Any Engine experts / Ferrari mechanic want to fly to Portland and...

And for anyone curious, I think I might have found the ultimate rod bolt stretch gauge!

My neighbor just had the motor on his 360 redone by someone. Let me find out who he used.

I've been out of the loop for a while, but I know up north there was a guy named Tony Palladino at one time. I don't know if he's still around. And then there's my friend John here in Monterey at Forza Motors. Let me find out the name of the guy who did my friend's 360 motor.

You might want to PM Brian on this thread also. He's not the most fun at parties, but he knows his stuff when it comes to Ferrari motors, etc.

Ray

 

Agree. I ship cars all over the county/world to get them in the hands of the “right” guys. Even from NW there’s several right down the coast that are more than capable of doing proper diag and repair as necessary. Get on the phone and find a shop, then arrange transportation with a co or rent a trailer and haul it your self. The last thing I’d do is let the guy who didn’t know what he was doing determine anything or touch it again…

 

Ship it down to Berkeley and let Patrick do his thing.
It may take a year and cost a lot but…

 

Here is the website for the guy who did my neighbor's Ferrari 360. I don't know all the specifics, but I drove his car when he got it back and I can tell you they definitely had the cam timing right on the money!

https://www.patrickottiscompany.com/

Ray

 

I think this might be the same place my friend used above. I've heard good things about them also.

Ray

 

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/where-is-john-heim-these-days.619863/

 

~200 miles to the north, outside of Seattle.
https://instagram.com/german_autohaus?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

You'd have to transport there, but he's the closest that would be able to figure out what's going on. Seriously talented when it comes to engines and exotics.

 

Exactly wrong. It all started by taking it to a moron that was convenient. Why keep doing it? Find a good guy, there are plenty of them buy they are not the guy across town who is cheap, have him diagnose and fix it.

 

Ben Salerno would be an exellent choice in Sacramento area. No one else in that part of the state though.

 

Complete waste of time.

Let quit making suggestions that are going to make the situation worse, shall we?

 

You are clueless.

 

Tony is dead.

A lot of the names being thrown around are train wrecks BTW.

 

See? Quality people are easy to find if you try. Taking it to the guy who is chosen because he is easy or cheap always leads to these stories.

 

I already have a couple of jobs here fixing cars/engines F'd up by others, one of which is a complete train wreck who got glowing recommendations in this thread. Do not refer people based on the drivel read on Fchat, a few are serious charlatans. I am pretty full up with fixing really screwed up cars that were sent to someone based on their Fchat reputation.


You don't know me. Your total experience with me is me responding to your stupid, ill advised advice. I just dont do stupid well.

 

I also live in an area where actual professional help is very hard to come by. So sometimes you need to get creative, and remote assessment is better than no assessment.

The way the original poster described the problem does not sound to me like an engine rebuild is where this ends up. First the car makes some metallic scraping sounds, then it is "fixed" by the original mechanic. Then after some driving, where presumably it made no odd sounds, it makes the same sounds again. That does not sound like internal engine failure, which once presenting such sounds would not go away. There are no doubt some internal failures that would present intermittently, but that would not be the most common outcome.

I have been well served in maintaining my car by first ruling out easier and more obvious things, often simple things, first.

It seems we are putting alot of value on the original mechanics comments, who then walked away from a proper diagnosis.

For sure getting someone experienced to look at this would make sense. But do you really think a mechanic would not start this car up to assess himself what the problem may be?

 

Brian @Rifledriver is right.......shopping for opinions and local "experts" always get owners in trouble when they are trying to save money. In this case, the car needs to go a expert that won't add to the potential damage the car might have. Brian has already given you a name, Ben Salerno, he trusts and I would go with that.

Do not start the car and make videos. Pick up the phone and tell Ben what happened and arrange for the car to be transported there.

I can't tell you how many times boat owners have brought me disasters to "fix". The story is always the same.....the story starts in the middle....and 80% of the work is sorting out what happened before it showed up at my door.

"A friend had a great experience with this guy and he was really inexpensive compared to everyone else."
"He was able to get me parts at great discount."
"It ran great for four months and then it started making noises and he won't return my phone calls."

If you had a deadly disease.....would you want to be treated by someone who fits the above statements?

You get what you pay for.

 

The cost of the job is not directly proportional to the outcome. I totally understand trying to find local talent. We have all heard of the occasional long distance nightmare. Thankfully those are rare. But, shipping is always an extra logistical hassle with increased anxiety.

 

I might start it but only after considerable diagnosis if and only if I reached a dead end. Recording played on the internet to a bunch of self appointed experts is a complete waste of time. The situation worse comment is mostly directed at the suggestion of asking for the collection of keyboard warriors to offer up opinions on the cause of the noise based on a bad recording replayed over 2 dollar speakers. He needs help. Real help in the form of a real mechanic working on the car.

50% of my work is fixing bad prior repairs. The 2 biggest jobs in the shop are for that reason and it gets really expensive. Nothing new here. I am trying to help this guy stop throwing away money. Your suggestion doesn't come close to that.

 

Speaking of stupid blanket statements.

 

I agree that stories abound but I suppose I really don't think a lot about renting a trailer and using my wife's Ram 2500 to tow the car if I trusted where I was going. The OP can go to Redmond where Ferrari of Seattle does their service which 200 miles away. That will be pricey. FoS maintained one of my cars before I bought it but are really pricey at $350-400 per hour and then there is the question if they will accept work on an older car.

I don't know what Ben charges per hour but it doesn't take a lot of labor hours to make the shipping the smallest charge of the work. If it were me....I probably would hop a plane and go to both places to discuss the problem and establish a relationship with who is going to do the work and then make a decision. Ben is about 500 miles away from Portland.

 

Sounds like the diagnosis needs to be confirmed first. This may not even be an internal engine issue if the sound came and then a external engine repair was done and it went away for a period of time only to return. I am 250 miles North of you and we just finished this unit.
There are three very talented independent Ferrari technicians in Washington that are more then capable of helping out. I am happy to put you into contact with the other two if for some reason your not comfortable with me.
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That's too bad Tony died. I guess he's off the list then.

Ray

 

Trust me Rifledriver, you do stupid just fine.

Ray

 

My neighbor did mention that when Patrick gave him a tour of the shop, it was all very organized and clean. That's always a good sign. All I know is that he was very impressed with the work done to his 360 and when I drove it, it seemed like it was usually fast compared to other 360's I've driven.

Ray

 

As much as Rifledriver gets under my skin sometimes.. he's totally right.

Taking advice from internet forums is usually a terrible idea. Also starting up a compromised motor is usually a terrible idea as well. It's quite easy for something small to spiral into something terrible. For example, there could be a slightly blown head gasket lurking... then while you are reading Ferrarichat, coolant is quietly leaking into one cylinder. You go out to make a video the next morning and then you end up with a rod through the side of the block.

What has me a little confused is why a man with a lift in his garage and a shop full of tools cannot pull the spark plugs and at least do some rudimentary visual checks or perhaps provide some compression readings, etc.

Ray