Another question (have posted many, and have gotten great informative replies, thank you from a 355 soon-to-be): regarding 355s: the difference between 95-96 and 97-98, besides OBDI and OBDII. what to look out for, what year to stay away from (was told to stay away from 95-96 cars.) any opinions on which year is preferred?
There are quite a few post regarding this topic. You may want to search the archives and see what you find.
I don't know why people say stay away from 95s or 96s. My mechanic/guru says that 95s and 99s are the best 355s to have. 96s - 98s were down on power even though the factrory continued to rate them at 375 HP. 95s do have their issues, mostly regarding cats and headers. The valve guide thing is BS today...It was an issue when the 95 cars were new, but any 95 that had bad guides have had them fixed by now and the reality is that there weren't that many affected untis. If you don't know and with all due respect, it sounds like you don't, hire an expert to help you sort it out.
Being one who owns a 355 Spider - I really don't think you can go wrong with any year - make sure that it has been cared for and serviced - and you will not go wrong. The problems in the 95, 96, and some 98's - would all be fixed by now if it has been serviced. I personally bought a 95 - due to the slight increase in HP - Separate Air Handleing... But again - I would shop for the best price - for the best serviced 355 you can get... And as the saying goes - it is never a bad thing to buy the newest F-car you can afford of the model you are looking at. Rich
Actually any pre 1998 CAN have valve guide issues but it's not a certainty by any means. And to say that they would fixed by now is asking a lot of some of the more uncaring F-car owners out there.
1995 chews through CATs. Valve guide definitely isn't problem any more. If there haven't been problems yet, there won't be any. In my personal experience, suspension can be a problem and need replacing (ours needed replacing after less than 2,000 miles.) Manifold problems on 1995s too.
Sherpa, my friend...One can agree that valve guides can fail for many reasons: - Running the motor dryer than required. - Constant hard driving - lack of required maintenance The "infamous" problem of EARLY valve guide wear is over...There's no such thing as a new 1995 F355, save a prescious few that are hold up in someone's garage... ...One can only dream of finding one of them.
You should catagorize 355s into 3 bins; 1 )1995, 2) 1996-1997, 3) 1998-1999 The 95s have first generation headers, OBDIO-1, and the first generation brakes. The 67s have second generation headers, OBDIO-2, and second generaton brakes. The 89s have second generation headers, OBDIO-2, and third generation brakes. 95s have a header cracking issue. 95 through 98s have had valve guide issue. I think its overblown, others are free to disagree. I, personally, have 40K miles on a 95, and 32 track days on same. At least on racer improvised a hanger system to take the weight of the exhaust and CATs off the headers and improved life. Removing cats also improves header life. When the F1s were introduced, the slave cylinder in the clutch was improved.
I think there's also a difference in the anti-brake-system. If I remember correctly, cars had a better Bosch system (same as used in Porsches) from 1998 onwards.
To suggest that the valve guide problem is due to poor maintanance is im afraid wide of the mark. They used Bronze guides in the early cars and because they had a batch of them continued to use them untill later years when it went to sintered steel. bronze is used in race apllications as it is softer and can stand high revs but it tends not to wear that well and how it wears depends on many factors- seepage past the valve guide seals helps a bit. Although the headers were changed in 97 on they are still ALL a problem. The design of the aux air intake pipes was changed from a straight configuration to a sort of a v and this stopped them breaking at the point of weld but NO changes were made to the guts of the thing and they break in every year.
Speaking from experience the only problem I've ever had is with the semi-automatic top. It is very temperamental and a big pain. I had heard that the 1998's also had problems with the F1 tranny but mine has been fine.
I needed that breakdown info! I did not mean to start a whole discussion about which year was better, I was only looking for information as to the difference between the years. Thanks.
