Oil question 2003 360

The oil expands a lot when it gets heated. You must check only when it’s up to operating temperature, and when running. Some oils foam more than others. As to whether foam is good or bad, my personal view is it’s not good. On wet sump engines, great pains are taken to baffle the oil pan and keep the oil from reaching the crank where the agitation of the crank would foam the oil. Why? Air in the oil is less effective at keeping a film of oil on your bearings. I can’t see why that principle would be different on a dry sump engine as found in a 360.


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Did you measure the quantity of oil taken out prior to refilling with fresh oil? It is always good practice to measure the fluids drained, confirm this quantity with the specification called for in the WSM or owners manual and refill to the 90% of the specification. Start engine and let oil heat up.
Check oil at operating temperature and fill to midrange between min and max.

 

Still think you should suck out oil until you can get a proper oil level reading at idle before doing anything else. This has happened to many people and removing some of the oil usually takes care of the problem.

 

Thanks everyone.
The car is with a specialist at present and the oil level was on min with the engine warmed up and just after (<20secs) being turned off, with dipstick resting on, not screwed in.

8.5 litres out 8.5 litres in apparently. Still the oil eventually bubbles up and over.

I'll let you all know if / when I get to the bottom of it!

 

An oil change with filter, the car should take 9.5 liters of oil. Maybe a little less, or a little more depending on how long it' allowed to drain.

When the oil is drained..the car should be warm. Drain the tank first..then the sump. Be sure to loosen the oil filter before draining.

Once drained, and a new filter is installed, fill the car with 8 liters of oil. Let the car run until the cooling fans cycle. Shut if off. Check the stick. The level should be just at the bottom of the stick. Start and let run for another cooling fan cycle. Shut down and Re-check..level should be slightly higher.

If the level does not change..drive the car around the block and re-check. Add accordingly until the level is mid way between min and max on the stick.

 

I did my annual service yesterday. (430) I know my car takes 10 litres of engine oil to hit the full mark at hot idle. I put 9 litres in and started her up and got instant normal oil pressure and left idling for a few minutes and checked oil and it wasn't even showing on dipstick. Added 1/2 litre and drove 20mins till full temps reached. Oil was now at low mark. I topped up till 1/2 way between low and full, done.
I have noticed I get less foaming if I set the level under full, halfway between low and full seems to be the sweet spot.

 

Pretty sure you check the level at hot idle with the engine running. Not "shut off".

 

Very well...

 

I imagine the oil level would drop instantly once the oil pump stops.

 

Yes, you MUST check while running the engine at idle. HTH

 

Absolutely, the motor oil is no way a Heat Exchanger (Problem One). The frothy oil condition is between transmission Gear Oil. I would check the coolant for oil. Then check the coolant for combustion gas. Its a simple test.



Worst case "Are you sitting down?", it could be a head gasket.

 

HOORRRAAYYY!
Its fixed! It turns out that it was a small "O" ring at bottom of the disareator (part number 176388) - see 27 on the attached photo.

£3 from Ferrari. £1 from eurospares!

Thanks for all your replies.

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That is great .. would never have guess that in a million years

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Now you did it. Everyone is now trying out how to check that Oring!

 

Haha! And way to go, I would have never thought of that either. But it makes perfect sense. I had overfilled mine last year on my first diy attempt. Smoked a bit at startup. Got it down some with a turkey baster then FoNE zeroed it in when I had my alternator replaced later in the summer. They also changed the filter and put in a new sender (oops). But they also installed new cam cap gaskets because the drivers side set was leaking. I tightened the rear one that I could see dripping a bit on the under panel and super glad I got those done. They were perished and the disareator o ring must have been too.

 

IIRC mine takes around 9.5 quarts ish or so....

 

My 2003 360 Modena is now doing the same thing, i.e. the oil disaerator level rises to the top and is frothy when engine is hot, never used to do that, just curious as to how does the defective o-ring of the disaerator cause the oil level to rise in the tank? Thinking I need to change my o-ring also...

 

Well this is a timely thread.....just this morning I got my year 2000 Modena 360 back for the indie shop.
It had an oil change with the Shell Ferrari approved oil, and boy is that stuff thin and foams a lot. I used Mobil 1 Euro before this in the car and I do not recal it being that thin, in particular when so fresh....also the Mobil 1 did not foam much if any.

While it is hot here right now, and I checked it correctly, hot, running, after letting everything settle for 2-3 minutes, just surprised it is so thin it barely stays on the stick. And foams like crazy. I brought the shop my own oil/parts and they are very reputable, so pretty sure they used the Shell with the horsey on it......
Based on this unscientific and neophyte observation, do not think I will use Shell again...

 

Same conclusion we reached on mine. Switched to Valvoline full synthetic 5W-40 and have been using it for 9 years or so with no problems.

 

Hey Guys, sorry to revive an old thread.

We have a 04 model 360 Modena with 10500kms on it from new.

Last year i did an oil change, filter, coolant dump - flush twice and refil, Air filters, spark plugs, transaxle oil etc etc etc full service.

I used Motul 300V chrono 10w40

the car was driven once and it ran perfectly.

12 months later we started it and it drove it last night and i did a simple oil check. its foaming badly right up to the neck of the cap....

We are going to start with a basic oil and filter change first. if it still foams, we have to look down another avenue. maybe an Air leak somewhere?

any more light on this topic???

thanks

 

May be overfilled.


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Maybe check that "O" ring at the bottom of the disareator they talked about earlier in the thread.

 

Agree completely. Same thing has happened to me including smoking at hot start up after oil change. Ferrari mechanic recommended Motul because it does not seem to foam as much but it still does and looks just like the OPs photos. Removing a little oil at a time to get the level right makes sense. Sometimes "normal" is best not seen?