Another belt thread? Yep

Robbie,

Lots of threads/posts about fake bearings within the past few months. Check them out. Only buy from known F-Car suppliers. Skip the "deals." Not worth it IMO.

Second; belts. Call the company and check the date of manufacture. People here have gotten belts (NOS) as in NEW but VERY OLD stock.

I know I am a bit paranoid, but IF it makes you feel better ............... It is one of the newest scams going.

MWR

 

The major is of course much more than belts and tensioner bearings. Other than changing the fluids belts are actually one of the easier things they do as part of the major service. The valve adjustment the valve timing. Cleaning the fuel injectors. Adjusting the idle and CO mixture. re-torquing the heads replacing various seals, gaskets, belts and hoses. Quite often they will replace the water pump also. At the Ferrari dealer I took it to they also detail the car inside and out and they picked up the car and in a covered flatbed for no additional charge. Keep in mind that if you supply the parts the dealer will not warranty them. If something goes wrong the parts supplier and the dealer will point at each other. But it sounds like you are not going to a authorized Ferrari dealer anyway.

My car is in for its major as I write this. They are also replacing the bearings on the cam belt drive pulleys. I stopped by to see how it was coming along and I got a look at the old ones and they were a disaster waiting to happen. Added another $1500 to the job. see this thread. So the major cost me $6000 and the bearings added $1500.

 

I gotta +1 this post. There is a lot more that goes into a major then fluids and belts. I think the main reason for catastrophic failure is when a bearing/pulley fails so the belt skips and grenades an engine. My mechanic, an independent (Tim Stanford) only uses stock Ferrari parts. His reasoning--if there is a problem, it's Ferrari's problem. But I would trust Ricambi/Hill Engineering parts on my car, they are stand-up guys.

 

Holy crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I could afford $1500 for a pair of $45 bearings (each).

Turn your own wrench brother. Put those hard earned $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ against something more usefull.

Respectfully,

 

Well, It's pretty clear how they were able to afford to pick up the car for "free".

 

I purposely didn't use the word "Free" because I realize I am paying for it.

I do quite a bit of my own work (I replaced my own timing belts, coolant lines, fuel lines, water pump and fuse blocks) but I can afford it and I felt that a proper major by a qualified trained Ferrari mechanic was worth the price. I will also tell you that the mechanic spent an entire day getting those bearings out and I don't regret avoiding that frustration.

On a happy note he informed me that my car aced the leak down and compression tests!

 

6-8 hours more or less is about the right amount of time to change the front timing drive bearings if you're already doing a major & have the belt covers off.

Let's see, ($1500 - ($100 x 2 bearings))/8 = $162.50/hour!!! Yes, the bearings are $96 ea on Ricambi's site!

Surely he did something else as well...

BTW, that picture you referenced looks like a timing drive bearing AFTER the separators were punched/drilled out on each side to hook up a Sykes bearing puller tool.

 

If it is the lower cam drive bearings Part #121274 they are $267.84 from Ricambi. So 2 bearings alone would be $535.60 Remaining labor of 8 hours = approx $120 per hour.

Those bearings are very often overlooked on a major. If one of those fails - you are looking at a helluva lot more than the cost of replacement even at $1500.....

As these cars approach 20+ years old at best - you better put these on your list of "to-do"s on your next major as with all the rubber fuel/cooling hoses.... My 2 cents.

Chris

 

OOPS! MY BAD,
Chris has the right bearing p/n & price for your '85 328. I looked up the outer timing drive bearing for the earlier models, it's an industry std. The later QVs & all 328s use a larger OD F* unique bearing that's gotten really pricey!

The outer timing drive bearings on all but the earliest carb'd 308s are sealed bearings, the lube slowly deteriorates with age & heat. IMHO, they should be changed every 10-12 years for normal use cars, every 5 years for tracked cars, especially when driven in 90+ F weather.

 

OOPS! I thought we were talking about tensioner bearings ---- My Bad!!!! Sorry Robbie.