1995 355 smoking badly at 4,000 rpm

The smoke was probably caused by exceeding the redline by approximately 31K RPM

 

Dry flakey/dusty stuff may be the packing inside the exhaust heat shields blown out by a bad header. Backfiring sounds like a symptom of air reversion into the engine too. And if it was driven very long with a bad header, the smoke could be worn liners/valve guides. Hopefully not but.....
Rebuilt a bunch of them in the last year with the same problems....

 

Have you topped up the oil lately?

If you are not familiar with topping up a dry sump engine with oil then you may have overfilled the tank, this can cause the excess oil to be burned and result in smoke.

This is where I would start.

 

What is the nature (composition) of the "smoke"? Is it oil, coolant, or fuel (i.e., "rich" mixture exhaust).

Without that info, all I can tell you is that something is wrong --- which is neither new nor useful information for you.

"White" smoke is usually coolant --- but the "description" is always in the eye of the beholder. If you can, get the car to smoke by revving it up in neutral, and hold a clean, white rag over one of the tailpipes. This will collect a sample of whatever is being spewed, and the color / odor / taste (yes, it's okay to touch your tongue to it briefly, then spit / rinse) of this residue will tell you what the nature of the smoke is.

Once that is known, we can start to converge on a diagnosis ---- otherwise, we're throwing darts at a board, my friend

 

BTW, based on the info provided so far...I agree ---- Sounds a lot like a failed header (plus possible "collateral" damage). The incidence and pre-disposition of 355 header failures is well documented.

But, "let's see what we see when we see it"

 

You are revving this Fiat engine to 40,000 rpm? Holy Hannah! It must be an engine now in lots of little bitty pieces!

 

Post of the month!

 

I second that!

 

please contact the scuderia immediatly, if you can rev your 355 at 40 000 rpm your fortune is done!

 

At 40,000 RPM I guess it should be doing a little bit more than smoking. You should feel lucky that's all it's doing.

 

I agree that you should check the oil.

Drive car until very warm, turn off engine with key in right hand and rag in left hand.

Pop hood and immediately unscrew and check oil at right front of motor, the knob with the little horsie has a dipstick on the end of it.

 

Someone wrecked the title.

 

You're looking (hoping) for too much oil, not too little. If you are low on oil and the smoke is really oil related then you should probably get your car to a shop. Again, the hope is that you have too much oil...

 

Lots of white smoke and "stuff" outside of the expansion tank for the coolant? Sounds like bad head gasket(s).

 

Have you recently bought this car?
If so is there any form of warranty involved in the deal and was there any prepurchase inspection by a Ferrari specialist? Do you have any service record of maintenance done on the car particularly recently?
Since you haven't filled out your profile we lack much of the background required to advise you well, such as your location.
I'd advise you to post in the relevant regional section asking for a recommended independent Ferrari shop near you. Then have the car taken to them for inspection.

 

Usually if it is:
White smoke= water getting inside combustion chambers cause by bad head gasket.
Blue smoke = too much oil burning
Black smoke= too rich or too much fuel means fuel/air ratio not balance

 

If you are not sure what oil is already in there, and you want to just top it off, use a synthetic. Pick one that is okay to mix with conventional oil (some can and some cannot) ---- consult the manufacturer for this info. For example, all of RedLine's synths are okay to mix with conventional oil.

This way, you're covered without having to know what's already in there.

Adding conventional oil is not a good idea since there may be a synthetic already in there that can't be mixed with conventional.

 

Before sending the car to Gary for an engine rebuild (enginefxr) double check the oil is not OVERFILLED. There is a correct procedure for checking the level in a dry sump car and if you get it wrong, it'll give you a false low level. I have seen what happens when a 430 was overfilled by some well meaning Jiffy-Lube dude. Well, I saw what happened until the car vanished like Bond's Aston Martin in a dense cloud of white smoke

In all seriousness though, I think this is going to be expensive and unpleasant. I hate to say it but this is an all too familiar story. I hope for your sake and sanity that the oil level is too high...

Dave

 

check number 2 cylinder for compression and leak down. Don't know why, but thats the cylinder that fails the most.

 

+1....my read from the description by the OP too.