And since I know your expertise runs deep, John... I have a leak somewhere on the driver's side. I want to get it on a hoist to locate it, but my question is this: Should I go ahead and replace all the rubber hoses in the coolant system all at once as preventive maintenance, or just do each hose as it leaks? I am assuming all the hoses are original from 1981...
Oh, I would bite the bullet and do them all at once. Not only does this eliminate or reduce the possibility for many years of one hose bursting at the most inconvenient time (i.e. when you are far from home, it is dark and rainy, it is past midnight and you are out of cell phone coverage), but it also saves you the time and cost of emptying and refilling the cooling system each time you replace a hose. Not all of them will require a full drain of the system but a lot of them would and each time you would need to refill with new coolant and bleed the air out of the system. Might as well do them all at once for the peace of mind and convenience. I forget how many there are in total but don't forget to change out the heater hoses as well. Let me know if you would like a parts diagram of the cooling system from the workshop manual and I will send you a pdf of it.
I would love the diagram. I have the one from Ricambi's online catalog; is that the same one ethat you have? Should I replace the metal elbow parts as well? Ricambi the best place for these hoses or are all/some of them generic enough to get somewhere else? Tx again!
How tough would it be to replace all the coolant lines on a 400i? How long would it take? Or is this a job for pros?
Gates Rubber reccomends hose replacement every 4 years. Under severe or commercial service more frequent replacement. Of course our cars are not usualy subjected to harsh or severe condition with the exception of track cars. We have found older hoses have a reaction to some of the extended life types of coolant. The issue we see fequently is delamination of the inner sleeve and restricting coolant flow. We also see pin holes developing in the smaller thinner hoses. This hose failure is due in part to the hight tempuratures of modern motors and also the higher cooling system pressures. Now there is long life blue, and the extra long life blue good up to 100,000 miles. Note that these extended life coolants are not reccomended for earlier vehicles. Our Subaru Service centers recomend hose replacement at 4 year intervals. If a customer does not drive average miles we will recomend hose packages at 100,000 miles. The small hoses feeding intake manifolds, injection systems run the same pressures and heat that main hoses do. The smaller hose and heater hoses have thinner side walls and are far more prone to failing. We have replaced all the hoses on our 400i cabriolet and on our 1981 308gtsi with silicone hose. While it is a far more expensive option they will last far longer than I will. If you look on line you can find suppliers that have elbows, straight lengths, bends and "T"'s. I purchased bulk lengths for heater hoses. You can purchase both inch or metric sizes. Our reccomendation is to only use double wire screw hose clamps. These clamps fit on both sides of the hose barbs and will not cut the hose. They aslo proved even pressure over the full circumfrence of the hose. Most premature hose failures we see are caused by stainless band worm gear hose clamps as when you tighten the hose the band actually cuts into the hose surface. We did not keep track of our straight time for the hose replacement but I'm guessing we have 12-14 hours in replacment time. Some oif the smaller hoses were bonded to their connections and we took our time in the removal process. Howard Musolf 1981 308gtsi 1982 400i cabriolet 1994 348 spyder
Replacing coolant hoses is one of the simplest jobs that you can do on these cars, since they are all straight with no bends or angles the job is straight forward. I have used the orange coolant for fifteen years with absolutely perfect results. You can over intellectualize all you want, if you like, but my cooling system shows perfect results. Jq.
Very good info. guys!! I'm curious too, might that be the ones at the rear engine bulkhead connected to the heater valves??
The little one is the coupler hose between the water pump housing and the front cover. With the precise length and type of silicone hose, this can be replaced without pulling the pump. To do all of the coolant hoses, excluding the ones for the heater valves is just a couple of hours. The only other special hose is the top hose, as it is two different diameters. The correct hose is available from your Ferrari dealer. All of the other hoses are readily available from either SRI (Dave Helms) or Gates. Image Unavailable, Please Login
For that hose for ease of installation I would see if any of those green silicone hoses used on 348 and F40 would be the right diameter. The are good quality but very flexible. Daves hose is great stuff but tough to get into a spot like that.
Agree, not easy at all. However, I was successful using Dave's hose, though. I think between persuasiveness, lube and incredible strong hands (coupled with a couple of choice words), I prevailed! Fortunately, I don't do this repair very often...
LOL especially the choice words! Uh oh, there's those worm gear band clamps Howard was talking about Jq, I haven't replaced mine yet but David (fastradio) mentioned SRI (Scuderia Rampante Innovantions) as 'the' source, Dave Helms (davehelms) is a Fchatter here. I would head in that direction for sure Nothing but the best baby, nothing but the best! Innovations - Solutions - Scuderia Rampante See if he has a kit for the 400i.
Nah...those were easy. After the new hose is in place (HA!), I just walked in a pair of new Norma 25-40mm/9mm clamps. Once the ends are threaded together, the job is done.
60/40..60% distilled H2O..40% orange coolant..1 bottle Redline Water Wetter..all pre-mixed of course, to prevent mixture pockets. Jq..
The Ferrari gets 50/50, the other cars get 66/34 for those days when it gets down into the -50s or colder.
