Ohlgren

I concur 100% With Peter K.. The Jalpa is not a very collectable car at present or in the 7 years I have owned mine. I would probably get about what I paid for it today as I did when I bought it (about $33,000). I have more than $70,000 into it and maybe bumped my value up a couple thousand at best. I have heard tale that Jalpa prices are going up a little, but have yet to see evidence of that. I have only seen or heard of one all original mint condition Jalpa. It was for sale a few years ago. Advertised primarily as a show only car. With the low relative value and very slow climb, I think collectors look elsewhere. The people who are interested in the Jalpa seem to be tinkerers and folks who want an exciting, beautiful and unique car to drive. Key word DRIVE. Practically every owner makes changes and tweaks to make the car more reliable. Since it is not much of a collectible, most of us seem go with what is best for the car.

GT car parts was my go to the first couple years, but their part supply was very limited. When they had stuff, it was usually a good price. I used Lambo-stuff for a while, but again, they were pretty limited. Evans does more Lamborghini v8 stuff, and I think more Countach stuff, than anybody these days. He also owns those cars, drives them, and repairs tons of them. He has connections at the factory and long history with owners and suppliers. If it is out there, he can usually find it. His prices have been comparable or cheaper than other sources. I use him almost exclusively these days.

A little before and after for inspiration.

Evans put in "drop forged high performance pistons" that I believe he has made just for the Jalpa. He told me they are far superior to the factory pistons and the whole set + rings costs less than what the Lamborghini factory rings alone cost.

Good info here. I was posting before the car went off and I am not sure if I updated things. Here are pictures of what was causing my gurgling grinding and banging sound. The water pump was done incorrectly and was leaking water into the block. The drain hole was plugged with debris. The bearing were crazy rusted and ball bearings were missing. The cams were "rattling" around and jumping as they hit the valve stems.

Found 6 Webber 42DCNF Carbs on ebay today. Still looking for a set? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Weber-42-DCNF-carb...715&vxp=mtr

I forgot to take and send the pictures of my custom Jalpa carb wrench. Sorry for the delay. As you can see in the pictures, I modified the wrench considerably. -The U side was bent to about a 45 degree angle while the O side was bent almost to a 90 degree angle. -The U side is ground considerably. The ends were ground down to make the points considerebly narrower. This is to get the head of the wrench into the tight spaces and turn in the confined space. -The O side is ground way down all around. The end is super thin to get into the space around the nut. They built the carb body right next to the nut, so the head has to be really thin. I also took quite a bit of material fron the top and bottom of the O head. You need to do this to get over the nut and bolt and get into the absurdly tight space. With this weird little wrench, I was able to get all 4 carbs off without removing the rubber pieces.

I don't think I have any LEDs in my car. I am in Portland and my car is available for you to look at whenever you like. Just give me some warning and I will get it out. Right now it is crammed in the garage for the winter, but I just need to shuffle some things and it is ready to go. Not sure how often you get to this part of the woods, but if you make it over this way and want to see another Jalpa, you are welcome to drop by.

Do you have a part manual for the Jalpa? I would say that is essential as you go forward. The exploded part views give you an idea of how things go together and come apart. If you do not have one, there are almost always copies available on ebay and they can be found at various places on the net. Congrats and good luck..... Hope you know what you got yourself into

I meant the brake booster you were talking about in the quote. You were looking for a rebuild kit for the brake booster yes? If the car has not been driven in quite a while, a brake booster rebuild is a good idea. It cost me about $500 to have it done and it fits in a small box for mailing. You may not be able to find a kit for it.

I was told by Lamborghini Portland once upon a time that rebuild kits are not available. I had mine sent out to a specialist who rebuilt it. Most information was a little suspect from the Portland shop, but I don't think the rebuild kits are easy to find. Let us know otherwise, but I think you will need to send it to someone to have it redone. I would recommend it since it has been sitting so long.

Yeah..... I am with Paul. Not running is a major concern. I get the impression you are excited for the project and fully capable. Just be prepared to pay some hefty bills once things get rolling. I am excited to see this project get underway. I will lend any help and advice I can. I also want to help you keep your expectations realistic. It is nice to know there is another Jalpa in the state!

Earlycat is dead on, I had a lot of electrical issues when I first got my car. As mentioned here, the sockets in the relay and fuse panels push out on the inside. When I got into my car, I found several that had been pushed out and were not connecting. The uninitiated makes it worse by pulling things out, checking them, and pushing all the female connectors out of the panel when they put it back. Once you see how bad it is in there, you will take the panel off every time you plug something in. Also the grounds get bad and the fuses get corrosion on them. I cleaned all of my fuses, cleaned all of the relays, cleaned the grounds here and there and went through the fuse panel and made sure everything was connected. Several systems came back to life and I have not had any electrical problems since with one exception..... ....The ignition switch in the back of the ignition cylinder goes out frequently on the Jalpa. Behaves like someone reaches over and turns the key off on you at random times. Also will not activate the starter at random intervals. Evans Auto has replacements. Based on my experience, I too would recommend a quick cleaning and check the fuse box before getting more serious. You might solve a long list of issues with little more effort than removing a panel and scrubbing some stuff off.

I am coming to this discussion pretty late, but I have a "worst case" scenario for consideration. What can happen if you get a poorly cared for car or a project. After my experience, I cringe when I see newbies considering a project car. My story is scattered around this and other forums, but in short I got a poorly maintained car. I paid 33K for my car in 2006. I have put about 70K into getting it sorted. That includes some optional extras like Stainless exhaust, but other than the engine rebuild, it is a mile long list of little things. A few parts were expensive, but a large chunk of that was labor. If I was more handy, I could have saved some money, but there was a lot of things like rebuilt carbs, rebuilt brake booster, rebuilt water pump, welded aluminum pieces that broke, missing keys made, and other things better left to specialists. Also for consideration, here is a funny story.... A belly plate was missing when I got my car. It left the transmission tunnel exposed from underneath and I could see the road thru the gated shifter. A new plate was $850 dollars. I could get one made for about $500 to $650. I decided to go with the original, since I was sure it would fit and it would be factory correct. My car was being rebuilt at Evans Auto when I added this to the list. Evans recommended getting the plate ASAP since it was a structural element and would help reduce the flexing of the car. He called me laughing a few days later. It turned out that the new plate did not fit. The bolts on one side did not line up. On further inspection, he found that the floor pan on one side of my car was in the wrong place. It had been welded on about an inch off from where it was supposed to be. All indications were that it left the factory that way. It most likely did not have a belly pan because it was put together wrong and the belly pan would not fit. Evans had to grind the mounting holes oblong on each side to fit the offset. So a simple belly plate that cost $850 dollars took a couple hours labor to be installed because the car was assembled wrong at the factory. This is just one in a long list of stories.

I can speak from direct knowledge on the Jalpa, but from what I have heard, the V12 is even more solid than the V8. By all accounts the v12 is a great engine. Most issues arise from the fact people rarely drive the cars. Peter K summed it up perfectly! There are known issues with many of the vintage Lamborghini cars. Address the stuff on the issues list, and you should have a very solid car. If issues do arise, proper repairs can be expensive and that is just part of owning a vintage exotic car. I have met a couple Gallardo owners and a Countach owner here in Oregon. Always hear rumors of other Lamborghini owners in the area, but rarely see any. It would be nice to have someone local to share stories with.

I have had a Jalpa for the last 7 years and went through a full rebuild on the engine at around 25,000 miles. It was not maintained well and awful mechanics made an absolute mess of things. I saw my car in 2000 and fell in love. It needed a few things and I passed on the sale. In 2006, I saw the car again and after the owner listed the service he had done, and since it included repairing the issues I knew of, I bought the car. On arrival, I found a very long list of terribly performed repairs. I started going through it, and every time I thought I had it sorted, something else would act up. Very long story short, I found that the water pump had been rebuilt poorly and water was seeping into the engine. The car had not been driven at all for a year and very rarely for the several years prior. There is a port to let moisture out, but it was clogged. If the engine had run regularly, the moisture most likely would have been forced out. As it was when I got it, water had been in the block for a very long time. I had the pump rebuilt by a Lamborghini dealer and they made things even worse. When the engine re-builder opened it up they found balls of rust where the bearings were. The engine had to come out, all the bearing had to be replaced. While they were in there, I had many of the known issues sorted out. My list of engine work and repairs is a mile long and a small fortune. Had the car been cared for properly and driven often, most of the problems would never have happened. I have talked to many owners who have no troubles at all with there V8s over long periods of time. The Lamborghini V8 will not tolerate neglect. Taken care of, they seem to be only slightly more fussy than your average car.

It amazes me how little he knows about the car. As a car nut and Lamborghini fan, I would have thought he would have read or seen something about the Aventador in the last couple years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTQAB-pq5bg Nice video on You-tube about it. They also cover the Bravo and Genesis.

Thank you so much for re-posting these pictures. I made a bunch of calls and made a few connections here in the states with people running these (Actually the 9.2 Liter). They loved them and had great things to say about them. You can see and hear them in action here

No, they have not made these for a long time. They are huge and only for offshore powerboat racing. They will not work in any normal automobile. Legend has it they tried one in an LM and it was a disaster. Too heavy and too big.

Giving this one a bump in hopes I can see the pictures again. Another pair of marine engines just came and went on eBay. I love these engines.

I got a set of MSD wires. Modern tech that works great and were not that expensive.

Last Urraco I saw was at Concorso Italiano and it had broken down on the green. The owner and Valentino Balboni were looking it over trying to get it going again. Most of the threads I read are about issues owners are having. A lot of the cars are see for sale are in rough shape. Maybe I am mostly seeing the bad ones.....

I have heard this fact a few times from multiple sources. Some of the last LMs built had the Diablo engine. When I was visiting Evans Auto, they said they had just serviced one. They come up for sale on occasion as well. I am sure it true, but you have to ask the LM folks how many where made that way. I believe the number is small.

I think this is the exception and not the norm. The recent Lamborghini Urraco book that came out said that of all the cars seen, and owners the author interviewed, roughly half of the cars were not running. The V8s seem to be strangely inconsistent. My Jalpa has been a lot of trouble and horribly unreliable, but I have met several owners who hardly ever have the slightest problem. The Jalpa was the last generation of the V8 line and benefited from a lot of sorting and experience on the earlier cars. The Urraco is not a reliable car. They can be pretty good if looked after, but don't fool yourself into thinking they are reliable.