360 cambelt change - diy

My friend is a factory trained Mercedes mechanic and we are going to have a preliminary review of my 360 spider in a few days time to see if we are going to do the cambelt change and ancilliaries ourselves. I cant find a thread from anyone that has done this themselves. Has anyone that has done this got any tips.
regards

 

Job done.
It was a fairly easy task, certainly a lot less difficult than I had imagined. I got a friend to help me, he's not worked on a Ferrari before but services every other make.

Main points.

If you have access to a car lift to get under the car the job is a whole lot easier. It would have been a struggle otherwise.

My car is a 360 spider. With the roof down, the seats did not have to come out, just disconnect the seatbelt and put them right forward. There are screws in the bottom of the rear shelf key holder (or whatever its called. Take them out, remove the drawer and access the 4 bolts that retain the leather trim.) This allows access to the access hatch. The carpet on the bulkhead takes a bit of tugging to get off.

With the access hatch off, there is loads of room. Remove the ancilliary belts cover (top half from the access hatch, bottom half from below the car and remove the ancilliary belts and cam covers. We did not need to remove the coolant pipework as detailed in the manual to get the rh cam cover off, I did not intend changing the coolant at this time. Probably easier to remove the pipework and no big deal to change the coolant.

We marked up the timing on the pulleys, locked the cam pulleys with a vice grip as per the manual and removed the belts. To get the main pulley off, its easier done from under the car as it took a bit of effort. We removed a cover opposite the pulley (still dont know what it does) to allow the socket and ratchet bar onto it. We removed the cam tensioners and used a vice to push them back in against the spring and dropped a small drill bit through the hole to retain it in position. Changed out the tensioner bearing for the Hill Engineering replacements I had bought, slipped on the new belts, fitted back on the tensioner bearings and adjusted the belt tension. Refitting the tensioner is a bit fiddly but ok. To adjust the tension, a VW bearing tensioner tool fitted. When at the correct tension, the drill bit slipped in and out of the tensioner spring retainer. (This is detailed on another thread). Turn the engine over by hand a few revs and check everything is ok.


Refitted the main pulley, cam covers, ancilliary belts, started the car. Alls well. Refitted the ancilliary belt cover.
Then cracked on with oil and filter change, gearbox oil, changed clutch / brake fluid etc. Checked brake pads, adjusted hand brake. Changed air filters and pollen filter.

Up until today, the car had a full Ferrari service history. I examined the old cam belts for wear, and there was slight cracking at the bottom of the teeth if I bent them back, the new belts did not exhibit this. They were perfectably serviceable, Im just saying there was a difference. These belts were recorded as changed 3 years ago or 8k miles ago. I have my doubts. The Ferrari cam tensioner bearings were spot on, I assume they were 6 years old and 13k miles. All the other belts were in first class condition.

Things I did not do. This car is a keeper, I have no intention of selling it. I love it. I am fairly confident around mechanical equipment, thats how I make a living. Everyone has to make decisions based on their own level of experience and their view on risk. Here's mine.

I did not change out the exh variators. My car was build post recall. If they were that crap, we would hear of more failures.

I did not change the camshaft end seals. I took the view not to fix something that is not broke. When I got in there, I would have changed them out if I had got them in the service kit. They were not leaking as such, but the area around here was not as clean as the rest of the engine. Not wet or anything that visible, just not as clean suggesting there had been a slight mist at some time. I think it will be ok untill the next belt change, but I could get caught out. I wont omit this again.

I did not time the exhaust variators by measuring the cams. I have read threads suggesting that this needs to be done. I take the view that this is an engine, like lots of other brands of engines. Others dont get the variators timed on the cams. I understand the arguments but they dont light me up. Each to their own.

I did not change the plugs. In retrospect, I should have bought plugs and stuck them in while I was at it.

So what are my lasting impressions.

It takes longer to access the cam belts and box everything up again than it does to change them out. It took an easy 4 hours to have the car restarted after changing the belts, and another easy 4 hours to perform all the other service items and box it all back together.

Service kit and pollen filter came to £176.29, Hill Engineering Tensioner bearings came to £295.81. 8 hours labour plus fluids. I was quoted £1400 from a dealer and £1250 from an independent, but Im sure they would not have used the Hill bearings.

I need to suss out the expected life duration for the Hill Bearing for next time, Capristo do them for half the price.

I was fortunate that my friend who has never previously worked on a Ferrari took me through this. I would have no hesitation in taking it on myself next time. Had I not had his guidance, it would have taken me perhaps an additonal 4 hours by the time I had sussed it all out.

Hey, its only a car.

Next project, clutch.

 

If he has a garage he probably has a frequency tension meter. This is used on other makes too. The bearing tensioner temporary locking pin gives a very good indication of where you are at on tension.