It turns out that the Maserati Biturbo is actually a pretty feisty little Italian! And one that happens to have a working limited slip differential. Tonight I replaced all the plugs and blocked off the line going to the boost ignition retard module since it’s leaky.
I also put 5 gallons of fresh 93 octane in the tank with a can of Seafoam. After doing all that, it started right up and finally sounded pretty good. It smoked a little bit at first, but I pulled it out of the garage and gave it a quick spin around the lot. It pulled really hard and sounded great. After that quick run, it stopped smoking quite so much, but it also went back to bogging down a bit on throttle. That’s okay, though: I’ve got new plug wires coming and I’m going to rebuild that vacuum retard. Also, I noticed that the distributor is quite loose, so the base timing might need to be set still.
While I was going down the list, I got the rear bumper installed, so that makes it look a little more finished. And, more importantly, it’s a much better way to store the stupid bumper!
I confirmed that there’s one working taillight and the brake lights are working. The wires to the fluid level sender and the pressure sender are now hooked up.
I also used a lawn mower air filter to cover the cam cover breathers.
The RTV also seems to have sealed up the radiator.
All told, this was a very encouraging amount of progress for the evening.