[DeTomaso] "Throwaway Cars" tale

Sun Jun 16 16:06:11 EDT 2013

If anybody would like to donate a full dead Diablo, I'll certainly take 
it off their hands at no charge.  I'll do my best to diagnose any 
problem, fully troubleshoot it, and if I can manage to design a suitable 
and inexpensive workaround, release it to the masses under an open 
source license free of charge.

But it all starts with a donor Diablo.
Asa

Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
&  Shelley Marie
Spokane, WA
******************************
http://www.racingagainstautism.com
http://www.teampanteraracing.com
http://facebook.com/racingagainstautism

On 6/16/2013 11:59 AM, dave londry wrote:
> Curiosity is doing the bad thing here.
> If anybody can lay hands on a dead one, I'd certainly take it apart.
> (and then maybe get sane and tuck it away in pile #523)
> dave
>
> On 15/06/2013 7:59 PM, Boyd Casey wrote:
>> I don't find it hard to believe that a Lamborghini dealer can fix the ECU
>> of a Diabblo, in fact I thought it was hard to believe that in this day and
>> age with people making custom chips to over come performance limitations
>> built in by the manufacturers and all the tuners thart work on electronic
>> efi. The part I refuse to believe is that you can get anything done at a
>> Lamborghini  shop for a few hundred bucks! Come on, who are you trying to
>> kid?
>> Boyd
>>
>> On Saturday, June 15, 2013, LS wrote:
>>
>>> Detomasos don't handle.
>>>
>>> Ferraris are twitchy.
>>>
>>> Diablo computers die.
>>>
>>> I love the internet!
>>>
>>> A good Lambo shop can rebuild a computer for a few hundred $$$ *IF* they
>>> fail.
>>>
>>> It doesn't happen that often.
>>>
>>> LS
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> central
>>> wines-spirits   est 1934
>>>
>>>
>>> 625 e street nw
>>>
>>> washington, dc 20004
>>>
>>> centralwines.com
>>>
>>>
>>> facebook.com/CentralLiquors
>>>
>>>
>>> 202-737-2800
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ________________________________
>>>    From: Charles Engles<cengles at cox.net<javascript:;>>
>>> To: "'Himes, Terry (397C)'"<terry.himes at jpl.nasa.gov<javascript:;>>;
>>> detomaso at poca.com<javascript:;>
>>> Sent: Saturday, June 15, 2013 9:42 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] "Throwaway Cars" tale
>>>
>>>
>>> Dear Terry,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>                        ...and from what I can tell there should be a goodly
>>> supply of dead and malfunctioning Diablo main engine computers for you to
>>> experiment on in order to help them keep their Diablos on the road.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>                                       Warmest regards,  Chuck Engles
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> From: Himes, Terry (397C) [mailto:terry.himes at jpl.nasa.gov]
>>> Sent: Saturday, June 15, 2013 4:17 PM
>>> To: Charles Engles; detomaso at poca.com
>>> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] "Throwaway Cars" tale
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hmmm?   Gets me thinking that about part-time career opportunity.
>>> Something
>>> that might fund the next
>>>
>>> Pantera upgrade I've been wanting.  New brakes.   Hmmm?   Lambo owers ==
>>> $$$.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Terry W. Himes
>>>
>>> JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory
>>>
>>> Deep Impact Sequence Team Lead
>>>
>>> Deep Impact Spacecraft Engineer
>>>
>>> Phone: (818) 393-6261
>>>
>>> Cell:     (818) 653-8213
>>>
>>> Fax:     (818) 393-3147
>>>
>>> thimes at jpl.nasa.gov
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> From: Charles Engles<cengles at cox.net>
>>> Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 15:31:58 -0500
>>> To:<detomaso at poca.com>
>>> Subject: [DeTomaso] "Throwaway Cars" tale
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Dear Forum,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>                     A true story follows.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>                    A friend of mine owns a Lamborghini Diablo.  He has owned
>>>
>>> it for several years and was driving it on a backroad when it lost power.
>>>
>>> He came home on a roll back.  He thought  it was a bad oxygen sensor.
>>>
>>> Further home diagnostics seem to show that it is the main engine computer
>>>
>>> and that accounts  half of the V12 cylinders missing in action.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>                   When that diagnosis came up, he thought, "This is bad."   A
>>>
>>> call to our nearest Lambo dealer and service center in Dallas-Ft. Worth
>>> gave
>>>
>>> him an unpleasant earful.  It seems that they have a Diablo with the same
>>>
>>> problem.  It has been in their shop for *several* months.   They have
>>>
>>> plugged three new computers into it and untold man-hours and still haven't
>>>
>>> solved the problem.   They were able to obtain the few remaining factory
>>> NOS
>>>
>>> engine computers.   Lambo does not make them any more.  It appears that
>>>
>>> there is no source for a new Diablo engine computer.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>                   Further research showed that there are apparently two guys
>>>
>>> in the U.S. with the ability to understand the computer circuitry and code
>>>
>>> who can actually work on a sick computer rather than just replace it.  One
>>>
>>> fellow is in Ohio and the other is on the West Coast.   He'll have to put
>>>
>>> the Diablo on a transport and send it to one of them and hope they can fix
>>>
>>> it.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>                   The plan that occurred to me: pull the offending and
>>>
>>> uncooperative Diablo computer and install something more user
>>> friendly---has
>>>
>>> already been done by other Diablo owners.  Some have converted to a Motec
>>>
>>> system that is supposed to cost about $20k..!
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>                   After the onset of this major headache, he said that he was
>>>
>>> reminded of something that Bob Smith  (  www.bobsmithcoachworks.com ) said
>>>
>>> years ago when we were touring his fabulous Ferrari and Exotic Restoration
>>>
>>> Shop in Texas.   Someone in the group asked about newer Ferraris and sports
>>>
>>> cars in the post carburetor  era.
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