Interesting. Those are some horrible leak down numbers. I wonder if the dealer would be willing to redo the leakdown *gratis* just to clear up the issue. Seems to me like a lot of ferrari leakdowns come back horrible. There was just a thread on here with a tesatrossa in the same predicament. Did the dealer say WHERE the leakage occurred? Valves, etc?
Perhaps a motor running at redline for 50k would need an overhaul. Many if not most Fcars will easily go 100k+++++++ without major engine problems. The service intervals and procedures assure that. I feel it's irresponsible for any shop to tell a potential buyer that these cars will only go 50K! I'm sure FoW is a reputable dealer and something was misunderstood about a need for overhaul at 50k.
We see that on 355's and it is not unusual. FOW does not say that lightly. There may have been a problem or a mistake in the test but that only led them to a conclusion that they have seen many times before. I have yet to see a 355 go 100k but I have rebuilt quite a few before 50K. As said before there may have been a mistake in this case but FOW has not got a reputation for dishonesty and they are not stupid.
a 355 with bad valves that might need an overhaul soon? never heard of that before. what does fow know. can't wait till you take it somewhere else and they hand you the same results. hope you have the stones to post your apology in this thread. and as far as focf giving a clean bill a year ago. so what? what does that have to do with the price of tea in china?
i don't think they said it needed an overhaul at 50k. i think they said because the valves in a couple of cylinders are going, it may need an overhaul soon. you don't think 355's need overhauls? ask fow how many they did last year. bet you'll be surprised.
what are the numbers for the 355 with 17K miles FOW has in their showroom? Would the price difference between it and the one being considered buy an overhaul at 50 K miles?
So apparently FoW is hoping that the consumer is clueless and willing to pay $25k for a valve job..... Thats farking obscene!! Pull the heads, completely redo the valves and reassemble for under $5 grand. It should cost $25k when you chunk a piston and the block needs machine work, new parts in the bottom end, etc. Clearly this is a service manager that has the buyer pegged as an easy mark or he is trying to sell him a 355 off the floor. I could care less about the leakdown, the estimate is a pretty good indicator of where this whole thing was headed......
I was thinking along the same lines. They are probly wanting to sell there car. I think PPI can be a waste of time and money somtimes. Even with a PPI, you can drive the car home after you buy it, and it could blow up. Its a machine, nobody can predict what will happen to it.
The stones? Did you read anything that I wrote or just skimmed through, eager to reply three posts of useless information? Or, just selectively miss the point entirely? Thanks for contributing to the thread.
perhaps a more relevant question would be whether an engine which exhibited such leak-down-numbers , would still seem to run well. .
This is a funny post and people bad mouth 348's as the worst Ferrari ever? I got over 50k on my motor and I race my car and a rebuild is nowhere in site for me.
Gotta agree with Fat BB here. I've got 60k on my 348 and it sees the redline regularly. Ernie's got about 65k on his, no motor issues. I've seen 2 348s for sale {one currently on ebay) with in excess of 100k. I'd love to buy one with a trashed motor, but I've only heard of 1 in the last 2 years and it wasn't for sale.
The 4 valve Ferrari motors are the most durable and longest lasting Ferrari ever made. Never heard any different. One of the reasons I am such a big fan of them. One of the problems here is that if you go so far as to say the cam seal design is stupid everybody jumps up and down and tells you you hate the car and should go somewhere else. I made a comment here about never seeing a 355 with 100 k miles and someone who will remain nameless thought I was saying one couldn't do 100k miles and started a poll to prove me wrong. People are too worried about their ox being gored to pay attention to what is really being said.
Well now I haven't been in a good discussion here for a while but, winter is coming and I'm getting bored so I'll jump in here. My 355C had 6500 race miles on it when I bought it 4 yrs ago and now has 16500 on it. Just before I acquired it they did a valve job on it, not because it had the dreaded bad guides but because it was raced for 6500 miles and wore themselves out(this was a bronze quide engine). This engine still has its original pistons, liners and rings and the compression is in the 195 to 200 range and runs perfectly, I have all the service records on this car so I know what was done when and why. I'd say that isn't to bad for 6500 race miles(what would the equivelent street miles be to 6500 race miles?) and my less than grandma style driven 10,000 miles. Guys that are complainin' about 355s or 348s for what ever reason don't know these cars and maybe should move along to something a little more sedate. Like Brian said above there are some who like to twist the words to make themselves look good. We should be enjoyin' these cars for what they are, great pieces of machinery and art work. They all have some down falls, what doesn't? Regards, Vern
Perhaps telling whomever is doing the PPI that for the sake of possible bias, they will not be performing any service work on said car up front. This might help eliminate gouging. That said im not accusing FOW of being less than honest.
this is your quote- I'm lost for words. How does FoCF says that there is no evidence of an engine problem & FoW give a report that, 'your car runs strong, but the engine needs to be overhauled soon'? because the focf report was a year ago. because 355's have known issues with the valves. because a disturbing # of 355's need a premature engine rebuild. Much evidence abounds. my posts were rebuttels to other posts, i don't expect the posters to find that information useful. they were for lurkers. i may have missed the point entirely. i thought it was you posting that fow was misleading a client to get more work. (quote)I'm not sure if the service guys are licking their chops, but they quote $15-25k for a valve job. then you say if the car is down a few HP and has been like this since day one, why would a 25k mile car need $15-25K worth of work i doubt the car was having the leak down problem from day one. in fact, if focf is to be believed, it didn't have that problem as early as a year ago. if i am wrong about the point of the post, please correct me and i will apologize. but, i think most people here know that a 355 can have valve issues and engine rebuild issues. not all of them, but enough to cause concern when you find a problem through testing. i just think you should have had a second professional opinion instead of starting something here. for the life of me, i don't see anything in your posts or others that say anything bad or unusual that fow did.
Out of interest here is a picture of a 355 that i took in Maranello. The guy said he had only ever had one belt change on it since new and it had 190K kilometers on the clock. It was in a rough state but it is what it is.I posted this in my write up on my trip to Maranello. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=116443 Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
but thanks for implying it. i think this is the whole problem with a thread like this. people start threads like this and others pile on. nobody actually comes out and accuses anybody of anything, but we all know what the thread is about. think about it. relating to this car, why would fow say it could need an engine overhaul to a potential buyer? this is obviuosly a deal killer. why wouldn't they play down the possibility, have him buy the car and then possibly get the overhaul work? instead, he is gonna go buy a car that doesn't need any work and fow doesn't get the work. this car goes to montana and fow loses. if you test a car and it shows a current problem that could lead to a future problem, your not going to note that in a ppi? come on, fow new this was a deal killer on a ppi and they couldn't possibly expect the buyer to purchase the car and bring it to fow to do the valves. but the bottom line still is-what did fow due wrong? they did a leakdown test that showed a problem with a couple cylinders. with their experience they noted on the ppi a potential for an engine rebuild because of this known problem. unless i'm missing something, i don't understand.
i'm not sure why people keep posting info on 355's that don't have a problem. unless fow is wrong about the leakdown tests, this one has a known problem. the others are irrelevent to this. what if fow told me i had a bad clutch in my 328 at 20k miles? are you going to post picture of your 30k 328 that doesn't need a clutch?
Very funny! Now what we need is a 348 motor, 355 elctricals (marginally better than 348), and we'll have to arm wrestle over 348 vs 355 styling.
Sorry who else has posted a 190k 355? Hey i did put out of interest, now dint i ya sounding like a grumpy expert now