Changing the oil yourself on a 355...

Question 1: HA..Welcome to the 355 oil change. Short of putting a spout cock in the resiviour tank..your gonna get all oily

Question 2: After an oil chnage about 10 liters to 11 liers will go in.

One little tip though..drain the tank first..then drain the engine. The reason being is because the oil in the tank will work it's way back into the enigne. But if you drain the tank first you will be sure all the oil is out.

I usually fill about 9 liters in the tank..start the car let run for about 10 seconds and then shut it off. I then will add one more liter. Then I let it run until 2 cooling fan cycles and check and top up as needed.

 

Rob,
Sorry this reply is a little late. I own a 355c also. The oil system is a little different from the standard car. There are two large oil coolers that hold 3qts total and can not be drained unless you remove them and turn them upside down to drain. I drain the sump first and let tank drain back to the engine then remove the plug from tank very little oil comes out and no mess. My oil capacity is 14 qts when I drain the coolers.

 

Rob,

You do not need to be anal with these dry sump motors as long as you change oil frequently. My 348 is run hard and put away wet as a racercar. I engine out major every year and change the oil after every weekend. This way if some stays in the maintenance level is still higher than any street Ferrari sees. I also, severely bleed brakes/clutch before every raceday with stock cheapo Valvoline synthetic fluid. It never boils so I stopped using motul and SFR as well as the ATE blue/gold trick just because the Valvoline worked so good and was so cheap...$6/ qt. When you do it yourself all this is cheap. My last T-belt cost me 45 bucks and I added 3 new shims. I think I was in/out for under 3-400 bucks for a major. So a 348 anyway can be as cheap to race as a vette or Honda. Also, I have giant front cooling ducts. The 348C had these crappy little things. I run large NACA scoops from the foglights (now gone) to 3" silicone hoses to custom made spindle attachments that puts lots of air to the rotors. The result is I don't eat brakes or rotors either. I also beleive that if you change pads before they are worn out you save dishing out rotors so then they can be turned flat for another use and you decrease heat into the pads and you have better stopping power. Heat kills pads and rotors. So I think it is actually cheaper to run the pads just below 1/2 and dump them. I keep 2 sets of rotors and when I swap out I change pads and rotors so I get flat fade free perfect symetrical braking. Then I turn the rotors I just removed flat for the next time. This all makes for cheap brake maintenance also a significant expense to racers. I also found an interesting by accident tire combo that works. It is stupid but here it is. I use on 355C wheels 245 645 18 pirellis up front and 25.5 11.5 18 goodyears in the rear. Pirelli has their undies in a bunch about letting out used slicks so you have to by them new but they are cheaper than the correct ones for our cars. Then you can by once used good year slicks for cheap. The GY G-19 slicks are technically too wide for these wheels but they work. If I did not get them cheap and under pressure I would have never tried them. The real advantage for me was the GY was a smaller diameter than the 645 or 660 pirellis or dunlops so I got a bit better acceleration from my 300hp pig. They gave me a wider contact patch and my car got lower by accident in the rear since I was too lazy to reset the ride height. The result was that my car stuck better and I was able to more predictably slide and control the oversteer running near 34-35 hot pressures. What a bonus. What are you doing for tires?

YMMV

 

Rob,

Check with Hoosier. The GA tire changed for 2005 so they were selling all the old 2004's at a discount as "new old stock." Of the slicks you tried what did you like best? IMO, this may be the last set of used slicks I use. There seems to be definately a difference in how your car wears the tires. I think this effects the ride/comfort/grip of the tire. I have had inconsistent used Pirelli slicks. Some seemed to stick better than others eventhough the amount of rubber seemed the same. Also, I think drivers who qualified the used tires had more left or right turns and that effected the product I recieved. I guess they make sence for the price. It is a tough call. I like new slicks so much better. You can actually feel when they "go off". There is a point where I think the used slick is no better and perhaps worse than a good hard (relatively speaking) street tire. Out of round edge worn slicks with tons of rubber blibs stuck on run like crap!

 

I didn't know we could insult each other here. Rob asked a question about changing oil on a 355c. These cars are slightly different from non challenge cars. I was trying to relay what I do on my car for interest to him. My car is used as road car and I change my oil once a year useally at about 2000 miles per year. Just information not recommendation. sorry for being ANAL.

 

I think you are reading something into it that isn't there. All I see is additional information and no reference to you or your comments what so ever.

 

Sorry Vern,

I had no intension of insult. Your post is right on trying to get all the old oil out. Your commens are especially true when you leave the oil for a long period of time as mant street drivers do. As a racer, I dump my oil so often that if I only got 1/2 of it out (which never happens) my oil in total would still be plenty serviceable. My point is general is that with good routine maintenace we do not have to wait until the last drop of oil drips although thechnically this would be practicing at the highest level. And it is O.K. to be Anal. I am all the time.

 

pardon me for being so sensative guys I haven't been able to drive the 355 for a few months-its winter here in Montana, you know. Crap !!

 

Vern,

When I get to Montana this summer we'll go flyfishing and knock down a few tall ones and lie to each other about the big one!

 

Fatbillybob:
Man have we gotten off the subject of oil changes. I was tuggin' at my brain cells to get oil and "tall ones" to link together but it was to much work. Oh well maybe when were suckin' down a cold beer you could explain this Fatbillybob thing to me. HaHaHa

 

any torque numbers for either oil drain plug?