Anyone have any experience of how good the quality aluminium casting is of the engine and gearbox housing of the F355? I have read about cracks from other owners and welded valve covers etc....what's the cause?
Stupidity. The castings are all made in house and are quite good. I have seen cracked valve covers. Every one from doing something dumb installing it. I have seen cracked blocks. Just replaced one recently. A life of severe overheating. Stanley makes really dangerous screw drivers. Stupid people poke themselves in the eye with them. Very early 355s did have some issues with cracking down between the spark plus and leaking coolant into the plug wells. They redesigned them early on and that went away. People now try and get those heads because they breath a little better.
You come up with some really good lines! I find the Ferrari castings really good! I'm surprised by how little corrosion there is with dissimilar metals like studs in the blocks. Once in 40 years I have seen a casting flaw in the 348 gerabox allowing clutch fluid to leak into the gearbox. I did a temporary bypass on that for about 100 bucks with some AN line and fittings since that case was toast anyway. I rebuilt a motor with a friend on an NSX and it had really inferior casting. Every stud removed had black erosive corrosion. We had to timesert every one of those.
I have said for a long time the stuff made in house is very good quality. Its when they go shopping for suppliers they go cheap and buy junk. And I suspect nepotism and kick backs get involved too.
Odd however, when i entered the Ferrari world i read about quality problems with the castings as I also noted one of my valve covers someone has welded in one of the grooves the gaskets sits in, very odd location. You can't ignore that there are cracking problems with the pumpkins, not in my case however thankfully so something is fishy here.
Well i guess you never had any Porsches then, night and day from Ferrari quality if we are talking the 911s. Not saying i am bashing any, but be honest here, it's not a religion, ok.
I have a great deal of Porsche experience. How are their castings better? They are almost all die cast so have a very different look. But better? Sorry. Just not so.
What is a pumpkin? Been doing this for over 40 years and pumpkins are food, not car parts. I have read the Ferrari uses recycled materials to build bodies too. Lots of stupid **** out there. Valve covers cracked? Stupid people can break almost anything. Seen lots of broken Porsche parts too. Doesn't mean they are bad quality either. Like I said, been in Ferrari business over 40 years and never seen one credible account of bad casting quality. Quite the contrary they are considered quite good by unbiased sources and have been the subject of study of use of aluminum by major automakers.
Yes most German cars out of the factories these days use recycled plastics which is terrible, not their fault however, just stupid EU legislation forcing them. Pumpkin is used as a term for the clutch housing part no 164050
Now that educated people understand you are speaking of a bell housing I have to assume you are speaking of either a 348 or a 355. Never seen one cracked since 1989. Not one. Not to say in all those years some have not been mishandled enough to be broken by someone but there is nothing wrong with the quality of the part. People can break a steel ball. Not the fault of the steel ball. I can find all nature of broken Porsche parts. Hardly Porsches fault. I have rebuilt a pile of broken, blown up Porsche transaxles. Not a great design but not Porsches fault some dip **** blew them up.
I tend to agree with others have not seen any clutch housings cracked and I hav e owned the car almost 20 years now. I can see how they would get cracked but not heat, rather from bottoming out if hitting a curb on track at speed or even on street through the same problem. These cars sit low and my housing cover was welded by previous owner but I know it was from bottoming because I also fixed the other areas it scraped.
