Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

C'est ici qu'on présente nos voitures
spacecadet
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par spacecadet »

Good to know, thanks for the info.
spacecadet
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par spacecadet »

I would need some help in removing the crank pulley. I have the tool, but I'm afraid that I'll break something. Of course first I've nicked the inner threads where the crank pulley bolt goes (hopefully only the first one or two) because I just threaded in the tool in itself (I don't know how Maserati thought this tool can be used in itself, or I just didn't got the other part of it when buying second hand). Then inserted a bolt which were ground down, and also applied some heat. But still nothing moves. I'm using an old belt to hold the crank while trying to thread in the tool.

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spacecadet
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

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Ok it came down, more heat and properly blocking the crankshaft at the back helped.
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par spacecadet »

Finished stripping down the block. The lower main bearing are definitely worn, and some of the upper ones too. Will replace these, but first measure everything.

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Do you know what are these marks the connecting rods? Always a character first then two numbers.

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alpa
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par alpa »

Never had problem to remove the pulley with a simple custom tool.
Your main bearings are in good shape compared to what I usually find.
To me marks are just lots and pairing numbers. Nevers tried to find any logic.
Weight classes are shown by color marks on the middle H section of the rods.

Don't forget to follow procedure when putting the pulley back: must be heated to something like 200C (very hot) and may be oiled, don't remember. Then goes easily and you have few seconds to adjust.
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spacecadet
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par spacecadet »

Actually the whole bottom seems to be in a quite good condition despite the nearly 150.000 kms. The honing marks are fully visible on sleeves and the machining marks too on the piston skirts (some are a bit more worn).

Yes, the rods have brown colour (should be 520 g) and the crankshaft balacing class is 1385 g. I also haven't found any logic in the marks, but at least all of them are different so I didn't have to create new marks.

The hardest was removing the pulley, and based on this I guess putting it back will be also tricky.
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alpa
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par alpa »

spacecadet a écrit : The hardest was removing the pulley, and based on this I guess putting it back will be also tricky.
As I said just follow the procedure and do align well while the pulley is still hot so that you can move it (by hand). It's an interference fit, be quick and precise.

150.000km and bearings in such a good condition ... I doubt.
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spacecadet
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

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alpa a écrit : As I said just follow the procedure and do align well while the pulley is still hot so that you can move it (by hand). It's an interference fit, be quick and precise.
Ok, will do :)
alpa a écrit : 150.000km and bearings in such a good condition ... I doubt.
There was no sign at all that this engine has been opened before.

Today we measured pistons, liners and crankshaft and everything is in limits:
- pistons have a tiny wear - 81.95 the worst
- liners well within the limit - some no wear, some 82.01 in the top or middle (82.00 in the bottom), one 82.02 at the top
- crankshaft has no measurable wear

Even the engine builder helping me was surprised about the condition.

The oiling system was also surprising, how the crankshaft gets the oil from the pump, but especially that the first main bearing doesn't get oil directly from below only from sideways?
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alpa
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par alpa »

I don't remember details but this engine oiling is still on the edge of best race engines of today. Oiling through the crankshaft became common quite recently.
Same for the heads' cooling circuit.
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spacecadet
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par spacecadet »

Yes, I've read about it since then. What's special about the heads' cooling? I'm starting to understand why this engine is said to be well designed, contemporary and ahead of the others.

But I also have a new issue, maybe someone also had this here. Nearly two years ago I've bought piston rings from Carrozzeria Campana as a perparation for the rebuild but I didn't check them at that time. This week I've removed the old rings, opened the package, measured all the end gaps wanted to put on the pistons when it turned out they are 1.5/1.5/3.0 instead of 1.2/1.2/3.0 They are stating that others are using these with success, but it would be only possible if the piston grooves were remachined which I don't want to do. Or I were supplied a wrong set.

As we know the rings are not available from Maserati anymore, but did someone maybe sources custom rings from any manufacturer?
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alpa
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par alpa »

spacecadet a écrit :Yes, I've read about it since then. What's special about the heads' cooling? I'm starting to understand why this engine is said to be well designed, contemporary and ahead of the others.
There is a collecting galery on the top (intake) side of the head and two outputs from the galery: front and rear. This is good to balance the water flow and make water go up to the rear of the head before returning to the pump. The traditional way to balance the flow is by increasing block-to-head passages (or even blocking them) in the head gasket, but this does not work well at low RPM. And it can not be modified once the head on.m not saying it's perfectly used in the engine, but at least it's potentially perfect.
In fact these engines (18v and 24v) run very lean for turbo engines, they stay at 1 richness even WOT. Most of engines would melt pistons down, these ones are just fine. The only explanation with this hp/L ratio: excellent cooling.
As we know the rings are not available from Maserati anymore, but did someone maybe sources custom rings from any manufacturer?
No grooving used pistons is a waste of money. Additionally your pistons are forget and quit good, using them with antic 1.5 rings would be a bad choice.
There are many ring manufacterers custom or not, in Europe and US. Check their catalogues.
Carrillo (italian, first choice), Arrow, King Pistons, Total Seal, Wiseco, Goetze.
Don't forget japaneese NPR.
There is a story about which kind of ring material you should use with 2L liners, but I'm not sure there is any difference with iron liners. Liners are Nigusil coated (not Nikasil as many say), if you query a company you may want to specify this. I made a thread about that 2-3 years ago.
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par spacecadet »

Thanks for the interesting information regarding cooling.

Definitely don't want to re-groove the pistons with those thick rings. Will ask around the ring manufacturers mentioned.
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

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I found rings at Wahl Pistons (they were originally with Mable, still using their blanks) in Germany. They kindly even offered to swap my 1.5 set with a 1.2 set. But to be completely sure I've sent them the pistons and the pins. In the pistons they cut contact reduction grooves above the first ring and an accumulator groove between the first and second ring. Also measured the grooves and turned out the axial clearance was too big so they did cut 1.5 grooves. Besides on the second ring they cut a Napier groove. With all the modifications the changing to 1.5 won't be such a big issue. The pins were also reconditioned, they used a method which is even finer than honing. All of the above on a very reasonable 25 EUR / piston price.
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par Konimino2 »

spacecadet a écrit :I found rings at Wahl Pistons (they were originally with Mable, still using their blanks) in Germany. They kindly even offered to swap my 1.5 set with a 1.2 set. But to be completely sure I've sent them the pistons and the pins. In the pistons they cut contact reduction grooves above the first ring and an accumulator groove between the first and second ring. Also measured the grooves and turned out the axial clearance was too big so they did cut 1.5 grooves. Besides on the second ring they cut a Napier groove. With all the modifications the changing to 1.5 won't be such a big issue. The pins were also reconditioned, they used a method which is even finer than honing. All of the above on a very reasonable 25 EUR / piston price.

Interesting to know. Who in Germany?
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

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alpa
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par alpa »

spacecadet a écrit :With all the modifications the changing to 1.5 won't be such a big issue. The pins were also reconditioned, they used a method which is even finer than honing. All of the above on a very reasonable 25 EUR / piston price.
It's cheap for sure.
And for sure the engine will work with thicker rings. They are just heavier and higher tension, I understand they seal less on partial engine loads and they may vibrate at high RPM.
They all add everywhere these decompression grooves, I understand they are needed only when the volume above the ring is low like on modern pistons. Otherwise they lower sealing even more on partial loads. It's good for high boost engines, 1 bar is not high, race engines run 1.5-2 bars boost. I don't remember how are Ghilbli pistons but I believe the crown is quite high so it's already "decompressed". Well I'm not an expert.
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spacecadet
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par spacecadet »

I'm especially not an expert so I accepted their advice after explaining the parameters the engine. But your points do make sense as well. Since there is no turning back now (don't want to buy new pistons), I put together the block.

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I also put back the valves into the heads earlier, but found some left-over dirt hiding in the oil galleys :cry: Finally today was engine build day, so took apart the heads again, and clean, clean, clean. It's pretty much spotless now. Then measured the combustion chambers. 38.5 cm3 on one head, 40 cm3 on the other. Damn machine shop :x Calculating with 38.5 cm3 the compression ratio changes from 7.6:1 (that's with the factory 41.5 cm3) to 8:1. I hope it's acceptable. Probably will take down a bit more from the other head too, to get identical numbers. Hopefully won't consume both in the end :lol:

Feels like 1 step forward, 2 steps backwards, but I'm telling to myself, it's better to discover these things before assemby and getting a badly running / short living engine.
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par Froggie »

It's a bit scaring to discover all the required adjustments that appear sound on paper, but then the (small) departures from expectations when making your way.
To me however (a no-expert :lol: ) you are taking the right decisions and you seem to work with a lot of care.
Wish you good success!
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alpa
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par alpa »

spacecadet a écrit : I also put back the valves into the heads earlier, but found some left-over dirt hiding in the oil galleys :cry: Finally today was engine build day, so took apart the heads again, and clean, clean, clean. It's pretty much spotless now. Then measured the combustion chambers. 38.5 cm3 on one head, 40 cm3 on the other. Damn machine shop :x Calculating with 38.5 cm3 the compression ratio changes from 7.6:1 (that's with the factory 41.5 cm3) to 8:1. I hope it's acceptable. Probably will take down a bit more from the other head too, to get identical numbers. Hopefully won't consume both in the end :lol:
Please don't touch the heads !

Yea it's difficult to find competent people. I wonder if they still exist. I prefer doing machining by a general mechanic machine shop: they don't pretend to understand engines, they just properly do whatever I ask them to do.

Check again chamber cc. If they are that different then check piston crown thickness. If you have let's say 5mm of thickness then remove some material from the top to increase the cc. You don't care about pistons, at the next rebuild they'll be worn. Ghibli (like all our biturbo engines) run lean (stoichio in boost), increasing CR that much is dangerous.
The other valid solution would be to use a thicker head gasket but they don't exist, you would need a custom made one. I wonder if we'll end up with this solution anyway, after having surfaced the heads 2-3 times.
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spacecadet
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Re: Ghibli de Hongrie [ENG]

Message par spacecadet »

That's exactly what I was afraid of, you already wrote above that these engines run lean (wonder why though).

If I change the pistons on only one side, won't that cause imbalance because of the different weights on the two sides?

I though the lack of competent people is only a local problem for me, but seems like it happens globally, which sounds quite bad.
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