wow, with due respect to some that have recommended thinnier oils to prevent start up wear this is IMO exactly what will happen, I run Mobil 1 20/50 extended perfomance oil in my 355 for this very reason and valvoline racing 20/50 in my 512BB and 930. The motor looks as if it were ran dry with no oil with all the scoring definately a oil related failure not an internal part that failed
If the oil caused the engine failure, then that oil would fail an oil sheer test. Easy enough to find out. If a top end problem caused the failure, then reading the spark plugs should confirm. Easy enough to find out. If those two things weren't responsible, then a bottom end problem is left.
Has the root cause of this failure been identified yet? This is a very interesting discussion for all us 360 drivers. The only explanation so far which seems consistent with the original event description plus subsequent pictures & observations is that the DIY clutch job introduced either foreign matter or air into the lubrication system resulting in this catastrophic failure. From other posts we know the OP bought a burnt out 360 engine for parts to rebuild this blown one but no updates for three months. Anybody know the final diagnosis? I realize the OP does not wish to point the finger at himself but I think many of us would really like to know what happened here.
Considering the title of the thread, it would at least be reasonable to post the results of the oil analysis and sheer tests.
I would assume by the silence there was no analysis done with the oil, or if there was it was inconclusive. If the OP had found evidence the oil was at fault I am sure we would have heard about it. I may not be a Mobil 1 fan, but if there was a problem with their oil, others would have had failures and it would be all over the web. IMHO the engine suffered a catostrophic loss of oil pressure for unknown reasons, but possibly due to work involving the clutch. But whatever the cause, it wasnt the oil itself, but the lack there of.
Loose rod bolt. I am assuming these are not factory "cracked" type rods, and left the factory with smooth faces. If rod bolt is loose *enough*, oil starvation would occur on that journal because all the oil would leak out due to the excessive clearance. What follows is: 1) bearing failure occurs on that rod 2) resulting in yet more rod throw 3) piston contact with valves and/or contacting head 4) broken ring lands and/or rings and bent valves The loss of power would be because the energy that would normally go into propelling the car went instead into destroying a bearing, bending a few valves, and obliterating the ring lands, general carnage, etc... and also the loss of compression in 1 or 2 cylinders. I can't imagine how else debris got between that rod cap's matting surfaces. But a loose rod would absolutely explain it. The time it took for that bearing to eat itself, seems about right for the amount of hammering the rod cap took. More importantly, it is doubtful that the rod bolt could stretch by that amount even if the piston got totally hung up. Easy enough check, measure the rod bolt. Now if that bolt mic's the same as the others, you have the smoking gun. The bolt did not stretch, it was loose. How do we know? Because the rod cap mating surfaces says so. My condolences to the original poster. Good call to whoever spotted the rod cap damage (I can't scroll back at the moment to give you credit).
what was the decision on what type of oil to use or better yet...what type of oil is better for a 360? mobil 1,valvoline racing,castrol syntec? i used royal purple 5w40,should i continue to use it or should i change over to another recommended type?
Use Redline, Royal Purple, Amsoil they group 5 made with full synthetic stock. Much better than the BS group 4 partial synthetic stock oils.
IMHO, the bottom line for what ever oil you like is to send it to a lab, have the oil tested to see how well it performed in your engine. If the numbers are good stick with that oil, if not then try another type/brand of oil. Ciao, George
See my posts at the end of:: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=136052&page=2 I have run the living snot out of my F355B on 0W-30 oil in the midst of Texas summer heat at a race track in central Texas (TWS 2.9 course). The engine survived and lives on. Since that experiment, I have accumualted more than 12K additional miles and almost 1000 track miles. Due to a clutch bearing going away; but it sounding like a broken crankshaft (6 months and 9 track events after the experiment concluded) we opend up the bottom end for a look. The bearings were not even poilshed up (> 4K track miles; 50K total miles). The original bearings were reinstalled, torqued and the bottom sealed back up. The clutch bearing was replaced and life goes on. In my opinion, there is no way that this failure is oil related. There are some issues with SM oils (low ZDDP) but this is not a cae of accelerated wear. This is a case of critical failure. Oil starvation, Spun bearing, White metal galling, which leads to the rest of the engine being turned into a display item.
So if this piece of rubber fails or is not installed correctly your engine is toast? How much weight saving or compactness would have been sacrificed to design a more secure way of getting oil to the pump? Sometimes I wonder what Ferrari's engineers were thinking. I could see in a Formula 1 car if you thought this risky solution were necessary to win races, but in a street car?
I wondered about the same thing, the oil line is casted as part of the engine block. From the engineering point of view it's a beauty, save parts, save cost . But from real world operating point of view it is a one time assembly advantage, not really designed as a user friendly serviceable design. Which is consistent with the rest of the car design. The o-ring can fall out and get crushed during the transmission install. So a second pair of hands during the transmission and engine mating is recommended to make sure the o-ring stays put. After removing the transmission it is also a good idea to plug the oil line hole so no debris gets inside. The trick I use is to bed the o-ring with heavy grease, the grease keeps the o-ring in place during installation.
I noticed this thread, read through it and a thought popped into my head which reminded me of an article published by Mike Sheehan ("The Snowball Effect", SCM Oct 2010) about a 360 Spider whose engine grenaded: "...As for the misfire, the snowball had begun, as the misfire caused the left pre-catalyst to overheat and come apart, with fragments of the catalyst sucked back into the cylinder and intake box by exhaust reversion. The catalyst fragments had done a dance in one cylinder, taking out the piston and both exhaust valves. The good news is the shop was able to lift the cylinder head off the engine while the block stayed in the car, pull the oil pan and fit a new piston with new rings and two new exhaust valves into the head. The valves on the other three cylinders of that head were also lapped in. The bad news is that the cause of the misfire had to be found..." I wonder if something like this happened to this particular engine?... Are there any chunks of the pre-cats missing from the headers? The OP did mention the car had a lack of power before it too, stopped running.
The other lesson is that if you have a sudden loss of power you should switch the engine off immediately and call for a flatbed. Even 30 seconds more of running could cost you $10K. This is pretty much true for any car, but especially so for a Ferrari.
