355 Blown Headgasket!

Hey Dave welcome aboard. Okay now for the questions

1) I'm not sure how common it is but, I do know that when the cars are new and go in for the first 15,000 sevice, the heads are supposed to be retorqued. So maybe that is why the head gasket blew on yours?

2) Since you will have the heads off have a look at the valve guides. The early 355's, and some later 355's, had problems with bad guides. Do a search of the archives, as there are loads of threads on the issue. SO you may want to change them out for harder guides.

3) Anyone of our F-Chat sponsors should be able to get you what you need. But I recomend F-Chat sponsor Daniel. http://www.ricambiamerica.com/. Great guy, resonable prices, and great service. Tell him Brother Ernie sent you.

 

Dave~

I might get shot down for this, but its worth a try at the least. Years ago, long before i owned a Ferrari, I had heard the head stud nuts loosen up. I had read wonderous stories of nuts so loose you could turn them almost with fingers. Yet the darn things would seldom leak. On cars that did, many times I heard that simply tightening the head nuts down would fix it. Actually that reasoning goes way back to when the older car had copper head gaskets, but the Ferrari uses a darn good gasket, and you have at least better than a 50% chance thats all it needs. While 60 may seem really bad, it still means its holding about half, so who knows, its worth a shot.
Otherwise, depending on when this car last had a major service, and seeing you a mechanic, just rip the motor out and get in there. If all it is is a gasket, do both and be up and running. Good luck man, however it goes.

Paul~

 

I saw a 355 with a blown head gasket up in Bellingham, WA at Cavallino Autoworks.

 

I have personaly done 3 head gasket failures on the 355. They all failed in the same places. 355's are turning out to be quite the money pit to keep on the road.

 

Maybe we need to put 348 heads on them and call it a 358? Put 348 headers on and it just might be a good car. All kidding aside, those are the two weak points. And about its only weak points.

 

If the car is going under the knife, and you got a great deal on it my suggestions include:

1. Full 30K kit with Hill Engineering bearings
2. New headers -- NAPerformance would be my choice. Several Fchat sponsors carry them.
3. Hyper-Flow cats
4. Tubi or Capristo


Why?

1. 30K kit because you're already pulling the engine. The Hill bearings are, in my opinion, superior to Ferrari and almost half the price. You can rarely go wrong with fresh water hoses, gaskets, seals, etc.

2. Headers? Can TBakowsky or another tech confirm the date that Ferrari switched to the new design with stronger walls? I *think* it was mid-97, but I'm not sure. If you're on the old headers, it's just a matter of time before they go kaput.

3. HyperFlow cats? You said you have a performance shop, right? OEM cats are like having exhaust constipation. HyperFlows are like diarrhea (but without the leaks). Nice visuals, huh?

4. Tubi or Capristo? Uh... if you have to ask...

 

The only real update Ferrari (or Ansa) did with the Headers on the 355 are the AIR tubes. The rest is the same. I have replaced headers on 98 355's also. They are a terriable header..but with the temps the 355 runs (they run leaner then the 348) I can see why they burn through. On top of that you have the valve guide issues, which weren't really fully addressed. I have replaced valves guides in cars as late as 97.

The 355 is seriously becoming a real money pit. The spiders with the roof issues, and as of late i have had numerous 355's with heater contol panels failing, not cheap to replace. Air bag modules are also seeming starting to fail. I have replaced 2 within the last year.

If any of you are considering a 355 I would make sure everything is in working order before you buy. But make sure you are prepared of future failure of electronic pricey components .

The drivetrian as a mechanicl component is quite robust. But everything they attach to it, seems to be failing as the cars get older.

 

Daniel,
It appears that the only meaningful upgrade on 355 exhaust manifolds was sometime in 96 or 97 when they strengthened the air injection rails...the tubular portion of the exahaust headers themselves are the same for all years, and prone to failure...I even know personally of 1999 355's with failed exhaust manifolds.

 

Thank you for the replies. I was under the impression that 179948 was considerably improved from 164512.

 

Forgot to mention the cats too. I had mine replaced under the Federal Emissions Warranty at the Dealer. Could have been pricey.

 

...............a problem easily fixed with a 360.

 

This happened with my 87 Testarossa. Took us 18 months to figure out what was happening. There was no water in the cylinders or oil in the coolant, but anytime the car would rev past 3000 rpm, air would end up in the cooling system and it would overheat unless bled.

Everyone thought it was a head gasket. I figured before I paid for an engine out service I would try re-torquing the heads myself since I had no evidence of it being done at 1500 miles as the book required.

Cost me about $300 in gaskets and solved the problem entirely. 20k miles since with no further problems.

 

In the 355 engine from my experience, most likely you will have a manifold perforation on that cylinder that went bad which is what caused the head gasket to fail & possibly a problem of the valve faces like in the picture below, (2 cars in a row came in the shop with the same problem) Check the liner carefully as the coolant that goes in to the combustion chamber causes a NASTY on the liner. Good luck with you car, If you need any advice call me directly as I have a fair amount of experience with 355 heads. We can take them from NASTY to beautiful.
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