2004 360 F1 complete fluid change.

Hey guys,

I’m new to this forum so please try put up with my stupid questions.

My Father in 2004 bought a brand new 360 Modena F1. This for him was huge and was his baby.Till this day he still owns the car and it is pretty clean I must say.

From 2004 it is currently sitting on 9800kms.

NOW - We constantly butt heads about the maintenance of these cars and how they should be driven.
The car for the last 4 or 5 years has really just been sitting there. It might have done a few short drives but it’s safe to say its done no work.

The old man doesn’t want to take it back to Ferrari as he has knows they never do what they say. (Engine strainer has NEVER been removed to be cleaned from new. Has been back to Ferrari for several services).

I build and race my own cars and own a car hoist so I offered to do everything for him from start to finish so he could get it back on the road and know EVERYHTHING was done properly and as per the workshop manual.

Plan was Engine oil and filter + strainer, Gearbox/diff oil +strainer clean, Coolant Flush, new plugs, Timing belts and bearings etc.

I have completed the full timing belt replacement . (Bearings were still like new) all came up perfect.

Engine oil is 100% fine and completed.

Diff/trans I spend 2 weeks finding Shell Spirax S5 ATE 75w90 and finally ordered 20L from BLACKWOODS. It’s on its way.

Today I decided to do the coolant flush. It had the Oem coolant in it. Never been replaced.

Dropped it out from the front rads and only dumped maybe 9-11L. The OEM coolant was GLYCOSHELL and is no longer available. Zegame said they use Valvoline but also recommended penrites Ferrari approved RED mixture also.

Because I’m going from blue to red I filled up approx 5L of Demin water and put some compressed air in the fill chamber. This water eventually started to come out. I then filled the system with 10L of new coolant. I ran the car with heater on full to operating temp. I then dumped this again completely. It was pure red and not discoloured in anyway.

I cracked the bleed nipple and filled the system once again with new coolant. I locked off the bleed nipple and started the car. I ran it again to operating temp and let the fans come on and off 3 times. I shut the car off and cracked the nipple open . Air immediately came out. I started the car and ran it until no more air came out and there was a constant stream of coolant.

Shut the car off, locked the nipped and ran the car once again. The heater was on full the entire time BUT I still cannot get any hot air out of the heater.

I did the bleed another 3 times and held the revs up a little also. 2-3000rpm. Still not hot air.

There must be an airlock somewhere and my next step is to take it for a drive.

Has anyone had this issue??? Any advice would be appreciated.

Other than this the car is absolutely immaculate. Just wondering if this bleeding procedure is this bad for everyone???

Thanks in advance.

Phil

 

Asphaltca that’s probably the most ideal way to do it. No mess and looks like it can pull a good vacuum. Where did you purchase your kit??

Also if you still have coolant in the system (cos you can never drain the lot) how does it go about still pulling a good vaccuum?

Tazanjan, so there is a seperate pump that specifically forces water through the heater system?? I’ll try bleed it properly first and take the car for a drive to try force any further air out. If all this fails I may inspect this secondary pump.

Do you know if you can switch on the pump with an external computer? A guy I know has a computer for Ferrari, Maserati etc and can turn on all pumps and auxiliary items etc with it externally. I just didn’t know there was another for the heater...

Literally air is bone cold. Not even remotely warm.

Appreciate your input guys as this is the first time ever touching a Ferrari so all I have is the workshop manual. And that has the most basic write up on how to bleed. Makes it sound so easy but straight away just by looking at the size of this cooling system I knew this was not going to be straight forward like my cars.

 

Hey guys. Appreciate the responses. That’s sweet info. Will help me for sure.

In terms of the stop button, I didn’t touch that. I just turned the heater to hi and the fan on.

On any “normal” car regardless whether the AC is on or off the heater should still work. Works on my cars....

All my other cars when the ac is on, the heater will work. That’s weird that it wouldn’t.
Just switching on the air condenser will dry the air, wouldn’t it. Not stop the heating. Lol
Anyway.

I’ll check that stop button and start the car and try agin. If hot air comes out that would be mad.

Also I’m going to buy a sydchrome vacuumed gauge and going to do the entire process again using the vacuume method.

Bleeding the system with the valve on top of the thermostat makes an absolute mess.

I will update this thread with the outcome tomorrow. Cheers everyone!!!

If all fails will post up here.