| Author | Message | ||
| Neil Green (Neilg)
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This exact problem just occurred suddenly on my 1977 308GTB. The UFI filter seal failed, and I had quite a mess on my hands. I had to have the car flatbedded back to the house. Luckily, I was not moving very fast, and shut the engine down almost immediately. Unfortunately, the oil went the direction of the timing belts. They got pretty saturated, but they appear to be drying up after running it. I have since switched to a FRAM oil filter, which T. Rutland's sent me. | ||
| Stephen J. MacKellar (88gtb)
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My tech at Ferrari of Washington suggests removing the gasket on the UFI filter before installing it and placing a thin coat of white lithium grease on the underside of the gasket where it contacts the FILTER and then the usual engine oil coating on the side that contacts the oil filter housing. This keeps BOTH sides from binding/distorting when tightening the filter. Has worked for me so far. | ||
| Craig Dewey (Craigfl)
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And Herbert, it will roll over according to Ralph Nader!! But I owned a '62 and never had problems... It is nice to know about all these "potential" problems, but I guess we need to keep it in perspective. Even though ignorance is bliss, I still would rather share this information. At least we'll know exactly what to do when the oil splatters over the rear window -- right before the oil pressure drops to zero. | ||
| Herbert E. Gault (Irfgt)
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This is just great! I just rebuilt my engine and used a Fram filter to start with but was unhappy with it because the oil pressure was slow to come up so I changed it for a UFI and it corrected the problem. Now I find out it may explode at any minute, and the axle shafts may break off in an extreme turn. I am becoming paranoid about driving the car. You would think if we can put a man on the moon we could make a simple oil filter that was worth a crap and keep the wheels from falling off on the most expensive car in the world. I believe I will start driving my Corvair more often. At least if it rolls over it has a roof. | ||
| '75 308 GT4 (Peter)
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I got my Baldwin from Acklands-Grainger for $12.80 Cdn. They are an industrial supplier and carry Baldwin filters for fleet vehicles, but amazingly they had ONE B253 on the shelf which I quickly bought. Here's what it looks like:  | ||
| Steve Magnusson (91tr)
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I believe the first "reports" of the problem on the FerrariList started in the Oct/Nov '00 timeframe, but it took a while (2~3 months) to realize that just too many experienced users were having the same type of failure (something going wrong at the seal between the engine and the oil filter case -- and not always right away). For the limited # of photos of actual failures that I saw (before unsubscribing), it looked like a problem of the D-ring seal being "extruded" under pressure rather than an installation error. The good people at T. Rutlands were going to gather the info and check things with UFI (there were reports that UFI made a change in the D-ring seal area of the end plate circa Aug '00) -- maybe Margaret can give you an update. One of the Euro Listers suggested that it was common practice for the F mechanics to turn the UFI D-ring upside down (i.e., put the round side against the filter case). Seems like a good idea to me, and I did this on the last UFI that I put on my TR -- OK so far (~800 miles), but maybe the UFI TR filter is different enough from the UFI V8 filter that it doesn't have this problem to start with. Another option for the V8s is the Baldwin B253 oil filter which has the internal standpipe like the UFI and a more "robust" quad-ring seal design IMHO. For me, the Baldwin is just a much better value -- equal (or better) quality/design at much lower price. My experience is that the Baldwin brand is usually more available thru Truck Part Suppliers (rather than Auto Parts Stores). | ||
| John Cortina (Johncort)
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I just replaced my oil filter with a new UFI on an 86 328 but I have not had the car on the road yet. How recent are these reported problems with this type of filter?? I am scheduled to take the car to a track event at the end of the month and the last thing I want to happen is to blow the oil filter!!! Any additional input would be greatfully appreciated. | ||
| david schirmer (David)
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If that is indeed a UFI oil filter DO NOT throw it away. There is some kind of problem that no one can seem to figure out. If you can save your filter please do and post me a message. | ||
| Steve Magnusson (91tr)
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Recently on the FerrariList a lot of 308/328 owners reported problems with the latest version UFI oil filters having a gasket sealing/retention problem -- did you just have an oil service? If not that, maybe an oil line or oil line fitting failed. Good luck with the fix. | ||
| Scott F. Reich (Sreich)
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Was just driving my newly received 328 gts when I looked in the rearview mirror and noticed what looked like water spewing out from the back vents all over and on the window. I looked at my gages and the oil pressue started rapidly dropping. I pulled over immediately and shut the car down. It was spewing oil and not water. I noticed it did not get real hot the the engine sounded fine. Its now on its way to the mechanic via tow truck. Any ideas on what might have happened? |