The "official" ab's Lamborghini Diablo make over thread

I figured I will keep all my progress on one thread as I go along instead of having multiple threads. I should have had this car back on the road in December, but I got stuck working on my buddies Viper and another diablo. Oh well. I am glad I am taking my time. I got called a cheapskate on another board for doing my own work. I won't mention the name because I think he is on here too. But anyways..he's an asshat.

 

Okay.

 

Here we go.

 

I got my Diablo and was enjoying it, but it had different quirks about it that made me go hmm...did I make a wise choice in buying this car. So I decided I was going to learn as much as I could about this car. Started digging into it and realized it was just a car as far as screws and bolts.

 

I was driving down the road one day and I lost forward movement. My speedo was saying I was moving when I wasn't. Had the car towed to my house. I waited about 2 month before I started digging into the problem. I would have dug into it sooner, but a new business owned me..so i had no time. I started to dig into the car in late September. I found I had snapped a pinion gear and needed a new one. I found out that the engine didn't need to come out to replace it, but decided this would be a good time to start over on everything on the car. Like the clutch, fluids, seals..etc. So i knew it was going to be down for a bit. No big deal winter was coming on.

 

My brother Jon and I one Saturday took out the engine in about 8 hours with my Gantry crane I had in my garage. I had it made just for pulling out the engine in my garage. ($500). I was a bit nervous taking out my engine because this was the first time I took out an engine out of any car. I did a lot of work on cars but the work i did didn't require the engine to come out. So now I can brag to people saying that my first engine pull was a lambo. LOL!

 

The damn exhaust system was heavy as hell! Glad I don't have that piece of metal in my car anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the Gantry crane. You have to lift the Diablo engine pretty high to clear the car. That engine is huge and heavy!

 

 

 

 

 

I custom made a bracket to keep the chains off the intake plenum.

 

 

 

 

You have to tilt the engine a little bit at a time to get it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My brother Jon posing next to it like we just killed a big game animal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I proceeded to take off the transmission. After I got the transmission off, I now realized why the clutch pressure is so hard!

 

 

 

 

 

Yikes! many hot spots.

 

 

 

 

 

I got a new flywheel and kevlar clutch! My old flywheel was still good, but got a new one anyways.

 

 

 

 

 

I then proceeded to crack open my differential case and looky here! my broken pinion gear!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I decided at this point I am replacing all the bearings and seals. So off comes the drive shaft.

 

 

 

 

 

I got the updated pinion gear and my drive shaft was a tad too big to fit in. The splines were maybe 1000th of an inch too big. So I sent my stuff out to have it machined to where the splines fit in perfect! (Thanks to Doug Levin).

 

 

I then decided to take the oil pan and differential housing apart. I wanted to replace the seals and give it a real good cleaning. Also with the new pinion gear I would need to get the pinion and crown gear relashed. I can just drop off the casing instead of the entire engine.

 

 

 

 

 

I then decided to take off my intake and other misc items off the top of the engine to make it look pretty. This would be a good opportunity to take the fuel system apart and examine it. I sent my fuel injectors off to get the cleaned. I have never really been a big fan of the silver engine paint that lamborghini put on the engine. It got dirty too easy. I always like the red intake like I had on my viper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I layed out all my parts so I could see what I had. Man! i had a sea of lamborghini parts everywhere!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took a little break and bought another cat for my cat. Damn little kitten sleeps any way she can. She is just slung over. The big cat is pissed.

 

 

 

 

Okay, back to work...I got my headers ceramic coated. Looks real nice compared to what it looked like before!! You can actually polish this coating with mothers! Temps good for 1200 degrees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then decided to do my dash pod conversion. I hate the UPS airplane looking pod I had. So I figured out the wiring, did some splicing and whalla! i have the new updated pod. I had to get it wrapped in leather with french stitching. Looks great!

 

Here is the old modified dash I had before.

 

 

 

 

Here is the new updated pod with no leather.

 

 

 

 

 

Wrapped in leather.

 

 

 

 

I also got a 250 amp alternator for the Diablo. The OEM was weak.

 

 

 

I added some custom pedals while I was at it.

 

 

 

I am currently having a full interior carpet for the Diablo being made in black. I will eventually do the entire interior in black leather instead of the snowcorn color I have.

 

 

 

I decided to have my valve covers powdercoated bright red. I noticed that the silver coating I had on my car was dirty looking and I didn't care for the crinkle finished because it looked like it held in dirt and grime. I rather has a smooth surface plus with it being red and contrasting against the black..it should look real good.

 

 

Had to soda blast the OEM coating off.

 

 

 

 

 

Polished the lettering.

 

 

 

Finished product.

 

 

 

 

 

Test fitted everything.

 

 

 

 

I took the spark plug wells that hold the covers on and media blasted them to get them clean.

 

 

 

 

And then I prepared to powder coat them in a chrome like finish. I used my small oven in my garage to do it.

 

 

 

 

Took 15 minutes to bake them at 350 degrees. Came out great!

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't want to scratch the new covers when I put back the spark plug wells so I got thin washers to go on top. The washers give it an nice accent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now to add some more bling to my engine bay, I had a large piece of aluminum tubing mandrel bent and it's going to be polished and replace my intake tubes. See how big it is!

 

 

 

 

I also got to clean up my throttle bodies too!

 

 

 

 

While the car was up on my lift, I decided to change out the brake duct hose. I did the 3" first and waiting on the 2.5" hose to come in.

 

 

 

 

Well that's it for now. I will add to this thread as I do my upgrades and keep you gear heads posted. Some of the mods coming are:

 

1. Power steering conversion

2. Custome SS exhaust system

3. Chaning out my front Fascia to the Diablo SE.

4. Changing out my wing to the Diablo SE wing

5. Camera system with sound system

6. Full leather interior redone

7. Installing the engine

8. Replacing all hoses and more gaskets...

more come.

I got the updated pinion gear and my drive shaft was a tad too big to fit in. The splines were maybe 1000th of an inch too big. So I sent my stuff out to have it machined to where the splines fit in perfect! (Thanks to Doug Levin).

 

I really do lead a thankless life.

I really do lead a thankless life.

 

 

Notice I didn't post a pic of it. I didn't want to rub salt in the open wound. LOL!

You are my hero. If I could work on my car like that.........

 

Nice job. You will have an Awesome Diablo when you are done.

Wish I had the talent to do something like that... I can't wait to see it when it's finished, it's going to be an amazing Diablo!

You are my hero. If I could work on my car like that.........

 

Nice job. You will have an Awesome Diablo when you are done.

 

 

I totally agree. Who ever said you were a cheapskate for doing the work yourself is a moron. He just wishes he could. And I see why you are so handy....you have an Esprit V8...I think all owners should be mechanics after owning one!

 

 

Your Diablo is beautiful, keep up the amazing work. I know we all wish we had as much knowledge about our cars as you do.

Very nice!!! excellent work

Big PROPS!

You are my hero. If I could work on my car like that.........

 

Nice job.

 

+1 a combination of gifted and courage......

What a superb post ... All this info + images will no doubt be of great use to many of us in the future

All the best Adam

I want to see the car on the road!!!

 

I cant wait to see the smooth tubes installed.. I have been wanting to do something like that on mine...

Great Post! Thanks for sharing it with us. Can't wait to see the final outcome.

Thanks to Adam, I CAN NOW MAKE LEFT TURNS AGAIN!

Excellent post and an interesting read. There's no such thing as too many pictures

wow!

Excellent job!! I remember those days. Keep up the good work and good luck with it!

Just amazing

 

You should really think about putting together an instructional video detailing everything you did and sell it.

Nice! Keep us posted.

More pictures to come this weekend!

true enthusist. can't be afarid to get your hands dirty and get up to your elbows in lambo grease! can't wait to see more progress

I have to say when I was redoing / restoring the old vintage F-Cars, it was some of the best and most rewarding memories of my Car Life. You never will know a car until you go through some like you are.

 

This was about as much fun as driving the darn things!

 

Your work looks outstanding, and bravo to you for doing it yourself!!!

 

Keep taking pics and updating us - very exciting to watch, read and learn!

 

Rich

Today, I didn't get too much done. I will get more done on Sunday. I ended up watching a movie and falling asleep and wasted a good part of the day. Pretty mad about it, but much needed rest I guess. I feel like a champ now!

 

One of the thing about my engine that bothered me was the oily mess of leaking valve gaskets and seals. I took off the breather box from inside the plenum and underneath it was a puddle of oil that built up over the years. There was actually a lot of it. This oil came from the valve covers leaking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Took off a rubber foam padding that was under the breather box and it was soaked in oil. I took non-clorinated brake fluid cleaner and sprayed the intake off. I also used a wire brush to get some of the caked on crap off.

 

 

 

 

I made this contraption some time ago to suck out fluids from my car such as gas, power steering fluid..etc. Total cost was like less than $30.00 As you can see there is a venturi vacum box that hooks up to your air compressor supply. The hard plastic jug is the resevior. The the vacum pulls air out of the plastic container which causes a vacum condition which pulls the fluid through the tube. Works great. So to the fellow lambo owner that called me a cheapo...yes I am cheap..but I get the same results except I still retain money in my account. But you're still an ass. LOL!

 

The fluid I am extracting is dawn dish soap with water. Dawn dish soap is the best for cutting down oil and grease. Becareful not to get dawn dish soap on your car because it will take the wax off. Wax is a form of oil and Dawn dish soap will clean it right off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All fluid is out! Still have a little residue that my air gun will get out. I will still need to take a wire brush to it to finish it up.

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, I took a wire brush and got the heads real clean like!

 

 

 

 

 

I also decided to clean out the spark plug wells. They were dirty also with grime in it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now it's clean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took off the old orings that seals the intake and replaced them with new OEM Lamborghini Orings.

 

 

 

 

 

All of them installed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh before I forget, I started to replace my brake duct hose. The bottom one is 2.5" and the top is 3"

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I know the control arms are dirty. Trust me...I am a neat freak when it comes to cars. I will be taking off my control arms and getting them blasted and powder coated. I will also make my own Delrin bushings and get rid of the rubber ones I have on there. The rubber ones I have on there now will eventually dry rot, but they are fine for now.

 

I will have much more Sunday. Just got a late start today.

you rock, I cant say it enough.

Keep it coming.