1998 550 Maranello "sorting" thread--DIY

The final four bushings finally arrived the other day and I was able to reassemble the Maranello fully. I've now had several hours of seat time and can render the following opinions:

When driven now, the car feels significantly different than it did. First, my ride height has gone up about an inch. The car looks better in my opinion. Secondly, the clunking noises from the front end are totally gone. I'm not sure I was every truly able to narrow down what the noises were, but my guess is the front tie rods, which had ruptured rubber covers. They were bone dry and a little rusty.
It was not until I installed the control arms with new bushings that I realized how bad my old bushings were, particularly in the front. When tensioned down with new bushings the control arms remain relatively stiff. You should not be able to freely raise and lower them. The fact that my old ones were able to be easily raised and lowered in the front implies that the bonding had broken on the old bushings.

Sport suspension mode is now tolerable. I used to always ride the car in comfort setting before because it seemed just firm enough. Now, comfort setting is almost a little too springy and cushy, while sport mode is precise but not harsh.

Services are done for another year. I'm happy. Certainly less money than last year

 

Pete,

I think some of the "clunking" might have been attributable to your old shock mounts. You have a direct metal to metal contact from the suspension to the chassis with stock mounts. With the modified mounts that direct contact is dampened in the shock mount. The lower shock bushings you put in may also have helped. I like that idea and wish I had known about when I did mine. I'm somewhat surprised that Superformance bushing won't fit the fronts as well, I thought they were the same size but something is different. Did you happen to measure the front and rear lower ball joint OD?

 

Dave, Bilstein included new bushings on all of my shocks as part of their rebuild. Total cost for the rebuild was $100-$110 per shock, and for an extra $100 total, I think they'll provide a 3-4 day turnaround. Very handy when the car is taking up time & space on someone's lift.

 

John,
Did you happen to note whither they put rubber bushings in or the $600+ ball joints Ferrari puts in the front shocks? (same in rear but much less expensive)

 

Dave, I think they must have been the ball joints, because I recall one being maybe 30 degrees out of alignment with the shock body and I just inserted a Phillips screwdriver and turned it back into position. Had they been simple bushings, I don't believe it could have gone out of alignment and stayed there.

 

Dave,
The front lower shock mount ball joint is different than the rear. They both have ball joints, but the rubber gaskets are removable on the fronts and it is evident once they are removed that the ball joints are held in by Seeger rings on each side. The factory rear lower shock mount is a one piece press-in unit as pictured in the thread.

I do appreciate your point about the chassis shock mounts, which is why I had you rebuild mine, but my question to you is that theoretically metal to metal contact with no freeplay in the connection shouldn't clunk; the ride will be harsher but unless there was freeplay in my old metal shock mounts I don't know how that could account for the noises I was hearing prior to undertaking this work. Did you see anything unusual in the mounts when you rebuilt mine?

Nevertheless, the car is now perfect. Love it. Thanks for your work!

Regards,
Pete

 

Pete,

If you read my original thread you will see I had a severe clunking in the rear. I replaced the mounts with brand new mounts and although lessened the clunking was still there. It was then and after a lot of discussion with Dave Helms that I decided to try isolating the shock from the chassis with Bilstein rubber buffers.

I take your point about metal to metal with no free play not transmitting clunking, there is free play but its very slight, The ball in its race is very tight and that's the problem. A direct metal to metal contact transmits every road irregularity directly to the chassis. Just what you need in a race car and just what you don't want in a GT car. When the ball race is slightly worn its even worse.

I think its relevant that in every other case where only the mounts were changed the clunking has disappeared.

 

That's a strong statement! Makes me feel better, too

 

Hello moorfan

Could you say to yourself the mark(brand) of your hydraulic ramp 4 columns.

Columns are of small height and it is what I look for.

Thanks to you.

I am French and live in Normandy in France

 

Hello Stef

This is a "direct lift" 4 post lift.

Four Post Lift - Pro Park 8S (Standard)

Regards,
Pete

 

i love this thread. thank you so much for posting all this detail. this has been a hell of a good introduction to the 550 for a guy like myself that is a diy'er.

 

Thank you!
I am getting ready to revive this thread as I am going to be starting a new major service in a month or so. Waiting on one part to become available again.
Regards,
Pete

 

Pete- Now that the cams are degreed, will you be doing a lock and swap, or do you have leakage from the cam covers or cam seals?

 

Hi Terry,
No leakage from those areas, but I do have leakage from the front timing cover. So therefore I'm going to take apart the whole thing again, once Paul Hill's 17087 bearing is available. This time I have better tools and hopefully will be able to be even MORE precise with degreeing. I don't think my compulsive nature would allow me to lock and swap anyway.

I may want to install a set of Fabio's headers too...just saying!

 

Pete- Yup, Fabio's headers sound awesome. My next one will be a lock and swap, but the scribed marks on the aft of the cams on 575s and 612s have proven very accurate. Mine were spot on. Not until 2019, though.

 

Thank you moorfan for direct lift

Magnifique ta 550 !

 

Hello everyone,
It has been a couple of years since I updated my thread, and its time for more work. At least in my mind it is time.

My car currently has 20920 miles on it. It is about 4 years since the last major that I did on it. It has only acquired about 4500 miles since then I guess. Oh well.

The car has demonstrated no mechanical issues of significance since that last major. There have been no check engine lights, and the only thing bothering me about the last major is the fact that the front timing cover is dripping oil. That REALLY bothers me

After I put it on the lift, I took the following video of it running.

http://youtu.be/eR9GE_iUem8

 

I need to accomplish the following work for this service:

Remove hood and replace underhood insulation
Repaint various grilles and vents
Major service (which to me will be the "full deal")
Inspection of all vital components and followup of service from last time. What worked, what didn't.
Probably a number of other things that I wasn't expecting.

Lets begin with removing the hood....
Last time I did this work I did NOT remove the hood. What a mistake. It is so much easier to see everything under the hood when the darn thing isn't there. You can see bits of the old blanket that fell off during the removal. Removal is a two person job, and just requires removing the four (13mm I think) bolts holding the hood to the hinges. BE CAREFUL! (Photo1)

I placed the hood upside down on a soft bed with a good quality quilt to prevent marring. The damage done to the blanket by the intake plenum is obvious, and the mat is actually dissolving (Photo2)

The hood is held on by plastic snap rivets, which should be removed using a pry tool. They are on there tight! (Photo3)

Once the blanket is off you can see the hood, with the factory's method of anchoring the center part of the blanket to the hood which is essentially a thin piece of foam with adhesive on both faces. No wonder it fails. Also note here that inbetween the two air intake stacks are the two 8mm nuts that hold the hood scoop intake grille in place. I removed this for refinishing. (Photo4)
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The black trim at the top of the hood (where the washer jets are located) on my car had a scratch in it, so I removed it for refinishing.
This trim piece is plastic, so should NOT be stripped using a chemical stripper. Instead, I sanded it down by hand. This takes a while because of the full skim coat of body filler that is under the paint/primer that was there.

Once it was sanded completely to plastic, I began by spraying a guide coat to identify areas where there were small pits in the plastic. These areas were filled with 3M putty and sanded flush (Photo1).

Next step primer (Photo2)
Third step primer sealer (Photo3)
Fourth step top coat with SEM Trim Black paint (Photo4).

Once this piece was painted and cured fully, it was coated with two layers of Optimum Gloss Coat for protection and set aside to cure for the month.
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I now turned my attention back to the hood.

Here is a closeup of the foam pad, to which the blanket was formerly adhesed. I doubt it stayed in place very long (Photo1).

The foam pad adhesive was pretty well dry-rotted, so I peeled up what I could by hand. (Photo2).

Once the foam pad was removed, there was a significant amount of gummy adhesive stuck to the hood metal. This was painstakingly soaked with Goo-Gone gel and scraped until the metal was completely clean (Photo3).
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Once it was stripped and refinished, the intake grille was reinstalled. This step must be done before you reglue the new blanket (Photo 1). There is a gasket between the grille and the lip of the hood that is very difficult to get to stay in place

I had to make a decision as to whether or not to use the original way that Ferrari did in regluing the hood blanket. Being that their first attempt went poorly, I decided to NOT use the foam pad method again; instead I would glue the blanket directly to the hood in three places with high temperature spray adhesive. (Photo2)
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The replacement OEM blanket has indentations in it where the intake plenum rises up, and the plan was to glue these indentations directly to the metal. This raises the blanket up by about 3mm (the thickness of the old foam pad) and may prevent witness marks from the plenum. Time will tell.

First step was to apply a HEAVY coat of adhesive to the hood center well, and let it tack for 1 minute (Photo1).

Secondly, apply a heavy layer to the hood blanket, also allowing for the same tack time (Photo2).

Thirdly, place the blanket down on the hood, keeping in mind that you have a maximum of 8 minutes to maneuver the fit. There are holes to line up for the snaps that hold the blanket to the hood struts, and you want to try to get those as close as possible. I used "custom weights" to press the blanket to the hood during the cure time of the adhesive (Photo 3).

I also glued the indentations on each side of the central indentation, figuring it would make it a little less likely to fail over the long term. More custom weights. Who said textbooks aren't useful? (Photo 4).
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Good to see you starting again Pete; it should be a great read, just like last time! Good luck and best wishes for the results. Let me know a week or so before you need the cam holding clamps.

 

I have my hood off for similar work, and I will be doing the belts as well. You didn't mention the small metal nubs. How did you work around the little metal retaining nubs that also help retain the pad? It would seem more difficult dealing with these during the installation of the new pad...True?

 

Honestly, I don't know what metal "nubs" you are speaking of Can you advise?