Removal of the cabin engine access panel and the red intake plenum?

Engine panel is easy peasey.
Lift the center leather panel out. Flip the plastic on the seatbelt guide on the side pillar. Remove the nut (19mm I think..?). Pull out the plastic knob that adjusts it up and down. Pull off the leather pillar. Then, just pull out the carpet.

Panel is right behind it with 10mm bolts holding it in. Undo them, pull it off. Installation is reverse.

You can unbolt the belt covers, but the water piper in the way prevents you from fully removing them. You can however loosen them enough to chekc belt condition and timing belt manufacture numbers, etc.

Engine intake.
Something I want to do this winter. Just the red top as I understand: hex key to undo the hexbolts on the bottom and top.. what like 8-10 or so? Unplug the air tube on the central valve between the banks. Remove.

What I plan to do as well (as far as I can see): undo the fuel injector lines, undo the injectors, unbolt and pull up and out. Undo the air intake tubes on the front of the intake, undo the various nuts and bolts that hold wires, etc. onto the intake. Unbolt the 14-16 10mm nuts that hold the intake to the engine and lift out. The intake seals.. they're going to get replaced as well as the red cover seals... Install is in reverse. I'm thinking possibly powder coat vs. crinkle paint. Ditto on the intake valves to tighten and add some locktite.

 

Ferraridatabase.com has the workshop manual...you'll need IE to download...chrome or mozilla wont work though.

 

I just removed my plenum assembly yesterday to replace the intake gaskets. Let me know if you want some pictures

 

Are you talking about a gloss red as opposed to wrinkle paint? That would be interesting to see!

 

Pics would be appreciated!

I was actually thinking a matte red if possible.. or even do the intake with carbon fiber dip and then do the valve covers in rosso corsa like Ingpr did with his spare engine..

THAT would be cool..

 

I'm not exactly sure what you want to see but here are some teasers. If your plenum has oil, I suggest that you go a few steps further and change out the intake gaskets. Mine was coated with a film of oil due to the previous owner's overfilling. That tells me that the mating surfaces are not tight. Let me know specifically what type of pictures you're looking for before I button this whole mess back up.
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I was getting intermittent CEL misfires and after the process of elimination, it's pointing to the intake gaskets. If you looked closely at the gaskets, there are orange sealant around the edges. Apparently the previous owner made an half-a$$ed attempt to fix the intake leaks. It took me about 5 hours and a 6-pack of beer to tear it apart. The plenum had about 2mm of oil in it. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the inside before I sealed it back up. I plan to put it back together tomorrow. I'll snap some more pictures as I go along. Stay tuned.

 

Honestly, looking at your gaskets they look OK, a little oily but otherwise sound, the sealant was probably put during assembly since there is some residual on the inside in the intake runners. The CEL issues are more typical when something like this occurs since there is an actual air leak after the MAF sensor.
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Not uncommon to have oil pool in the intake runners especially if the car idles a lot...
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I would recommend having the injectors cleaned and balanced while they are out, well worth a couple of $$, RC Fuel Injection they do a great job, fast turn around and are used by a number of racing teams (I use them on all my injected cars)...usual disclaimers, not associated etc...
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Pulling the intake manifolds is pretty straightforward, the challenge is actually getting to the connectors and clips that hold the wiring inside the "V" and under the manifold as access is tight, some 1/4 extensions and fiddling will do the trick, otherwise the rest of the bolts are OK. Intake gasket failure have a potential downstream impact...ignore at significant $$$ or harm to your cats....not the feline kind
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Since you have replaced the gaskets, if the problem of the intermittent misfire persists look at the coils which will fail prematurely b/c of the heat. Below is the Bosch part number that can be had at the fraction of the cost of the Ferrari part (same item)
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Your gaskets definitely looks worst than mine. But the interesting thing about my gaskets are that the sealant are only applied on one side and not fully around the perimeter. That lead me to believe that the PO only made a partial attempt to fix the problem.

 

wow that was dirty

 

How does the oil get into the intake plenum in the first place. Also what do those linkages do that are in the first photo of post #8?
Thanks
Alan

 

^I assume its due to oil getting sucked in the EGR line at the throttle bodies?

 

Look at the oil filler container (oil disaerator) and you'll see that there are three tubes coming out of it. That's where the oil comes from. That is why it is important not to overfill the oil. The linkages controls the intake runner plates as shown in post #12.

 

So with all this talk of plenum removal.. I started the afternoon thinking I just pull the red top off and got all the way to the screw on th fon right corner by the passengers head, and couldn't get it off. Too tight.

So I decided to take the entire plenum off to redo the gaskets and refresh it. Took about 5 hours even with my botched attempt at removing the cover.

Tidbits: get a 1/4" extension shaft and swivel bit tip (the kind that acts lik a cv joint) at harbor freight... It helps you get the nuts deep in there.

Crank position sensors and coil wires must come out FYI.

I'm not sure I'm going to put the front wire support in when I put it together inside the intake.

Overall not bad, but a bit of a hassle removing it.
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Oh and when you finish.. Make sure you count your washers and visuall inspect each ai intake for debris and washers etc.. Before you seal it back up..

 

...right, like I said, the EGR return line .

What I still don't understand... Is why people freak out so much about overfilling. Ok, I get that you shouldn't pour a quart of oil into the chambers on purpose... But it's designed to just suck in the excess and burn it off. It'll just isn't it worse to overfill a pan and mess with rotating components?

 

?? I'm confused. What does EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) has to do with oil disaeration?