Please tell me I did not screw my engine

Hi All,

I'm a pretty new 360 owner, I have had it for about 2 months, it had a complete check before it was delivered to me from Ferrari of Tampa Bay. My buddy who owns a Lambo told me that I should check the oil every month, which I have not, so tonight I go out and start it so I can check the oil and a lot of black smoke roll out. I turn it and check it, and it seems very, very little is in the engine. So I run to the local store, buy some oil, and pour the entire bottle in. Start back up and check the oil and its perfect, so my question is, with a quart low, with black smoke, did I screw my engine?

 

The light really ought to illuminate prior to critical levels. I can't explain the smoke though.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, yes, none of the lights came one at all on the dash, just smoke out of the exhaust! Friday I have an apt with Ferrari of Chicago, lets hope all is okay!

 

WTF are you talking about?

 

Have you ever bothered to read the owners manual and its instructions about checking the oil level? That book is provided so you don't do something dumb that will hurt the car.

 

Yep read it! But still do not know why, no light indicated low oil, plus the black smoke (it wa not a lot, just a little), but stilllllll

 

It might be fine... But they will find something to do for sure.... Take your check book

 

Obviously not because
A. You checked it incorrectly
and
B. You are unaware there is no light indicating low oil.

 

J.R. surely has a card for this happenstance, no?


Jedi

 

It's very important to either read the owners manual or at least ask someone at the Ferrari dealership if you're "new to Ferrari"... I can't tell you how many times I've heard of 360's coming in the store with too much oil because the owner checked it with the car not running! The car should be at a normal running temp so let it run for 5 to 10 minutes before you check the oil or drive it around the block first. I don't agree with your friend that you need to check it every month... That's not necessary.
Let us know what the dealer tells you and I hope everything is fine!

Hank

 

Sorry, my bad. I am absolutely not a mechanical authority on Ferraris and don't claim to be. I truly seemed to recall that there was a warning light. I refrain from giving advice on topics that I am unqualified on to avoid speaking out my ass. I was making a comment, rather than offering guidance. I defer to true authorities on topics requiring direction.
Again, sorry.

Ray

 

A little bit of smoke wouldn't worry me...I wouldn't be surprised if you overfilled the car however if you just dumped a quart in without checking the oil properly. Per manual car on level round, fully wamred oil (the reading difference between checking the oil cold and fully warmed is surprisingly big), at idle and unscrew dip stick, wipe clean and then rest dip stick on the lid without screwing in....then remove dip stick to check the level- again with the motor at idle. To be safe, with the oil fully warmed up (for as accurate of a reading as possible- I drive the car for 15+ minutes), my goal is to have the oil about halfway between max and min marks or about 2/3 towards full. This is a habit I have from the dry sump air cooled 911's I had before the ferrari to avoid overfill- who knows if it gets even hotter in traffic and the oil expands even more than the time I check it, so I leave some room to be safe.

The procedure is clearly written in the manual. I'm careful reading the owner's manual for stuff like this for my beetle bug, let alone a ferrari! I think the tone in some of the answers was just a reaction to what appears to be a knee jerk reaction to dump a quart of oil in the car without following the proper procdure (most of us are passionate about these cars...even if they are not our own )

When I bought my ferrari it just had the oil changed at a ferrari dealer....I had to empty more than a quart of oil carefully with a turkey baster which was a pain...some of the dealers even overfill these cars, and you don't want that becuase it can get sucked up the intake manifold and cause running problems.

 

Well I tried my best to be honest with you! I read the manual 2 or 3 times. Here is the steps I did. I started it, and black smoke came out, and I kind of freaked. Turned it off, then turned it back on, let it run for about 10 min, then I check the oil, it was below the min. I went and bought oil, started it again, and check it again, same place. Added 1/2 the bottle, let it run for about 10 min more or less, checked it again, it was almost at the min, added the rest of the bottle, let it run, check it again, and it was exactly in the middle of the min-max. So saying all of that what did I do wrong?

 

FWIW at this point, " Black Smoke " would indicate too much fuel ( rich condition )

Since this was an obvious cold start condition, I would not worry that you have damaged your engine, that many different cars will have an amount of black colored smoke at start up ( Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lotus, etc ) [ I left porsche out because they usually bellow white/gray smoke after sitting sometime due to the flat six design ]

So, as others have suggested, I would visit your local F-car tech and have them double check your levels, maybe even pull codes from the ECU to confirm you do not have a simple sensor malfunction....

I would also ask your tech to go over the proper fluid levels with you and have them show you where and how to check each.

Just my .03 worth -

Steve

 

Thanks Steve, I will be taking it to my Ferrari Dealership on Friday!

 

dd- Your first post says you got black smoke and poured a bottle of oil into the car. Nothing about how you went about checking the oil level and filled it incrementally.

Tell the whole story up front and Brian probably would not have jumped on you. Incidentally, he is one of our pro wrenches who knows more about Ferrari maintenance than 99.99% of the people on this Forum.

Black smoke? Another question, and one way you get it is overfilling the car with oil. Drive it a bunch and get water and oil up to temperature and see if it recurs. Only check your oil level if you have 150-160 degs of oil temperature. The second mark is 175 degs F, and half-way to it would be 147.5 degs or thereabouts.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

tp - Fair enough, will tell the story, the whole story, and nothing but the story next time

 

A good friend use to be the GM of a well known ferrari dealership. One day i had just dropped by when a brand new 328 came in on a flatbed and the owner started screaming about a blown engine. He insisted Ferrari owed him a new motor and he wasn't going to leave until he got some satisfaction. John (the GM) hopped up unto the flatbed to take a look. The engine was indeed fried, bone dry and totally seized. After about a minute he asked the customer if he had ever added any oil to the motor. The customer insisted he had. John then asked him exactly where he had added the oil. After some initial fumbling it became quite clear that he had absolutely no clue. At which point the customer still insisted he should get a new engine because a car this expensive should never require any additional service!........ I guess it takes all kinds.

 

Yeah, and it sounds like he's really long on people skills too. From what I can tell, his value add was *****ing out two well intended people. Thanks for sharing the wisdom!

 

Nate- Just for you newbies, I will tell you we do not listen to Brian for his liberal tendencies. He has none. But if something is wrong, he can usually tell you what caused it and how to fix it. A fairly valuable capability on a forum like this.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Settle down dude! Brian is an expert on Ferraris and can be frank and up front as most Ferrari guys. Brian is the kinda guy who can offer quality suggestions (and no BS) when you really run into some problems.

I can tell by the amount of posts your new to this site so continue to visit the site and learn more about these complicated toys.

 

Sure I understand, but its my Toy.. I paid for it... I think I asked a simple question, maybe I did leave out part of the story, but I don't recall asking to get ridiculed by my mother....

 

.... at the same time, since he knows so much, why couldn't he just answer the OP question in a non-confrontational manner?

With all due respect intended, there are ways to welcome a new member to F-Chat and help a new F-Car owner along, without talking down to them, yes?

Being " frank " should not equal " rude ".....

S

 

The original post was poorly written (grammar, spelling, you name it). It was pretty hard to work out what the heck happened.

Brian asked if the OP had read the manual, the OP said yes when he clearly hadn't.

Brian then pointed out that there is no light for low oil and that the oil had been checked incorrectly. Both fairly useful points.

If you state your problem clearly, and provide enough information, there are probably few Ferrari experts that can match Brian's ability to diagnose. He won't guess, and he doesn't suffer fools gladly.

I'd rather have one Brian on this forum than a hundred guys making dumb posts.

 

Get ready for the giant white oil smoke clouds !!!

G