355 buying questions in regards to their issues.

So....what's your question? You seem to be aware of all the small problems, so go out there, find a nice one, PPI, and drive!

 

Proactive maintenance seems to be the point to your post, and you are indeed correct.

As far as the guides and valves are concerned, stock valves if ok could be refaced and reused but I don't think I would do that if it were my 355. Just my opinion.

 

my advice - find a well maintaned example, buy it, and never look back.

 

Run a compression test, if the cylinder with the header leak shows low compression, then i would walk unless it's a killer deal. You can run a leakdown if it's low to see if it's the liner that's bad, but that's usually what gets taken out. If compression is good, i wouldn't be too worried.

 

No, the deal couldn't possibly be good enough to make it worth a major engine rebuild. This would definitely be one to walk away from.

 

You have over 7000 posts! Have you owned a Ferrari???

 

What seems strange to me is that you have been on this forum for 10 years, have posted over 7,000 times, but are asking the most basic questions about 355's. What you are asking has been answered a dozen times over in past threads.

 

Sounds like you have a good handle on it.

When I bought mine (my first Ferrari) in February of this year, the key confidence builder was getting an extensive PPI done on the car. In my case, it had also just had a major service done by a very well known service center in Ohio. After I received the PPI and spent an hour going through it with the inspector/mechanic, I flew to see and inspect the car myself before completeing the deal and shipping the car to Virginia.

He told me a lot of people never come to see the cars before they buy them and have them shipped ....which seems odd unless you really know who you are buying from.

Buying anything mechanical that is 16 years old will have some issues. This forum has been a great asset for solving most of the things you will experience.

As a preventive measure, I did recently buy a Fabspeed exhaust system (including cats) with ceramic coated headers to install on the car. Even though the factory units pass a smoke test, I just want to drive the car without that as a concern.

Additionally, it lets me store the orginal parts so that if I ever sell the car, the new owner can make their own decisions what to put back on the car. Same thing applied to replacing the "mini-van" steering wheel and factory radio.

You won't regret owning it.....it is a mechanical work of art.

-John

 

Test drive and see how it drives. Compare that to a compression test. This topic is often blow way out of proportion IMO. Depending how bad the leak is, it could just be corrosion on the seats and the net result might mean a little loss of power. If you are not going to race the car it may not matter. Certainly factor so money into the equation.

PS, see the link in my sig.

 

LOL, relax there tough guy. Just a question.

 

Ryan, welcome to the 355 section. Here 1/2 of all material posted will be unrelated to your original post.

The 355 is a tricky beast. You are wise to ask the questions and get the education.

There is a "Master Sticky" thread at the top of this section. In there is a thread on what to look for in a car. It might be worth a look.

Best of luck in your search.

 

He probably knows that with 7000 plus posts. Good you pointed it out though!

 

Hi Ryan,

I received your PM with the question "My only real concern is if the car does need valve guides, will driving it a few thousand or so miles till the next major do any additional harm and add to the repair bill or not?"

Please allow me to answer here since I want to post some images.

I don't know your experience or knowledge so pardon me if you already understand this.

A valve guide is a bushing or bearing for the valve. It allows the valve to travel up and down and stay on center. According to the workshop manual, the valve clearance is (in SI units) .0012" to .0024" with a wear limit of .004"

As the valve guide wears, the clearance will increase and the valve will now have the ability to go off center (eccentric) to the valve seat (sealing surface). As the eccentric condition occurs, the valve will not seat as well as a concentric situation and therefore the valve will leak greater than acceptable.

It's my understanding that the increased clearance will also allow additional oil into the combustion chamber that will be burned (although, the valve does have a seal at the top of the guide and valve steam, usually with a garder spring).

So, your question is not easily answered unless you know how worn the guide(s) are. However, I find it hard to believe they could be so bad that valve damage would occur. More than likely you will burn more oil and you will have a loss of power (reduced compression)

I actually just purchased a compression tester and leak down tester. I'm going to test my own car out of curiosity (and it runs fantastic). It will be interesting to compare the actual test results with the real life driving experience.

In addition, another potential issue is rust or corroded valve seats. This can happen if a car sits and condensation forms on the seats. That can also prevent the valves from closing completely and creating leak. You may have heard of an "Italian Tune-Up" which is to drive the crap out of the car. This can remove some or all of the corrosion and solve the leak problem if rust seats where the cause.

See this video that drbob101 posted when he was having a PPI done on a car he did not buy. The tech (Tony from Algar) talks about his belief of rusty valve seats and showed how the test results were improved after the Italian tune-up.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o27ma0LejZU]DSCN1116 00 00 02 00 11 25 - YouTube[/ame]
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If the compression is down, if the deal was really good I would run a leakdown on that cylinder to see where the leaking is coming from - is it the liner/rings or is it the valves? If the liner/ring, I would probably walk unless I had a way to get it fixed cheaply (either I owned a shop or extremely competent DIY'r). If coming from the valves, I would probably get the car (again, paying with the expectation of a head rebuild), replace the header and give it an italian tune-up and re-measure.

The theory behind that is that something else caused that cylinder to go off mixture wise, which burned the header and could cause a carbon issue. If the compression came back up after a good hard run, then I'd start investigating misfire and/or fuel injector issues on that cylinder. But that's best case scenario, still would be worth the investigative work.