johnmh

Hi, I have a 1980 LP400S and a 1982 LP5000S and have a serial number related question for any other LP5000S owners out there. Too long and technical to describe here, but if you have a LP5000S can I pm you with my question about your car? Greetings to all. John H

My black LP400S has been shipped from Dubai to Toronto and now lives there. My LP5000S project has stalled. Over the last few years I bought (or had made) virtually every part I need to restore it, had the instruments restored, he the paint stripped to alloy and the body checked for straightness. The engine was disassembled, measured and cleaned. The block cleaned with dry ice media blasting, the heads shipped overseas to have their porosity welded, the valve seats and guides replaced. No skills exist here in Dubai to do the machining work, paint or trim the interior properly so I am in the process of crating everything and shipping it all to Orazio Salvioli's shop this spring.

Also a Canadian who lived there (am in Dubai now but go to AD every week). Etihad towers is ok. Leasing is not an option but there are lots of cars for sale and financing is easy. Feel free to PM me if you need a coffee some time when you are in town.

There is some good adhesive backed heat reflective material on the market which does a good job of keeping the heat away. I think Www.countach.ch has a section on it. What year / car is it? I have 1121240 of 1980, it is nice to hear about siblings. I also have had no heat issues with mine and it is a stock as can be.

My guess is the heater core still has some coolant in it. I am trying to undo the hose which connects to the header core at the firewall but it is very hard to reach it with the engine in place. I always replace the coolant every 2 years (brake fluid too) but removing all of the coolant is much harder. I have been testing the NPG on my R1 and my MX bike and it seems to work well. No overheating, no pressure in the system.

I thought about that, to reach the end of the hose near the firewall would be a tough job, especially with the engine lid in place. I will continue to experiment - fwiw I do not use a powerful compressor to push out the water, rather a Bosch shop air blower thing. Maybe I need some more prep fluid and must do the whole rinse once more. A real pain, to run it the exhaust must be on. To remove the block plugs the rear half of the manifolds come off. Do that a couple of times. Not to mention that prep stuff is kinda pricey here.

I am attempting to replace the green stuff in my LP400S with Evans NPG coolant. When I rebuilt the engine in my LP5000S I noticed how much metal had eroded from the steel liners in the block; I am going to try the Evans NPG as it does not run under pressure or cause corrosion. I also hate changing coolant every 2 years and like the idea of long life coolant. To achieve the desired result, residual water should be less than 3% of the total volume when the NPG is added. The stock coolant capacity of a LP400S is 17 liters. To get it out I pulled the hoses off the water pump, removed the plugs on eitther side of the block and pushed a lot of compressed air through the system from the coolant tank cap. I drained 15 from it this way and added 12 liters of "prep fluid", something which is supposed to absorb the remaining water and remove residue. After running the engine up to temperature with the heater valve open (the thermostat opened up) I drained the prep fluid and retrieved about 9 liters of the stuff using both the water pump hoses and by removing the plugs on the sides of the block. The prep fluid turned green so there must have been some leftover coolant somewhere in the system. I then blew compressed air through the heater core and got about another 500cc out it. What makes me curious is where the remaining water might be hiding. The spigot at the bottom of the water pump housing should be the low point of the system, but I realize that the hoses which run from the engine to the heater core go under the door sill on the right side. One thought is to undo the hoses where they connect to the heater core in the front of the car and blow compressed air through it. Anything I am missing? Having completely disassembled a LP5000S to the last nut (and reassembled about 60% of it) I thought I knew the Countach anatomy pretty well. Perhaps not.

Many thanks. That is the exact system I have laying around. In similar conditon too. As an aside, I will PM you about your 5000S restoration. My engine is complete (I.e. all new parts) but is still disassembled. Maybe your specialist would be interested in putting it together? My helper is way too busy building v12s for boat racing.

Cool! My 400S has the tab welded to the frame but not the bracket. The spring loaded mounts is the same as used on the sides of the larger, stock muffler. The bracket 004405055 would appear to be the same. This looks easy. Thanks.

My LP400S is euro but has the side mounts. The Ansa came off my LP5000S (which is away in the paint shop otherwise I could check it out). Odd that they would sell a system which does not mount with the stock mounts. I see no other mounts listed in the eurospares fiche. Will continue to investigate.

Thanks, but I am a bit confused. The car is different because it comes equipped with different mounts from new? A photo would be amazing if you might have one.

I have a used but good conditon complete Ansa system laying around which I am considering installing on my LP400S. One problem, the stock muffler hangs from brackets welded on to the sides of the muffler while the Ansa has no such brackets. How do I mount the Ansa? Am I missing a part?

I have a 91 TR, 2 CT (LP400S and 5000S) and a 78 BB (carb). The TR is a little bit faster in straight line speed over my LP400S and the BB. The CT easily handles the best. None have trackworthy brakes. If I had to track one (if my life depended on it - I am not a car track guy, I ride bikes on the track) I would try to find some rubber and pads for my 400S. Mind you, I did passenger once in my TR at a Corse Clienti day with a Ferrari test driver who managed to pass a few 430s and 360s in my old TR so they can hustle if used right. What is the most amazing is how some of the F car people cling to the idea that the BB is a better pure sports car than the CT. I love my (mint) BB, but it is a vintage bit of kit on tall Michelin XWX rubber and likes to be driven accordingly. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=381106 I have not had the pleasure of a DD QV, but suspect it would close the power gap on the TR (455 hp vs. 380). I have driven a 512TR, pretty damned fast and a smidge better handling than my TR. Still, my bet is on the QV...

I am not certain what I have done to deserve this honour. Other than grease a few palms perhaps.

Silver, white, or pearlescent white? Almost makes me like the colour. Dude needs a looser t shirt though.

After 32 yeas the engine mounts in 1121240 need replacement. I can feel the torque of the engine shifting it from side to side with an audible clunk when the clutch goes in and out. Enough said. The rear ones are reachable, the ones under the gearbox are easy with the car off the ground, but how do I get to to the ones on the sides of the block? Yes, the airboxes must come off, maybe the carbs too (I hope not) but do I need to remove the exhaust manifolds? Every CT engine removal I have seen in pictures showed installed exhaust manifolds, but those mounts are underneath. Can I get to them from the underside? Finally, with the front and rear mounts undone, can I just rotate the engine slightly to the left and right to get to each mount, or is the technique just to lift the whole engine slightly? Best regards to all.

Maybe that will allow me to confirm the following is accurate: Tahiti Blue - Paint code on car : LAM. 2463739 - PPG code : 2463739 / 215854

I have written to Carrozeria Imperiale, will see what they say. Thanks for the reference to the countach.ch website; I love the pics (and the last one with the pair of CTs is great as that is what I am working towards). Does anyone here have an original Tahiti Blue car? There is usually a paint label tag affixed somewhere, might a photo be a possibilty? Thanks again.

That might be a great idea buyt I would feel bad asking them to prepare a sample, but not asking them to paint my car. I would be prepared to pay for a sample / code, etc. Will try asking them. I have tried a very good shop here who have done other work for me; I supplied a PPG paint code, but the result looks a but dark and may have too much green in it. Hard to tell, unless I compared the sample against an original (non faded) car.

I may try that, thanks. There must be a Classiche program with an email address somewhere.

I am looking to find a paint sample for Tahiti Blue. I have the PPG paint code and got a sample mixed and sprayed on a card. It looks correct, but how can I tell? Does anyone have an original Lamborghini paint palette booklet? I am stripping my 5000S back to bare metal for the 2nd time and choosing Tahiti over the Rosso Siviglia. Circumstances in the last few months have led me to have 3 red exotics with black interiors and I need something different. Fwiw, I am in Bologna at the end of next month and can bring my sample along to compare if anyone in the area has an original example. A side trip to St #### would not be a hardship.

Thanks Mike, I hate the idea of boxing my crank and sending it away as things happen and I am not certain who would be a safe choice for that work. Your measurements and the part numbers are a big help. As the block is still out getting the liners honed, we could only measure the rod big end clearances. All were 0.03"; my engine friend's day job is building big Lamborghini derived v 12s for world championship offshore race boats, he does not play around and thought smaller clearances were in order. Will call GT car parts, I need to find a phone no for them. Thanks, John Ps it may be a pricey month, I am performing a 2nd bare metal respray on the car (long story).

Um, maybe I will just get the crank journals built up again and use the stock sized bearings. Thanks guys.

Alas, with the new rods and stock sized big end bearings, the clearances are about double the suggested .0015" amount. So it looks like a crank regrind and a oversize (undersized?) set of bearings are needed (still waiting to measure the crank main bearings, I may need them too). Anyone know a source? I have emailed eurospares and am waiting for a response but they do not list them on the website. Best to all. John

My 82 Countach block is slowly coming together. Deck height with the new liners is now set, the next question is how to install the liners. OD of the liners (without viton o rings installed) is 90mm. OD with the liners with o rings installed is 90.7 mm. O rings are OEM Lamborghini. ID of the block where the liners slide in and the o rings are to seal is 90.04 mm. All measurements taken at 21 deg c. If I heat the block (not easy give it's size) and chill the liners in my freezer I still doubt that we can accomodate that 0.66 mm interference fit. Does anyone know what the clearance between the liners and the block ought to be? It is not a specification listed in the shop manual. This is getting interesting. Any great ideas on how to heat the block to 90c? This will not fit into my oven and tossing it onto my barbecue does not sound like a great idea.