Jalpa Euro Engine Update by Ross

5 minute(s) of a 47 minute read

Thought you guys may want in on this conversation between Jalpa_Aus and me. It's getting pretty fun. I hope Jalpa_Aus begins a thread when he starts his rebuild! I'll be disappointed if he doesn't! Ya, I'm talking to you Jalpa_Aus!

Jalpa_Aus's Comment:

G'Day Ross,
How's the progress of you Jalpa going? I see you had problems with the amp meter from the lamborghini talk site. How close to firing the car up are you and "That first Drive"? :-)

George has given me some good pricing on the stainless steel valves and the gasket set.
Do you know what gaskets are in the kit, George advises that it is all gaskets, o rings and seals?
George said he will send a photo through so just waiting on that.

My reply:

George tells me he got my engine block and heads back from the machine shop this week. I was pretty happy and thought maybe I'd have a really merry Christmas. Then he told me that all he could do for Christmas was wrap my block up and put it under his tree. I told him that I would be celebrating Christmas at his place then! After waiting 34 years to own a Lamborghini I guess I can wait a while longer.

Here's a good point to remember. One of my cam journals was wiped out and needed to be built up and machined because the cam chain tensioner was over tensioned! Some one was over agressive on the adjustment. Be careful because the tensioners can't compensate for over tension.

The lady I bought my Jalpa from was told the alternator was out so the car wouldn't start. I didn't care what the problem was as I was going to tear down the engine because of the valves. Turns out the alternator was fine. The engine wouldn't start because the Amp Meter was fried. It was melted. She was lucky the thing didn't start a fire! The Amp Meter is not available and has been replaced with the QV Countach Volt Meter. I can't tell you how happy that makes me. The Volt Meter is monitoring the charging system through a parallel circuit so if it goes out nothing happens. If the Amp Meter goes out it shuts down the whole car or worse, it can start a fire in the dash, because it has to be wired in series with the charging system. In other words, all the current the alternator creates is pulling through the Amp Meter! Bad thing to have in the cabin!

I'm glad that George is helping you out. I'm planning on stopping in tomorrrow to look at my block and heads. I'll get an answer for you tomorrow on the gasket set. It could be just the upper gasket kit.

Remember that if you are going to tear into that wonderful piece of art that it would be a good idea to go into the bottom half and take a look around. There are a couple of main (crank) journals that need to have the oil passages opened to insure good lubrication in the bearings. I have no clue as to why Lamborghini didn't do this. My bearings showed that they were starved for oil. Also take a close look at your lower sleeves on your pistons for "piston slapping". My front set of pistons showed unusual wear contibuted to excessive heat. And all of my pistons showed excessive wear do to rusty sleeves because the engine would set for long periods of time without running (22 years and only 15,000 miles).

Take a look at the Lamborghini air boxes I received today. I spent alot of money on something that looks like it came out of a vocational school shop! Picture #1 and #3 are showing some air tube that I've not seen in any other photos. What do you think? I have no clue what that tube does. I'm trying to decide if I can remove it. Maybe this winter I'll have my machine department make some air boxes out of billet aluminium.

I'll be designing a custom Filter Box this winter to feed the air boxes as Lamborghini doesn't have any original boxes available. I'll make sure I fill you in on that too. I've got to get that scoop functional again! If you want a fake air scoop buy a Shelby! If you want a functional scoop buy a Lamborghini!!!

Okay, I really hope you guy's fill my in with your comments! Especially you, Raymond! Help me make sure my comments are correct or straighten me out.

Sorry, I'll get the pictures formatted for the sight on Monday!

Have a great weekend!