F355 major service

I got my F355 with 22K miles in June of 2001 at which time it had a 30K engine service., this december we are doing a major with 40K miles on the clock

Why?

Well, since the last major it has done 32 track events. As one who drives to the track, drives on the track, and drives home; reliability is paramount. But the car was giving all the signs it should be looked at.

The first visible symptom was the characteristic whine at cold startup of tensioner bearings that are about to die.

The second was missing oil.

As we shall se in a couple of frames, it was good we got in there and took a look.

This first picture is the drivers rear quarter of the engine.

 

The drivers front

Dave is holding a water hose that is about to fail.

 

passenger fromt

 

Passenger rear

 

As long as the engine was going to be out anyway, might as well return it to a state of clenliness.

 

drivers rear

 

passenger front

The long oil hose hanging down is suspected of having a slow pressure leak.

 

passenger rear

 

transmission area

 

alternator

 

Front of engine

 

Mitch,

Who's doing the service? What do you think the final ammount will come to?

Just want to prepare for the inevitable on my 355 (probably early '05)

Thanks

Jeff Davison

 

fantastic pictures! you can really see how the engine comes out of the car with the suspension and all. Do you have any of the engine compartment of the car?

Could you get to that bad hose without pulling the engine or was it buried in the firewall?

 

Mitch,
Nice documentation, and appreciate your sharing this great information. Can you describe how you cleaned the engine? What products? Pressure washer?

 

I used simple green as a solvent/detergent and water (and compressed air to blow dry). 90% was done with a parts brush and 10% with a tooth brush.

More pictures will be forthcomming as this process transpires.

 

The hose was where the overflow container is plumbed into the main water lines. You might have been able to get at it with the engine in the car, but you would have had to at least pull the bonnet, and perform the repair lying on the top of the engine.

But the crack was so small, you would have not been there to take the look, and anything less than excellent dilligence would have missed the hose.

 

what is the cost of major service on the 355?

 

Well, today, we found 2 more water hoses that are ready to die, I got a picture of one, but left the camera at the service bay. I decided to replace all water hoses. This decision will cause me to have access to the interior bay between the cylinder banks, so I can continue cleaning up the engine to a pritine state.

Instead of 2 tensioner bearings having gone south, we have 2 original tensioner bearings (both original) one bad, one ok--both will be replaced. We know the tensioners are original because the spacing of the holes for the tensioning fork is different on the upgraded bearings. The belts look fine, but the tensioning bearings had to be replaced of face major trouble. The cams were within 1 degree of dead nuts on, we will set with a dial indicator tomarrow.

The other bearing that is kaput is the alternator idler bearing.

More as data arrives...

 

Sounds like progress. would you upload a pic of the car without the engine in it (engine compartment), be cool to see what it looks like?

 

are you going to replace your valve guides while the engine is out or has it already been done?

N

 

Hi Mitch,
Intersted in this whine at cold startup, my car is doing something that appears similar, happens only at idle for the first minute the engine is on, a high pitch noise. Which tensioner is that and can it be replaced without taking the engine out ?
Tks, JC

 

A picture of another hose burried in the bay:

 

On the right is a heat shield that has seen better days; Ferrari wanted $1200, an importer wanted $850; I mocked it up out of $25 worth of parts and 2 hours of my labor (e.g. $0). The aluminum frame was covered with a heat shielding fabric high temp silicone glue and pop rivits.

 

A look at the engine bay

 

And a look at why these engines breath so well. You are looking down the intake manifold. The throttle body at the top at WOT you can see the back sides of all three valves. The intake has a nice rough finish from machining and casting, and narry a port face needs the smallest matching.