360 Lifters out of stock?

Any of you read Michael Sheehan's Sports Car Market October article? In it, he describes the ongoing litany of problems on a dealer auction '01 360 Spider. He said when the car was in the shop for a misfire and hydraulic cam lifter noise, they couldn't get new lifters from Ferrari.

Any thoughts on whether this is likely to be a long term problem?

 

That auction car sounded like an episode of 'The Money Pit'.
Probably the aftermarket will step up with 360 lifters but the factory support in this case doesn't inspire confidence...
CH

 

Boy, are they socking it to V8 owners. The lifters on a Maranello are $18 each and they are $82 for a 360. Would have thought it would be the other way around. Who knows why.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Sorry guys I can't help but vent......

This is what I have to say.

What do you guys expect, Ferrari after all is not a real car company they don't have to meet the standards in "other" consumer car makers and best part if they can get away with it for now.

I can't wait to see them go out of business one day and see the executives scratch their head and don't know what hit them.

 

1+

 

If you want a real car company buy a Toyota. One of the reasons people buy Ferraris is that there are not many of them.

No one held a gun to your head and made you buy it. If you don't like the prices and you don't like the issues then don't own one. These issues were well known before you bought the car.

Owning a Ferrari is not cheap. The parts are not always available.
If you can't deal with it SELL THE CAR.

Otherwise quit whining.

 

+1

I've seen some of his repair work/posts on his own car and it's very mickey mouse, soon be a $49k spider at the rate he's going.

If you can't afford to keep it right, just get rid of it.

 

They made almost 20k 360's they really can't find lifters for one?

hard to believe

 

This is a slightly different issue than price of ownership and maintenance. It's about parts that could fail not being made in sufficient numbers to be available at all. IIRC, the article said that there was no new old stock to be had in the US and the author had to go to Canada to get a few new lifters for replacements. Now, hydraulic lifters are not necessesarily an exotic item, but you do need ones that meet the right specs. I would hope that someone in the aftermarket steps up to supply them, but unless their failure rate is high (hope not!), or people start rebuilding their engines, it may be a while before that happens. Wonder if the part is used in other cars so that the cost of development could be justified.

 

+1 (good to see people are smarter then Michael Sheehan thinks)

I've been reading Michael Sheehan's articles for years, just for a good laugh actually.
He really has no idea what he is talking about.
He's been unemployed for 20 years, just writes whatever to get attention.

 

From what I understand the 355, 360 and 550 use the same lifters. Well, my 355 has been at Norwood for the last 13 months due to a number of lifters failing. We have been unable to find lifters anywhere in the world, at any price. My 355 is otherwise in good shape, but I'm starting a second consecutive year without her due to non-availability of lifters.

This situation really sucks, and I wonder how long it will be before these lifters start failing in the other Ferraris out there. The problem in my car was hard to diagnose--it was only after getting an expensive engine rebuild that anyone thought to check if the lifters were okay, and that turned out to be the real problem.

Anyway, does anyone have any advice for me? You don't need to mention suicide, because it's the most obvious solution to me right now.

 

That is hard to imagine, wow....

 

Steve- No, the 550/575/612 lifters are completely different from the ones in the 355/360 and are only ~$20 each vs ~$80 for the V8 part.

Did anybody try cleaning your lifters? They often stop working because of sludge, which can be cleaned with something like lacquer thinner after lifter disassembly on some cars. Normally you would just replace them, but since that does not seem to be an option, maybe cleaning will work.

You really need advice from a pro on this, but I would sure want to try something after two years of no parts. Anybody know who made the lifters in the first place? Febi Bilstein Germany makes lifters for Alfa, Fiat, Mercedes, BMW, etc, but without more info no commonality can be established.

Brian, what do you think?

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

550 is a different part.


I have never found a need to replace any....ever.



They are not available.


I have a used set from a parts motor.



550 lifters are probably an off the shelf item. The 5 valve motors everything had to be very small so those were probably made to order.

 

Steve- That used set sounds like a pretty good deal, but your lifter issue sounds questionable, based on what Brian said. Since he has seen no problems, he obviously has not tried cleaning them, either.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Many thanks for suggestions. 550...my bad. The Norwood guys tried soaking the lifters in the chemicals but they still would not pump back up. My 355 has about 50k miles and 20 of the lifters are bad!

 

Steve- Sounds like Brian's used lifters are what you need. Hopefully he does not charge you $3K for them. I would replace all of them and not just half.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

I should have come here a long time ago. Thanks for nearly instant help. Suicide canceled!

 

Man, that sucks!
Hope you solve it soon.

 

Next you'll probably start asking what happened to the now defunct Michael Sheehan's European Auto Sales & Restoration, Inc.!

Google it along with "Excusable Neglect" or "Yoji Oyama lawsuit" for some interesting history on its demise.

 

What color is your 360 spider? I have some Toyotas in my work fleet I can trade you. I'd even buy you a new one.

On a serious note, very few car companies support 10 year old cars through the oem channel. Try getting a part for an old Toyota. Maybe they go 15 years.