Ohlgren

Valves = I thought they had to be fabricated. Makes sense though that there is a replacement part out there. I bet Lamborghini bought them from a supplier, so it makes sense there would be another option in that size. Noise = With my car, every time I fired up the engine, any and everyone around said "what is that noise!?". The chain noise is a metalic gurgling sound that almost drowns out the exhaust note at idle. Once the car warms up it quiets down. Hope this all helps and informs anyone considering a Jalpa barn find. I think we may be getting a little off track, but I thinks it is informative to what it is like fixing and living with a Jalpa. Once again, mine was advertised as mechanically perfect. A couple issues I have not figured out are weather stripping. The doors are the same as the Espada, but the front roof line and triangle pieces at the windshield corners are not available from Lamborghini. The driver corner piece is missing on my car so there is a giant hole where the door windshield and roof meet. I live in Oregon and it rains 6 months out of the year. I am also missing a large metal plate off the belly that covers the transmission tunnel. $900 part and it is just a flat plate with some venting. Could have it fabricated, or make it, but it all takes time money and tools.

Joe, Thanks for the info! I have not been into my motor yet. I stopped when things got to taking the engine apart. The list of what I did is long, but I never got into the motor itself. The valve tools are the ones I think I was referring to. I saw a picture of one for sale and it was very crude. Probably not too hard to make, but like everyone says, needed. I know Evan's makes the stainless valves, but I am not positive they sell them. I bet they would if you asked them, but I think they prefer to do the whole valve job themselves. By "rod" bearing do you mean "cam" bearing? Cam bearing is the most popular diagnosis I got, broken lifter rod was second. Slipping cylinder liner was mentioned, but unlikely. Most likely not a broken valve because the engine runs smooth. It was low in the engine, perhaps a crank bearing? I will do my best to describe it for you. I was driving for about an hour and at low RPM I starting to hear a ping.... bang.... pink... bang. Like someone dangling a wrench on a string over a spinning lawnmower blade. Noise... 2 second pause... noise. It happened at a light, I started looking for a place to pull over and when I started to move, the higher revs made the noise go away. I thought my timing chain was banging, because I knew it was loose and drove on for a little while. After a few minutes, I started hearing the noise at high RPM and it was getting louder. I pulled over and it was really bad when the engine slowed. It sounded like something was banging around in the heart of the engine, low, inside the block maybe. I had it trailered to the shop. They said I was low on oil, but I had topped off before the two hour drive. When the car was full of oil again, the sound was much quieter, but still a ping and clank every couple seconds. I want to mention again, other than the banging noise the engine ran perfectly smooth and purred like a kitten. What ever is wrong does not effect the tuning or the way it runs at all. I decided to have Evan's rebuild the motor and rework it, but it has not happened yet. I hear great things about them. After the time and money I spent and all of the problems and bad workmanship I found, I decided it made sense to have Evan's completely tear it down, resolve what is wrong and do all of the preventative work recommended. My car has NEVER run right in my possession. It arrived a mess. I spent a year and $10,000 sorting it and it ran for about 2 to 3 hours before the problem above. I have no baseline to know what it should run like. It always had rattles coming from the chain area. Chris

Joe, Did you tear the engine apart yourself? George Evans told me on the phone it was impossible without special tools. Besides what is broken on my car, the valve issues are the one that concerns me the most, and it does not seem easy or simple to do. Did you do the valve job personally? Did it in fact require special tools? Did you do the guides as well? How is your car working now? Sounds like you have a good system set up and are experienced working on cars. I don't have a lift and my garage door slides into position above my car, so a new garage would be needed for me to attempt engine removal. Finding the right pro is crucial. I am very cautious about this. My car has many examples of pathetic workmanship.

Looks like a design student just jerking off.... again.

The first thing to overcome is getting the engine out the bottom of the car. I have seen a few contraptions on various threads on how owners overcome this. Tilting or lifting the car off the engine seems to be the most popular. Not a huge hurtle, but requires space and creativity. I have been told that there are a few tools that are specific to the V8. Evan's Auto told me they are one of the only shops that has several odd tools specific to the V8. I am not sure what the tools are, but I heard from multiple places there are a couple special things you need to get the engine apart. I met a Jalpa owner at the Italian Concorso 2003 who had just finished rebuilding a Jalpa V8 himself. He talked quite a bit about how unnecessarily hard it was. He attributed a lot of his headache to poor engineering. I don't know exactly what the tools are, or where the problems are. Evan's told my the Jalpa engine is the most difficult engine they rebuild. A couple issues to watch out for and motivation for the rebuild are weak engine mounts and sodium filled valves. These thin valve walls can crack and break the valve head off in the cylinder. This break is a relatively common issue. Really trashes the engine. Engine mounts are readily available and not to hard to replace once the engine is out and lifted off the subframe. The guides are cast iron and wear quickly, which leads to burning of oil. Not a big deal if everything else is OK and you keep an eye on oil levels. These are issues that a perfectly maintained and cared for un-restored Jalpa is going to have. This requires special tools. Then you get into the little things. There are Webers. They will most likely need tuning if nothing else. each of the 8 throats are individually tuned. I had mine rebuilt and tuned by an expert with a flow bench. Probably not a huge deal for someone with experience, but I am a novice and wanted it done right. Lastly, finding and getting parts can be difficult and time consuming. What worked best for me was to do the simple stuff and send the harder stuff out. Rebuilding electronics, brake master cylinders, carbs, and such I sent out. I quickly realized my shop was sending everything out and charging me for the tear down. I saved a lot of money taking everything apart and sending out myself. Now that I need a full tear down, I am in over my head. I had hoped to have it done at Lambo Portland, but Evan's warned me they would have major trouble without the right tools. My car looked pretty good when I got it. It ran OK, was clean and advertised as mechanically perfect. It ended up needing about 35,000 worth of work. Just be careful and know what you are getting into. I think you can search this forum for some of my old posts to see how my experience unfolded.

I think he is right on the edge. The Jalpa has more room than many of the other models but 6'6" is pretty tall. Best thing to do is find one in his area and take a seat. If he is in the NW USA, he is welcome to sit in mine and check it out. I don't have many tall friends, but if I can think of anyone that height I will stick them in my car to see how they fit.

In my case. The Jalpa engine has some issues that should be reworked. Parts are hard to come by and special tools are needed to get the engine apart (which makes it hard to do at home). The part that makes it such a bad "investment" is that the car is worth about 30,000 to 35,000 restored. Take the engine out, tear it appart, replace the engine brackets, valves with fabricated stainless, valve guides, rework the heads, replace the gaskets, rebuild the water pump, rebuild and tune the carburetors, add an after market ignition, clean it all up and put it back together. You are out about 25,000 to 35,000 depending on how things go and what you do yourself. Each of those projects is a few hundred bucks. If it takes more than a year, you possibly need to rebuild the brake master cylinder and maybe replace the tires. The math is.... buy great example for 30,000 to 35,000 or buy a project for maybe 20,000 and spend at least 25,000 to 35,000 to restore it for 45,000 to 55,000 total. This is conservative. If you get into suspension, brakes, electrical, the interior, or body work, the price just goes up. I love my car for all of its unique features and never plan to sell it. I am enjoying the project. I would not be able to make my money back until Jalpa values hit around 60,000 to 65,000. Most car restorations are money losing ventures. The low value of the V8s, the age of the cars, and the cost and difficulty with parts makes them particularly bad "investments".

I think it is an interesting story. Zampoli worked at Lamborghini as an engineer for years and left when Chrysler took over to start his own venture. Gandini designed the Diablo for Lamborghini and Chrysler "bastardized" the design for aerodynamics and their taste. Zampoli approached Gandini to design his Cizeta and Gandini sold him a slightly modified original Diablo design. Cizeta sprouted up in Italy when Chrysler bought Lamborghini and was made up of ex-Lamborghini employees using an original Diablo design for an original engine layout. This was all back in the late 80's. I think the company died more or less in the mid 90's. Zampoli moved to the US and tried a second go of it. Never took off and now his car is being taken away. Justice or payback? Depends how you look at it I guess.

I think it is an interesting story. Zampoli worked at Lamborghini as an engineer for years and left when Chrysler took over to start his own venture. Gandini designed the Diablo for Lamborghini and Chrysler "bastardized" the design and heavily modified it for aerodynamics. Zampoli approached Gandini to design his Cizeta and Gandini sold him a slightly modified original Diablo design. Cizeta sprouted up in Italy when Chrysler bought Lamborghini and was made up of ex-Lamborghini employees using an original Diablo design for an original engine layout. This was all back in the late 80's. I think the company died more or less in the mid 90's. Zampoli moved to the US and tried a second go of it. Never took off and now his car is being taken away. Justice or payback? Depends how you look at it I guess.

More info for those interested. http://www.autoblog.com/2009/12/08/report-...gray-market-ci/

He built the car in his own small factory. He probably could have called it a kit car.... I think he had a few options. He has California plates on it in some clips. Wondered how he managed that with a non-compliant car?

Two web sites for Cizeta, one looks official http://www.cizetav16t.com/Welcome.html One is an embezzlement warning http://www.cizetav16t.com/Welcome.html At concorso Italiano 2003 there were a few Cizetas in the show and Claudio Zampoli was selling them hard. I liked the guy and got the impression they were US legal. He and his group drove them around Monterrey. There are a few clips of it being driven in the US on Youtube. Here is a good clip of the car The fact the gov can take that car is screwed up! Ticket him for driving it on the street, fine him for breaking import laws, make him get it out of the country. They shouldn't be able to take it and then sell it! As far as the value, if it was a '96 and came into the country in 2001, $125,000 does not seem that unreasonable. The Cizeta is comparable to a Diablo and at that time, used Diablos were going for $125,000. What is the blue book on a used '96 Cizeta? With only 10 being built, they don't seem all that popular. $125,000 seems reasonable enough to put on a document. I like those cars. Always hoped Cizeta could hold on and put a car out once in a while. With a little styling update, I could have seen them surviving. They could have gotten around the import laws by selling incomplete cars similar to what they do with the Noble. Funny there is no mention on the web site that they are not street legal and could be seized by the government.

In my opinion prices are dropping in the US. It may have bottomed out, but there are much better deals than there were a year ago. I have been watching prices on this year range and asking prices are coming down for sure. I called and spoke to Bobileff about an 85 Countach. http://www.bobileff.com/ The asking price was 85,000 a couple weeks ago. I was told it sold, but it is currently listed at 99,000 on the site. No idea what is going on, but this was one I actually called and spoke with the dealer about. When speaking with them on the phone, they told me 80,000 might be possible for purchase, but they needed to clear it with the owner. This car is a great example. From my experience and research 80 to 85K for a good late model Countach should be expected in the US. (Based on my own add hunting and phone calls, I am not a dealer). True selling prices are hard to find. Several months back, almost all Countachs listed for sale were asking 100K to 120K for a standard late US model. Lately there have been several adds come and go under 100K. Cars in the US are not moving like they were. Be patient, watch prices, and carefully inspect anything you seriously consider. Getting the right car is WAY more important than getting a cheap car!

What about buying the car and driving and enjoying it as is? When it self destructs, sell it as a resto project to someone who wants a project, or part it out. You could enjoy something like this for a little while and sell it off for a minor loss. If no one is going to restore it, why not drive it into the ground, rather than let it rot away without being driven? If it is not worth anything to start with and never will be, why not?

I think all of the cars are starting to come down. Diablos were asking 115,00 for quite a while and I now see several asking 85. I have seen a couple good later Countach asking 80. Jalpa are selling in the low 30s again. ...And I will never forget Al Burtoni offering to sell me a Miura 400 for $80,000. Dark metallic blue with white interior back in 2000.

I think I saw this car up in Washington at the Seattle Concourse. It is in nice shape. Snapped a couple pics if anyone is interested.

You can get parts for a hummer. LM owners can speak up, but I have been hearing a lot of LM parts are no longer available. If they are LM specific or Lamborghini specific, and you find them, they will cost you. Google "LM002" and you can check out a couple "Top Gear" clips. You won't be climbing walls or scaling rock piles in the LM unless I am mistaken. I thought about buying the H1 and LM at different times, and looked at each in person. The LM is surprisingly small when seen in person. I thought it was going to be huge, but it is similar to a Mid size SUV (Ford Explorer... maybe even a little smaller). The interior is very nice in the LM and you sit a normal distance from you passengers. These are my impressions from kicking tires. Owners should be able to give you more detailed info.

I am really looking forward to hearing your impressions of driving the Espada. I am very curious about what they are like to drive and live with. That Espada looks spectacular.

MSD is an after market ignition. Makes cars run good. http://www.msdignition.com/

GT car parts has always had what I needed for the Jalpa. Water pump rebuild kit, Water pump to engine gasket, smog pump belt to name a few.

Greatest story ever to be told in my opinion.

I thought the sport exhaust really improved air flow, power, performance and sound. Stainless also lasted forever. Is this not true? I always thought these systems were a good idea and a good investment? I planned on getting one. Should I not?

Been wanting a Countach for years and have read everything I can get my hands on about them, (especially Lamborghini club back issues from the era). All I have ever read is that the wing slows the car down by creating drag. Not needed for stability. I have never heard anyone say it helps significantly. Just a styling choice.

Handling was the issue. I am sure it would go like hell, but forget taking fast corners. Whipping around an 8.2 Liter engine designed for boats would be no small task.

There were a pair of Lamborghini offshore engines for sale last year that were failing to sell for 15K. I toyed with the idea of cramming them into a car. Way beyond my skill level, but fun to think about. According to my books, Lamborghini didn't consider the engine viable for auto use because of weight. Is it physically possible to get one in a Diablo? I read in one of my Lamborghini books they did think about putting these in the LM. Anyone know if it ever happened? I hear about it often, but have never seen proof that it was done.