Thank you! I will spend a little time this weekend to take a good look at my vacuum lines. I did look at these components carefully last time but I want to make sure I haven't missed anything. Thanks again for the great pics and the detailed write-up. It is a big help to me and to the other 612 owners. And greatly appreciated.
This project has been on a zig-zag path for some time now, frustrating my initial intention to write this thread as a Point A to Point B how-to guide. To restore some forward momentum, here's a post on today's zig: the replacement of the thermostat and the big radiator hose running in the V of the engine. How we got here is -- what? -- a zig-zag path. It began with the removal of the driver side air filter box, MAF, induction elbow, and throttle body. This was to make way for swapping in the 599 version of these same parts. When I went to remove an oil breather pipe running from the induction elbow to a 3-way connector under the intake manifold, I found that I could pull this pipe freely out from under the intake; in other words, the connector had failed. (I have written about this previously; apologies for the repetition.) To fix this simple problem requires the removal of the intake, a fairly major task. Because the removal of the intake exposes the big central radiator hose, the might-as-well urge kicked in. I ordered a replacement part from Scuderia Rampante. Here are some photos of the OE unit and the Scuderia Rampante version side-by-side: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login A noticeable difference is the external wrapping on the Scuderia part. The part is $250; $274 delivered. The OE hose slipped off quite easily. The new hose does not bend as much as the OE unit and required a little extra effort to install. Here are some more photos: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Regarding the thermostat, the teardown was also easy. Here's the parts diagram to show the components: Image Unavailable, Please Login Here are some photos of the thermostat seat. The seat is actually part of a complex casting which includes the water pump and the fitting for connecting the engine block to the coolant return hose. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Here is a photo of the take-off parts on the left and the replacement parts on the right. It's funny, but the O-ring (#15 in the parts diagram) that goes between the thermostat and its seat is very much bigger than the replacement part, while the O-ring (#7 in the diagram) that goes between the thermostat and the thermostat housing is noticeably smaller. I am putting my faith in Ferrari and Eurospares that these new parts won't leak, and also some "Right Stuff" gasket maker. Image Unavailable, Please Login
While on the topic of the large radiator hoses: I had also included in my list of might-as-wells the replacement of the two large hoses connected to the water pump. However, when the new parts arrived they were bright red, not black like the originals. These photos show the replacement parts sitting next to the originals, and also the bag from one of the replacements, to verify that these are Genuine Ferrari parts: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login I'm on the fence, whether to install these. They're are so front-and-center when you open the hood; they're not factory original; and they're fugly. I'm thinking I'll hold off on the swap, and leave the OE ones alone until they feel old and squishy. Out of curiosity, just now I went out in the garage and test fitted my intake plenums to the intake manifold, to see how their red color matches up with the replacement radiator hoses. The factory wrinkle paint on my plenums had started to delaminate. So with the intake coming off anyway, getting the factory paint stripped and replaced with powder coating went on the list of might-as-wells. Here is a photo I copied from a thread in the F430 forum, that I used to select the correct powder coat product: Image Unavailable, Please Login Here's the photo I just took, showing the three refinished parts and the two hoses: Image Unavailable, Please Login The color match is pretty good. (Also, the powder coat is not a perfect match for the factory paint.) It still looks too "J.C. Whitney" for me (Google it), but it may grow on me. Regarding the powder coat, the color is close enough that even at a car show, with a sister Ferrari parked next to mine, no one is likely to notice. Besides, at least here in Northern California, Ferrari owners rarely raise their engine covers at the car shows. For those who do take a closer look, there is a distinct difference in the texture of the factory paint and the Prismatic powder coat product. In this photo of the mating point of the intake manifold, wrinkle painted gray, and the powder coated side plenum, you can see the factory paint has a kind of crystalline or snowflake texture, while the powder coat is more uniform grainy texture: Image Unavailable, Please Login By the way, my out the door cost for refinishing the three plenums was $430, more then double what the F430 poster paid in the Detroit Michigan area. Out here in Cali it seems that we get both a Ferrari tax and a California tax. Plus an actual 10.75% sales tax.
Thanks as always Bill. The price for the intake painting seems pretty good to me compared with uk prices for that job. But no, not sure I could live with those red hoses either.
Six weeks have passed since my previous post, so here are a few photos to prove that I have in fact been plugging away. This first shot shows that I have installed the refinished side intake plenums and the complete intake tract on the passenger side. (The center plenum is merely resting in place, without fasteners.) The intake tract includes the 612 throttle body, the 599 elbow, the 599 MAF, and the top half of the 599 air filter box: Image Unavailable, Please Login The 599 MAF swap requires us to re-use the bottom half of the 612 air filter box. The 599 bottom half might be made to work but it would require extensive mods to the 612 mounting points. Note that the use of the 612 bottom means that we must also use the 612 air filter. Unfortunately the 599 top half uses eight fasteners -- two on each side of the box's four sides -- while the 612 has just two fasteners on each of the long sides. Also, the 599 top is not a perfect match for the 612 bottom. However, it sits squarely on top of the 612 air filter, and when clamped down on the 612 bottom the air filter element's thick rubber gasket seals the two halves quite well. To clamp the 599 top to the 612 bottom, I have used a half-assed collection of hardware store screws, washers and nuts. I am confident my solution will be adequate to hold the box together, but I wonder if @brogenville or anyone else has a more elegant solution: Image Unavailable, Please Login Here's a photo of the intake tract on the driver's side, where I have installed the 612 throttle body and the 599 elbow. You can also see my Fiammenghi headers, with the secondary air valves mounted to the headers and the smog pump hoses in place: Image Unavailable, Please Login Finally, here's a banner that I've hung in my garage, which well expresses my Ferrari-modding experience: Image Unavailable, Please Login I see this as a take-off on a speech President John F. Kennedy gave in 1963: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." Here we are six decades later and we still haven't figured out why else we needed to go to the moon. Two decades from now (I'll be in my 90's!), I expect I'll be asking the same question about this Ferrari project.
Awesome work bill! There is indeed a more elegant solution to the 599 air box mod… and that’s to use the 599 lower air box and 599 air filter as well. The lower part bolts straight on, and obviously matches perfectly with the upper part.
Thank you for the advice, even though it leaves me embarrassed by my previous statement, that fitting the bottom halves of the 599 airboxes requires extensive modifications. I believe what happened is that, some time ago I tried to fit the bottom half on the driver side and it would not go in. So I concluded that I must re-use the 612 units. Thanks to your advice I have now successfully installed the 599 bottom half on the passenger side, and I have also observed that the problem on the driver side is that the rear end of the box comes in contact with the front-most secondary air valve and one of the two connectors for the upper O2 sensors. This interference prevents the box from moving rearward far enough to clear the inner stud at the front. One must wedge the bottom of the chassis-mounted fresh air ducting between the body of the box and the leg on the box which extends out and attaches to the stud. I expect that, without photos, no one who has not done this will have any idea what I'm talking about. Sorry about that, In any event, I have now relocated the O2 sensor harness, and I will unbolt the air valve tomorrow, and wedge the bottom half into place.
Just for fun, I did these calculations to see how much larger the 599 MAF is than the 612. The answer: 15%. Image Unavailable, Please Login I have now installed the bottom halves of my 599 airboxes. The key is to catch the frame surrounding the 612's cold air induction (CAI) outlet between the body of the airbox and the airbox mounting leg on the inboard side. Although this photo of my left hand side airbox is hard to understand, it's the best I can do to try to illustrate the problem. I have outlined the CAI outlet's frame in red, and the weatherstrip that's glued to the frame in yellow: Image Unavailable, Please Login The right hand side came together easily. Here's a photo of the upper and lower 599 airbox, with the air filter also installed, and the 599 MAF. In this photo you can also see how the CAI frame is caught between the airbox body and the mounting leg: Image Unavailable, Please Login The left hand side is not so easy. This is because the intake manifold on my 612 positions the left hand throttle body about 24 mm closer to the front of the engine than the right hand side, but the 599 elbow/MAF/airbox assemblies are the same on both sides. I have exchanged emails about this with @brogenville and he states that he has not observed this asymmetry in any of the 612s he's worked on. What can I say? Just lucky I guess. Anyway, here's a photo where I placed strips of 24 mm blue tape running from the index mark on each throttle body to the engine centerline: Image Unavailable, Please Login Here are two photos showing my 612's original equipment right and left hand airboxes, showing that the snorkel on the left hand unit is 13 mm shorter than the right hand side. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Here's the issue: That the top half of the 599 airbox does not mate with the bottom half: Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login My solution is to cut the rear flange off the 599 MAF and to insert the MAF 13-14 mm deeper into the 599 elbow: Image Unavailable, Please Login I want to use a hole saw to remove the flange. I'm waiting on delivery for one that I ordered from Amazon. Until then, the 599 MAF install is on hold.
Here's the Ferrari parts diagram for the 612 airbox. The unit on my car is in the inset box on the upper left. It uses just two screws on each side to hold the top and the bottom halves together. The inset box states that the four-screw unit was superceded after Assembly No. 66100. My car is No. 60917. The supercession part is shown in the main drawing. It has six, or maybe eight, screws to hold it together. I don't know if the unit in the main drawing is PN 225012 or PN 235546. I'm guessing it's the higher-numbered (more recent) part. I also can't tell you if the snorkels are different lengths, left to right, on either of the supercession parts. Also, at some point Ferrari started using plastic airboxes, to rationalize supply with the 599. I would expect that all the cars prior to Assembly No. 66100 have the shorter snorkel on the lefthand side. However, this would not be consistent with @brogenville's experience, that early production 612s do not have the same asymmetry as my car. Any 612 owner can easily measure his/her car's snorkels and find out. Image Unavailable, Please Login Here's another parts diagram of interest, the intake manifold. According to the drop-down box, furnished by the Maranello Classic Parts web site, Ferrari has used four different intake manifolds on the 612. What is puzzling is that the first changeover came with Assembly No. 69400 in the US and Canada (69518 for the rest of the world), not No. 66100, as is the case with the airboxes. Image Unavailable, Please Login I'm no expert on Ferrari parts substitutions -- is anyone? -- so I have no theory for the timing of these design change decisions. The reason I looked into the intake manifold is because the intake manifold is the source of the throttle body asymmetry. At some point Ferrari dropped the asymmetric design in favor of mirror images. When or why, I don't know.
Hi Bill, great write up as always. Just to note, that when I said other 612's don't have the asymmetry, I should have made clear that I've never noticed this before. Having had it pointed out on your car, the difference now seems quite pronounced, however its possible that as its something that I wasn't looking for before I just never saw what was in front of me. In terms of making the parts fit, the two 612's I have physically done myself had no issues going together with the 599 airboxes on them (both were early 2005/06 cars), and neither has any issue like this been reported from the 2 other people that I have helped with their 599 MAF upgrade, though I'm not sure what year those were. I'm not really sure why you've been unlucky here then. Its a bit of a noodle scratcher to me. @360trev would know how many of these 599 MAF conversions are out there now, as he will have had a hand in sorting out the ECU's for all of them.
In other news, I recently found on Ebay the availability of a Chinese knockoff of the 612 front engine mounts (good for the 599 too). Here's a photo of the new parts (left side), together with a pair of used engine mounts I also bought on Ebay (right side). I put them side-by-side to see if the knockoffs match the OE units. Also in the photo, across the top, is a pair of Chinese knockoff transmission mounts, that has been available on Ebay at least since August 2024, when I bought mine: Image Unavailable, Please Login The key to the fresh mounts is that the rubber dust seal at the bottom is concave, while the seals on used units are typically bulged out. (I have bought two pairs of used engine mounts on Ebay, and both sets had bulging seals.) Although we can't know about the quality of the Chinese knockoffs, the price difference is huge. My set was $400, plus $60 shipping, plus $43 tax, a total of $503. Then DHL dinged me an additional $34.18 for U.S. Customs duty to get a release at the Port of Los Angeles. By comparison, Eurospares in the UK wants $1,485, including shipping, handling, insurance and taxes. Nearly three times as much. My knockoff transmission mounts were similarly priced, $314 delivered in August 2024.
