nipple.



I had marked on the jig the location of the nipple on the OEM cat. I transferred my marks to the new cat and drilled a 1/2" hole to accept the nipple.



Ok, looking good so far. Here's the Magnaflow bolted up in the jig with the old flanges. This model has an 1 3/4" inlet and outlet, which happens to be exactly the right diameter. The old flanges slide perfectly inside the Magnaflow pipe. All I had to do was to trim off about 1/2" off the length.



After some welding, here is the final product. I have one day left to get the other cat cut and welded and the exhaust put back together in time for E@RTC on Saturday. Hopefully, I'll make it!

Over a month of updates

Shame on me. I've been driving the 308 for over a month with no blog posts. 30 lashes with a wet noodle. We had a string of sunny weekends (which ended last Sunday) and I've been able to get out and about. I haven't had much of a chance to do any long drives so it's been mainly a few hours a week at E@RTC. Here's a brief photo diary.

April 22nd, All Italian Car Show at the XXX Root Beer Drive-in. Weather started off cool and cloudy with not a lot of cars in the early morning. However, by late morning the sun came out and so did the people and cars.

An old Fiat 500 next the the new Fiat 500. I had never seen an old 500 before and this was pretty cool. It's amazing how much the new 500 looks like the old 500.

Old Jaguars at E@RTC

Maserati Merak SS

Citroën 2CV with a roll top. I had no idea they only had three lug-nuts per wheel!

Here is a car I saw for sale locally a while back. The it's got the most unusual color combo I've seen on a 308. The outside is called Chiaro Verde and the inside is beige with red carpet. I can't say I'm too fond of the color, but no denying that it's very unusual.

Early 1970s Saab Sonnet III. What the heck is that? I've never heard of this car. With a V4 engine too!

Yeah! 1957 Cadillac convertible with a fairly young guy driving it. This thing is so big you can play half-court basketball on the trunk.

Ahhhh, one of my favorite cars of all time -- a Ferrari F40. I've seen several of these in collections and shops, but this is the first time I've seen one "out in the wild." The owner (who has an Enzo and a 599 GTO among others) was good enough to bring it out so we could drool over it.

KTM's reply to the Ariel Atom -- The KTM X-bow

Have an extra $110K laying around? How about this electric Fisker Karma? Check out the solar cells built in to the roof panel.

Porsche 356 racer

The obligatory shot of me in "Ferrari Row"

Series I Lotus Esprit

Finally, me coming back from the local propane distributor to get my propane bottle re-certified. Who knew that they needed re-certification after 12 years?

Now where did I put those keys?

Where else would I put the keys to my Ferrari 308? Why, on my Ferrari 308 key holder of course! There's an interesting story to this key holder. An FChatter was looking for a Ferrari key holder a while back. He couldn't find one, so he made do with some other key holder. In the meanwhile, his wife contacted a guy who made these things and convinced him to make a "Magnum P.I." key holder. Now the 308 holder is part of his inventory, all thanks to this FChatter's wife. It's been available since last year, but somehow I never got around to ordering one until now.



My first impression was holy smokes, this thing is huge! It's much larger than other key holders we have and bigger than I expected. The guy who makes and sells them is jd-knight on eBay. They come up for sale every now and again. A perfect gift for any 308 enthusiast!

The old "wet paper to remove the pilot bearing" trick

Back in March of 2010 (2 years ago!) when I replaced my clutch, I had a tough time removing the pilot bearing. I tried the grease trick, but all it did was make a big mess. I ended up using a puller to get the bearing out. I had hear after the fact that a pilot bearing can be removed using a punch and some wet paper. Well, I finally had the chance to try it out. I'm getting ready to put the SBC back in my GMC pickup and I needed to replace the pilot bushing before putting the new clutch on.



First, I shredded some newspaper and soaked it in warm water. I stuffed some in the pilot hole and used a piece of rebar (which was about the right size) as a punch. I alternated between hammering on the rebar and pushing more paper into the hole. Amazingly, it was working! I could feel the bushing get pushed out of the crankshaft hole. After what seemed like a lot of paper, the bushing fell out. Wow! I'd seen this done in a Youtube video, but now I'm a true believer.

On to more electrical stuff

Ok, on to some other small things I've been meaning to do. In the 308 dash panel, there are warning lights at each corner. These lights are in black plastic holders that are held on by plastic tabs. Over time, the plastic tabs get weak and can't hold the lights in the dash panel. All four of my lights were like this. I wrapped electrical tape around them, but it didn't really work that well. I found out that fellow F-chatter "sigmacars" owns a plastic molding company in Canada and he is reproducing these. They are exact duplicates of the original and they are cheap. So cheap that I bought a bunch of them in case I broke a few.



Installation is a breeze. Pull the old light holder out, pop out the colored lens and put the lens in the new holder. Reinstall the light holder and voila! Warning lights that actually stay in the dash!



Now that the weather is getting better and I'll be driving more, I decided I should finally install my keyless entry so I have a way to lock and unlock the car. As you'll recall, my original system flaked out and I bought a new Spal door lock kit and Viper keyless entry system. I installed the door locks a few months ago, but I didn't have a chance to put the keyless in yet. As it turns out, the Viper was a dud. The system is supposed to produce a negative pulse along one of two wires to trigger the power locks to lock/unlock. I bench tested the system and got no negative pulse. After futzing with it for a while, I tossed it aside and went back to my original Commando keyless entry system. It actually works fine with the Spal power door locks. Hurrah, now I can lock and unlock the car without using the key. Yes, the key does work, but not very well and I only want to use it as a backup in case the keyless fails.



After hooking everything up, I checked my current drain again. With the ignition off, my sources of drain are the clock, the stereo memory, power door locks and keyless entry. These add up to 28.6mA . It's a little more than my target of 25mA, but I guess I'll have to live with it.

Come on Sun, I know you're out there!

After being rained out for 6 consecutive weekends, we finally had our season opener of E@RTC two weeks ago. It was still overcast and darned cold in the morning but when the sun came out, it was glorious. What a turnout too! At one point, the organizers counted 180 cars, the most for a season opener. They reconfigured the parking as well so most of the cars are closer to the shopping area. I think they figure that people will show up early to see the cars, then stay to shop before leaving. Seems like a win-win for the gather and the shopping center.



There was a strong showing of 308s -- 4 total and a 328. Not in this photo was a late-comer '77 US model. I spent a lot of time talking to the owner as I had never seen a '77. It was a GTB which made it even cooler. I really like digging into the little details that change throughout the years and I learned a lot about the '77s.



I spent so much time hanging out on the Ferrari section and didn't get much of a chance to see the other cars. However, I did get to see 2 things many car guys have NEVER seen. How about a bright yellow Vector M12? Only 18 ever made (and one of them was recently destroyed in a fire).



Not impressed? How about a McLaren MP4-12C? That's some 627hp V12 goodness right there.



At the event, my buddy SM was getting a group together to go for a little drive. I had other things to do around the farm, but darn it, I needed to drive! GM, the owner of the Giallo Fly (that's yellow to normal folk) 308 decided to come along as well.



Turns out that this was a Ford Mustang crowd. We had 7 Mustangs of all years, 1 Chrysler 300, 2 308s and a Maserati. It was wonderful spending the rest of the day driving around in the North Cascades.

Last Saturday was rained out, but this weekend is looking ok. More sun! Less rain!