How to drain oil

Hi Howard,

Drain when warm. 22mm plug on the bottom of the oil tank and a 12mm hex plug on the front of the oil pan, IIRC.

Others have recommended to loosen the oil lines at the bottom of the tank because additional oil pools up at that low spot.
Drain oil from hoses and re-tighten.

Make sure you have a big drain pan, there's a lot of oil in there!

 

Ideally it should be warm. There are two drain plugs, one in the bottom of the oil tank (#32 in the upper diagram) and one on the engine sump (#15 in the lower diagram). Be sure to remove the correct plug in the sump, it is the one in the front of the engine that accepts a 12mm Allen wrench. Both plugs use copper washers that should be replaced. You can drain the oil cooler and lines if you wish but it will require big wrenches and a big mess. Probably not worth your trouble.
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how often should the oil cooler be completely flushed out ?

 

It gets "flushed" every time you start the engine. There is no procedure for actually cleaning it. Draining it and the lines will maximize the efficiency of your oil change but it only contains about 5% of the oil. Unless there was a catastrophic engine failure (lots of metal particles) or massive oil contamination with fuel or coolant, it doesn't really make much difference.

 

Glad someone asked the question, as I probably need to change my oil. What is the recommended oil to use and where is a good place to get an oil filter? Thanks for any help, and sorry if this is hijacking a thread.

 

http://www.ricambiamerica.com/product_info.php?products_id=256247

On the 348, the original recommendation is 10w40. I ran Mobil1 in my 348 for many years with no problems.

 

Thanks, I will be calling you in the next couple of days. It was interesting, I was going through all the receipts (from the previous owners). On two of the receipts, it stated 10 quarts of oil. On the major it stated 11 quarts??

It was also interesting to see the alternator was replaced three times (twice from the same dealership) by three different owners. I was one of the owners who had to replace the alternator and found out the ground strap was never put on by the dealership. Also the CAT ECUs were replaced twice (one time both were replaced, the second time just one). When I got the ECU CEL I took out the CATS-problem solved.

Ricambi- the flapper control brass part works great - thanks.

 

On the major service, the main fatty oil lines from the tank to the engine were probably disconnected -- yielding a greater dump of oil. Those lines hold as much as the Alaskan pipeline!

During the regular oil changes, the lines were probably left intact and oil simply drained from the sump drain plug and the tank drain plugs.

.

 

Recommended oil is an entire thread (or ten) all by itself. Let's just say that Ferrari recommends Shell or Pennzoil synthetic Ultra 5w-40. Neither of these are easily found anywhere outside the dealer network, and sold for ungodly sums...like $18 to $19 per quart. So for that reason, many will use another, high quality synthetic oil of similar viscosity, such as Mobil 1 0w-40, or Valvoline synthetic 5w-40, or something from Redline, Amsoil or Royal Purple.

 

Daniel's kit for the 348/355 is the best deal around, as it includes not only the copper crush washers, but brand new plugs for the oil sump and remote reservoir. It is well worth replacing these plugs occasionally, as I find that the threads can get messed up from being over tightened in the past. Happens with every car I own that the threads get stretched from some gorilla tech, at some point in it's life... Having fresh replacements is always handy.

 

Can somebody tell me how to refill the oil (I know this sounds like a stupid question, but on Youtube, somebody stated put 4 quarts in the resevoir start the car for 30 seconds then put the rest). Seemed like a dangerous way to put the oil back in?????

 

1) Drain as much as you can get out of the car without having to turn the car upside down and shake.

2) Look at your catch basin. You probably got about 8.5-9.x liters out.

3) Button everything up. Add 8 quarts (7.5 liters). Let everything sit still for a few minutes.

4) Ensure the dipstick doesn't read "full" or something crazy like that. It will likely barely register -- or maybe just at the bottom.

5) Start engine, confirm oil pressure comes up.

6) Let it run for a minute or two. Check dipstick. Don't freak out and pour a whole additional bottle into the tank. Add another 0.5 quart only. See how it goes. Rinse, repeat.

That's how I used to do mine. Maybe not the most professional way... but it worked for me.

 

p.s. I drained my oil into a 5 gallon Home Depot paint can. 5 gallons = 18.9 liters. I scribed the bucket at the half-way point, so I could roughly measure how much drained out.


p.p.s. be sure to drain your engine oil, not your gearbox.

Oilio Motore =
Oilio Cambio =