355 Major + valve guides

Glad you got it worked out! I took my F355 to Michael in 2018 for service when his shop was off of Newport Blvd. and he seemed like a stand up guy. It's so weird that he disappeared like that. Did this all happen within the last year?

 

This is very interesting as you have a '98. You are saying that you had steel guides in originally? This just goes to show you that it matters how they were installed and not the material. I am glad you got your car back but I am sad to hear about the ordeal you had to go through to get it.

 

Sharing a space is illegal in California. The Bureau of Automotive Repair will not issue licenses to two repair businesses operating at the same address. It is the equivalent of being an unlicensed contractor. No license, no insurance.

 

I didn’t catch where he said his car is a 98. Didn’t early 98’s not yet have steel guides or was that 97?

I’ve never heard of Ferrari Service of Costa Mesa. Glad I didn’t. My first impression is was an authorized Ferrari Service right behind EuroCar, where my Scud was serviced most of it’s life prior to my ownership. I guess this is a different place.


Can you give us more details of the valve issues? OE steel guides don’t have a “flange” and some have argued that can lead to movement from desired placement overtime.

I have steel guides in my rosso 355 put in by previous owner. Car drives strong, but I’m not completely sold on the OE steel guides in the long run because of lack of flange.

What did you put in this time? Did you see the old guides in person and verified they are indeed steel?

 

It's an F1 so a late 97 build like mine was built after the switch to steel guides. Ferrari claimed they switched anyway.

 

I had a 99 Fiorano edition that still had the bronze valve guides.

 

I met that michael guy once and didn't get a good vibe.

ps: how could a 98-99 have the old valve guides weren't those all updated? now you got me wondering

 

could it be why Steve arena stepped up to fix this car because his name in on the building and on the license? Maybe the guy working as FSCM is not licensed? But that guy has been around a long time.

 

Not all of them were switched. The shop that did my motor had done two 99's prior to mine.

 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Automotive-Repair-Shop/Ferrari-Service-of-Costa-Mesa-119758932237/

5 second search shows his FB. I guess it’s pretty clear he wasn’t hiding. Leaves a phone number to be reached, states he will be a Service Writer at another shop, and doing Dutch/Indonesian food recipes (kind of weird ).

Anyway, I have no affiliation but seems like more to the story as Steve must have known the guy was leaving.

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login And he was licensed. He let his license expire 12/31/21 so all the dates do line up as to his posts when he was retiring. No great mystery and glad it all worked out.

 

I am in no way taking sides as I have no clue who this Michael or Steve guys are.

Question though: if you paid an EXTRA $6,000 as stated above, how is Steve the one that is out all of this money ?

Sorry if this comes across as inflammatory, it’s not, but I am sincerely trying to follow the story.

 

It almost appears as Steve knew Michael was leaving, willing took on all Michael’s uncompleted jobs, charged the customer the difference, and used Michael as a scape goat.

As you stated above, since you paid an extra $6k the only people short changed on the deal are you and all 12 clients with unfinished work. I am betting they had to pay additional to finish their cars too.

 

Is it possible that Steve was in the process of taking over Michaels business and he just walked away at the end of his license period???

It sucks having to put out another 6k on top but at lease the car came out good will you be going back to him for services


Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat.com mobile app

 

Agreed. Without all the specific numbers from the OP, it looks like:
1) Customer paid $24k all in for an engine out service and valve guides. I have seen worse.
2) The machine shop got their $6k
3) Steve got either $6k or $12k to put the heads back on ( well plus all the laborious work of degreeing the cams, etc., etc….).

That’s still not a bad pay day for Steve, and I wouldn’t call him the hero in all of this.

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login The Facebook page said the guy had a stroke.

 

I just read your post above. The small text.
Michael had a stroke. Oh man and the bashing had already started.

 

No horse in this race but you might notice that the Facebook post about having a stroke is from Jan, 2021, a year ago, so the guy had a stroke some time in 2020 apparently. How relevant to the OP's problem?

 

Wow how things unfold and Steve did good but he did have to take on a car in pieces which is no fun (been there) and did the job the right way so he should be payed right and now you have a guy close who knows what work went into the car and is a perfectionist which is always good but costly

Drive it and enjoy —- because here in New York City winter is in full swing and it’s going to be a few months before I’m even thinking of taking the cover off the car and blow the cobweb’s out


Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat.com mobile app

 

I looked in his profile where he said he has a '98. He did say in the original post that he had steel guides.

As for me it is my understanding that it isn't the material that causes the issue of the valve guides but that they were installed incorrectly at the factory which caused premature wear. If that is the case I would prefer the bronze guides but installed correctly.

 

In the same token, he did get 67k mi out of it. I suspect the guides were put in as correctly as humanly possible, but still eventually “walked.”

We need more info from the OP

 

Glad this story has a happy ending and the car is back and well.

Do you happen to have any pictures of the worn steel guides?

 

So it’s the late 98’ + 99 that came w the updated guides from what I understand- early 98’ built in 97’ still had the steel ones..correct?