A while back my 348 engine was overheating, so I had the thermostat and fan switch changed. Everything seemed to be ok, until the weather changed and it started to get very warm. At 30C, while in very heavy traffic the temp gauge starts to move up. The pic below shows where it was. It also looked like it was still increasing as well...but I can't be sure. Once on the move at 45mph upwards, the needle goes back to the mid point at 195. The fans are working ok. Is this normal? At which temp does it become dangerous for the engine? I've been told the rads might need changing as they are getting old. Could this be part fo the problem? Anything else it could be? Image Unavailable, Please Login
thats about the highest mine would go while sitting in traffic in 90-100 degree weather (roughly the same)....fans would stay on and maintain the temperatures at that point but when I started moving they would drop down to a little over the middle tick...
I've never seen the temp gauge on my 348 go up that high, but I have been quite surprised how "cool" the engine runs on it. My first thought would be that perhaps you need to bleed some air out of the system. Make sure that the heater is turned on so that you have coolant flow in the entire system from front to back. Is your oil temperature normal? Is that water temp reading higher than you saw before the first overheating episode? Edit: By the way, the handbook says that the "maximum permissable temperature is 239 degrees F. !!
The temp is too high while idling. My temp rides just below the 195 mark always. You might want to yank out the rads and have them checked to see if they are plugged. Do you use tap water to fill the cooling system? I used to use tap water on all my vehicles until I had the alum head on my wife's BMW deteriorate to the point of blowing coolant out the exhaust. I use distilled H2O now and haven't had a corosion problem since.
You could go with all distilled water + Redline Water Wetter. Should run cooler. The Water Wetter not only keeps temp down, it also is anti-corrosive. There's an animated overview: http://www.redlineoil.com/products_coolant.asp
I've never been more than the touching the mid-temp mark, and that includes 3hrs in 40-45C in very slow traffic for water temp. Even tried running high revs in traffic to see if it'd climb, but nope (oil went a bit higher than mid-point but that's it). My mechanic just replaced my rad cap before the trip, as it had a slight loss of pressure. I say NOT normal.
Mine goes to the middle point at most. Oil to the middle too, but only when driving very hard in hot weather.
This is a pic of my 348 on a late afternoon, parked on the side of the road, plenty of airflow, A/C on with the outside air temp of around 25C. That was around 1 month ago. The engine temp gauge always runs around there. In the McDonalds drive through, A/C on, no air flow, with cars in front and behind you, my car gets up to 3/4's of the gauge. Must be around 225F? As soon as you start driving again, the air flows into the radiators and cools it back down to "normal" again(where the needle is in the pic ) Last xmas, i drove my 348 around in 40C+ temps and the engine temp does the same thing. 2 weeks ago, i went for drive at night and it was rather chilly outside. The engine temp was a little cooler that night, not much though. I say its fairly normal, depending on where you live and what the weather is like. Here the weather is always a dry heat. Its even hot here in winter. Unless you had a major change in engine temp, i wouldnt worry too much about it. Its not like you have a sticking thermostat or anything silly like that. Image Unavailable, Please Login
i drove my car today in 100% weather. About 75 miles. 1/2 of those miles were traffic. A/C was full blast the whole time. The temp didn't reach 195 at any point in my drive I just broke 15k! What I am thinking Cathin up to ya Pap C
You need another 8500miles more to catch up good buddy. Keep driving that bad boy! Im going for a drive in mine tomorrow. Been at home feeling a little sick today.
What is 100% weather??? Just kiddin', I know you mean 100 degrees. We are all prone to the typo error. BT
I've never seen mine go over the mid point, but then I have problems with the slow down lights when I'm in traffic....another story I guess
si mine always ran here in pic m8 this was a very hot day,in traffic with fans cutting in didnt go much higher m8, Image Unavailable, Please Login
Well I don't think that temp looks too outrageous sitting in traffic. Dale your photo is shown at 45mph! It's pretty typical for a cars of this generation to fluctuate temp wise on the needle and oil pressure wise (due to heat), especially at idle. I would watch it and perhaps take the advice of the others, change the expansions tank cap and bleed the system. Make sure you have the right mix of coolant. Just keep a close eye on it. My 0.00000001p
Thanks for the help guys, it's much appreciated. Jeff, the oil temprature is fine and the same as it's always been. The water temp is higher now than before. The problem started when I had that first over-heating incident and the thermostat changed. Before that, it never went further than that shown in Paps picture. Now it goes beyond that slightly and then the fans cut in. I did'nt put it in, but I assume it was water. Going to order it now! My oil has never reached the middle point. Looks like I'll have to get them cored. Someone on the forum has kindly offered to do a swap for my old ones. Would a re-core make a big difference?
Here's what caused the original overheating. Seems this piece of cast metal (aluminium???) was found in the cooling system and had jammed closed the thermostat. We did'nt find it first time round and it was only found when the specialist garage bled the system. The specialist garage who've been involved in ferrari's for 30 years, have never seen anything like it before and had no idea where it came from. With the exception of the high engine temp, the engine is running 110%, so not worried it could be a major engine fault. First person to identify it, gets a prize. Sorry for the blurry pic. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I think Ferrari SpA likes to through things in there to make life exciting. I found a washer attached to my magnetic drain plug when I was changing my oil last year. The size of the washer doesn't fit anywhere inside the motor!!
QV told me it was'nt from the water pump as it was'nt the same material. Random casting is probably more like it.