Not sure if this is relevant to the OP's belt, but..... https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/posts/145044360/
This shows the engine in method in extreme detail. Is it easier than removing the engine? Sure looks like it. Are the results questionable? Certainly doesn't look it with a couple of caveats - one you know the cam timing has been set properly on a previous major, 2 the cam covers are not leaking at all. I wouldn't want to remove them and try to re-seal them in the car. If you're worried about the hoses on top of the engine, you can unhook them before raising the engine to remove the crank pulley. You'd have to do that anyway if removing the engine, and the service usually includes a coolant flush so no real harm other than about 20 minutes of extra work. It does not look too cramped with the tank out, there's quite a bit of space there. I could see doing this for every other major, but as I have a lift and have done it before, I'll probably just drop the engine. Lets you really get in and clean everything up. My car had done 12k miles between majors and had a sprung an oil leak so needed a lot of cleanup. It also had a minor leak in one of the spark plug holes and I wanted to check the cam timing, so valve covers had to come off so I didn't even think about an engine in. Scott has saved multiple Ferraris from being parted and is an extremely talented DIY owner - and to my knowledge he's the only one that's figured out (or at least published) the proper belt tension frequency for the f355 belts - something he didn't have to do as he has the proper tool to mechanically measure the tension. I don't think he's a butcher, but I'd be interested to hear where the problems are with this method from Brian. Part 1: Part 2:
Several years ago I had decided to not question the method unless I had tried it. I did. It made far too many compromises with the quality of the job. I stopped half way through and took the engine out. Its hack work pure and simple. It was more than 10 years ago, probably more than 15 so do not recall specifics.
Were the compromises around ancillary items or the belts themselves? Belts seems straightforward but I can see things like the crank seal, re-timing cams etc. being more difficult and not worth trying to do it in car.
As I said. It was a long time ago and about 200 timing belt debates ago. I had naively thought this would not turn into another conversation I have participated in too many hundreds of times. People believe what they like. Fine with me.
Just an update on this, I went to have a look at the old belt, the date was not legible on it. I guess this sort of tells me everything I need to know. Of course "while you are here lets do" inevitable happened and the the engine has had a clean up, red cam covers and intakes were redone.
Or the one where the fuel tank was relocated to the front to save all the tank removal work and create a better center of gravity.
Oh it was done and he was very proud of it. Claimed it fixed a whole host of Ferrari engineering problems. It was a real work of art.
OK, I have to ask... (Full disclosure; I recently performed engine out cambelts on my 355 and wouldn't consider doing it any other way) Can someone who has performed a belt service on a 360 explain the procedure? I know that there is an access door behind the seats to enable the belts to be changed without removing the engine, but how do you degree the cams? Just wondering.
same way just smaller degree wheel. when ever motor in car this procedure is always harder and more worky than motor on a stand or in 348/355 case out of car on subframe. Everything is a compromise.
The reason I brought this up is that for some reason, 355's get slammed for those "dreaded cambelt services" and yet there are many models that require the same engine outs and they don't seem to get the same fanfare. One that comes to mind is the Testarossa, and I can only imagine what some owners pay for those. I wasn't sure if the 360 was just a lock-and-swap job even at the dealer? If so, then we open up a big cambelt can of worms when it comes to the why DON'T we set the cam timing on every 360? I know the 355 gets bad press for several reasons and most are well founded, but I think most owners will agree that they aren't these giant money pits that they seem to get credit for.
The WSM for the 360 does outline the procedure for timing the cam but it is not discussed in the procedure for changing timing belts. This is what it says: Image Unavailable, Please Login Note that it specifically says "If the above conditions are not met..." in red. I have argued that the same applies to ALL Ferraris with timing belts. With a 355 and the engine out it really isn't a big deal to check the timing but I personally think that for a car that has gone xx miles over yy years and ran fine all that time it's really a bit of over kill.
I think more 355 owners do there own engine outs for some reason so this is why we do what we do. Does it need to be done , no, do many of us want to know how it’s done, yes, are we fanatical about stuff, likely yes. I think all the testarossa owners I know don’t do hardly any of there own stuff but I am not on the other forum so I am not sure. I also only know about 6 owners and most of them were fairly well off and only drove there cars. Also I feel like there cars are less prone to problems than ours. The guys I know had very few problems over the years. One of them did his first belt service after 10 years only because it had an oil leek He bought it 3 years after new and the previous owner had done a 3 year before selling
