On the 4.7 / 4.9 discussion, here's what respected Maserati authority Ivan Ruiz wrote in his Ghibli guide:
"My preference: This might come as a surprise, but my vote goes out to the 4.7 li-
ter engine when it is the later (single spark plug) style. The 4.9 liter engines have
the tendency of developing cracks on the crankshaft. A friend recently took the
engine of his SS apart as part of a restoration and found the crank had a nasty
crack which made it unusable. Luckily I had an extra 4.9 liter crank but these are
becoming quite hard to find. I am not exactly sure why this happens primarily on
the 4.9 crankshafts but cracks on the 4.7 liter engine crankshafts rarely occur. The
4.7 liter engine also revs a little more freely. This is one case where bigger is not
better. The truth is the .2 liters makes very little difference in performance, there-
fore my choice is due to reliability. The market clearly favors the 4.9 liter “SS”
cars; therefore you can pick up a nicer 4.7 Ghibli for the same amount of money
and end up with a better car. Remember I am talking about the late style 4.7 liter
engine with the single spark plug holes and not the early style dual plug engines."
On the 4.7 / 4.9 discussion, here's what respected Maserati authority Ivan Ruiz wrote:
My preference: This might come as a surprise, but my vote goes out to the 4.7 li-
ter engine when it is the later (single spark plug) style. The 4.9 liter engines have
the tendency of developing cracks on the crankshaft. A friend recently took the
engine of his SS apart as part of a restoration and found the crank had a nasty
crack which made it unusable. Luckily I had an extra 4.9 liter crank but these are
becoming quite hard to find. I am not exactly sure why this happens primarily on
the 4.9 crankshafts but cracks on the 4.7 liter engine crankshafts rarely occur. The
4.7 liter engine also revs a little more freely. This is one case where bigger is not
better. The truth is the .2 liters makes very little difference in performance, there-
fore my choice is due to reliability. The market clearly favors the 4.9 liter “SS”
cars; therefore you can pick up a nicer 4.7 Ghibli for the same amount of money
and end up with a better car. Remember I am talking about the late style 4.7 liter
engine with the single spark plug holes and not the early style dual plug engines.
A lot of effort went into lovingly recreating many details, but unfortunately the proportions are all wrong owing to using a chassis with the engine much farther out front than the real thing.
See discussions on F-chat, here under "References":
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:1964_Ferrari_330_GT_%22166_MM%22_replica_by_Scaduto_s/n_6513GT
