Some cool facts about the 308 engine

TBH, some of them need scaring away from Ferrari ownership.

 

When you can write coherently I'll give trying to understand you another go.

 

Indeed some of that video is garbage. The very well thought of Ferrari Indie here in the UK that look after my GT4 (trained at Maranello Concessionaires and in business for 35 years and what they don't know about carbed cars isn't worth knowing) charge 940 USD for a belt change and basic service including oil change. 6K USD or whatever the video quoted is taking the piss, but then as others have stated if they don't know you do it engine in what do you expect? Certainly wouldn't take my car to a place with that lack of knowledge. 60 hours for an engine rebuild. That however is not unreasonable

 

"I have no idea how old this belt is" as he stares right at the date code.

 

What's crazy is that all the information is out there, easy to find. There is no excuse for claiming a timing belt is a $6000, engine out job.

 

Everyone is hoping for their 15min of fame, thousands of followers, or a flood of Ferrari owners knocking on their door. “Everyone” includes all intelligence and skill levels.

 

Excellent article and in the 10 years since it was written the situation has got worse rather than better. The two guys that own the indie I use are both nearing retirement. They have 2 excellent young mechanics who have amassed a wealth of knowledge but neither of whom probably have either a desire or knowledge to run a business. Mechanics with the knowledge are few and far between and accordingly come at a salary expectation beyond the means of a small shop. Youngsters don't want to invest in the time and low wage while they learn when they can pretty much step into a relatively well paid job at a mass market shop where all they have to learn is plug in and replace. Worrying times

 

100% agree with you: here in Italy a full belt service (with high quality metal cage bearings) is 650-700 euro including 22% Italian IVA tax!
Almost ten times less.

Almost all you read about Ferrari timing belts is a bulls@it written by idiots who are also ignorant

Ciao

 

The problem is even deeper than that. In my experience, a mass-market shop discourages mechanics from doing much more than diag + parts swap... and you're lucky if you actually get paid for the time you spent doing the diag.

I had a transmission with a bad syncro come it - my rec was to tear the trans down, and replace the damaged parts. I was immediately told, "No, replace the entire unit." Last year, I had an S2000 come in that needed a rebuild - and the customer was adamant the the work be done; he didn't want a used engine from a junkyard. I was more than happy to do it, but along the way there were moments that I couldn't determine the best next step to take in disassembly. I asked some of the master techs with 15-20 yrs experience in the brand, no one had any advice. Finally, one of them admitted "No one here has ever broken down an S2K engine. You're the first guy in the shop that's ever done this."

I've known a lot of younger people who actually *wanted* to be the kind of old-school mechanics we see disappearing, but most shops don't want that kind of guy. They want someone who will accept a $16 wage (less than a cashier at Target), and buy into the delusion of the flat rate system, free inspections, and complimentary car washes. There's a reason the automotive industry has thousands of empty bays, and no toolbox in them - and it's not because people don't want to work. It's because people don't want to work for them.

 

Cool, but irrelevant. Cost of living, poverty line etc .. wildly different between countries. Would not be surprised there's 4 fold delta between.

 

Techs vs mechanics.... Yup!

There's also the time factor. I know a guy that runs a very busy exotic shop, excellent mechanic and a tech wiz with the electronics. He doesn't work on old or classic exotics, oh he can but it's not worth the effort. The time it takes to redo the suspension on a gt4 or 308 he can get thru two or more McLarens, Lamborghinis, etc. Modern exotics are made cookie cutter assembly line and are nowhere near as labor intensive as the old stuff. Can't blame the guy. Mix in parts availability and handmade this and that .. very very few owners want that bill. New car owners spend tens of thousands on exhausts, suspensions etc, stuff that's easy peasy to do, vs 40yr old Ferraris that need many things that have been deferred.

 

What seems like good news from this post for all of us SODIUM valve owners is that one got hit during a belt failure and did not break, sounds pretty tough!

 

No, that's not. We have many excellent Ferrari vintage specialist here and they are not so expensive as the official Ferrrari service, that usually costs twice and often is not so accurate like the independent vintage specialist. I wrote Toni Auto shop - at Maranello - price for good customers like me. I'm in the mid of the Italian Motor Valley and so I'm lucky.

Ciao

 

Thats true. A good sodium valve can be bent over 90 degrees and not break. Problem is the one right next to it can break right off.
Nothing new there. We have known that since the 60's.

In the early 70's I was watching a VW mechanic I worked with taking apart some old air cooled heads. Every exhaust valve he hit on a vise. I asked why. He said because sometimes the head just falls off.

 

He said it was "running" when it came in - with a broken belt. So my guess is that valve got hit more than once.

 

Probably the thing that made me cringe the most out of the whole video!!!

 

Very common problem. Also try finding a young guy who has any talent who is going to stay around when he is told it will be at least 10 years before hes making good money.

In the end I don't have the heart to do it. Why even try to convince bright young people to get into a dying industry?

 

I tell kids when they ask to avoid my profession now.

I would not have given that advice 20 years ago.

 

Same with me. My other half is a pharmacist. She feels same way. Soon it will just be vending machines.

 

soon? Express Scripts was going through trials of putting vending machines into Dr. Offices.
The large automated mail order pharmacies (millions of scripts a day) are all automatic.

 

And they have had them in retail pharmacies for 20 years that I know of as well but not as a replacement for a human licensed pharmacist.

 

No. It got hit once and bent out of the way.

 

Not even close but stating the reasons would just start a monumental argument with people who never spent a day in the shop so not going to do that.