Anyone here have a mileage 355 with original valve guides?

30000 miles, not one single problem
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Mine is 95 with 105,000 km. all original except exhaust manifolds.



P.

 

WINNER!!!!!

 

Greg,

Glad to hear you're enjoying that Barchetta, I was very close to buying that F355 when I was ending my search.


Rob

 

'99F1 GTB, 50k+ miles, original guides of course...late '98's and '99's got the upgraded steel guides once the designers recognized there was a high rate of failure.

 

Early 98 (Sept 97 build plate). 24k on original guides but aftermarket cats/headers since about 15k miles. No problems yet!

 

Not to stir the pot but it's not a guarantee that your car isn't fitted with bronze guides. A Fiorano owner found bronze guides in his engine.

 

35,000 and no guides replaced yet.

 

I do not believe any of the F355s were fitted OEM with sintered steel valve guides OEM. None of the 456s and 456Ms were fitted with those guides when they were a known problem on the V12s. 456M production continued through 2004 alongside the 575M, which did receive the sintered steel guides. Who knows why the change was not made?

 

1995 355 Spider with 48k miles. Original valve guides.

 

I have 85k US miles (like British) on it but I don't know if the guides were done or not. No mention of it in the 40k worth of maint receipts from 39k to 75k miles when I bought it. Here's a picture maybe somebody can spot something ..
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

1999 Spider with 36,000 miles and original guides.

 

Jeff- The guides are buried underneath the cams, valve stems, and valve stem seals. Hard to see.

 

I love this thread!!!!!!

 

1996 F355 Spider bought with 19K miles. Compression leakdown in 7 cylinders was between 180-205/ 2-5%, 1 cylinder was much lower at 165 and 14%. Used this as a bargaining chip and sold her 3 years later with 32K miles. Never did the guides, never had an issue and car always ran and sounded awesome! Pic below of 160 mph and 180 mph ,on a tracK

Damn I miss that car!
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

You won't have an issue until a valve sticks and lunches your motor.

 

Just goes to show you, that these cars aren't as fragile and problematic as they are made out to be. Especially the early cars. I don't regret buying mine.

 

That can happen to any motor. Car runs like a top. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Maybe the original guides are not as bad as people thought?

 

This is a great thread. Similar to the valve guide problem, many Boxter owners have a hard time enjoying their cars because they can't get it out of their heads that the IMS bearing will fail and eat their motor at any moment.

I say: Do your maintenance, let your car warm up, drive the hell out of it, and fix it when it breaks.

 

How the heck were you taking pic of the instruments when going 180?

 

95 GTS, November 95 build, 16000 miles, original guides and headers plus Tubi exhaust and filters. Pulled an e92 m3. 95 355 ftw!!!

 

Yeah way way too much paranoia o this valve guide issue. I like some leakdown helps keep the top end lubricated with the crappy gas we have.

 

If you want to see what valve guides you have, then release the Wiggens clamps that hold the air box to the throttle bodies. Pop off the air boxes, and then open the throttles all the way. You can see the intake guides in the port.

 

Agreed. It's the main reason I started this thread....too much fchat paranoïa!

I keep waiting for my engine to explode since mine weren't changed and it hasn't happened yet...perhaps any day now I guess.

 

I would only worry if I was running poor blowing smoke, fouling plugs etc. Of course also if I was doing competitive racing. WTF these are what 30 year old clunkers were driving.


Image Unavailable, Please Login