Thanks! nothing a full size fire extinguisher in the trunk cant take care of in the event it ever happens 
. More opinions on this are welcome if there are any!
If I remember correctly, the Marelli was a twin six system and the fires occured when you woukd lose the ignition on one bank and the fuel that continued being fed would not be burned and light off the cats.
The big issue with the old pie plate twelve plus one cap is locating new ones that are good Nd funtion for a reasonable time.
Crank trigger and coil packs can be your friendsâŚjust sayinâ.
Oh, I know 
that is the plan after the car is done and driving. Just makes it simpler for now. Funnily enough most people around me donât touch these v12âs in the junkyard, so another cap shouldnât be too hard to get if need be. My current one looks like its in very good condition, so not a problem for now.
The Lucas CEI ignition system seems reliable enough, even when using cheap aftermarket caps and rotors. Its noted issues are 1) centrifugal advance will seize if not rebuilt once to remove the original grease and lube with something that doesnât turn to glue, and 2) the vent tubes tend to come adrift from the cheap caps requiring a mechanical fix â glue just wonât stick. Neither of these problems is insurmountable nor will they cause an engine fire.
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Forgive me if Iâm blind but I have been looking for the Lutz cooling mod specs/guide and cant seem to find it. does anyone have a link? Thanks!
So I was doing some more disassembling today and I was taking off the Intakes and I noticed that the ports seemed to be port matched by hand, was this something that was done from the factory? or did the PO of this engine do it? If it was the PO then the engine was assembled again perfectly, no missing bolts or screws, etc⌠Either way it looks like the ports match pretty well, even the intake manifold has been ground to match.
Whatever you do get as an answer, PLEASE stuff rags in those open ports!!!
Looks to me that they have been machined rather than hand worked.
Chattering indicates that.
Not to worry I did that right after taking the pics, Plus this engine is getting stripped down for a rebuild anyways so it wouldnât matter.
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Now that I look at it more you might be right, but I would think this has to have been done by the PO, that would be way too expensive for the factory to match each port.
Those just look chamfered to me. I would think that to actually improve performance youâd have to smooth the passages more than that.
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Old style 12-piece gaskets. I presume itâll be going back together with the 2-piece gaskets? Itâd be interesting to see similar photos with the new gaskets, see if they line up the same way the old ones did.
It looks like my top end gasket set (https://www.sngbarratt.com/us/#!/English/parts/5b2ddc27-925a-4351-bbe6-63cb96da9185) comes with the 12 individual gaskets.
Have you ever seen the factory do this? Maybe a batch of poorly matched intakes and/or heads? The inside of the intake is remarkably clean for an engine that is supposed to have 80k miles.
Just a tip to maybe save someone money, the set I linked is $130 and the other ânicerâ Payen set on SNG is $230-ish. it appears that while different in color, the $130 one is also made by Payen, just like the ânicerâ one. not sure if everyone knew that already but I thought Iâd put it out there.
Agreed: it doesnât follow that a simple chamfer would improve airflow: just as good a chance it might make it not as good.
Porting is a widely-misunderstood black art!
Interesting! I didnât know anyone still made the 12 individual gaskets. Perhaps itâs old stock.
It seems like the kits that SNG offer are both the 12 individual gaskets. I noticed that XKS
Unlimited seems to have the 2-piece gaskets. Maybe SNG has a large inventory of NOS kits.
The chamfering looks normal. Not the work of PO.
Really? I donât recall that on my '83. I would have said it was a flat surface with openings that were significantly smaller than the openings in the gaskets.
It also has a hand-cut look to it, not like an official factory machining job.