Some acknowledgments after finishing my first 355 major

I just finished up a very complete major service on my '95 355 and I'd like to give some thanks for all the help I got on the way. A little background on the car - As best I can tell from the service records, it got its last major service in 2006 so it was long overdue but only drove 6k miles since. It ran very well but results from the PPI last year indicated that it was beginning to show symptoms of valve guide failure on cylinder 8. There was no record of any valve guide replacement which was surprising given that the car had 43k miles. When I got the engine out and torn down to the block, I could see that bank 1 already had steel intake guides but bank 2 did not. Bank 1 also had different-looking intake gaskets and one of them was installed flipped around which seemed kind of sloppy. Perhaps a warranty job early in the car's life? The pictures aren't embedding properly so bear with me.
Steel guides with flipped gasket on bank 1
Copper guides on bank 2


I don't want to bore people with too many details but the service ended up taking place over a span of 7 months so I could be completely thorough. I did all the usual major items plus water pump, a radiator, timing gear bearings, headers and had the valve guides replaced. I worked with a lot of great vendors along the way and some really exceptional people.

First, I'd like to thank Eric Corfee of Corfee Car Care in Sacramento CA. He is a well known Ferrari expert in that area and he did the PPI for me. Then he basically held my hand (via phone and text message since I'm across the country in MA) all the way through the whole major service process. I am very comfortable working on cars but I didn't have any Ferrari 355-specific experience and he was kind enough to share his wisdom, free of charge at all times of night and day. This was really over-the-top follow-up service and I couldn't recommend him more.

A few other awesome resources were:
- Ted at German Precision in Santa Clara CA, who replaced my valve guides and made my valvetrain really sing
- Zach at GP Headers in Barnesville MN, who fabricated a really nice set of ceramic coated US-sourced 321 SS Headers for me at a very reasonable price
- Jim AKA i-velocita, who helped me out with some excellent quality shields

I also really want to thank the users and mechanics/techs (particularly Rifledriver) who have posted excellent information on the forum about some of the service procedures. In particular, I enjoyed reading everyone's take on degreeing the cams and tensioning belts and I spent a lot of time to make sure the cams were timed to better than 1.5 degrees and the tensioner arms right at 2.5mm gap. It looks like Rifledriver performed the previous major on this car so it speaks to his ability that the car still ran great after 9 years.

Overall the major service was a big success and a great experience. Here's to many years of trouble-free Ferrari enjoyment

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Thanks for the positive comments. I do have a ton of pictures from the process so feel free to make requests. I haven't pulled some off the camera yet but I have one from before the headers were coated and one after they were installed handy.

As far as shields, I actually meant fender shields. They're cosmetic but well done.
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Yeah I'm REALLY pleased with the headers and the general experience I had with Zack. I've got some complete engine pictures that I'll post when I have a chance to pull them off my camera.

Thanks Matt! I expect to see a similar post from you in a short time.

Yeah I agree. I think your post turned me on to these guys so thanks for the great tip. Some people have said things like "for the price, you can't beat them" but I'm not sure you could beat these at any price except perhaps the tubis for their heat shields. They fixtured this set to my original headers to guarantee that everything in my engine bay went back together just as it was before. Zack was even nice enough to pack up and ship me my original heat shields after the new headers had gone out separately so I could get them cleaned up and use them as a garage decoration.

 

Maybe, but given the different intake gaskets I found on bank 1, I am suspicious that the valve guide change took place after the car left the factory.

I've attached a few more pictures of the headers and the completed engine asm. I have plenty more so let me know if there's anything else of interest.
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Thanks Mike. I'll keep you posted on the coating - so far I have about 200 miles on it and it still looks new but hopefully that type of longevity is a given. Zack told me they have the headers coated black satin here New Image Coatings - 651-784-7055 and they've used that with no complaints for some time.

 

I wouldn't mind too much but I haven't tallied it all up and I'm pretty sure I don't want to. It was a good chunk and I don't care to have that number handy if my wife asks!

 

Well, five trouble-free years later, I'm back in there for another major (hopefully a lot less major than my first), and I have to give credit to the stainless headers guys. I wasn't sure how the ceramic coating would hold up, but they look pristine. I should qualify my praise by admitting that, sadly, I only put about 2k miles on since install. Kids and all...
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Yeah, they definitely throw some more heat than the stock shielded headers did but I haven't quantified that. Instead, I installed some heat shielding material on all the nearby components (particularly rubber and plastic) and I haven't noticed any degradation anywhere. But reinstalling the insulation and heat shields is probably a better option. We'll see - maybe I'll get around to that this time.