Back on the road for my cheap Ferrari 308 - but only just

it's well down on power it doesn't sound dry hello a big welcome from me jack and from the troublesome influenza we left the last chapter with the engine starting up and i was absolutely beyond delighted i was so pleased there was still quite a lot of work to do to make the car drivable it almost now is so the alternator belt is on coolant is in and it looks like it's bled although i need to take it for a drive to make sure i've been trying to adjust the carbs which is just so difficult balance them do all that kind of stuff a couple of little hiccups i found a leak from the intake manifold on the front bank the leak is actually coming up through the bolt so i think it's fixable by essentially using a little bit of sealant on the bolt itself and using a nylock nut as well and just tightening it up so i think that's okay there might be a weep from one on the rear bank from one of the uh camshaft seals so i i've just tried nipping up that corner so hopefully that will solve that but we'll have a look all in all though not too bad um still can't get it quite running right in terms of the idle and everything and there's something going on with those carbs or the way that they're adjusted but i want to take it up to ian's anyway now that it is running but for today the purpose is to let's you know to take it for a drive so just need to do a few more little things i need to put the wheel back on etcetera and then we'll take it for a drive and see what it's like is that dreaded top end problem gone um somehow i doubt that what i've done has done that i think it's improved the car a lot and it'll improve the way it runs but i think that top end there's something else going on there so there's still a mystery or two to be sold ready for my inaugural run with the influenza i wheel it out and as i do you can see there it starts to buck it down it's so annoying okay well the weather's settled just enough for me to take it out and i've just driven it down the road and something's not quite right i think it's not running on all the cylinders let's have a quick go but yeah i think it sounds like it did before when it wasn't running on all eight let's see but so it's been idling an awful lot as i've been trying to set it up so it could be that the plugs have failed yeah they're definitely not running right so that's disappointing i wonder why it's doing that right i cleaned up all the plugs attempt number two i don't think it's i still don't think it's firing on all cylinders that might be slightly better so definitely isn't running right also seems to be pulling to one side so okay not not a successful first road test at all uh mixed with the rain as well it's raining now the disappointment i have to be totally honest not being the best right i need to go back really is it starting to rain properly again oh this car well it's amazing what a difference a whole day makes and a good sleep i'm feeling much more positive about things today i was a bit at the end of my tether yesterday but i also had a bad back and all sorts of stuff going on so it's just been a bit challenging but really yeah it's frustrating that one of the i think it's one or two of the cylinders aren't running properly i took those plugs out yesterday i had a look at them clean them up um but it's still i think it was running on seven so gotta have a look at that and see what's going on so gonna take the spark plugs out see if i can get more hints and then just work my way back from there and hopefully at some point take it out for a proper drive and see if it is driving better with all cylinders running right well i've checked for spark and everything is sparking so the frustration is mounting again but good thing is i had forgotten to tighten one of the back wheels on properly i hadn't realized i'd taken that one off uh so that's yesterday why the car was a bit wayward in terms of it wasn't going straight under acceleration so oh second gear it's too cold so anyway it needs more petrol so i thought i'll do that to warm it up then take it home and do some more work trying to find out which cylinder isn't firing okay so these are the plugs from cylinders four three and two none of them to me focus yeah none of them look like they're firing up and they look wet took the car out yesterday with anton and we both suspect well especially anton to be fair he was saying it's definitely something electrical and it basically seems to bog down under load and so it's going back to those coils now i have some spare coils so the next thing to do is to replace the coils and see what that does to the running but it looks like at the moment two to three cylinders aren't quite firing properly but um the top end seems absolutely fine there's no weird noises coming from it or anything like that so that's good because that's a success um but it's just uh obviously still isn't quite running right the last times i took it out before i did the rebuild it was already running quite badly so i don't think it's something that happened during the rebuild so anyway can i have a look at those coils and just take it from there so both the coils are replaced this has the transistorized ignition you can see the amplifier under there which is actually a gm part um so let's see if this has made a difference they're a bit of a fiddle to put back in so i changed the coils and looked at a load of other little bits and bobs everywhere connections and so on so let's see if it will start up for a [Music] start so it is it is running but i don't think it's running on all the cylinders [Music] there we go i think that sounds slightly healthier than before but i don't want to hope so right that is horrible it's still running really badly um i tried it before and it was doing that so i went back home put all new spark plugs on still the same problem so i am at a loss i've changed almost everything uh the only thing that's left to change are the amplifiers under the coils when i get home i'm going to have a look at the state the spark plugs and see if i can work out what's running and what isn't but it's weird because i think some of the cylinders are running sometimes and some of them are not so i don't i don't understand and it seems to be revving okay when it's in neutral so not under load but the moment you put the engine under load it all just seems to fall apart it's well down on power it doesn't sound right i'll be honest with you it all feels a bit never-ending at the moment so i'm back home and i have taken the plugs out these are the plugs from the rear bank three of them so one of them is looks very odd looks like it's running very lean i mean i only took it out for 20 minutes maybe and that could be the problem but the other one has got a real burn weird burnt pattern i've never seen before on a plug so very bizarre and the plugs on the front bank they look a bit better a bit more normal although obviously maybe running lean or they haven't quite got enough color because i only took it out for 20 minutes so i might take it for another quick drive actually but the weird burn pattern there you go so that's going on and then just to be safe i did a compression test that bank is the one i thought was giving the issue so i did a compression test on that as you can see it turned out really well all of them were identical around 180 185 something like that so that's good because it doesn't mean that i haven't got the timing wrong or anything like that but i just don't know what else to do new plugs new coils the wires are quite recent the spark plug wires maybe it's the carbs i don't know i have spoken to ian about going up to visit here me and tyrol that is so that's another option if i can't get things going i want to go and see him anyway and i guess if i can't get it to run right maybe he can help me and sort out find out what's going on but um i'm gonna have a few more goes and see if i can make any more progress i thought it was important maybe to come back to the original place where i was quite happy with the influenza this brings back memories to when i first bought it um i look i am still it's not that i'm unhappy with it this problem will be resolved it's just that it's a real head scratcher and you know at least that the heads are okay the compression was brilliant on all of them so that's great but what is going on i don't know and just to drive it here it was backfiring it's when i thought well if i drive it more i'll get more of an idea what's going on or maybe it will stop running altogether and that will tell me what's going on um anyway just look at it at least let's finish on a positive note it is so pretty um i know it's really you know it's been raining and i wanted to test it so it's got a bit of mud on it but it's properly driven ferrari even though it doesn't drive very well well if you've stuck around for this long congratulations and as a reward actually is it a reward more of me probably the opposite but anyway here's a bit of bonus extra content i have actually taken the influenza out again and driven it for quite a while um just to see what's going on with the plugs and this is what's happening on that front bank which is the one that i suspect uh sorry rear bank that i suspect isn't really doing what it should this is what the plugs look like i mean that is clearly not firing on the rear bank they all look much more like this some richer some leaner but definitely like they've been firing so um could still point to that um amplifier which is under the the coil so i don't know i'm kind of encouraged that most of the issues seem to be on one bank because that again would point to electrical issues but never say never who knows with the influenza and one last thing i wanted to ask you all is in london so if you're in the uk there is the ules extension which is the new tax on vehicles that pollute now it's classic vehicles are exempt but only if they're 40 years or older which is ridiculous there's plenty of classics which are 30 years old and it's really going to affect a lot of people in london but it will affect you in the rest of the uk as well eventually because these kind of schemes are going to carry on now there is a petition in the uk parliament or not in the parliament there's a petition to get a debate in the uk parliament to extend that from 40 years old to 30 years old which i think is really reasonable even if you are a green classic cars it's not they're not they're not the problem they're not what is polluting in london and having someone who potters around on a sunday in their little classic you know once a month or whatever isn't going to cause any more pollution so if you could go and have a look at the the petition please sign it if you if you agree with it i'd really appreciate that apart from that please do subscribe if you want to see my ongoing agony with the influenza and i am i look forward to seeing you for the next one please subscribe to my instagram as well and if you need to send me comments directly or anything like that you can contact me on there

Channel: Number 27

Views: 54,141

Keywords: ferrari 308, influenzo, misfire

Id: 85YvuGxojnY

Length: 14min 40sec (880 seconds)

Published: Sun May 23 2021