GTC4Lusso - Hill Engineering Spacers | FerrariChat

GTC4Lusso - Hill Engineering Spacers

Discussion in 'FF/Lusso' started by SECRET, Dec 26, 2020.

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  1. SECRET

    SECRET Formula Junior
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    May 19, 2007
    934
    I know there have been a lot of threads on spacers out there for the Lusso and FF. As my car is fairly new, and my current garage storage space is quite limited, I decided to explore using spacers to improve the looks a bit rather than getting wheels for now.

    After much research and review, I decided to go with the following setup:


    Couple things that I researched a long the way that were helpful with the process.
    1. Get wheel hangers [I used these] - they are M14x1.5 threads. They make changing the wheels easier, and it lowers the risk of the wheels damaging the ceramic rotors (sometimes they can crack) when removing and installing the wheels.
    2. Get some copper anti-seize lubricant. I put this on the spacer bore & face mating to the wheel hub. I also put this on the mating chamfer of the wheel bolt [not the thread].
    3. My old jack as pretty beat, so I used this as an excuse to get a new jack. Here in the US, I ordered the Harbor Freight Daytona Low Profile 3 Ton Jack (in Yellow, so no one gets to throw excuses that they didn't see it)
    4. Get a hockey puck to protect the body for when you jack up the car. It fits pretty well in the little area where the jack pads for each jack point on the car are located. The above jack + the jack pad that comes with it + the hockey puck fit beneath the car with about 15mm clearance. It was tight, but just worked.
    5. Useful info:
      • Jack points look like this. There line up very close to where the door meets the front and rear fenders. Image courtesy of @SAFE4NOW
    • Torque spec on the wheels is 100 N-m. It can be found on Page 171 of the english version of the owners manual. Remember to recheck your wheel torque several times after installing new wheel bolts, especially before and after driving on them for the first time.
    For me, the total install worked out to be around 1.5 hrs with me going slow, my wife and son coming out to hang out for a few, test driving the car around the block after it was installed, and me moving all the cars out of the garage, then back in.

    The only hiccup I ran into was with the rear 15mm spacers were stuck together. One spacer comes bare while the other comes with a few layers of thin paper around it, presumably to protect them from scratching/damaging each other. Hill Engineering packs the two spacers stacked as pairs in a thick, sealed plastic pouch. The issue is they put so much protective paper on the hub-centric boss of the wrapped spacer that it was essentially press fit into the bore of the other spacer. Pretty annoying. Luckily the 11mm pair didn't have this issue.

    Overall the look is improved, IMHO. While I would love to lower the car, I think I will stick with the OEM height as it makes driving the Lusso daily quite a painless and carefree experience.

    Hope this helps anyone out there thats thinking about doing spacers on their car.
     
    James Clooney, otakki and ANOpax like this.
  2. SECRET

    SECRET Formula Junior
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    May 19, 2007
    934
  3. sandman03456

    sandman03456 Formula Junior
    Silver Subscribed

    Jun 17, 2007
    368
    Las Vegas, NV
    Nice write-up, and a great result.
     
    Caeruleus11 and SECRET like this.
  4. ANOpax

    ANOpax Formula 3

    Jul 1, 2015
    1,124
    The Netherlands
    Looks great - you don’t need to lower it.
     
    Caeruleus11 and SECRET like this.
  5. Il Co-Pilota

    Il Co-Pilota F1 Veteran

    May 29, 2019
    6,023
    Hopefully some place nice.
    Full Name:
    A.B
    One thing I will stress here. Do not use copper grease. That stuff is corrosive, especially on aluminium.

    What one should use is a high heat paste. The one I use is good for 1100 C and completely non-corrosive. I think it is made by liqui moly.

    Sent from my SM-G930F using FerrariChat.com mobile app
     
    otakki and Caeruleus11 like this.
  6. Moopz

    Moopz F1 Veteran
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    Jun 29, 2004
    5,348
    Orlando, FL
    Excellent result! Is that Nero? Looks sinister.

    Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
     
  7. Caeruleus11

    Caeruleus11 F1 World Champ
    Rossa Subscribed

    Jun 11, 2013
    10,857
    Congratulations! She looks great!


    Sent from my iPad using FerrariChat
     
  8. SECRET

    SECRET Formula Junior
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    May 19, 2007
    934
    Thanks! I had not heard that before. According to the Permatex product page on their website, their Copper Anti-Seize product appears to be recommended on spark plug threads going into aluminum blocks (high temp + aluminum). Usually aluminum-based anti-seize products have slightly lower operating temp.

    If you're referring to Liquid Moly LM508 anti-seize, which goes up to 1100 ºC, the SDS for LM508 also indicates 5% copper by weight. The Permatex Copper Anti-Seize SDS indicates 3 - 7% copper by weight. Would be interested to know if you had issues personally with copper-based anti-seize, and if it may have been a different component that caused the issues?

    Thanks! It definitely looks nearly black under some light conditions. It's actually a flat dark blue with a tiny amount of red pearl in it, called Blu Pozzi.

    Thank you! It was a quick, fun, and low-stress weekend project. Pretty happy with the results!
     
    otakki, Caeruleus11 and Moopz like this.
  9. prits_88

    prits_88 Karting

    Feb 26, 2021
    62
    Full Name:
    Pritesh patel
    lovely post and writeup!
    quick question - how close are you to any tyre rub? could you have gone wider?
     
  10. SECRET

    SECRET Formula Junior
    Owner Rossa Subscribed

    May 19, 2007
    934
    Hey Pritesh, no where near rubbing. I don't think you want to go much wider mostly due to risk of the tires taking on road debris as they would be sticking out. If you're going for the classic "Hella Flush" look then yes, you can go about 5mm wider in the rear. If you lower it at all though, then these spacers are the right size.
     
    prits_88 likes this.

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