Welcome to my Project Maserati 228 page. I created this page to present the work I've done on my 228 to improve its level of performance and detailing.  

 

My 1989 Maserati 228 as I Bought it in 1998

 

Finished in 2003!

 

 

On the Green at Concorso Italiano, Aug 2002

 

On the Green at Concorso Italiano, Aug 2005

 

On the Green at Concorso Italiano, Aug 2007

 

 

Photos!! - A ton of pictures of the completed car!

The Hunt - Why I bought a 228, the path that led me to this particular one, and some of its history.

An Unskinned Bear? - All the dirty secrets I found out about the car AFTER I bought it.

The Details - Detailing the interior and engine compartment.

The Exterior - Repainting the car.

Enhancements - What I have done so far and what I plan to do, mainly performance-wise.

Quad Cam Project - I sourced a 1992 Maserati 24 valve 4 cam engine from Europe.

Sound System - I added an Empeg (Rio) MP3 player and AM/FM receiver.

More Information - Where to buy a 228, prices, what to look for.

228 - What is a 228, what is mine like, what do I think of the car (warning - biased opinion!)

Shows - Various car shows my 228 has been at.

Other 228s - Pictures of 228s other than mine.

Road Trips - Road trips I have taken in my 228

Sounds and Videos - Of my car, of course!

Costs - A sober warning about attempting such a ridiculous project!

Buying a 228 - Here's what to look for.

228 Friends

One of the most pleasant surprises about putting this web site together has been the emails I get from people all over the world who own 228's, or other Biturbo variants. I am always happy to hear from fellow 228 owners, people who are 'improving the level of detailing and performance' of their Maserati, and people who just want to give me some feedback on my site or my car. Thank you everyone who has ever dropped me a note! I've met a number of great people and fellow enthusiasts this way.

 

Feedback  

Comments, suggestions, flames?   Email me at dan@mcc_allum.net (remove the underscore)

If you have a 228 or other Maserati I'd love to hear from you and even get a picture of it.

 

Update History

August 2008

-    The website continues to fall out of date, but a small bit of progress has been made. 

-    Planned to drive the car to Concorso in August 2008. The differential gave out the evening before I was to leave. So I flew to Concorso.

-    Got the stereo fixed finally, it works great now. I should have done it years ago. 'Fixed' isn't really the right word. I replaced it with a similar model.

-    Repairs so far this year have been painful. Speedometer died, had to go to Palo Alto Speedometers for rebuild. Needed a new cat, new ignition rotor, had to change the ECU, brake master cylinder replaced, re & re radiator, power steering pump, differential. Plus the new windshield I put in a couple years ago is delaminating and in need of replacement. 2008 has been a tough year, and it's barely half over as I write this!

-    Still need to add more pictures, pictures are a pain to add . . .

 

2007

-    The car has seen good use over the past three years, but the website has slowly been falling out of date. (Sorry!)

-   

-    The A/C and the radio are still problematic, but the electrical gremlins are tamed. In 2007, the car was making a clunk in the rear, the a/c had to be recharged, new battery, new speakers, and yet another fuse box.

-    What's up with all the 228's for sale all of a sudden? There's one on eBay, four (!) in VCM, and one locally.

-    Still need to add more pictures, pictures are a pain to add . . .

August 2004

-    Visited the local main Italian car show, as well as a smaller Italian car show at the Italian Cultural Centre.

-    Noticed my first scratch in the paint a few days ago!.

-    The electrical gremlins are back. The high beams stopped working, the interior lights have been giving me trouble - like shorting out and smoking, the radio doesn't seem to be getting enough power, etc.

-    Still need to add more pictures, pictures are a pain to add . . .

June 2004

-    It has been too long since my last update!

-    The car sat in the garage over the winter and did not get out much, and very little happened to it.

-    I bought a 1960 Fiat Multipla (really, I did!) and that occupied most of my 'car time' over the past while.

-    I sold my original 2.88 litre 18 valve engine and the ZF 5 speed transmission with it.

-    I finally have gotten over my fear of paint chips, door dings, etc. and have been driving the car regularly for the past few weeks.

-    Still need to add more pictures . . . .

Oct 2003

-    The first phase of the massive reconfiguration of the web site is complete.  I still need to add a bunch of pictures.

Sept 2003

-    The project is finally finished! Paint, engine, suspension, interior - done! I still don't believe it

-    A massive reconfiguratiion of the web site is next.  I will reorganize the site around subject areas, rather than focussing chronologically on the project.

May 2003

-     Car has had threee coats of primer applied.  A coat of the final has been applied to the door openings, etc. I am told that the car will be finished by mid-May.

February 2003

-    Car is stripped down annd off to the shop! See the Exterior page for details and tons of pictures.

December 2002

-    Started stripping the ccar down to get it painted. See the Exterior page for details.

October 2002

-    Added a ton of picturess to the 228 page. Pictures of other 228s.

-    I store my car on a lifft from Superior Lifts, and it broke last week. Luckily no-one was hurt and nothing was damaged. New parts have been received, re-installed, and the lift is back in action.

-     The car has been in and out of the shop a couple of times to take care of some 'loose ends'.

-    Had a highly successfull run up to our nearby wine country with a couple other older Maseratis in late September. Put on several hundred miles during beautiful autumn weather and grape harvest time.

-    Also showed the car at the Langley 'Show 'n Shine' in early September.

-     The weather has bbeen unseasonably good, so I am taking advantage of it to continue to drive the car. I noticed some salt on one of the local bridges yesterday though (luckily I was in my Jeep) so that's pretty much it for driving the Maserati for this year.

-    Still no progress on thhe bodywork and painting. Too many other things on the go right now.

-    I bought a 2003 Subaru Impreza WRX to use as my main rain/winter car. Does it ever feel cheap compared to the 228! And low powered too, even though it has 225 hp! I was quite surprised by these first impressions. I know - I'll do a bit of work on it, drop in one of those European WRX spec engines . . .

August 2002   

-         Drove the car to San Diego and back, with a stop in Monterey to show the car at Concorso 2002. Read about it in the 228 section.

-     Added in a bunch of new pictures.

-    Getting ready for the winter project, which will be to clean up the interior, and get the car painted.

July 2002   

-         Got the car back with the Stebro exhaust system. I give Stebro a 9/10 for exhausts and 1/10 for customer service.  The car was waiting in the shop for several weeks while they refused to return phone calls, then shipped the wrong system all the way across the country and back.

-     Air conditioning system is installed and functional.

-    Off to Concorso in Monterey in a couple of weeks. Will not have time to get the car painted before then, but should be able to get the interior freshened.

-    There are a couple of 228's that were for sale on eBay recently. Item # 1844772264 and 1845658788 and 1848378416. Check them out for some laughs about the pricing. The black one was advertised in Hemmings at the same time for $1500 less than the guy had his reserve price set at on eBay. Looking to reel one in I guess. The white one seems to be in nice shape, but what's up with the VIN?

June 2002    Major Update! See the various sections for details.

-         Finally had the quad cam motor installed in the car! 

-     I got tired of waiting for the manifolds and turbos to arrive from Belgium, so I bought new ones from MIE. 

-    Modified the air intake by removing the factory air filter and all the associated plumbing.  Replaced it all with a couple of after market air filters mounted just before the turbos. Sure makes the engine compartment look less crowded.

-    Port and polish of the heads done.

-    Custom stainless steel exhaust ordered from Stebro.

-    I had the suspension lowered by about 2 1/2" in the rear and 1" in the front. 

-        I had a larger front sway bar installed to replace the original.

-    Tightened up the rear sway bar to make it even firmer.

-    Put some spacers behind the wheels so that they sit properly in the wheel wells.

-    Next steps are to drive the car for a while, and get it tweaked so it runs just right.  I am also anxious to get the car painted and have a new front windshield installed.  I also have a garage full of interior parts that I eagerly bought in March of 2001 which need to be installed to freshen  the interior up.

April 2002

-         Manifolds and turbos that I received from Belgium are from a 2.0 litre Maserati engine, the kind that was only sold in Italy, not the 2.8 litre 4 cam engine.  At least the manifolds seem to fit on the new engine, but their opening on the other end is too small for the correct turbos. 

-    I've been updating each of the pages as I convert them over to Frontpage.

-        Did some more performance testing with the Gtech accelerometer, see the enhancements section for details.  Brief summary is that I need way more practice in order to be able to launch the car properly.

-    Added a visitor counter, it's counting properly now.

March 2002

-         Manifolds and turbos finally arrive. I can't say for sure, but it looks like the turbos are not the correct larger ones, they are the standard smaller ones.  I will find out in a day or two. Regardless, the project looks to be finally getting back on track.

-        Starting to update the web site using FrontPage on the recommendation of a friend who works for Disney in Japan, to try and make the site a bit jazzier.

-         First impressions of the sway bar are that it cuts down dramatically on the body roll. However, the steering still feels dead.

 

February 2002

-         Still waiting for the quad cam engine manifolds and turbos to arrive. Unbelievable!  Project is stalled for now. I am keeping busy with other things.

-         Unable to convince the vendor of my ‘6 speed’ Getrag transmission that it is in fact a 5 speed. What to do, what to do?

-         Trying to come up with some ways to jazz up the site a bit. I am getting tired of looking at something that looks like a Microsoft Word document.

-         My Empeg car stereo has been discontinued by the manufacturer.  Too bad, it is a good unit. I guess it was inevitable, Empeg were a bunch of engineers, but never really had much chance of taking on Sony. They were having a blow out sale on the Empegs though, so I took advantage of their misfortune and bought another one.

-         Just installed the sway bar on the car.  Too early to provide any feedback yet, but I will do so as soon as I have a chance to test it out.  

-    Car is having trouble starting now.  Turns out the starter relay is OK, but the circuit board in the engine compartment that it plugs into has bad corrosion on it.

 

November 2001

-         Still waiting for the quad cam engine manifolds and turbos to arrive. Unbelievable!  I decided to put the old engine back in so at least I can drive it. No suspension or painting work has been done in the meanwhile.

-         Put the Getrag in the car.  Guess what, it turned out to be a 5 speed not a 6 speed. Unbelievable!

-         Made some progress on the stereo, finally got a tuner module for my Empeg, so now I can listen to radio stations as well as my MP3s.

-         Reduced the resolution of some of the photos, in order to conserve disc space on Geocities. This will allow me to post a few more new pictures. If you want a higher resolution version of any one (typically 300 – 500K), just email me at the address above.

-         Some people have emailed me pictures of their 228s.  Thank you for that, it is great to see that I am not alone.  If you would like me to post a picture of your car, please send it to me and I will do so.

 

August 1 2001

-         Created a separate subpage on the quad cam engine project, which is progressing far too slow for my liking. I had to cancel my plan to show the car at Concorso this year.

 

June 29 2001

-         Had a PC crash this month, lost all my data prior to March 27, including a small update to this page I did in April, and all of my email records.

-         Big news! I sourced a four valve 2.8 litre Biturbo engine out of a wreck in Europe. Also got a 6 speed Getrag with only 6,000 kms on it. It arrived last week. See Enhancements.  Updates should start to happen more quickly now as the work on the engine is actually starting.

-         Suspension components are still 2 weeks away, as they have been for the past year.

-         Visited the Vancouver Italian Car show on Father’s Day. Took some pictures of another 228 that was there. See Hunt.

-         I’m running out of space on Geocities, so I’ll either have to find a new host or trim down on some of the photos.

 

March 1 2001

-         Toasted Shock Tester and am going with Carrera for the suspension components. See Enhancements.

-         Got the Empeg completely installed now. See Sound System.

-         Decided to do a major paint job on the car. See The Exterior.

 

January 28 2001

-         I found some 430 interior photos and added them to the interior section.

-         It finally stopped raining for part of a day and I took some more pictures of the car. They are on the 228 page.

 

January 21 2001

-         More details on the new Empeg stereo added.

-         Broke the page up into a bunch of pages, made a bunch of small changes.

-         Added a section on the 228 model and my impressions after a year of ownership.

-         I will add some new photos of the whole car exterior with the new wheels (Thanks Greg for the suggestion) as soon as it stops raining and I can take a few pictures.

-         This will probably be the last major update until I get the new suspension.

 

January 16 2001

-         First real release.

 

First Release: November 25 2000

-         But since I didn't tell anyone that it was here, this doesn't really count. I actually started on it in May 2000, but it took me 6 months to get something presentable.