1995 F355 GTS: Restoration and Major Service

Been awhile since I updated this, tidied up a few more areas on the car.

The 95 never came with a radio and I had the factory radio blanking plate plus an aftermarket alpine radio. I sourced a OEM Sony Ferrari radio for my car, the rare as hens teeth radio surround and the original black radio cage to secure it. Purchased a wiring harness to suit the head unit and connected it all up. Now I have a factory looking setup for the odd occasion I need some tunes. I changed the settings on the unit to go from amber to green back light to match the other instruments, much better IMO.

The radio surround was sticky and I refinished it.

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The air diverter flap in the front was non functioning. Reading up on here I thought it might be the recirculation boss as the prime suspect, so I ordered the Hill Engineering brass version. It was not the cause though, the motor that drives it had stripped its gears. So I ordered a new evaporator lid actuator 63306700 and fitted both items to make sure it was nicely sorted and operating again.

The shroud that covers the unit and makes a seal with the bonnet vent was cracked, so I sourced another one and refitted it so it was all back to spec.

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Whilst the carpets were out in the front compartment I cleaned and detailed the front bay.

 

Thanks Jim.

 

Replaced the window wiper bolt caps for new items as they were sun faded, a small little detail.

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And in September I entered 3 F355's into the Ferrari Concorso all 3 took home awards. My 98 Berlinetta, 95 GTS and a 97 Berlinetta I did a full restoration on for a client.

Some pictures on the day.

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Now that the concours is over the challenge grill will go back on, the stock exhaust will come off and I'm waiting on my cars xmas present a 2/3 Capristo which is getting made right now, very excited.

 

After the concours I vowed to get the car back to the way I like it and leave it like that. That mean challenge grill, and anything other than stock bypass valve and original exhaust!

I have tried all sorts of exhausts, test pipes, resonated test pipes, cat-less y pipe, Capristo bypass and Gothspeed variants. I have finally settled on a combination that is the best to my ears and I feel the cars performance.

Exhaust:
Seeing as the stock exhaust was on for the concours judging I took the opportunity to order a Capristo 2/3 and persevered with the stock exhaust and it's lame note whilst waiting the lead time and transit period of the new Capristo. I had not heard a Capristo 2/3 before but had driven both a Level 1 and 3. I bit the bullet on advice from the forum members such as INTMD8, Dave Rocks and Robb and ordered the 2/3 hoping it would be the right one for me.

After testing it, I can say it is perfect for me. Its quieter on idle than the Tubi Evolution and does not suffer from the drone of the Tubi at 3-4000rpm. The only thing I can say is the Capristo at 5000rpm sounds like the Tubi Evolution does at 8000rpm! It is so insane the noise, that I don't have to rev it out anywhere near as hard to get that F1 shriek - perfect.

Catalysts:
The OEM cats were punched out however I started noticing a rattle from the exhaust traced it to the catalysts. Inside there are two rings in each housing that used to hold the punched out ceramic cores and were now vibrating and rattle causing an annoying sound, I couldn't remove them from the housing.

I picked up a spare set to re-core but have yet to find a suitable exhaust shop nearby yet, this is something id like to do down the track.

I was running out of time to get this sorted so I bought test pipes to mate with the Capristo exhaust install, the first set did not fit! I purchased another set, shortly after driving with them on, I made the call to remove. The reason is I feel the car performs much better with a set of good catalysts on the car. The sound is better and it is more responsive at lower rpm ranges and the engine has more more torque in the low to mid range. Additonal benefits are no more cold start smells and my clothes don't stink of exhaust anywhere near as bad.

I would be very interested to see dyno numbers back to back of a test pipe setup and high flow cats, if there is a difference it might be top end but the feeling of cats in the car seems better plus the other benefits as well as being illegal/non emissions compliant makes the decision to buy and install high flow catalysts the right one IMO.

I picked up a set of Larini high flow cats that are ceramic coated. Read about them here:
https://www.larinisystems.com/collection/ferrari/f355-challenge/larini-club-sport-exhaust-catalysts-2.7 Fitment was perfect with these and despite the odd ceramic gold coating colour they look great when fitted.

Bypass Valve:
As updated previously I had a Capristo and swapped it out for the Gothspeed offering. I made the switch based on operation and aesthetic as it uses the correct Pierburg valve, which for the 2.7 is important as it now looks OEM correct and it is highly visible.

The Gothspeed bypass unfortunately seized after little use, which was very frustrating. It was sent back and it was rebuilt and updated to new specs apparently. I have heard of others seizing and Ricambi now no longer sells it. I'd bet the issue might be affecting all so check yours regularly. I do hope it is now sorted as it was pricey and looks the part. For the moment it is working great and as it should.

Slow Down Light 1-4:
For whatever reason while all this exhaust upgrades were happening a slow down light started to plaque me. I changed the Thermocouples to brand new ones made by Dr Bob here via Ricambi. This did not fix my issue but I was happy to have brand new TC as everything was new from the headers back! I then noticed the Cat ECU's were black potted ones and not the updated Green versions. I ordered and replaced those too = so down light gone!

The end result is my car is running fantastic, sounds UNBELIEVABLE and is just the way I want it, which is the most important thing in the end. I will endeavour to get some good sound clips of the car and Lionworks has pointed me in the right direction for proper mic setups to capture the sound. For now its no more tinkering (fingers crossed) and more driving!

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If Gothspeed are non responsive to email (as they have been to a friend) send me a picture of your Gothspeed bypass and I can tell you if its been updated from the version I had received initially. Further mine was reboxed and included paperwork to say it has been updated, your box might have the same. My friends bypass was purchased after mine and was updated but it already appears to be seizing up!

 

Jim your test pipes are much better than the ones sold and pictured in my post that I received from Super Performance UK. They didn't offer a step down to the muffler and the piping was the same diameter (2.25) the entire way through and crush bent to get the angle it should offer a step down to 2.125 to meet up to the muffler inlet. I complained about this, as it made fitting the exhaust flange almost impossible! Very annoying. Thankfully I was given a credit note for them. I don't think test pipes lose power, for sure they would increase total power on a dyno. But the response with hi flow cats to me feels better. I know from tuning Hondas, flow is important but so is exhaust resonance, and you cant truly optimise power without additional tuning to suit.

I was aiming for the best sound, best reliability+quality of the components, and preferred the catalyst due to emissions.

Another interesting thing is that the F355 exhaust setup is engineered for a more restricted exhaust pathway when bypass is closed and a more open one when its in the secondary pathway. I think the exhaust sounds much better with catalysts as the difference in exhaust note between closed and open is greater. This is why I like the idea of catalysts on the primary side and none on the secondary so you get the highest flow possible and the cleanest most crisp sound up top. I would like one of your masterpiece 2.7 Y pipes!