Ferrari 348 motor - front engine / RWD conversion

[Reed Herman]

I am building a 348 motor to work in a front engine /rear wheel drive application.
Adapting a Ford bell housing and a Borg-Warner T5 transmission.
With the help of a friend (with a large CMM unit) I was able to measure the block and bell. I have created the CAD file for the adapter plate and I am sending that off for machining.

Other plans I will be documenting in this thread
355 crankshaft
Cylinder head work. Big valves, shim under, cams, porting
EFI with a Lancia Thema intake
etc

Stay tuned
Reed H

 

[Troy]

Awesome. I did this a little while ago with a 575M V12, to a billet bell housing. Keep up the good work, and keep posting updates!

 

[Randy V]

This is going to be a very interesting thread! Looking forward to seeing more and hearing more about the vehicle all this is going into!

 

[Reed Herman]

The twisted thing is that the motor / trans is the easy part.
I plan on putting this in a Lancia Fulvia. I have to build a tube chassis to convert that to RWD.

 

[Reed Herman]

Here are the stainless exhaust flanges I had made.
So I can eventually build the headers.

 

[Bill R.]

Beautiful car! Very interesting project.

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Sounds a challenge ,try and leave room to change those bloody cam belts without pulling the engine.

 

[Cliff Beer]

The twisted thing is that the motor / trans is the easy part.
I plan on putting this in a Lancia Fulvia. I have to build a tube chassis to convert that to RWD.

Neat project. That is going to be a helluva lot of work though. Why not just put a hotrod 3.2 in there? You already have the basic engine (aside from the flat crank)?

 

[Jack Houpe]

I see you know someone with a water jet. Thanks for the pictures of the front of the 348, I just bought all the parts to do a major on my 348 (acquired last year), brought them in from the UK for about $850 USD, I was surprised how costly the parts where compared to the 308.

When you tore down the motor how did that chain guide look for the dry sump pump? Is it easy to get to? Did you know how many miles where on it?

Pete you can drop the gas tank in the 348 and do the belt and the water pump.

 

[Reed Herman]

When you tore down the motor how did that chain guide look for the dry sump pump? Is it easy to get to? Did you know how many miles where on it?

My motor supposedly had 20K miles on it. It came from a car with an upper intake fire.
The dry sump chain guide looks to be in great condition. But the timing chain guide has some grooves in it. I'm going to replace it with the Scuderia Rampante part. Very expensive but very nice.

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

Hey Reed...nice to see its finally going to have a home...another bonkers
Herman Hybrid Hotrod...

ps.
give me a jingle sometime

 

[Reed Herman]

Mocked up

 

[Les]

This is fantastic, Mr. Herman! Keep it up!

Les

 

[Kris]

I'm anxiously waiting for more details!

 

[Cliff Beer]

Keep at it Reed, looking good there!

As you say, the engine/transmission connection may not be the tough part. I'm wondering if it might be helpful to consider the engine mgmt stuff from a maserati spyder....I think it's the basic f-car 430 engine in a front engine/rear drive configuration.... Just a thought.

 

[Kris]

Keep at it Reed, looking good there!

As you say, the engine/transmission connection may not be the tough part. I'm wondering if it might be helpful to consider the engine mgmt stuff from a maserati spyder....I think it's the basic f-car 430 engine in a front engine/rear drive configuration.... Just a thought.

Similar but not similar enough. Biggest difference is the Fcar is a flat crank and the Maser is a bent crank

 

[Reed Herman]

I'm wondering if it might be helpful to consider the engine mgmt stuff from a maserati spyder

Thanks for the good words.
I am intending to use a FAST EFI unit. The 348 has the same crank trigger count (60-2) as most American V8s

 

[Jack Houpe]

Thanks for the good words.
I am intending to use a FAST EFI unit. The 348 has the same crank trigger count (60-2) as most American V8s

Fast is a great ECU, does it have distributorless ignition? I've used electromotive and Haltech on my Ferrari retrofits but recently picked up a Bosch 3.3 for V8, its programmable just as the others. You certainly do not want to use the original dual bosch system which has two ECU's and two fuel pumps, two fuel filters and two pressure regulators.

I haven't started the major service on my 348 yet but when I do there is going to be some major changes.

 

[Reed Herman]

Yes. FAST does work with COP.
I still have some research to do. Most ECU's that handle COP still require a second ignition module. But I have seen some reference to Toyota Prius coils that are "smart" coils and do not require the extra module. And supposedly the fit the QV/348 motors quite well.

 

[Jack Houpe]

Aem makes a good ignitor if you use pencil coils, the Prius smart coils should work also