Mercury Through The Years...

[FUJIMO]

[WaterZebra]

I hope the V12 cowl design will rub off on the V8 and V6 families? At least somebody took notes on how much these things weigh and added a handle pocket to the front face of the cowl. Makes removing the cowl much easier with two places to hang on to! Looks like the flip top lid is injected mold plastic?

[David]

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The oil filter was upside down on Ferrari V12s for a long time. Maybe it still is, but I bet not. I can't see what's under the shroud on the 812 V12 at left. From left to right, 812, Daytona, GTO, Superfast.

[1954bmw]

As bad as everybody talks about Fram filters and they are being used on gizzilion dollar Farraris???

[David]

old pictures of old cars...

[FUJIMO]

[FUJIMO]

[FUJIMO]

[Mark75H]

Looks like ... a toilet. Who in marketing didn't realize that?

[David]

I asked on a car message board about changing the Ferrari filters without making a mess

"Here's the trick - the proper oil filters have a stand pipe in them so that the filter retains oil inside to at least the height of the stand pipe. When it's loosened and lifted off vertically, almost all of the oil is retained in the filter and very little drips out (it will also have an anti-drainback valve). More importantly, by keeping oil in the filter when the engine isn't running and not allowing it to drain back into the sump, oil pressure comes up more quickly on a cold start than if the oil pump has to fill up the oil filter first.

The reason I said "proper oil filters" - in some of those photos above, the engines are fitted with nice orange Fram filters. They used to be factory fitment, back in the 60s and 70s. In the late 70s, Fram stopped building the filters with the internal stand pipe... and Ferrari stopped using those Fram filters immediately. Unfortunately, too many people don't know of the change and think that Fram filters are still preferred. There have been a few Ferrari engines lost to Fram filter failures since that standpipe removal as well, It's thought that Fram's quality control dropped way down at the same time as they stopped using the stand pipe.

The proper filters on the V12s as well as the 308/328s now is the UFI filter I have fitted in the photo above, or a Baldwin B253 filter (I've used both, have a few of each on the shelf). Both have the necessary/desirable stand pipe in the filter. If someone really wants orange filters like the old, good Frams, they use the Baldwin B253"

[25ss]

Picture i took years ago at a switzer show .
Good pic of Kenny Kitson and Bob Switzer

[V pads]

3326407[/URL]]Looks like ... a toilet. Who in marketing didn't realize that?

I thought the same thing and still do. More so than the 20H conversion did. It is quite a piece of engineering though.

[FUJIMO]

[FUJIMO]

[FUJIMO]