An infected subject: anyone swapped their 355 engine to a more reliable?

Bit of history: The 348 was lauded as a great car when it came out. Then the NSX came out and blew Ferrari away. So, in a large sense, the F355 was Ferrari's answer to the NSX; and in other terms, it addresses most of the faults of the 348 {and a few faults the 348 did NOT have-power steering and all.}

So from that vantage point and with the 348 at 90 HP/L (early) and 95 HP/L (SS), Ferrari needed a bigger animal to throw in the ring. One of the regulars (enginefixer?) here has stated that the F355 motor was designed for 10K RPMs and detuned to 8500RPMs due to the belts.

The F355 was also Montezumolo's first car, so he wanted it to be a smashing hit, and to do this, Ferrari needed to put the F355 motor (i.e. performance) so far infront of the NSX that Honda had no means to match the step Ferrari put on them.

By sales of vehicles, it was a great success for Ferrari.
By the way it put the NSX back in its place, it was a great success.
By reliability, not so much (valve guides and headers, mostly).
But still a great running F355 is a marveloous machine to be piloting.
Many still think of it as the prettiest car Ferrari produced in the last two decades.

 

Swapping out a 355 engine for anything other than a Ferrari engine would make the car no longer a Ferrari. Its not about reliability, cost or power...never has been. You want that, buy a corvette. My .02

--Mike

 

Wow! Well, to each his own I'll certainly grant. But to me, the ENGINE is
what makes it a Ferrari. A Chevy engine in a 355 would feel "kit car" to me.

It will interesting to follow this one...

Jedi

 

Well my 355 has done over 100k miles without major problems. Its a 96 and has only had the headers replaced at 60k. It runs like a dream.
But there was a guy on here who put in another smaller turbo engine into his red 355. It looked realy small and odd in the bay but kicked out huge power.
IMO putting in another non ferrari engine into a 355, is missing the point of a 355. There will be no distinktive 355 sound and traits, also the handeling ballance may be thrown out of whack.

 

Swapping the engine is heresy!!

I cannot imagine an F355 without that hellish shreek at 8000rpm. Pure heaven!

 

If realiability is such a concern why not drop in a newer motor(360, 430)? Far more expensive but a ferrari modded with ferrari parts is still unquestionably a ferrari. And more reliable

 

i cant believe this subject is being taken seriously.

 

An interesting thought, but personally I think it would lose it's soul and much of the 355s personality, the 355 arouses ALL your senses, swapping the engine out would reduce this immensely.

 

Didn't Enzo say that when you buy a Ferrari, you're paying for the engine, the rest of the car is free?

 

To me, its the same as putting a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeallllly nice body and interior kit on a fiero if it doesn't have the ferrari engine. Plus, what are you going to get to replicate that sound.

But here is an idea, leave the engine in and put a fiero body kit on it and make it a backwards kit car.

 

Not that had not thought about putting a build 1000hp motor in as well but think about it the ferrari's motor is just a motor and it has some really nice parts ie rods/pistons and many other parts us racers used to make our stock cars into race cars. The F355 is built like a race car in every way. my car (97 F355 spider) has 29k and uses zero oil between changes and does not smoke. The valves are stock and so are the headers. the only thing i would change is the timing belts to timing chains. someone could make a lot of money with this mod. id rather swap out all the electric stuff to manual. seats/windows/stupid top moving like a foot with 100 parts to make it work. hehe swap that stuff first.

 

Without the engine I would have no desire to own the car. Even installing a 360/430/458 engine would make the car lose some of it's soul (sound) even if it was much faster.

 

Please do this, I could use a good laugh.

 

blasphemy!!!!!

 

Just stick prancing horses on your Chevy pick up truck, problem solved!

Pete

 

Sacrilege, pure and simple.

 

There is a guy somewhere in the east coast that has swapped the 355 with a 350 engine. He recently sold his bent valve engine out of the 355 on ebay. So, its doable and it has been done. I would not do it myself. What I am working on is the opposite. I am swapping my Alfa Romeo engine with a 355 one.
The Big Question. Yes it is a 2.5 front engine that is going to be a 355 mid engine when done.

 

Whoa! With the strong response to the OP's question it may not be a good idea to for someone to show off such a conversion on f-chat. Lord help them if they needed to sell.

Personally I find prospect of an LS7 powered 355 very appealing. All that power, combined with reliability and good fuel economy.

Anders, do you have any idea what transaxle would be suitable?

 

ya think?

 

How dare you compare an Alfa Romeo engine to a Chevy.

That Alfa Romeo engine you are removing has been voted the best Italian engine period, by some Italian magazine which I now cannot back up via a reference ... wonderful engine.
Pete

 

Wrong.

I've often thought about what a marvelous machine a well set-up 308 with a 360 engine would be...but even that strikes me as somewhat wrong.

 

GTV6 Alfas are my favorite. Had two of them before and this is my third one. I have been involved with the 355 for the last four years as far as buying fixing and selling. I happen to have some spares that I can make something out of. Recently acquired a non repairable 355 that belonged to a legendary guitar player. Since its non repairable, thought I will use the rear end, rebuild the engine with only 4k miles on it but with fire damage with all necessary electronics to fit it in an Alfa.

The Alfa I have has a bad motor, otherwise I would not have touched it and its gold in color. So, this will be my project car. Will save on the insurance and registration at least each year. I am driving one of my favorite Alfas but with the performance of a Ferrari.

Will have to agree with past, present and future comments that will come. Legendary 80s design, 90s performance and so on. Will post pics when there is enough progress. As of now I got the 355 chopped, the GTV chopped and am in the process of fitting the 355 into the GTV6
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Cool project, but come on you just cant say the "legendary guitar player" and not say who

 

You would use a porsche transaxle behind an LS7 but I seriously think it would ruin the car.

Yes it would be fast but to remove the flat crank high rpm goodness would take away 80% of the fun for me.

You want a mid engine LS7 car a Factory Five GTM is a better way to go IMO, but really I would just get a C6Z.