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

Thanks. I will keep it coming. I have a friend here locally that wants me to do all his majors on his Diablo. No sweat. He likes that I pay attention to details like cleaning things up. I am probably less than what his guy charges. Oh well..I enjoy it. There's a certain member on here that may have me do his Lambo and do a full video/documentary on pulling an engine and doing majors on it. I think it would be a cool project to do.

 

By the way just the cleaning took a while to do. 15 years of grime can cake on!

I also wanted to add this part to my thread.

 

When I took my clutch off, it was completely done wrong by a mechanic in NY. The mechanic in NY put the clutch in backwards and doubt he even centered it right. This is one of the reasons why I do all my own work. Details! Details!

 

Idiot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

So Adam, where are you getting your parts from?

Well Mike since you asked, I am a distributor of lamborghini parts so I buy from myself. More than willing to quote anyone on parts and I pretty sure I am competitive on pricing.

Well Mike since you asked, I am a distributor of lamborghini parts so I buy from myself. More than willing to quote anyone on parts and I pretty sure I am competitive on pricing.

 

 

NO SH-T?! Do you cut yourself a good deal?

Well, got up early this morning and still working on the small stuff that will make a decent impact on the appearence of the engine and also help to keep it clean. I taking a break right now and posting the results.

 

 

My rear differental is probobly no different than many of the Diablos out there. It gets dirty and has grime on it from the oil and road debris. Here is a picture of it before I media blasted it.

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is after I media blasted it. nice and clean.

 

 

 

 

Some other parts I cleaned and blasted.

 

 

 

Now on to the oil pan. This part seems to get the dirtiest since it's exposed to the dirt and grime a lot. With the aluminum being a bit rough, it holds in dirt pretty good. So I decided to powder coat it after I cleaned it.

 

 

Here's a picture of it dirty.

 

 

 

 

here it is in my oven with the coating getting ready to bake. I used a chrome type finish.

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is after it baked for 15 minutes.

 

Nice and shiney!

 

 

 

 

 

 

more parts getting ready to be blasted and coated.

 

 

 

 

 

More to come later on today!

NO SH-T?! Do you cut yourself a good deal?

 

 

LOL! Mike I cut everyone a good deal!

To ab:

 

Respect, respect and nothing else but respect !!!!!

Taking another brake from cleaning up the engine. Still going at it today!

 

 

Here's the V-12 block with some oil that came from worn seals and gaskets. Dirty! dirty!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gotta love Dawn dish soap!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Powder coated some more tubing and brakets into a chrome like finish.

 

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Okay, back to work. Trying to get my intake plenum back on today.

 

come back later for more!

It's looking really nice!

EXCELLET THREAD...keep it coming! Thanks

I didn't get the plenum on today like I wished. Not enough time, so I will tackle it in the AM on Monday.

 

 

I got my differential casing ready for cleaning.

 

 

 

 

Scrubbed the hell out it with a wire brush and it came out clean!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also my engine with the starter back on it and the newly painted engine mounts. Everything is clean! The tube hanging down is my next target to powder coat chrome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here you will see my intake tube runners. I wanted to polish them up for better air flow.

 

Here is what they look like before I started to polish.

 

 

 

 

 

Starting to get shiney.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Started to take out the drive shaft seals and bearings. I am replacing them with new ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now how did I get a Ferrari part? (Funny name for a bearing)

 

 

 

 

 

Made sure that the tunnel where the pinion and driveshaft meet was clean. Used air brake cleaner fluid to get rid of all the oil and debris. I will repack the bearings by the pinion gear side before I assemble.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had to take my pinion gear off and one thing I learned about Lamborghini is that their tolerance is a bit too tight on some parts. I had to heat the differental casing where the pinon gear slides in to let the metal expand just a tad bit so the pinion gear wpuld go inside.

I used a ready heater to do the job. Worked well.

 

 

 

 

 

I am getting very close to assembling the engine which should not take too long to do. But I ran out of time today.

 

More to come!

Funny tidbit, that FAG company has a shop/warehouse near here. They share the building with three other companies, "B" "INA" and "FAG"

 

I shit you not, the sign reads "B INA FAG"

 

 

I'll take a picture, anyways car is coming along awesome, keep it up!

I got a little bit done today, not much, but still making progress.

 

 

I put my header bolts in a tumbler that polishes stones. I am hoping it will do the same for the bolts. We will see the results later.

 

 

 

 

Next, I needed to take off the box that holds both the phase sensors to access a bad gasket. I marked the box so that way it would be position right when I installed it.

 

 

 

 

 

Phase sensor box is off.

 

 

 

 

Taking off the part where the rotor mounts on the shaft of the distributor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taking off the the timing cover to access the gasket.

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to replace the pilot bearing since the tranny was out.

 

 

 

 

 

Taking out the snap ring

 

 

 

 

new pilot bearing.

 

 

 

 

Old and the new

 

 

 

 

 

Found a socket to push in the pilot bearing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's in!

 

 

 

 

 

Snap ring goes back in.

 

 

 

 

Notice the hardness rating of this flywheel bolt. It's 10.9 which is good.

 

 

 

 

next I am replacing the half moon valve cover rubber gasket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

getting ready to take off the water pump to media blast and reseal with new orings.

 

 

 

 

Took off the idler tension pulley to clean and repaint the bracket.

 

 

 

 

Water pump off with the idler pulley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Double orings I am replacing.

 

 

 

 

New set of orings.

 

 

 

 

 

new orings fit perfectly!

 

 

 

I had a heat shield that was okay but had a hole in it from I don't know what. I decided to fix it with fiberglass.

 

 

 

 

Started to fiberglass.

 

 

 

 

 

i then painted it with 1200 degree paint on both sides.

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for now. I will have more soon.

 

 

Thanks

No No, Thank YOU!

 

Fascinating stuff - thanks for sharing and keep it coming!!

Maybe you could get on the discovery channel and replace the American choppers program. You just need a screwed up family. Looks like you have the mechanics down pretty good.

You have single handedly raised the bar on engine/transmission/suspension/(oh hell) everything restoration and walking us pee-ons through this.

 

Thanks again.

you should realy do the video, it would benefit you allot and help people out who want to do this stuff them selves...

I am working out some details with another member here on it. But it will be much, much more in detail than what I am doing.

 

Thanks guys for the nice comments..it's hard work and very time consuming, but it should really pay off and I can be proud to open up the engine compartment. I have new seals going on the engine everywhere. I am sending out my injectors to RC engineering to get them ultrasonically cleaned and tested. I won't have any updates until two weeks from now. I am on vacation next week til Thursday.

 

I went out and snapped a few soon to come previews of what the next step will be. It paid off getting things cleaned up and powdercoated. Nice thing about powdercoating its that oil will be easy to wipe up. I even went to the point of getting new acorn nuts to put on the car. These acorn nuts are expensive! But it will help set off the engine. Details! details! make a difference.

 

 

Here's a few of my pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

amazing!!!

saweeeet... cant wait for the pics

you sure will want to drive such completely cleaned car when you are done?

after my bill from Lambo Ohio, you are my hero

You are a great inspiration !

Just did my own clutch in my diablo last week.

Saved big.

Can't wait to see yours running again.

very well done sir