430 Engine Oil: High copper content.

Oh, nice.

 

Confucius say: It's good to meet girl in park; it's better to park meat in girl.

 

Variator issues are uncommon on the F430, which is weird because it's prevalent in the dry sump Quattroporte, which shares the same part numbers. The only difference in the VVT system is the addition of the second variator and solenoid. The entire system is interchangeable. The variator, bushings, the accumulator, and the solenoids themselves. What I have found though is something that will piss off alot of techs who specialize in these cars: It's not the variator that leads to failure; it's the accumulator. I've literally used the process of elimination to test what eliminates the sound and consequent failure and that was the final part. This is why variators on the dry sump F136 motor only fail bilaterally - the only common denominator is the shared accumulator that sits in the V. I actually reached out to the manufacturer of the accumulator and they warn that the piston accumulator (1) should not be subject to heat, and (2) should be installed vertically to prevent uneven wear on the piston seals - well we both know that it's laying horizontal in the hottest part of the engine lol.

But with that said, it still doesn't explain why the failure occurs far more often on the QP than the F430.

By the way, I am referring only to the high-pressure helical variators on the dry sump QPs and the F430. The post 2007 wet sump QPs have an entirely different variator design with a completely different problem which is highly written about online.

 

Either way, I still think the F430 has the strongest engine created by man. I've serviced a 150K mile QP (which shares the platform but with a single variator, cross plane crank and single intake) with a bad oil cooler and oil that looked like chocolate milk that, once fixed, still ran like new lol. Literally like new.

I drive a 360 and love it but as far as the F430s go, they are more durable and there is no reason to ever have to rebuild one, unless something catastrophic happened, like blown oil line/pressure loss, fire damage, etc. They just don't wear out.