mikael82

Today engine got lifted back to car It's not bad, but could be easier; gear lever is tight move through tunnel. I left whole spool of coolant hose top of engine, that I will cut to leght.

More important is "90" -part as it i heat value and that is same as intended. Cold side "75" is better to be lighter and wider range syntetic oil, I think original oils are mineral. I would not use mineral anymore.

My mistake! Because I am looking diff from up, I did not realise that what I have open is diff backlash inspection hole. Actual plug fo filling is lower, hidden from view... Sorry! That inspection hole plug is later change for hex plug, in this car they are all similar. I'll just leave two liters in.

Rear diff oil change. Usually I open fill plug first, then drain, should have done this also this time. Fill plug was so tight, after that 17mm 1/2" socket is 3/4" braker bar and extension and then it came loose. NOT THIS TIGHT! What you do when changin oil for Lamborghini, you use teflon tape; it is pipe thread, no flange for copper washer. Oil should be 85W/90 But issue here is; I ran out of oil after 2 liters. Fluid manual says for all Diablos say: 1.8 -liters. But workshopmanual text reads; "Fill with new oil through the filling hole until the oil reaches the lower hole edge" What is correct amount diff fluid?

Well, this is pretty simple car to work with, accuracy is needed and as you can see pictures; lot of wrong doings and faulty things are done by service mechanics and someone had paid them lot of money to do it right. This is also remind that usually owners do not see what is done to car and service places get change to do this kind of grap like filling o-ring with silicone; "italian car are like that" is not an awnser!

Shifter. I open it because it is difficult to do later and grease is starting to feel tacky. You can see how rear white collar is little black and because it was dry, caused resistance. I only removed all outer parts and left shaft untouched because if you open axle bolts, you need to adjust it with case hatch mimicin tool and gearbox out. All parts on table Clean, new grease in and go. With heat I removed adapter for gear knob, it was glued on.

Speed-o-sender revisited... I left sender standing table on socket and my surprice... Oil comes through sender itself and left small pool under it. So I thought what are solution; 1. some kind of two component glue or resin to socket base. 2. add oil seal to gearbox. So I added oil seal 8x20x8 to sender adapter and it fitted like it was desing to do so. Also did security wire correctly. Btw. Veglia senders are desing to be used in oil contact, but it seems that VDO desing is not. Do see where oil in your car is coming out.

Gearbox... I had issue with 1st and reverse gear. They did not lock in like other gear and thought it might be synchro issue, but it is rare for both of them. When I open up adjustment hatch what you have to open, if you remove shifter, I notice fisrt gear selector shaft did not stay locked. Gears worked, but close to edgeof popping out. Lamborghini gearbox is very similar to same Ferrari boxes and I do know how gear should work, six gear (reverse is also gear) are on three selector forks and these shafts are hold by bearing ball and spring that are inside gearbox wall, hold in by hatch in different level for each shaft. What I found was ball was actually wedge tight inside it's tube, in mid air and so tight I had to strike it down with hammer and pop up with shaft lobe, and my surprise metal depree fell down and I got ball out with magnet and depree out ass well! Ball lock did not work, but ball was wedge so gear would go on, not lock it, but not holding it neither. I think it was piece of spring itself and actual fault was from factory, because there should not be anything and was never opened. I just wonder; if first and reverse had never actually worked? I am very happy it was not synchro and found was was wrong!

Oil catchcan is quite loose between intake and block, even rattles. What I did; I added little bit (1cm) piece of 8mm nylon tube only to one stud and can came out really solid. Then intake on. These are something you want to check; oil catch can vacuum tube is very loose and wrong size from factory, leaking air and messing up air balance between two sides. Local car part store got bigger unions and I changed that one to replace original. Also changed temperature sender from aftermarket sender to VDO sender, both are working, but I like get real temperature (if possible with VDO units) Next is wireloom going back in. I am making same desision route sparkplug wires outside (nothing attached in picture, just routing all back) and not under intake. This gives more room and better acces for TPS sensor also no need to remove intake if sprakplug wires need to come out.

Btw, this leak issue might be more common, one owner comment that he found similar leak from that copper washer. Thanks, I like reading similar threads and taking photos about what I do, mostly for that I get all parts back together, but also fun to show how these expensive parts come out, so not everyone need to figure it out themself or brake anything. Yes, I still have Countach 5000S #CLA12544, no-one in right mind would never sell one of those... Also 512BB and Testarossa; all V12 cars from that era.

Gearbox speedometer sender is leaking. It attached only by one lockring, there is one o-ring in gearbox casing. Larger adapter even has one o-ring and lockring Note that only one tool mark on aluminium. Reason why it leaks is that particularly large and thick copper washer. With aluminium threads there just is no way it could crush to seal. I will change sohter and narrower seal. Note that there is now two tool marks and oil under copper washer. Since people at VDO have thought this part might fall out, they have made security wire holes to sender body, so I drilled one on adapter also, so I would not loose this part. It seems that copper washer is for some other application and I don't understand why they have installed same washer to Diablo. My thought about VDO products go even darker; nothing good have come to this car so far from VDO; I have never had any issues with Veglia products that are in my Ferrari's, they always work and read accurate.

Typo on that, Torque value for VT-style tensioner is not 25Nm, but 45Nm.

Way more interesting things got with right side chain tensioner... First of all I desided to see how tight it was, because ratchet didn't open it. So got one of my upper mid range torque wrench to how much are there, because I had feeling there might be some more what these should. It was A LOT! (Manual state that correct torque for this is 25Nm, but more with this later) Thing is, it started to leak because last service place did not have o-rings, you can use what ever o-ring, no need for factory one... So, in with blue silicone what leaks everywhere and leak. More BLACK silicone and still got leak. So bigger tools and more straight! But are you for real?! So I cleaned them out and placed in both new o-rings. If you are going to open valve cover, or anything, you should have correct torque tools, for valve cover, and other similar like this chain tensioner housing you need smaler torque tool, like this one: Tensioner itself (big polt) there are torque quate in workshop manual of 25Nm, but this is wrong. Because of that copper washer torque should be crush torgue like all similar copper washers, you turn them tight very slowly and when you feel copper crush, stop! and then you can try to apply similar force and note that bolt/nut does not turn, because copper got hardened and this is how I tighten these washers. Idea is that there are different kind of copper washers and you can't set specific torque value to them, factory 25Nm did not reach crush point with this washer.

Among some other things now started to through parts back in. Chain tensioner leak was largest I had in this car. It started on left side, first pulling it out. This is why you should never use silicone/RTV with o-rings, there are multiple holes on side on tensioner housing, but it is possible to block them all with silicone.

Finally painted driveshaft heatshields, one first things to for this car was add stainless bolt and nut to keep them with car, as right side pop rivets where loose and shield actually touched driveshaft and was falling off. Vacuum tank for brakes seems to suffer condensed moisture, paint was thin and mostly cosmetic. Car had spend time in Dubai, Upper side had rust on it, but lower side was actually desent. Along with them painted other parts.

I am on east side of Helsinki, but visit Turku for sports car event that is every year week before midsommer (last weekend) People might not be as happy or friendly what you are used to, but I think famous metal band sums it right in their lyrics (translated) "In this cold country where winter is long and summer is included" Also it is said that when mankind will send people to Mars, they should be Finns, because we are totally fine to sit in small dark room in silence sorounded everlasting cold and darkness, not seeing sunlight through small windows for months after another, no need to say any word to anyone else in room for days, no need to small talk, would not care to know name for peolpe next to you and be totally fine without to ask "how are you?" and suspect anyone who does that for reason for this guestion...

South, near Helsinki

Thanks. Getting closer to present situaton; Valve clearance is good to check, when engine is out and since there was leak from cover ends. 3 shims where changed to other place and needen four new ones mostly +.05 I bended couple of screwdrivers to get sims out, after poping vacuum out under them, pulled out with magnet. Sims are same with Ferrari four valve engines and because we do not have Lamborghini dealer in my country (my car is only coupe and then there are two roadsters) , I bouought them from Ferrari. 13€/each

Driveshafts are leaking grease, not widely all over like if boot would be broken, but between flange and CV-joint. I washed hubs clean. Issue with CV-joint is copper washer between there, it is one use only and if driveshafts are removed, they should be replaced, or attleast heated. This one in picture got spread and from there missaligned. I did not find correct Löbro washer, but lukily Porsche 911 got cheaper paper version that will fit. Local Porsche service guy did not even know what it was, when I asked hem to retrive me "four more"

Diablo kind of got two engines together, because of engine managment and this car had run out of balance because not so many know how to balance them, there can be difference between side if balance is out. This side there is dry mist inside plenum. This side there is oil breath tube coming in and oil have cumulated in. I gave them clean up. Nice to see, that intake trumpets, are polished. There was odd aluminium shim under there, it did not open gasget, but didn't seat cover correctly, I re-shimmed cover

Cam cover paint was pealing off, so I power jet washed them, it was one of those Kärcher machines with hot water. Nailed them to asfalt with board and this is how much I removed only with water. Enginebay needs to get washed, so pushed car out and shielded most of important ports. And it was dusty, note how paint in heatshields comes of only with washing. So I washed rest off with paint thinner and gave fresh coat of aluminium paint.

Starter motor assembly highlights after cleaning ans re-grease; hard part with it is to get front lock ring back on, this is best method I could think of. How to get brushes in is set bolts to hold them in while you slide rotor through.

You need size 50mm hex tool for those spark plug bolts, yes I have socket for those in my garage. Distributor and phase sensor got 180 degree "change" to go wrong. 48-valves... that is seriously lot of them. Cam cover gaskets did not leak, except from ends and small amount to sparkplug, what was caused by too little torque on their bolts. Chain is tight, I got VT engine, so it is double. It have not even touch upper guide on valve cover, have to how lower ones look. What is causing oil leak, is o-ring att end plates, all of them, are flat. THey must be original, because they are re-used with silicone. Those o-rings are not in pre VT-engines, they have regular flat gasket, might work better.

I removed engine electrical harnes, I made mistake to remove plenum and oil catch can seperately, they need to come out same time. Middle of block is pool of old washers, dirt and water. Not a leak from engine. I washed middle of block and outside of engine with pineline. sparyer for soap and other one for water. There is engine number, mine is #1019 Engine version is "L 522" THis is 19th VT engine, they started next generation of engine from number "1000" , first one of these "ibrid" cars is "12834"

Pulling gearbox to see if there needs to be seals changed and how clutch is looking. Gearbox come out when you remove clutch leaver, mark it before you do. Clutch looks pretty good, very clean and seems to have much surface, I have spare change set, but I do not change clutch, I will not even open it. Att least one clutch have being changed, but I have when mechanics leave parts dirty... No leaks, I am not going to change any seals this time. Engine comes out easy, so no big deal. ...So I washed gearbox with Pineline (pine oil soap) that is very efective and does not remove zink. Couple of pictures from gearbox. Do note that it is VT gearbox casing, but without front wheel drive.