Eng/Tranny oil change, stuff I forgot from last time.

Last time I changed the engine and transmission oil in my 360 Modena, I made myself a detailed checklist. This time, I worked from memory, which turned out to be less than perfect.
There are two drain plugs for the engine oil. A glance at the configuration would lead one (me at least) to believe that the forward drain would produce the most oil. So that's where I put my big pan, saving the smaller of the pans for the aft plug. Well, the aft plug is where most of the oil comes out, so as the smaller pan reached its full capacity, I had to re-insert the drain plug. Dang! Removing a plug when the oil is hot is bad enough, but putting it back in while scalding oil is pouring out is no fun at all.

Lesson re-learned: Use your large oil drain pan in the back.

I also changed the transmission oil and remembering something I read somewhere, I decided to be sure I could break loose the filler plug before I drained the oil. If you need to take the car to a specialist to remove the filler plug, you best not drain the oil first. But what I didn't remember was that to gain access to the plug, I had to move the lower intake box out of the way. That means that you also have to remove at least the left hand engine compartment trim piece. None of this is hard with the car on the ground, but mine was already pretty high up on jack stands before I started this job. So I found myself standing on a tool box and cursing a lot. When I finished, my back was aching.

Lesson re-learned: Remove whatever is necessary to gain access to the transmission filler plug BEFORE you raise the car.

 

No, ............... I knew it last time, I just didn't remember it this time. Old age is Hell.

 

Draining the transmission oil is the easy part. The hard part is having to remove the rear bumper to get the transmission pump screen out. That explains why many 360 transmission pump screens have never been cleaned. It also explains why your dealership service manager will want to charge an arm and a leg to do a job which the Ferrari designers made WAY harder than it should have been.

Many owners (including me) cut a small hole in the side of the diffuser so the screen can be extracted with the bumper in place. That might be a good idea even if you hire a mechanic to do the job.

Search on this forum for detailed instructions on making this modification if you're interested. It's pretty simple and is well worth the effort.

 

Coordinates would be tricky because accurate measurements and reference points are difficult to nail down. It's much easier and safer to get the lower tray off and get your fingers and eyeballs on the parts.

Go to the DIY sticky section and find the "transmission filter" thread. There are several approaches for cutting the hole and pictures too. On the second page I recommend the use of a Dremmel tool to drill a 1/8" hole where you think the center is. Then probe the hole with a piece of stiff wire to see how close you got to the center of the screen assembly. Compensate one direction or the other as appropriate and position a WD-40 cap in just the right place. Mark around it and cut the hole with either a hole saw mounted on a 90 deg drill or, as I did, cut the hole with the Dremmel tool using an 1/8" side cutting bit.

My 35mm hole is the absolute minimum size and even requires a small notch on one edge to accommodate the mounting tab on the plastic screen holder.

It doesn't matter if the hole is not quite centered and it matters not where the notch is since you can both cant the screen assembly a little bit as you slide it out and rotate it as necessary. The 35mm hole can be plugged with the rubber plug used to cover the reset button located near the drivers left knee (LHD car).