1998 550 Maranello "sorting" thread--DIY

There are two issues that I've had to face on my car that I do not see mentioned here.

The first is the compromise between ride height and rear camber. I would like to go just a bit lower on the rear but ended up setting the most negative camber I could tolerate then adjusting the front to achieve a reasonable rake. Are there any options out there to improved camber gain on the rear?

The second issue is grinding off the radiator drain plug. Has anyone found an option other than the stock Ferrari plug?

Thanks

 

I don't understand either of your questions. But regarding alignment you should set the rideheight you want first realizing you should be setting it on performance not "Look" with aftermarket tires/wheels. Then you should set the caster,camber,toe,thrust accordingly. Within the manufacturer's RH range there should be plenty of adjustment for the camber range. If you are way outside this then I suspect your RH is not optimum for the car and you might have created other issues like bumpsteer. You need to look at compromises as a package. So what are you trying to achieve and maybe we could help?

 

On late model Ferraris, you have about 15-20 mm of ride height adjustment you can use for lowering the car and still be able to use the recommended camber settings. Lower than that and the shocks are out of their optimum range.

If you adjust camber out of the recommended range by very much, tire life will be seriously compromised, so unless you are using the car as a race car, the recommended settings should work fine.

Like FBB said, when you do a four wheel alignment, ride height, camber and toe-in are juggled to get as close to the correct numbers as you can, so I am not sure what you are chasing.

My car has FHP suspension and 12.5" rear wheels, and the recommended settings work fine. Unfortunately, I do not have the recommended FHP settings for the 550, but I am sure someone does.

 

moorfan - this is one of the best threads i have ever read. Period.

Your attention to detail, methodical approach and willingness to do things properly is inspiring and no doubt helpful to vast quantities of people who might otherwise reconsider such undertakings on their cars.

I think i've read the entire thing about 4 times and each time i pick up something new. This will definitely be a huge help in the future


thanks again,

AK

 

Wow, beautiful!

Markus

 

It looks fantastic! Thanks to your pictorial on how to remove the rear interior trim bits, I managed to get at my rear speakers. The foam surround on my OEM rear speakers disintegrated to bits. May I ask what speakers you used on your car?

 

Thanks for your very generous offer, but the OEM speakers are really lacking in sound quality even when new. Very reassuring to hear you are using Polk Audio as replacements, as I have ordered their DB401 4" for front and DB571 5"x7" for the rear. I wasn't sure if I had to cut or modify the OEM trim pieces to fit the new speakers. Now I can't wait to get these Polk speakers to upgrade the sound while maintaining the OEM stealth look.

Thanks again for your great picture posts.

 

That looks awesome.

Your old 360 is up on my lift right now for its yearly fluids. Changing the exhaust again, from Tubi-Hyperflow-STOCK, to Tubi-Kinetix-Tubi. I think my daughter can handle a little more noise now.

 

To have a 550 sound like a 512TR will be next to impossible as the produced sound from the engine is different. The engine angle of 65' will have something to do with it as well.
You may want to employ a sound engineer - some companies can make very special things these days and tune an exhaust to the sound you like, high-pitched, rumbling, etc. Or give the guys from Kreissieg a call:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CrsPEAXjIs[/ame]

 

Anyone know what exhaust setup this is?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR0noDFgGAQ[/ame]

 

Any particular reason for the recaro seats vs. OEM?

 

"just button it up and enjoy"

You earned it !

cheers,

Bill

 

Pete, any more thoughts on the root cause of the bearing problems last time?

 

I always understood that these engines have a "dymanic tensioner", could someone explain how the tensioner works and why it does not automatically compensate any slack in the belt?

 

I see, this is the origin of my confusion.

I pose the same question as you, what is the point of having springs then if they are blocked by the bolts?

Could a "true" auto-tensioner be made for this application?

 

Pete- The springs are there to provide an initial tension somewhere close to what you will finally set. On the 308s, some owners use that spring to set tension with no other input. The better pros like Brian Crall and Dave Helms have accoustic tensiometer settings for all the cars with rubber timing belts, generated the hard way through multiple belt jobs, some initially using a Staeger or other tensioning method. Needless to say, these tensiometer settings are trade secrets and not advertised.

I would not retension the belts. Nowhere in the literature is there a tension check on used belts. They are only visually checked for oil, tears, etc.

Your bad tensioner bearings/pulleys caused Daniel at Ricambi to completely change how he procures those bearings. Your originals came from Ferrari and the seals appeared to be improperly installed or the bearing overfilled. Daniel now gets his bearings from Hill Engineering, who inspect every bearing they get directly from SKF. That alone would have made your thread a big boon to Ferrari owners, not even counting all the other great image by image documentation you did.