To Blow an old 3-liter Ferrari

[frankty]

Howdy,

I've owned a 1985 Ferrari Mondial Cabriolet (Eurospec) for some time now. Amongst Ferrari's these are about the least collectable and reasonably cheap to buy depending on condition. They share the same drivetrain as the classic 308, but are a bit heavier and don't handle quite as well, plus are more problematic in terms of aging electrical systems and other maladies. Despite that, they ARE a lot of fun to drive and the maintenance (if you DIY) isn't too horrific. I bought the car with 22k, and it now has about 54k on the clock.

Over the years I've fixed/upgraded a lot of the common problems: slow power windows, leaking gas tanks, main electrical panel, metric wheels for 16", aftermarket exhaust, K&N filter, and more. The big upgrade was ripping out the original ignition and mechanical fuel injection, replacing it with a full EFI made by Electromotive in Virginia, plus addition of a roll bar so it can be taken out on the track. http://www.electromotive.com

Although it's never been dyno-ed it should be pushing about 300hp up from the stock 260hp - not bad for 2996 CCs.

See: http://www.employees.org/~fty for pix and the EFI upgrade project.

Several people offer blower "kits" but these are pretty pricy @ $6k and up. With the EFI in place a blower upgrade should be pretty easy. For the EFI I'd only need to change the manifold pressure sensor and redo the fuel map. The injectors are already oversized and the fuel-pump is pretty robust as well.

Since the original FI pump can be fully removed (it's still in the car only because it's part of the original cold-air intake system) I'd have room for a twin screw Whipple or Lysholm between the rear bank (it's a sideways motor) and the rear firewall. It would be pretty easy to fab up a mounting bracket, and the nose pulley of the blower could be easily lined up with the harmonic balancer on the crank. At that point it's only a matter of pulleys, "plumbing" and programming. So, it comes down to figuring out:

a) how big a blower I need (assume 8-10 PSI max, engine redline is 7750)
b) how to relocate the throttle body to the blower (or just replace it)
c) sourcing the pulley(s), idler/tensioner, and air-intake plumbing
d) sourcing an adapter from the blower output to piping into the original plenum + blow

I figure on taking the easy way out and just plumb the blower output to the current intake plenum. There is not enough clearance on top of the engine for the blower without redoing too much intake stuff, and relocating the oil filter. I'd consider an intercooler, but I doubt I'll find any room for one, so will leave that for a future initiative.

Any help and insights on a-d above would be appreciated!

cheers,
Frank
Apex, North Carolina

[Michael]

Hi Frank and welcome to the site!

WOW! A supercharged Ferrari Mondial (or soon to be)? Now THAT sounds like an awesome project!

You mentioned that several people offer blower "kits", but I've never heard of one for the Mondial...? What kind and/or brand of supercharger do they offer? Maybe you can source some of the major components of these kits yourself separately?

I don't know if I can answer all of your questions (hopefully someone will chime in soon) but given the small confines of the Mondial's engine bay (I've seen under the rear bonnet of many a 308), I'd consider a (physically) small sized supercharger like something from Rotrex. Their units are fairly compact and either their entry-level (C15) or mid-level model (C30) should give the kind of numbers you're looking for. But I will admit I'm not an expert in the Rotrex products so you may want to check out their website and/or contact them for some additional info.

As for intercooling, at the 8-10psi mark - depending on what type of supercharger you decide to go with, be it centrifugal, roots, etc... - you may not want a large air-to-air intercooling. All the added plumbing and the cooler itself will drop the available boost due to all the added volume between the supercharger and the manifold itself. In that case, you'd be better off considering water/methanol injection as an intercooler.

Relocating the throttle body to the supercharger? Unless you're planning to go with some type of positive displacement type of supercharger (roots/eaton/whipple/etc...) in most cases the throttle body typically stays bolted to the plenum, downstream of the supercharger head unit.

Like I said, I don't have all the answers - especially when it comes to such a specialized project as yours - but hopefully that gives you some ideas.

Again, welcome to the site.