456GT engine running cold

Hi all,
I took my 1997 456 out for its first big drive after purchasing it earlier this year. It was basically just a straight dash from Belgium to Bavaria. The most impressive finding: average fuel consumption of 13.8 l/100km. Didn’t know I bought an economy car…

here’s one thing I noticed though: when in city traffic, the engine is warming up nicely, water and oil temp needle are sitting closely around the middle. Oil pressure is at 45 degrees to the left when at standstill and dead snack in the middle when driving.

As soon as I got to the country roads are an autobahn, temps dropped immediately to roughly 50-60 degrees on both ends. At the same time, the oil pressure went to the right of the middle, especially during driving. The car just got back from a major service at a Ferrari specialist here in Brussels. They didn’t indicate any issues. The car also didn’t showcase any warning lamp of sorts during the whole drive. One thing I noticed is they definitely overfilled the engine oil, as the mark on the dip stick is slightly (maybe 1-2mm) above the max line.

I also noticed a very faint high pitched noise when I got to around 200 km/h, and I’m wondering if it’s coming from the belt, as the viscosity of the oil might be too dense due to the low temp. I think I can rule out a faulty reading as all three relevant indicators (oil pressure, cooling temp, oil temp) are a part of this. Did anyone run into the same issue before?

 

Just doing a quick search on line reveals a stuck open thermostat, allowing too much coolant running through the radiator. Or air in the cooling system.
Both of these issues could have come from the service… that is if they didn’t change the thermostat.
Try burping the radiator first. Amazon makes cheap kits for this.
Otherwise, you may to evaluate your thermostat.
Good luck - keep us updated

 

So these cars tend to run hot in traffic especially running AC in summer. Who knew! The first cars came with water pump pulleys: 120mm GT, 93mm for the GTA, and a 102mm option (this might have been their first attempt to "fix" the overheat problem). By the time the 612 came out in 2004, Ferrari was using the 93mm pulley on the manual transmission with no other options.

So why did their thinking change?

Obviously a smaller diameter pulley increases water circulation at idle. It also increases the possibility of cavitation at redline. It seems to me Ferrari went from worrying about cavitation at redline when the modern V12 was introduced in the 456, to worrying about over heating in summer traffic. Go figure!

Where I am going with this is that it may be possible that someone seeking to solve an over heating problem swapped your 120mm pulley for a smaller one. This would likely explain the temperatures you are seeing.

You will need to take the cover off to measure but that is easy enough.

https://www.eurospares.com/Ferrari/456/456_GT_GTA/PartDiagrams/025/Water_Pump

Image Unavailable, Please Login


Image Unavailable, Please Login