Indeed,i took the 2 cambelt top covers off to inspect the condition of the belt and my eyes nearly popped out!..booked it in straight away!
It would be nice to hear some feedback on guys that have had belt failure - how many have seen piston damage?....
Belt Faluire Here... Mine happened at about 7 years and 21k miles...The tensioner bearing inner race seperated from the outer race and melted itself into the timing cover... The damage report was a crap load of bent valves...Pistons were dinged at the top but no damage, bottom half of the motor was good...When it lets go you want those valve stems to bend, because the alternative is them breaking. If they break, buh bye cylinder walls and hello complete teardown... Anyway, mine required replacing the valves or the heads all and all...Not pretty... Price forced me to sell the car... Change the belt....
...and the tensioner bearings...with Hill Engineering replacements. I'd have to check my notes, but your numbers sound similar to mine...maybe 7 years and 25k miles when a broken black plastic shard from a timing belt cover momentarily jammed into a cam pulley hole long enough for my timing belt to skip 2 teeth on the exhaust side and 1 tooth (don't ask me how it was asymmetrical because I have no easy answer) on the intake side. This caused a noise similar to sticking a poker card into a moving bicycle wheel. Brrrrrrrat. That was at startup inside my own garage. The car still drove, by the way. Smoked like all getout, though! Put out smog like a Naval Destroyer's smoke screen and backfired. Trivial dings on pistons. No bent valves ( I say that, but I remember price checking 348 valves so maybe I did need a couple and just can't remember clearly). 16 bent exhaust valve guides, however. Intake valves and valve guides were fine. Cost me a grand to get the heads machined. $5k+ for various parts (lots of gaskets and seals, a rebuilt water pump from the eBay guy who probably gets them from the Mississippi guy, new belts, valve guides, etc.). I splurged on metal timing belt covers to replace the shattered, hyper-brittle black plastic ones from Ferrari's late-model "upgrade" mistake. This would not be something that needs replacing on every 348, so you could save a grand or so here.
Shemp and Passion brought up the tensioner bearing. Thought you might like to see mine. Notice the "seal" or lack there of. Your not supposed to be able to see the balls. This was after 6 years and 7000 miles from its last Major. Looks like I got there without much time left ehh. You might also appreciate the plastobomb casing. Just one shot of many bad covers. Still looking for metal cases for the next major. They are mighty hard to find. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Oh contrare...I believe the self destruct mode was already activated...It just had a long count down. Luck we cut the correct wire. (Its always the blue one)
Thanks for all the input. Well I could go it myself if it wasn't for the fact that I need to pull the motor. But I would like to investigate doing it myself. Are there any step by step instructions out there? I think I could handle it this winter in my garage. Thanks evervone. Mortacci.
Where are you located. Many of us Ferrari junkies get a little strung out during the winter months when our cars hibernate. Passing tools to a fellow junkie under the car helps dull the pain. So does Beer.
No, because I wasnt driving the car at the time...but it was on the highway at about 80 so i would guess somewhere around 4k...
