New F355 owner

After dreaming of owning a Ferrari for years, my dream has come true. I am the new owner of a 1995 F355 Berlinetta. The car is now parked in my garage. I am currently out of town and will not even be able to see the car for another week!

I bought the car exactly how everyone says not to buy a car. I bought it sight unseen. No PPI. I did not fly out to see the car. I sent the money and had the car shipped on an enclosed trailer to my house. I had a friend look the car over after it arrived at my house and it is as presented by the seller, almost perfect, except for the engine.

I knew the engines condition before purchasing the car. I bought the car with eyes wide open about what I could be getting into. The price of the car reflected the engines condition.

The engine has a cracked exhaust manifold (how unusual) and low compression on that bank of cylinders. Obviously the car will need the cylinder heads rebuilt and some aftermarket headers. My thought was, since the 355 suffers from this problem so often I could be the one to sort this car. If the rest of the car were not so nice I would not have considered it. The roll of the dice is if there is any cylinder wall damage. Even if I have to rebuild the shortblock I will still be in good shape regarding how much I have in the car.

I do my own wrenching. I have worked on cars my whole life and have built many engines, just not a Ferrari engine. Most of my experience is with the Ford DOHC 4.6L. I do have several questions that I hope can get answered here. I will document the removal of the engine as well as tear down when I actually get the chance to work on it. I am really looking forward to it!

Just wanted to introduce myself and share my excitement!

 

Congrats! A bit of a gamble but I saw the ad for that car and would have tried to buy it if you didn't get to it first.

PM me if it becomes too much work for you

 

Good luck on your car and welcome! It will be great for you to keep us up to date with pics. Here is to hoping your cylinder is alright. I bought my 348 before I found F-Chat. So I also did many things that you are not supposed to do when buying a Ferrari. I bought the first 348 that I looked at and bought it on the first trip to see it. No PPI. But I did spend a couple of hours crawling all over the car myself. They were waiting to sell the car to do the major on it. So at least I got it with a fresh major service. Thankfully, everything worked out well for me. I probably paid a little more than I should have but all in all it worked out. So sometimes, even when you do it the wrong way, it can come out right for you. I also do all the work on my car as well (as you will also find for many 348/355 owners on here). So you will find a wealth of service and repair info here. Again, good luck!

 

Congrats and welcome.

 

Well done! It's great that you can do your own work. I do the same and started many years ago with a V-12 Ferrari 330 GT 2+2. Taught myself and then went on to own 7 of these wonderful machines. I currently have a 1997 355 Berlinetta. I have worked on it nearly 220 hours over the winter and it is going to be beautiful.

Good luck and feel free anything to write more on your car...there are some seasoned experts out there on the CHAT!

Tim

 

Congratulations, please post some pics when you can !

 

I finally got back into town and got my first look at my new F355. The car is gorgeous! Paint is flawless as is the interior. Sticky problem has already been fixed. Came with all the books, tools and keys. This car was obviously taken care of, as is shown by the service records.

That's where the fun stops. I was told the car actually sounded fine but was a little down on power. Not quite. It sounds like it is running on 6 cylinders. I am hardly surprised nor am I even disappointed. The engine was coming out anyways, this just means it will probably need pistons and a couple liners.

Too bad the next 2 months for me are so tied up I won't be able to start work on it until after that. Oh well, Ive waited a long time to own and drive a Ferrari, a few more months won't kill me. Well maybe a little.

I do have a question. Has anybody sourced valve guides for these engines that are not the completely ridiculous price of 55.00 each. I will be replacing the valves with Manley's. Seems a little outrageous to be spending double the price on the guides when compared to the price of the valves. I understand it's a Ferrari but come on.

As soon as I get the car out of the garage I will post some pics.

 

Welcome! I look forward to hearing about your progress. Sounds like a cool project.

 

Congratulations on buying your dream.
It sounds like you knew what you were getting into.
Wait until you see some of the prices,,,,,
Shop around, Ricambi is excellent but also see the thread up at the top for cross refrencing
part numbers that will save you lots of money.
Please post pics from start to finish
Good Luck
Welcome to Fchat

 

Congrats, can't wait to see pics - good luck on the engine work.

Erik

 

What a great way to buy an older Ferrari. All the best.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. I will post plenty of pics from start to finish of the engine build. I can't wait to get started!

 

Congratulations, and welcome....looking forward to the pics.

 

Is this the car you bought/

http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp?tracktype=usedcc&csDlId=&csDgId=&listingId=63564739&listingRecNum=8&criteria=sf1Dir%3DASC%26mkId%3D20014%26stkTyp%3DU%26rd%3D100000%26crSrtFlds%3DstkTypId-feedSegId-mkId%26zc%3D49503%26rn%3D0%26PMmt%3D1-0-0%26stkTypId%3D28881%26sf2Dir%3DASC%26sf1Nm%3Dprice%26sf2Nm%3Dmiles%26alMkId%3D20014%26rpp%3D50%26feedSegId%3D28705&aff=gogsema

Been looking at if to a day or 2 diciding if it is worth it

 

Nice! And bold! Looking forward to it. You know, you may have been really smart: the cosmetics are done, and when the engine is done, you will know it is done right.

 

Beautiful color combo. Good luck and welcome to fchat.

 

Good luck with it. I did the same thing and rolled the dice. I cant say it paid off, but it was fun rebuilding it. I know a good place to get parts *wink*

 

Dookie- Try these guys for valve guides and seats. I see you already figured out Manley valves are a much better deal than OEM valves. The 456s have the same problem with valve guides.

CHE Precision Inc
2640 Lauery Ct, Suite C
Newbury Park, CA 99320
(805) 499-8885
http://www.cheprecision.com
Valve Guides, Seats

If you would rather send out the heads to a good machine shop, these guys come very highly recommended.

Lesco Automotive Machine
3000 McMillan Ave.
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
(805) 596-0400
Fax (805) 596-0205
http://www.4-lesco.com/
E-Mail: [email protected]
Machine Shop, Race Engines

S&R Exotic Motorworks
853 State Road 101 South
Liberty, Indiana 47353
765.458.5900
765.277.2848 cell
http://www.srexotics.com/
[email protected]
Engine Rebuilding, Machine Shop



Taz
Terry Phillips

 

S&R just did my heads, great work and very timely. Gary is GREAT!!

 

Thanks for the contacts everybody. Itching to get to work on my car just way too busy for the foreseeable future.
The car you provided the link to is indeed the car I picked up. The car is as shown in the pics.
Thanks again for all the info guys.