Pics of my cracked headers

Lets just put it this way......exercising the 355 engine is better for it than Sunday driving it.....seen it so many times when the engine is opened and knowing the type of driver. Sure there will be more wear on all the friction points but they are not to worry as they are not a problem area in the 355. The 355 engine was designed to go 10,000 rpm. The biggest thing in these cars as in all cars is changing the oil often and using quality oil not olive oil LOL.

 

I was using coconut for the pleasant fragrance.

Busy changing oil now catch you later.oops

 

I agree with this, emphasis on proper warmup.

For example. Unable to know how your car was treated by it's previous owner (unless you bought new) what would you prefer?

Car A- Owner believed in weekly cold starts even if not driven and brought up to full temp. Cold start and several 4-5k rpm revs to the delight of himself and/or friends. Highway passing involves heavy throttle at lower rpm in top gear rather than downshifts.

Car B- Strictly followed proper easy/low rpm warm up until oil was completely up to temp. Afterwords may get near redline high rpm shifts at wide open throttle. Highway passing involves skipping 2-3 gears and keeping the engine in the higher rpm range.


Personally, I would take "car B" but I truly believe there are way more "car A" type people out there.

 

Zach has ordered tubing with the correct cross sectional area to allow the shields to be reinstalled easier. Previously the tubing was slightly larger than stock making re-installation of the shields difficult. There will be insulation applied before the shields are reinstalled.These headers will be really nice, I will post pics when they are completed.
In the meantime my cylinder heads have been finished and the engine is about done, just waiting for completion of the headers. Check out how nasty the fuel pumps were!
My wife and I are going to fly down to So. California, enjoy a weekend, and drive the car back to Vegas.
I'm getting pretty excited!

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Mine were built with slightly larger tubing, which made it more difficult for the shields to be reattached. Going with the OEM size will make reusing the OEM shields a lot easier. I just sent Zack a set that he will be building for my Pantera. He does very nice work.

 

The original primary tube seems like an odd size.

I measured it at 1.55 OD and 1.452 ID (around 18ga).

So what to replace it with?

1.625 16ga is 1.495 ID (and pretty much exactly the same as the exhaust port on the head)

1.5 18ga is 1.402 ID, so slightly smaller than stock and the exhaust port area but would be easier to fit the heat shields.

 

Perhaps metric, Jim? (although those values don't convert to nominal metric numbers)

 

I thought the same on both. Possible that the size changed from original after all the heat cycles and corrosion? I'm not sure

 

Totally agree. Comming from high reving superbike racing and refreshing my race engines every year and others I found no problems with using engines within their designs and I treat my high reving ferrari the same way. The only ware I have seen in over a decade is a clutch which was worn when I purchased the car.
I expect poor maintenance, and low rpm continuous use to be far more detrimental. Poor maintenance includes things like not changing oil yearly even if miles are low, not changing coolant, gearbox oil, and probably the worst is overfilling oil because you do. Not understand the system to be even worse than low rpm driving.

 

Picture of my completed engine sitting inside Fast Cars shop in Redondo Beach CA. Only waiting on headers for engine install and testing. Won't be long now!
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Nice! Will the shop be doing a rear wheel alignment after everything is back in place?

 

Never thought to ask that question. I would assume so since it does not appear they skimp on anything. I will inquire though.

 

I never have done it since no obvious signs were there indicating it was required.

 

It was included in a very pricey engine-out service quote from my local Ferrari dealership. Made it sound like a rear alignment was a matter of course when the subframe comes out. Interestingly, this ties in with the angry discussion about cam timing necessity when swapping belts on the "I went in for a 5k major..." thread. If the rear alignment was good before dropping the subframe, shouldn't it remain good when everything is bolted back?

 

The sub frame of a 355 is a pretty tight fit. Could it affect alignment? Perhaps but I think that would be splitting hairs.

 

Tape32, what did you do with the fuel pumps...?

 

Fast cars rebuilt the pumps and reinstalled.

 

ah ok thanks..

as you pointed out they looked in pretty bad shape, but was your car running ok prior to engine out and fuel pump rebuild?

 

No, the car was running pretty bad, I bought the car in that condition. Sounded like it was running on 6 cylinders. Turns out the reason it was running so bad was due to a previous shops inability to properly route spark plug wires. The fuel pumps were just bad from sitting in bad gas. All along I had anticipated the car needing guides and possibly liners due to a poorly executed compression test also by the previous shop. Turns out the engine really wasn't that bad. I could have gotten away with running it as is for awhile but wanted it right. I had already purchased the sintered steel valve guides a while back and also had the gasket set. When the engine was out for it's major the decision was made to do the guides even though it didn't need them. Obviously with the heads removed it was also the best time to replace the scored liner and piston. You know, the old while your in there on steroids!
The car still needs sticky refinishing and few other cosmetic things but overall the car is nice. I'm just going to drive it for a while and enjoy it. Car will not be a garage queen.

 

Rear alignment isn’t required when you remove the subframe for the timing belts service .

 

Zac sent pics of my completed headers before shield install. The headers are manufactured from 321 stainless. The headers are the only thing that Fast Cars is waiting on for the completion of my car. Won't be long now.
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Looks good

 

Looks very nice.

 

Looks nice! Are they fitting stock shields or you going a different route?

 

Sweet