What happens when a German, an Itialian, and an American enter the garage?
 

I laugh because - this is the 4th thread for the 'project silver' car that Vanster started a long time ago. The car has come a long way in the time we've each had the car. From Florida, to a barn in NorCal, to a body shop jail for 2ish years (only to be rescued by Van while being chased with a shovel) to finally my insignificant YouTube garage here in Washington state.
I finally got some time behind the wheel, and whatever your opinions on the 81 manual 4.5 16v cars are....I was unimpressed. And the car has given me a significant amount of grievances during the build process, which along the way I've threatened the drivetrain (which is the majority of my issue) with a replacement if it didn't start to straighten up and fly right.
So I bought an engine. A glorious sounding aluminum engine that does NOT have the letters "LS". I couldn't justify all the graft and suffering just to end up with an engine that sounds just like very other V8 swapped boomermobile. Not hating on it, but I just didn't want to be the same. And I'm sure I will pay a dear price for that, but there will be (hopefully) a dear reward at the end. Give those F136 video clips a listen and tell me you wouldn't love to hear that song. So let's kick this party off with a reveal video and a loosely formulated plan that I've been developing in my head over the past 6 weeks or so. I think it's a solid plan. And a lot of you won't like it. And that's really OK with me.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...39340482fc.jpg

Hell yeah, lovely engine.

I got wind of this through other channels, and I'm glad you're sharing it here. I'm really interested in how you get the bellhousing and torque tube to work together. I have my own long term project/idea where I need to figure out mating, but on the other end of the TT, so anything I can learn would be helpful.

As I was asking my local people, is that a 90 degree engine? It looks slightly larger than that, to me, but it's hard to tell from the pictures.

I can't wait to see how you get on with this, this is great. Hopefully you won't get too many haters about this; ignore them, this will be fantastic. As I think about it, you might have to get some updated gauge faces to accommodate the time you'll spend at higher RPM. :rockon:

Cheers

It would be really cool if you could "create" a spider intake (homage to the original engine) that will replace that intake and give you the hood clearance you need.
Will be watching to see how this all pans out.

Very interesting indeed...:thumbup:
There are many "hearts" that are worse to put in than that one. They really sound awesome...
Will follow this closely, great idea and good luck!

I personally wouldn't be concerned about the sound, but replacing the Porsche engine with Italian exotica because the Porsche engine is too troublesome seems somewhat counterproductive.

Good luck anyway, I'll be following the process closely, especially mating the TT and actual gearbox install.

Cool project and gorgeous 928.

There's a fine line between "Hobby" and "Mental illness". Ask me how I know!

But on a more serious note. This is a really cool project and I'm totally in awe of the creativity going on! The motor you chose sounds fantastic and since your 928 already looks fantastic, it should be a total head and ear turner when you finish!

Go for it and enjoy!

The special noise you refer to is due to the flat-plane crankshaft of most/all Ferraris and other some exotic sports cars, whereas the 928 and Chevrolet V8s use a cross-plane crank. However it has just come to my attention that not only did Ferrari have a major problem with their crankshafts some years ago (bad machining issue) and had to recall all cars that were based on that engine to replace the crank or engine, but also, although Maserati use the same basic engine, in some (maybe all) models they opted to instead use a cross-plane crank version and those would not therefore have that desired sound as when used in a Ferrari. However, that different crank may of course never have suffered from Ferrari's crank problem

I can only hope that the engine you have for this project does indeed have the flat-plane crank you want (possibly unlikely as it's Maserati?) and was not affected by Ferrari's crank recall.

The blue ferrari f136 engine he has chosen were mounted in the Maserati gran turismo cars. Cross-plane V8's. I did not hear him say that he wanted a specific flat-plane engine sound, so I don't know where you got this from. But one thing is for sure; if you go and youtube these engines, they sound awesome, and even more so with a beefier custom exhaust...
Here's one that's backing up from the driveway. Sounds like a dream to me...;

Very interesting concept.........given how fast Maserati's depreciate it probably wasn't too expensive either.....

This one was almost in my quiver of toys, sounded awesome!
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...46d8b9a3f7.png

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...f0e0bf029e.png

Well first of all, the OP made a BIG point about the sound of these Italian engines, particularly in his video. Maybe you didn't bother to watch it.

Secondly, the reason for that sound is largely because of their flat-plane crank which means a different firing sequence which creates more of a 'scream' rather than the cross-plane rumble. The implication of what he said in the video is that he is after the flat-plane scream.

Thirdly, at least some Maseratis used a cross-plane version of that engine and would therefore not have that exact sound as other aspects of the engine have less impact on the final sound than the firing sequence.

Finally, Ferrari had a big recall on their engines due to poor crank machining. As I did say though, that may not apply to the Maserati version.

I was in no way criticising the OP. I merely pointed out the above, hoping he was aware and sure his engine would match his requirements.

LOL - just like an organic 'hottie', that looks like trouble! :cheers:

Ha! No kidding!

The damn thing sounded like it was ripping the sky apart. I get the reason for the OP's decision to go an alternative route with power.

Can't wait to see how this goes trying to make it all work, (think electronics and fabrication) and... does it Fit?

Of course one could just buy a low miles one of these and have the sound, the performance and provenance for about $150k

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...98203bacef.png

ok, lots to respond to, sorry if I don't catch them all.

spider intake idea: solid idea, I'm a long ways off from building an intake, but that is something I'll keep in mind. Just for fun I took a spare spider center I had, and it nestles down in the valley rather well. Potentially it could be used, with a lot of modifications to it. Would be easier to fab up a replica and make it look similar.

engine selection: Yes, this is a cross plane, not a flat plane crank engine. It won't have that 'flat plane' sound, but it also doesn't have that price tag. 20k for a ferrari engine, $2500 for a maserati engine. The maserati clips sound great too - maybe side by side it's not as exotic, but the cross plane engines still sound great.

It is a 90 degree engine. This particular engine has had a bunch of later model engine 'upgrades' done, aka the variators and cam oiling upgrades. It's about a $3k parts bill for someone to have done that, so I scored big time on that.

Hardest thing to find so far has been the vette drivetrain. Plenty available, but they're not complete. Most of them have had the differentials sold off the transmissions already. Once I have a driveline and an auto 928 rear crossmember, I can start working on getting the brackets made for the transaxle. I've looked at how 928MS did it, and until I have parts in hand, I'm not sure how I'll make it all happen. First step will be to make a jig to hold everything in place outside of the car.
Already found a place to do adapter plate and flywheel things, but I need a solidworks engine side scan to speed up that process. Waiting on a few people that have already scanned the engine for those. Tons of places will modify a torque tube, so that is easy to source.