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The picture of the impeller says yes I think.

Cleaned the sump off and changed the oil filters. While filling the fillers I realized I bought 20/50 breakin oil....did know they made it but it should give me more stable pressure so a good mistake I think.

Changed the thermostat today....frikin sealant. I put it in the block not the coolant tank so I'm hoping all this shit is here and not in my radiator





and that was followed by an hour "do I have the right one?" investigation...I decided both are right. The new $51 Mishimoto is shorter and allows more recirculation flow when the t'stat is closed but does close the recirc when its open, its closer to the ferrari design iirc.

Happy New Year ya'll

_________________
Wade Williams
Master Ferrari Tech
Restoration Tech
Engine Machinist
Fabricator
Racecar Driver

yes, Happy new Year!

House work derailed me...I have trouble focusing on multiple projects. Anyway, I did finally get the cam covers back on, end covers and manifolds still to go. We had mild temps last weekend, but I've missed that and it looks like we'll be lucky to hit 40 for the next couple weeks making testing less pleasant but I do want to know if its fixed or I need to pull it so.....

Been with you from the beginning and will stick around until the end. It's a huge project and few could have stayed engaged this long Good luck and don't give up! Sorry about the cold. Russ

Its mostly back together. End covers went on yesterday, intakes on and fuel system pressure tested tonight. The new coil plugs are coming from China is seems and are now due 1/19 so I won't wait and will cobble the coils somewhere so I can get it running and see if the heads are sealed, Saturday at the latest



I did a few little things. The rewelded fuel rail had a little weeping, not really leaking...a pin holes in the weld I guess that I fixed.

I had disconnected 8 of the throttle return springs to take load off the actuator to try and get under 5 amps so the internal driver in the ECU would work...that was a fail and I added a 25A external driver so I went ahead and reconnected the springs hoping it helps get the idle a bit lower. The springs were already pretty soft, I custom made them way back to be much lower force than the stock springs on the the ducati TBs came with figuring I had 12 not 2




On the same note I went back to the slightly tighter 14.5mm OD o-rings on the bottom of the injectors to be sure there is no vacuum leak.

Last I beveled the sides of the manifold son now in theory at least the cam covers can be removed without removing the intakes.

I heard there might be some excitement this Saturday??

I was just thinking I hadn't seen your annual ocean pic from the hotel window and was wondering if you were well


There might be more excitement....the big day has already come and gone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7vevXzqf6k

I even drove it around the block for the 1st time in 16 year!

Here's the good news for the day.
-It fired right back up
-God I just love hearing this thing run
-With the new o-rings and all the TB springs installed it was no problem to get the engine idling down to 700...not sure all the cylinders stayed running down there and I re set to about 1150 for now.
-the TBs are much easier to sync now, getting them matched to 5% total error took less than 5 minutes. I could have gotten them better with a little more time but didn't see the need for now.
- got to driver it out of the garage rather than push it and I continue to be thrilled everytime it moves under its own power
-power steering sure is nice turning the car around in the driveway
-oil pressure was way more stable with the 20-50 break-in oil rather than the 30wt I used last time
-tach is working...it seems a little sticky but its working

Bad news for the day
-yeah, the head gaskets are no more sealed than they were before so it needs to come apart.
-no idea where I'm going to move the coils

It's great when the simple solution of "doing things right" works!



Vehicle integration is tedious but worthwhile



At least when you put it back together next time, you'll have a known running combo with a few extra kinks sorted out, so if you get it back together right, it should fire right up!

That what I'm telling myself, this last couple weeks wasn't wasted because I did fix a few things.

I'm leaning toward the solution of painting the head gaskets with sealant even though I know in my heart its wrong because I'm thinking this is a problem of my own making....the 86mm bore size. I know people are putting together 89mm bore engines with my bore spacing but I think they are also using the newer style MLS head gaskets that are coated everywhere with viton or similar. I didn't pay up for custom tooling to make those so I'm using the older type composite that is a gasket with flame-rings and in my case the flame rings basically touch each other.


so the only thing keeping coolant out of the cylinders in the between the cylinders area is the flame-ring, which is not a gasket really but more heat/pressure/flame protection for the gasket....and then I used the evans coolant which seems to be extra good at leaking so in my mind this is where sealant becomes the only real path foreword because I effectively don't have any gasket between the cylinder...at least that is what I'm thinking.