Valve Guides on 355 ??

People have experienced it on later cars also, it's just been more likely to happen on the earlier cars. Do a search for it on here, I know a few f-chat members have gone through this painful repair.

 

THe valve guide issue was caused the the use of bronze valve guides instead of sintered steel valve guides.
Therefore all 355's from 1995 to mid 1998 have this potential problem, without exception.
In mid 1998, however Ferrari changed the guides material from bronze to sintered steel and the problem was solved.
If the issue is a concern to you then either you should purchase an earlier car that had the guides replaced (but Ferrari was known to replace the bronze guides with replacement bronze guides to 'use up their stock'....so no guarantee here that the problem was actually cured)or go for the 1999 model.
Me, I'm not concerned. If the problem was going to occur, it usually showed up early in the cars life.....not 10 or so years later.

 

Norman Racing here in Berkeley did a million valve jobs for the Ferrari dealers and local Ferrari shops on these heads over the past few years. Fun for the machinist; 40 valves! Early jobs were under warranty. Not sure which replacement guides they used. I haven't seen so many of those heads come through lately.

Andrew Watry

 

My 95 Spider needed the valve guide work done during the 2nd major (49K) last year.

The work was an additional $6k +/- (Not to bad if you average it over 10 years).

 

that sounds cheap! what was done for that, exactly?

 

The first Spider was a 99 and didn't have any of the known 355 issues. The current car is a 96 model, and needed a $20k engine rebuild to fix valve guide and cracked manifold problems.
Runs better than new though, and shouldn't need to be touched for a long time.

 

I have a car that was built in Dec 97 and I had my valve guides replaced at 22k. If I were looking, I would look for a car that has already had the valve guides replaced and choose an earlier car so I wouldn't pay a premium on the last year 355s were made.

 

Excuse my ignorance, but what are the symptoms of the value guide issue when it shows up? And what is a typical repair cost?

Thanks.

 

rough idle, sometimes accompanied by a check engine light (incomplete combustion)

 

What was said above plus excessive oil consumption. If you watch your oil level you should be able know of the problem before there is other damage to the rest of the engine. Regards, Vern

 

In addition to above a blue puff of smoke on initial start up only.

 

I don't know that you will always see the puff of smoke in the initial stages because the flow through the guides is slight but, you still could catch it early by watching the consumption/level closely. I think by the time you are seeing the puff you are well into bad guides. Just my thoughts. Regards, Vern

 

OK, $000,000 question, given the "precise" D) nature of measuring the oil level in a 355, what consumption level would be considered "normal" and what level "my valve guides are going" ...?

I used to have an Alfa 156 which sang along consuming 1.0L per 1000m no problems. Next one (identical model) consumed none, go figure..!

 

Both my 348 and my 355 didn't/don't use any oil between changes (2500 mi. changed once a year whether needed or not)under normal use. If I check the oil right after shut down I get the same reading all the time, the oil drains back into the sump the longer you wait so your reading will be lower the longer you wait to check it. I would say if the engine consumes a quart or so in 500-700 miles you might want to check into why. Regards, Vern

P.S. on the other hand my 308s were a different story about a quart every 1000 mi.(they were in great mech cond.) and the harder you ran them the more they used. Different technology.

 

same here with my 355. quite a shock to the system not to consume oil!

 

Sounds sensible, thanks for the info, think I maybe put 0.5L in after 1800 miles or so.

 

In 2500 klm I have also had no oil consumption but all manufactures specify a certain amount of 'normal' consumption.

Does anyone know what Ferrari specifies?

 

That sounds about right from what I've known about mine and other 355s. I've never known a 355 that doesn't use up oil in 2500 miles, but then again, I might have only known bad 355s...

 

RTFM! Every Ferrari I have owned said the same thing (308, 328, 355) that it is considered normal to consume up to 2 liters per 600miles! "according to driving and other conditions"

 

Sorry you guys hate to argue with ya but, my 348 and my 355 didn't/don't use any noticable oil between changes. My 308s did however, not as much as the owners manuals said was normal.Maybe a quart in 1000 miles IIRC. I think most of the problem with cars that do use oil, older newer whatever, is quaility/condition of valve guides and their seals. Taking in cosideration the rings are in good shape.
On a side note I have owned Audis and BMWs with 150,000+ miles on them with no oil consumption in 5000 mile OCIs. Regards, Vern