F355 Market

My advice would be to drive it long enough before you buy.


BTW, outside of flow design between 2.7 and 5.2 cars, all 355’s have pretty much the same grade OE headers. Supposedly, some marginal material upgrades were made in 05 (not exactly sure what), but even those have shown failure.

I do have 05+ OE headers and steel OE guides in my 95 355 installed under previous owner.

 

A very experienced Ferrari mechanic told me a while back that he believes the headers were improved at some point during 1998 MY production. My car (Nov. 97 build/MY '98) has almost 40k miles and is on the original headers...maybe it's internet lore, but I you also don't seem to hear about the late 355's needing headers very much, or at least I haven't.

 

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1995-ferrari-f355-challenge-2-2/

No reserve. Challenge bits unfortunately missing/incorrect.

 

It’s possibly improved, but to what extent is the million dollar question? My opinion is meaningful improvement to the header’s durability would be to upgrade to 304 SS or higher. I haven’t seen that in OE headers even on the 360/F430.

@bobzdar is at 45k mi on his original 95 headers.


@johnk... took his to 30k mi. My Nero 95 is at 29k mi on original headers, but I plan to swap it out.

 

How many times is that car going to "transact" on BaT...

 

Yep.

 

54k now.

 

Do you have cats on your car, Pete?

 

I have high flow cats on it now (for about the last 1500 miles). Prior to that it had no cats. I'm not sure when the original cats were removed, but they came with the car (and are still intact). I think that's why the headers have lasted on my car, it's the stock old ceramic cats that hastened their demise, especially when they came apart.

 

In one older header thread, Brain Crall stated the later cars had updated headers. I asked how they were improved but received no reply. As Ken had posted the newer cars had header issues as well. It is not usually an issue of, will it go bad, but when will it go bad. I replaced the headers on my car at 9500 miles.

 

Every photo I’ve seen of OE headers opened up, if they weren’t leaking, they were warping.

 

https://www.***********.com/threads/355-headers-manifolds-reliability.2288/

 

My originals had a tiny hole in one tube where it was warped/collapsed. The ones Dave sent me from his project had huge holes inside and very deformed.

 

I can say my 98 had a header failure #2 cylinder 97 build so it happens.

 

That could be a record although I think Mitch isn’t too far behind on his original 95’s. You might be on borrowed time, but I’m almost certain there’s deformation at this stage.

It’s time for an upgrade. You’d be a perfect candidate for James Moranifolds. I hear he’s building a second set

 

Ferrari could’ve went with a thicker gauge in later builds, but used the same grade steel. Perhaps an improvement, but is it enough? For $6k, I wouldn’t buy them. For $2-3k… maybe.

 

The only visual difference I can see between my originals vs 05+ OE headers is the air rail is straight instead of curved (original). Perhaps that’s the “update.”

 

Is Garage Kept Motors near you? I bet the Silver B is still in their possession, hence the slow responses coming from Crissey Auto Auction.

 

No reserve on the third try is a fair deal imo.


@IvanRico

 

Yeah about 45 min from me.

 

We’ve had this header discussion before…

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/anyones-stock-manifolds-fail-twice.655219/


Brian Crall says OE headers were improved, but were never good. That pretty much sums it up.

 

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So we have a slight improvement from 95 during the production run in 98 with a thicker gauge, but it really wasn’t improved enough to avoid issues as there are still enough reports of 98-99 cars having problems.

I believe we have another improved update from Ferrari in 05, which is what I have on my car. Previous owner purchased in 2011 for $6k.


@MAD828 reported he purchased the same 05+ headers for a friend, which failed in 4000 kms.



In short, they were improved, but never good enough to last the life of the car. That’s sort of Ferrari’s MO to produce parts that last long enough where owners aren’t outside the factory with pitchforks, but not durable enough as to maintain “consumable” status. Ferrari still has shareholders to answer to.

Have you seen the price of a new speed sensor lately??

 

430 Scuderia OE headers can fail (and have failed) between 25-30k miles. These were manufactured in 08-09. They have no cats in them (added heat.) They are identical in construction (or better) to brand new OE 355 headers.


When was the last time an after-market Ferrari manifold constructed out of 304 SS or better failed?? Even the Taiwanese made ones don’t fail.


Ferrari certainly has access to 304 SS. Tubi is literally right down the street. They simply choose not to upgrade to 304SS because they’ll last too damn long.

 

I truly believe that they generally operate under the assumption that they’re Ferrari so they know better than anyone else and never make mistakes.

Enzo famously despised his customers any way. Owners have always been cash cows in their minds.