Just let it smoke?

I'll take it.

 

pass.

you are wasting the purchase money and the cost to insure, register and feed the car as it will get worse with use, and will be unsellable. i doubt you will get very many miles out of it given all the threads on these cars failures, and the costs to fix them.

there are other cheap Ferraris available to use as beater that wont break you. you can *always* chop up a rough 308 series for parts after you are done with it.

348 and 355 have not hit bottom yet in the market.

 

too many unknowns with the application of the car you dont mention.

If your gonna use it and drive it like you stole it, then i would go for it. Of course keeping in mind that you have some big $$$ bills coming your way for repairs, so i would assume a purchase price of 40K.

On the other hand, if you just want a little weekend warrior, i would pass.

Whats the price of this ? what year is it ? Is it a b,ts, or spider ? Does it have that potential difficult F1 ?

 

If the guides were going and they keep getting worse, I would think the valves might get to the point of not seating correctly and eventually could break (ruining entire motor). Just my thoughts...I'll defer to the pros on Fchat as to whether or not this is a possible failure mode.

Bottom line, a 'cheap' 355 is still a $40k+ car. I don't think it's a wise use of the $$$.

 

On top of what's already been said, oil in the combustion chamber = higher chance of detonation. If this was a 110hp Honda I would say drive it into the ground. An 8,500rpm Ferrari.........not so much.

If the car is perfect except for the guides, and the price is right I would personally take it and immediately do a major + guides.

 

How exactly does a minute amount of oil in the cylinder promote detonation?

 

Who knows if it's a minute amount? If it's bad enough to be detectable, that is not a minute amount in my book.

Either way, oil burning is a very common cause of high RPM detonation due to it's low octane.
A stock 355 in good condition is already injesting some oil due to the stock breather system. Add to that valve guides / seals dripping into the cylinders, not a good combination.

This is why a very common upgrade on boosted cars is to redirect the oil breather into a seperate catch can and not the intake. Something I would like to do on the 355.

 

Most valve guides leak oil down into the cylinder while cooling down. Unles the guides are worn to great amounts, there wont be much oil leaking down while its running hot. Too many in here make a much bigger deal on the valve guides than they really are. The really bad valve guide were in the very first batch of 355s. They were so bad that they wore out while under warranty and were quickly replaced by Ferrari. Just because those bad guides were made from brass, everyone thinks that all the brass carrying 355 cars are bad. There are tons of 355s out there with over 30,000 miles that have brass guides and no problems.

 

When I hear "bad valve guides" I picture a spark plug that looks like it was covered in margarita salt

Something I've seen on my own car (non Ferrari).

 

Tillman,
When my guides finally failed, it showed up with a chunk out of an exhaust valve. It
didn't do any additional damage, and Norwood's got me fixed up. 3 years later, knock on wood,
it hasn't had anything crop up. What killed me was doing several engine out's, for exhaust
header breaking and fix, and then 6 months later the valve guides. All at once would have
saved $3k plus. If you can factor in the future repair, I would give the car careful consideration.

 

What he said. As 355 prices continue to settle, the cost of these repairs in relation to the value of the car has gone from bad to ludicrous.

 

That was proved myth long ago.

 

It does.

 

Bottm line Tillman, it is not so much an issue of passing smog as it is running quality. When the guides get bad they run terrible, idle like **** and go down on power. Owners often don't notice because it is so gradual they acclimate to its poor performance. Ferraris are fun cars when they run well but I'll take a good running Ford over a bad running Ferrari anyday. It is the curse in every Ferrari life cycle. All of them get to a point that repairs and maintenence do not make any sense taking the cars value into consideration. It is why to be an owner of a middle aged Ferrari requires a real commitment. Every 250 owner was faced with the same decision at some point. It is now the 355's turn.

 

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

And him too!


+1

 

ya'.... Ferrari is like a drug = good and bad together...still a drug...


commitment isn't over rated, it's a just a disease for Ferrari owners.

 

Now there's a prophet!!

Hang on and you'll realize a profit

 

just my opinion, but i would pass