355 - Strange sound when cold - Solution

Earlier i posted a thread regarding the mystery sound i had from the engine bay in my 355 GTB. Mostly it appeared when coldstarting the car. It was a kind of a "schratching" or "pinging" sound, and i was really qurious and a little worried about this.

Then(Before Christmas) i decided to take the engine out, and do some(a lot of) work on it, and also look into this strange sound.

After several long hours(enjoying hours) working with this engine(Car), im almost 99% sure that the problem has been the Heatshield made of fiberglass, that sits between the 355 fuel tank and the engine. It has been a little loose/wiggeling, and has schratched against my Waterpump pulley. The fiberglass shield had schratchmarks in a form of a 1/3 circle on it. You could clearly see exactly where the Waterpump pulley had gone towards it. No doubt about this. When "tapping" the Waterpump pulley with my fingernails, it sounded similar to what i heard earlier. Something had really been schratching against it.

Honestly i didnt think there was so little space between the fiberglass heatshield and the engine/pulley.

Maybe this problem also came as a result of bad/failured engine mounts. The 2 mounts in the front were in pretty bad shape. The rubber had cracked and broken, so this must have leaned my engine towards the front, and together with the wiggeling fiberglass shield, these things made the sound.

Any proffessional mechanic recognice this? Anyone at all with similar experiance?

I have now replaced the engine mounts(and the 2 rear ones), and adjusted the fiberglass shield and its mounts. This should do it. Just to be sure i also changed the waterpump axle and bearing, and all 3 belts. Among with 1000 other things i have done..................

Kimmo /// Sweden.

 

Thanks, i just thought i would share, because there were a few more on this board earlier that had a strange sound coming from the engine bay in their 355:s. This could be a good thing to check when getting your engine out the next time.

Kimmo /// Sweden.