Having mastered unreliable and complicated BMW M car rebuilds, YouTuber M539 Restorations needed a new challenge. A 187,000-mile Maserati Quattroporte GTS that arrived with a misfire and with a flashing check-engine light should be sufficient. Will this be the car that breaks the cheery disposition of M539’s Sreten Milisavljevic? It’s certainly possible.
The Quattroporte GTS is a neat car, though. It’s the last of the V-8 Maseratis, with a twin-turbo V-8 that puts out 530 horsepower and sounds glorious. And this particular one looks great in dark blue over blue-and-tan leather. But that doesn’t change the fact that there are some alarming codes that come up when Milisavljevic plugs in a scan tool.
On the lift, the car looks alright, except for severely worn brake discs, a grimy differential cover, and some leaking from both engine and transmission. But, digging deeper reveals that the engine is overfilled with oil and more worryingly, it appears the engine jumped timing and pistons and valves met at some point. Strangely, the cylinders on the driver’s side bank of the V-8 read too high when compression tested. Further testing showed that the oil pressure was good, though, but the engine is still coming out for at least a partial rebuild.
So, it’s going to be a project. But M539 has conquered many complex engines before, so this Maserati V-8 might not be impossible. Regardless of what happens, we know we’ll be entertained watching things unfold.
