1952 Ferrari 212 Barchetta |
Restoration log by Dan Mooney |
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Test driving the world famous "Henry Ford" Ferrari 212 Barchetta
With our work now complete, it is time for this wonderful old car to return home to the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles!
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Road testing one of the most
important Ferraris in the world! |
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A new set of Firestone
whitewalls have been installed |
With the rebuilt cylinder heads reinstalled, we excitedly set off on a maiden test drive only to discover that the clutch was 100% inoperative! Although it looked as if it might be possible to remove the transmission to access the clutch and flywheel, we decided to remove the engine in order to address some serious oil leaks all over the engine, particularly around the front timing chain cover. With the transmission separated from the engine, we discovered that several pressure plate nuts were finger tight, causing deflection in the pressure plate when the clutch was engaged. This in turn had caused serious hot spots on the clutch and the flywheel.
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Most of the interior was
removed in order to access the transmission |
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Removing the engine |
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Pressure plate cover was loose |
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Note serious hot spots! |
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Flywheel was machined and
surfaced |
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We dealt with several gearbox
leaks while we had the transmission removed |
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Corey removed the timing chain
cover to seal up the front of the engine |
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Luke going back with the
rebuilt clutch |
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Going back in with the engine |
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Time for a test drive! |
Time to reinstall the cylinder heads!
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Custom head gaskets made specially for this job |
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Cylinder heads were resurfaced prior to final assembly |
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Reassembly underway |
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Measuring valve lash |
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Heads now fully rebuilt and assembled |
Cylinder head machine work underway.
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Cam saddles were out of alignment so cylinder heads required align honing |
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A view down the cam saddles |
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Corey align honing one of the heads |
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Designing and blue printing new custom valves |
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Corey machining the requisite tapers in the new valve stems |
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Honing valve guides |
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Trial fitting new exhaust
prior to ceramic coating black |
Removing the cylinder heads and removing the exhaust for replacement. The exhaust had been contaminated with decades worth of oil and fuel and was really beyond saving, so we decided to fabricate a new stainless system for the car, which we will ceramic coat satin black, per the original.
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Elaborate leather insulating
pads for the exhaust tips |
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The old exhaust is compromised
after decades of oil and excess fuel had built up internally |
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Headers will be cleaned out
internally and ceramic coated |
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Evidence of significant oiling
inside headers |
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Time to remove the cylinder
heads for rebuilding |
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Both heads now removed |
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Measuring extreme wear in the
original valve stems |
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Huge stem to guide clearance
no doubt the cause of oiling issues |
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3 valve seats have been
replaced in the past, everything else looks original |
Initial inspection revealed lots of fuel leaks, significant oil leaks and a lot of exhaust smoke! The main reason the car has been sent to us was excessive smoking through the exhaust. It is quite likely that we will end up removing and rebuilding the cylinder heads in order to cure this issue, although having observed an extremely rich tune we decided to rebuild and tune the Webers first to establish how much of the smoke was oil and how much could be attributed to an overly rich mixture. Unfortunately, although rebuilding the carbs certainly reduced the exhaust smoke, the fundamental problem remained.
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Compression test was healthy
and consistent across the board |
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Several fuel lines had
significant leaks and will be replaced |
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Rebuild of the Webers underway |
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It is a real privilege to be entrusted with such an important piece of history.
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